Matthew 5:17-20
Jesus now turns His attention to what it means to be righteous. “Righteousness” is one of those words that we often use in Christians circles but that is not necessarily truly understood. To the unbeliever, righteousness is a matter of living a good life, but the Bible goes beyond that to include the idea of right standing before God. Jesus includes both meanings here.
He begins by speaking about the Law that God gave to the Israelites through Moses. No one can live a morally upright life if they do not know right from wrong and the Law gave God’s people clear guidelines to live by. However, there was a problem: the standard was far too high for people with a fallen nature to live up to so, time and again, they failed. Of course that was no surprise to God. He did not give men the Law so that they could earn their way to heaven but so that they realised they could not make it on their own. They needed a Saviour – Jesus.
Jesus wants His followers to understand that He did not come to do away with the Law. God has not lowered His standard and those who are citizens of His kingdom are expected to live righteously, but our salvation no longer depends on our obedience. Jesus fulfilled the Law, by living a perfectly obedient life and giving Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin, so that we do not have to.
When Jesus said that those in His kingdom must have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees He was making it clear that there is no place for self-righteousness. The religious leaders believed their external obedience was sufficient to earn God’s approval, but they were missing the mark. The righteousness that makes us acceptable to God is not possible for sinful man to achieve but is imputed freely to those who receive His Son.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Praise God for His incredible generosity to us. We who have received Jesus as Saviour no longer seek to live righteous lives because we must but because we can, and because we want to please God. Christ has given us a new nature that loves to obey His law, not as a matter of external conformity but internal transformation.
Romans 7:6 “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Prayer
Dear Father God,
I thank You from the bottom of my heart for the grace You have bestowed on me. Thank You that You see me as righteous and acceptable in Your sight, not because of anything good in me but because You have credited me with the righteousness of Christ. Please help me to live in a way that brings joy to Your heart as You see my love for You expressed in obedience.
Amen.
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