The Better Righteousness

Meditations for Ragamuffins

September 22, 2023

The Better Righteousness 

“But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”

Matthew 5:20 

I imagine the disciples recoiled at these words of Jesus, much the same as they did that time when Jesus had the encounter with the Rich Man and Jesus said, “In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked” (Matthew 10:25-26). The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees were well known for their passion in keeping the laws of God. How could the mortal disciples ever imagine their righteousness being better than the Pharisees? However, oftentimes the passion of the Pharisees resulted in absurdities such as when they failed to aid the wounded man in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, or the many times they railed against Jesus for healing a person on the Sabbath. The danger in the law is the temptation to be so focused on the law, you lose sight of God, or as Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

Many churches today are polarized and miss Jesus’ point about better righteousness. In churches that emphasize keeping the law, the congregation can be tempted to rationalize about how far they can push the boundaries without ‘actually’ breaking the law. In other churches, congregations may have great debates about the fine points of the liturgy used in worship, while remaining silent on countless incidents of racism and oppression in their own community. Neither of these churches can see the forest for the trees

My Takeaway: “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” (Matthew 5:3). We enter the Kingdom of God on the back of Jesus, not on our resume of good works or law-keeping. The better righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus: “For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4 NRSV).

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.