The Better Righteousness

July 28, 2014

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 some time later after 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 these mortal disciples ever imagine their righteousness being better than the Pharisees? However, oftentimes their passion resulted in absurdities such as when they failed to offer assistance to 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).

The church today is polarized. In those churches that emphasize keeping the law, the congregation will learn to rationalize about how much flirting and intimate contact they can make without committing adultery. In other places, church members rail about what they deem as inappropriate dress of some attending church, while remaining silent on countless incidents of racism and oppression in their community. Of course, there are still those like the group Paul addressed in Romans 6:1 who was adept at ignoring the law, “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?” (NRSV)

If the disciples were troubled by these words of Jesus, I imagine Jesus would have gently pointed them back to the opening words of his Sermon on the Mount: “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. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.