Trinity 6

Text: Matt. 5:20-26

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

“I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” That is not a popular truth.

I

It certainly wasn’t with the scribes and Pharisees, to say the least. Righteousness is your holiness and goodness before God. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is the righteousness of human works. The righteousness that exceeds their righteousness is the righteousness of faith. Jesus is saying that only the righteousness of faith is worthy of heaven; the righteousness of human works is not.

Jesus’ statement would have been surprising to all who heard it because in His day the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees seemed outstanding. Their zeal for the law seemed commendable—worthy of admiration. Their works of the law appeared acceptable—worthy of imitation. So why does Jesus say that their righteousness won’t get them into heaven?

In the same way, people today look around and they see “good” people who aren’t believers. And people wonder, and maybe you’ve wondered this yourself, why can’t they go to heaven too? They don’t seem that evil. They’re great citizens and neighbors. They’re generous. They’re nice. They’ve never done horrible stuff. So why does God declare that He will condemn them to hell just because they’ve never heard about Jesus and don’t believe some stuff about Him? Isn’t that terribly unfair?

And so “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” is not a very popular truth with the world. But this truth is unpopular because people think too much of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees—they value human works too highly. We’re impressed by the outward appearance of people’s works. But Jesus shows us how shallow our impression of good works is by teaching about the fifth commandment. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of judgement.’” As Jews, the scribes and Pharisees knew that commandment well. But so does everyone. “You shall not kill” is written on our hearts and is obvious to our conscience. Everybody knows it’s wrong to murder. But who’s committed murder? Hardly anyone and so everybody moves on confident they’ve kept that commandment and pleased that they’re such a good person.

But that’s precisely why Jesus brings this commandment up. He goes on to show us that much more is required of us in this commandment (and in all of them) than refraining from the outward act. “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.’” Jesus teaches us that righteousness consists in pure motives from the heart—not just in refraining from outward actions. But the motivations that lead people to harm each other—anger, hatred, envy—are forbidden as are their expression in words. Jesus is showing us that to be truly righteous under the fifth commandment, instead of wishing and causing people ill, you’re supposed to care about them and treasure goodwill toward them.

And Jesus then shows us what’s further required to be truly righteous under the fifth commandment. “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Jesus is saying that you need to care for your neighbor out of love and fear for God. To be at peace with your neighbor, to never offend him or harm is, that is true worship of God. That’s what He expects of you. That’s true righteousness before Him—that you fear and serve Him and in that service to God you serve and care for your neighbor.

Finally, Jesus closes by saying, “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.” That is a warning not be conceited, not to think too highly of yourself or of your cause. God’s reckoning, His accounting, His judgement of your righteousness does not let you round off to the nearest decimal and say “close enough. It’s not like we’re going to get audited.” But you must give an account down to the last penny. You are liable to God for all of who you are and for everything you do.

Who then is righteous from his works? None. As Psalm 14 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” The scribes and Pharisees might have never murdered, but they weren’t righteous under the fifth commandment. They had failed to satisfy God’s demand of true righteousness, that in fear of God they seek their neighbor’s wellbeing in all things. In the same way, people around us who appear “good” but aren’t believers are not righteous. Sure, outwardly they may do good things—never murder but help people. And they truly do good to an extent—the outward action is good because it conforms to God’s law. But the outward form of an action doesn’t matter if your motivation is impure. This is easy to see in life. If you make the neighbor boy hold the door open so your wife can get the groceries into the house, you probably don’t care if he’s sulky or angry at you for being forced to help out. He’s not your child. You just want outward compliance. But if you’re asking your own son to help out, you’d want him to hold the door open for his mother out of a sense of duty and respect, because he knows that helping is part of being the family. It’s good, even pleasurable. You won’t accept outward obedience from him with a bad attitude. You’d also not accept outward obedience if you sensed he had sly motives. Maybe he’s holding to the door open because he wants to stuff his greedy mouth with treats as soon as mom goes back out to the car.

It’s the same with God. People might appear good to us. But God judges them otherwise. He goes deeper than we do. He judges as transgressors of the fifth commandment liable to hellfire all those who, though they have never murdered, yet approve of the murder of the unborn. He judges as liable to hellfire those who hate. And He does not accept the works of anyone who does not do all they do in service to Him.

People think too much of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, of the righteousness of works. But such righteousness is only an empty shell, nothing more—and therefore it is not worthy to enter heaven. And that is why Jesus says “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will be no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” That truth is unpopular, but only because people don’t know what true righteousness is, and so they don’t see how sinful they are.

II

Now, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will be no means enter the kingdom of heaven” is also an unpopular truth because, if people think too much of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, the righteousness of works, they also think too little of the righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, the righteousness of faith. They don’t value faith highly enough. The world wonders why God would damn someone to hell just because he doesn’t believe in Jesus. Faith seems unimportant, just some facts you believe about a man who lived long ago, nothing that really touches on real life or matters that much. But to believe in Jesus is no little thing. It is very important.

Because Jesus Christ is the only righteous man before God. His righteousness far exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. God finds no fault with the righteousness of Christ but is entirely pleased with it. Now, God’s Son Jesus was already righteous in Himself from eternity, but He became a man to win a perfect righteousness for us in our place. He was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. Jesus lived without sin. He kept the fifth commandment and all of God’s commandments perfectly. He had but one desire, to serve His Father in all He said and did and to love His neighbor as Himself. His righteousness flowed out from the depths of His heart into His every word and deed. By His holy life He has paid the tab for all sinners with every penny accounted for. By His suffering and death in our place, He’s settled the score between us and God for all the damage that our unrighteousness, our sin, has caused. He’s suffered all the punishment we deserved for it. By His active obedience to the Law and by His passive suffering of all its punishments Jesus has earned a perfect and complete righteousness for us all before God. In Jesus, God doesn’t count our sins against us. He forgives us our sins. And He counts Jesus’ righteousness as if it were our own.

Jesus gives the gift of His righteousness to us in both the word of the Gospel and in our baptism. In baptism, God declares your sins forgiven and He counts you as His own son. He’s as pleased with you as He is with Jesus. In baptism, God now considers Jesus’ righteousness your own. In the Gospel, God declares that your sins are forgiven because Jesus has paid for them. In the Gospel, He declares to you that He regards Jesus’ righteousness as your own.

And you receive this gift of righteousness as your own when you believe the word of the Gospel, when you believe the word of God about your baptism, that your sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake and that now God regards you as righteous. And that’s why faith is not unimportant, but very important. Faith takes Jesus’ righteousness and makes it your own. God looks at your faith and He counts Christ’s perfect righteousness as your own. He looks on you a believer as sinless, He looks on you as holy, He looks on you as truly worthy of heaven—just like His dear Son.

Those who don’t see their sins don’t think much of faith or of Jesus Christ the righteous one. And so they don’t like the truth that “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will be no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” But if you see your sins clearly and so think very little of your own works, then you will think much of faith. “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will be no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” That might be unpopular with the world, but prize this truth, Christian. Let this be your firm foundation, your sure anchor, and your strong refuge, that the righteousness which exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, the righteousness above all human righteousness, the righteous alone worthy of heaven, the righteous of Jesus Christ given in the Gospel—this righteousness is yours by faith, and so the kingdom of heaven is open to you.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.