Help me unpack this mystery Verse of Scripture?

To the people Jesus was addressing; the scribes
and Pharisees were thought to represent
righteousness. They prayed, fasted, tithed,
and kept all the customs, rituals, traditions
of the faith. Jesus was telling them this was
not the righteousness that God requires!!

Scripture is quite clear that man has no natural righteousness in him at all.

64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

I believe that in making the statement in Matt: 5-20, Jesus goes way over the top, as he quite often does, to show his followers just how impossible it is to enter heaven without trusting fully His finished work at the cross, and trusting only in the righteousness that God imputes to that person.

It is interesting that so many preachers today have dropped the word “repent” from their vocabulary. Not only did John and Jesus begin their ministries declaring it, but Peter also began his public ministry declaring it also.

Act 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost

Blessings Greg
;-)

by Natan4Jesus on 2008/8/2 6:39:03

It's not really a mystery verse, it's just a mystery for me,

in Matthew 5, after the Beatitudes, after Salt and Light, in Matthew 5 I read verse 20:

"For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Though the leadership of these pharisees and scribes later oppose and ultimately push the romans to crucify Christ, why does Jesus ascribe "righteousness" to these groups?

I do find it interesting that the first Scriptural words out of the mouth of John the Baptist are: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand".

the first Word's out of Jesus at the start of His public ministry are the same

"Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand".

Several questions for any saint here, we know what the word "repent" means, to turn away from sin.

But, consider the "Kingdom of Heaven", mentioned many times by Jesus in the Gospel accounts, how do you see "The Kingdom of Heaven"?

what are it attributes?

Now, if the pharisees and scribes are unrepentant opposers of the Son of God, why does Jesus proclaim them "righteous"?...with a punched ticket into the "kingdom of heaven"?

Isnt the Bible glorious? to ponder the Words of God.

I sit here, musing on this bit of Scripture, was Jesus reassuring those he knew would oppose him, that he did not come to slam them, but to turn them from old dead ways to a new Economy of God?

that is the only way I can unpack that verse.

humbly, natan

It is also noteworthy that Jesus didn't say "the chief priests"
Jesus ,our great high priest would soon nullify the earthly priesthood.
Jesus was not necessarily ascribing righteousness to the Jewish leaders. He was addressing a perceived righteousness.
He was also addressing the scribes and Pharisees themselves. Revealing their lack of good standing with God.
It was the second Adam addressing the limited atonement over the first Adam's sin.

Good job Nathan.

David

The Lord referred to the righteousness of the Pharisees with deliberate intention to show man how hopeless it is to achieve the perfection required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by virtue of the law. Notice, He said [i]exceed[/i] the righteousness of, and not to [i]equal[/i] theirs. Even the righteousness of the Pharisee (which was by the law) was not enough to enter in, but something greater must be wrought in the life of man to satisfy God. This working can only be by the grace of the Spirit and the blood of Christ which imputes the righteousness of Jesus Christ to the believer by faith - the faith demonstrated by Abraham in believing God.

It was the same principle Jesus used in comparing the eye of a needle to the gate of heaven for a rich man - a feat of impossiblitiy without the empowering life and righteousness of Christ imputed. In both sayings, we see the contrast of the law of sin and death to the liberation of the law of the Spirit and grace (see Romans 8). In other words, the limitations of the law versus the victory of grace.

[i]"Unless a man be born again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God"[/i]

[i]"The publicans and harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you"[/i]

Brother Paul

There is a Keith Daniel sermon on this site where he expands on this exact verse. I can't find which one it is though... does anyone know?

After reading this thread, I set aside time tonight to answer, as well as God affords, the question posed. My prayer to God is that this may help resolve the issue.

There are four different forms of righteousness:

[b]Civil righteousness[/b]. This applies to governmental rules and the authority which is divinely given to rulers to enforce them. Murderers may be put to death by the state. If one is innocent of murder, the state may not punish him for the crime he has not committed. Yet, however innocent of civil crimes he may be, God will hold him accountable for his spiritual/moral sins. The civil law is not as stringent as the spiritual law. Jesus confirms this, teaching that where the civil law extends to actual murder, God's spiritual law includes hate. A man may be a paragon of civil righteousness in his own country and be accounted a villain in another, according to each nations differing laws.

[b]Ceremonial Righteousness[/b]. This form of righteousness was had to the extent one kept the prescriptions of the Mosaic law, particularly those aspects which are neither civil nor moral. For instance, the eating of any food does not naturally defile a man, for "all foods are clean." However, at Sinai God decreed that Jews should not eat certain animals. It then became ceremonially impure for them to do so. For as long as that ceremonial law remained, men were ceremonially pure or impure based on their adherence to it. Thus we see that one may have a greater or lesser extent of ceremonial righteousness to the extent that one adheres to the rituals of the ceremonial law.

[b]Moral/Spiritual Righteousness[/b]. This righteousness is possessed to the degree that one is conformed to the absolute standard of judgment which God holds against the hearts of men, summarized in the laws of love. The rule of spiritual righteousness is immutable, unchanging, and can be perfectly applied by God alone, for it is the moral nature of God Himself. Though a child may be free of civil failures and perfect to all appearances in his conformity to the ceremonial rituals of the Mosaic Covenant, yet his heart may be black with spiritual failures. Before five years of age he may have hated, coveted, and deceived ten thousand times and have stored a great burden of spiritual sins against himself. God's Moral Law requires perfect spiritual righteousness if one is to stand before the judgment. Amongst those born of Adam, Christ alone wrought perfect spiritual righteousness.

[b]Imputed Righteousness.[/b] This righteousness exceeds the civil, ceremonial, and moral righteousness of scribes and pharisees, for it is the perfect spiritual righteousness of Christ credited to those who have faith in his substitutionary death and resurrection. In regards to justification, it awards to the repentant believer all of the active merit of Christ's obedience to the moral laws of God. He that possesses this righteousness, though falling seventy-times-seven times, will rise again to be declared more righteous than the most outwardly obedient legalist who has not received Christ's whole obedience through faith.

An old jewish custom was that if only two people could enter heaven, one would be a pharisee and the other a scribe, at the time they were considered the most pious\\holy of all people, of course John the baptist corrects that thought.
Jesus declared to the disciples that they should listen to the Pharisee's the teachers because they sit on Moses' seat but do not do as they do...
They were hypocrites, and we should not be thus when following the Lord.
In Isaiah 64 when it says our righteousnesses or righteous acts are as filthy rags because we did not follow his statutes.
following Jesus is more than lip service but manifested in our actions or through the fruit of the spirit done through his sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in a submitted believer.
If we are humble and submit to the authority of Christ he will enable us to be More righteous than any pharisee or scribe, this is the gift of God to us.

Reply to all: I would like to add a few comments to what has already been stated.

Pharisees: Paul before conversion
They were the religious zealots of the religious groups but deemed unworthy to ascend into Heaven by our Lord. They were full of self righteous pride and in the New Testament (Matt. 3:7), they are called by our Lord along with the Sadducees a "generation of vipers." They were noted for their self-righteousness and their pride (Matt. 9:11; Luke 7: 39; 18: 11, 12). They were frequently rebuked by our Lord (Matt. 12:39; 16:1-4). From the very beginning of his ministry the Pharisees were bitter and persistent enemies of our Lord. They could not bear his doctrines, and they sought by every means to destroy his influence among the people.

When you live and teach love and charity in the will of God that is opposed to buying better stuff and building high places to worship money in, you too will become their enemy. Their self righteous spirit is alive and well today.

Sadducees:
They were among the "elders" of the Sanhedrin,[ the Jewish leaders that were loyal to the Romans]. They showed their hatred of Jesus in taking part in his condemnation (Matt. 16:21; 26:1-3, 59; Mark 8:31; 15:1; Luke 9:22; 22:66).

They tried to prohibit the apostles from preaching the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:24, 31, 32; 4:1, 2; 5:17, 24-28). They were the deists or atheist. They were destroyed when the wrath of God was poured out on Jerusalem.

When you live and teach that our Lord is risen and that we are dead in Christ you too will find that their spirit lives on. We can approach the Mercy Seat in Christ's name with out any merit of our own and only repentance and faith as a legacy.

I personally believe the translators of the Bible have failed us in not making more and better distinctions between the Jews and the Hebrews. Their were three provinces that made up the Holy Land and the only one who was said to have gone astray was Judaea. That province was the home of the Jews and not the Galileans or the Samaritans.

Eddie