The King's Sermon

Then in verses 27-28 Jesus gives perhaps the clearest and most picturesque illustration of the Pharisees' righteousness:

The righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees was purely an external righteousness. But Jesus says that it's not enough to be righteous96 on the outside if you are not also righteous on the inside. What Jesus is demanding is not more righteous deeds by human effort, but more righteous hearts by divine grace. He is not saying that you must have a quantitatively greater righteousness, something like a righteousness that is numerically greater than the scribes or the Pharisees. To use an academic analogy, it's not that the Pharisees have scored in the low 90's on the holiness test, and entrance into the kingdom of heaven requires a score of 94, 95, or 96. This misses the point altogether. Rather, Jesus is talking about a qualitatively different righteousness—a righteousness of a different kind altogether. This is not an outer righteousness to show everyone how good we look, but an inner righteousness that shows how gracious and powerful God is.

Jesus spoke of this inner righteousness with Nicodemus in John 3. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a teacher of Bible and theology according to John 3:10, yet he didn't understand what Jesus meant when He said that someone must be "born again" (John 3:3). Nicodemus was thinking in terms of externals, as in re-entering your mother's womb, but Jesus informed him that a man must be born of water and the Spirit (John 3:4-5). Man must be given a new heart by God, just as the Old Testament prophets foretold (Ezek 36:24-28; Jer 31:31-34). Like the wind, Jesus says, this work of God's Spirit is not something we can bring about. We can only see the effects (John 3:8).

This idea in John 3 of being born again is precisely what Jesus is getting at in Matthew 5:20 when He says that our righteousness must be greater than that of the scribes and the Pharisees. We must have a righteousness that extends beyond externals and legal conformity. And such an exceeding righteousness is only possible by God's gift of a new heart.

So how do we know that we have this exceeding righteousness? Or a new heart? Is there instant obedience to every command in Scripture overnight? Of course not. But know this: there will be some evidence. There will be some change in our life if we have been born again. And this is, in some measure, what the remainder of Jesus' sermon is about.

First, this exceeding righteousness should be evident in our attitudes. Six different times in Matthew 5:21-48 Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said... but I tell you..." The Pharisees had created all kinds of ingenious ways of working around the intentions of God's Word. For example, they found ways to harbor bitterness and hatred toward their97 neighbor while remaining innocent in their own eyes with regard to murder. They may have lusted after their neighbor's wives, but so long as they didn't commit adultery, they felt themselves to be holy, technically speaking. In general, they felt justified in blurring the edges of the truth. They would swear by this or that object and then back out on their promise, but so long as they didn't swear by the wrong things, then they were somehow people of integrity (see also 23:16-22). But that's merely an external righteousness, not the kind of righteousness Jesus brings about.

Of course, it's all too easy to pile on the Pharisees, as if we don't also struggle with this kind of duplicity. For example, I can maintain hatred toward my wife, bitterness toward my children, and jealousy toward my neighbor, all while technically never killing them or harming in them in any physical way. But self-justification and good appearances are not what Jesus came to do for us and in us; that is not saving people from their sins. He came to give us a righteousness that works its way all the way down to the heart and then ushers forth in love, purity, and holiness. These are the new attitudes that Jesus is producing in His people by His Spirit.

The question we need to ask is this: "Do we see those new attitudes in our lives?" Is there genuine love, purity, integrity, and holiness? And this is where we desperately need the help of those around us. We need other Christians in our life who can say, "I see the grace of God in you," or, conversely, "I'm not sure I see the life of Christ evident in your life." The latter is difficult to hear, but it's far better to hear that today than on the Last Day.

Second, Jesus says that our exceeding righteousness should be evident in our desires. In Matthew 6:1-18 Jesus refers to three different kinds of behavior: giving (vv. 2-3), prayer (vv. 5-14), and fasting (vv. 16-18). Just to be clear, Jesus is not telling His disciples to abandon these things, but to do them in the right way, a way that manifests God-glorifying desires. Jesus' main concern in speaking of these subjects is stated in verse 1: "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people, to be seen by them." So, yes, we give, pray, and fast, but we should not do these things in order to attract attention.

There's no denying that disciples of Jesus will continue to struggle with wanting man's approval. At times we desire the applause of men and we seek to win their approval, but there should at least be combat against those sinful desires in a heart changed by God. Our ultimate98 desire should be for God's recognition, regardless of what man says. We shouldn't give in order to impress others, we shouldn't pray in a way that highlights our spirituality, and we shouldn't fast so that others are aware of our supposed humility. Rather, new desires are part and parcel of the exceeding righteousness Jesus is bringing about in His people.

Third, in Matthew 6:19-34 Jesus says that we must have new ambitions. He gives the following instructions in verses 31-33:

Those who have a qualitatively different kind of righteousness, that is, a righteousness that flows from a heart changed by God, should no longer be consumed with the things of this world. Now, this does not mean that if we ever struggle or give in to the pull of the world, that we are not disciples of Jesus. There is an "already—not yet" aspect to the Christian life. We are already saved, but we are not yet in heaven. We are not perfected. We are not glorified. There will always be a struggle in this life. Nevertheless, Jesus' point is that even though we will still battle these ungodly ambitions, and even fail many times, there ought to be at least a competing desire in our hearts for the glory of God and for the kingdom of righteousness. On some level, we should be able to pray with sincerity, "Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt 6:9-10).

The fourth evidence of an exceeding righteousness concerns new relationships. Jesus warns us in Matthew 7:1, "Do not judge, so that you won't be judged." Now clearly Jesus is not saying here that we never judge, that we never point out sin in our brothers and sisters, or that we never receive correction from others. In fact, He goes on to indicate that's exactly what we ought to be doing (vv. 2-5)!

Jesus is not telling us to overlook sin in one another. Rather, Jesus is responding to Pharisees who have elevated themselves and demeaned others who didn't live up to their own particular standards. This was the Pharisees' way of life, their program of holiness. And Jesus' response to that is not to tell them to forget about holiness or to stop pointing out sin; rather, His response is to exhort them to consider their own sin before they begin pointing out sin in others. Undoubtedly, we should be willing to encourage one another and point out sinful habits in others, but only after a time of reflection on the ways that sin is present in our own life. And then, even when we do that, all of our correction, all of our admonition, and all of our encouragement should be seasoned with love, grace, and evident humility.

The bottom line is this: There should be something different about the lives of Jesus' disciples. Life in the kingdom will look different from life in the world. This is the exceeding righteousness of which Jesus speaks. So, do we see this difference in our lives? And do we see this difference in our churches?

Like every good preacher, Jesus puts us on the spot and He calls for us to respond. He impresses on us here at the end of the Sermon on the Mount the seriousness of what He has said. Below we'll look at three different realities we are faced with in this text.

First, Jesus makes clear that the options are limited. There is one road that leads to life, and there is one road that leads to destruction. You see this point in a very familiar passage in Matthew 7:13-14, where Jesus says,

Scholars have disagreed about whether it is a road that leads to a gate or a gate that leads to a road, but the bottom line is the same: there are100 only two ways. Just as Paul tells us in Romans 5:12-21 that there are only two kinds of people (those in Adam and those in Christ), Jesus tells us that there are only two kinds of roads, and everybody on the planet is on one of them. You're either on a road that leads to life, or you are on a broad way, an easy road—the way of the world—which leads to destruction.

Next, Jesus says that the fruit is evident. In verses 15-23, He says that one tree bears good fruit and one tree bears bad fruit. Everyone falls into one of those two categories. Either you have repented of your sins and Christ has changed your heart, and you're producing love, joy, peace, and other good fruit (Gal 5:22-23); or you're still trusting in yourself and rejecting Christ. Those in the latter category bring forth the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21).

Finally, Jesus says that the consequences are eternal. This is not a temporal reality or a game. Nothing else in our lives is on par with this. In verses 24-27 He says that when the storm hits, one house stands upon the rock and one house crashes upon itself.

We must hear Jesus. When He says that there is a storm coming, He is not talking about what we so often identify as the "storms of life." Those storms are real and they are painful—storms like cancer, divorce, and losing a loved one—and the Bible certainly addresses them. However, Jesus is referring to a cataclysmic reality, a final and utterly devastating storm of the future judgment of God. It may be tonight or it may be 10,000 years from now. But it will come. And Jesus reminds us that it doesn't matter how we've propped up our house or how we've fixed it up or what other people think of it. Unless that house is founded upon the Rock, its fall will be stunning.

In response to Jesus' teaching, do you see an "exceeding righteousness" to your life? Do you have a new heart? If not, God's judgment now hangs over you. But the good news—the gospel—is that it doesn't have to be that way. The good news is that you can withstand the judgment of God so long as you are in Christ, who has already been judged (Rom 8:3). Place yourself totally, completely in Him. Don't rest in yourself; rest wholly in the Savior. That is the gospel.101