"For I Tell you, Unless Your Righteousness Exceeds that of. . ."

[jimmyjimmy]

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

Was Jesus urging us to try harder and do more when he said this?

 

[patrick jane]

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

Was Jesus urging us to try harder and do more when he said this?

Jesus taught the law during His earthly ministry. He was sent to the Jews only. until DBR

 

[Soyeong]

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

Was Jesus urging us to try harder and do more when he said this?

He was saying that what the teachers of the law were teaching them to do was not good enough for his kingdom standard and then he proceeded to correct what they had been teaching throughout the rest of the chapter. The Pharisees kept a much stricter standard of behavior than most of us will ever reach, so it wasn't about trying harder to obey, but about obeying in the right way. They taught many traditions about how to obey the law that sometimes undermined the law itself, so they were not following the law in the correct way and Jesus came to fulfill the law by teaching how to correctly understand and obey it both by his words and by his actions.

 

[Tiny Bible]

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

Was Jesus urging us to try harder and do more when he said this?

As I see it the question is, what did Jesus say of the scribes and pharisee in Matthew 23:33-34? And in John 8:40-44?

What did John the Baptizer say of them in Matthew 3:7?
Matthew 5, from whence the OT verse 20 derives, speaks of the beautitudes and the commands Jesus spoke of and the law and its authority.
Given Jesus speaks as he does of scribes and pharisee in Matthew and John , as did the Baptizer also, it isn't a stretch to imagine those called to God through Jesus Christ can exceed the righteousness of those Jesus called vipers and seed of the devil. The key is to be in the spirit, which they were not, and not of this world, which they were. And that, in my reading, is why and how those scribes and pharisee could be of the Devil. The lord of this world. And why despite all Jesus did they wanted to kill him for it, in John 8.

They had eyes but they did not see. Ears but they did not hear. The enemy of righteousness can only blind those who are open to his touch.

 

[EmSw]

Jesus taught the law during His earthly ministry. He was sent to the Jews only. until DBR

What did Paul say about the law?

Romans 13:8
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Do you not believe in fulfilling the law? Do you not love others?

 

[patrick jane]

What did Paul say about the law?

Romans 13:8
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Do you not believe in fulfilling the law? Do you not love others?

You tell me, is that all ?

 

[EmSw]

You tell me, is that all ?

Do you believe in fulfilling the law?

 

[patrick jane]

Do you believe in fulfilling the law?

impossible for all but Christ Jesus

 

[jimmyjimmy]

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

A little of this is difficult to see as we know the scribes and pharisees as bad guys. We do only because Jesus exposed them for us; however, the original hearers knew the scribes and Pharisees as the most righteous people on the planet. When Jesus said you have to do better than them, He might as well have said that you have to jump over the moon to enter the kingdom of heaven!

Jesus was shocking his audience in order to help them see their complete inability. Jesus was bringing the full weight of the law to them, and us, in order to reveal our utter need for a salvation that only he could bring. He was breaking self-relience and self-righteousness.

He isn't urging us to try harder. He is making us cry out for mercy by showing how high the bar really is.

 

[sdowney717]

Since He is our righteousness, any required level of righteousness is easily attainable, since such is imputed to us who believe in Christ.

And those guys are really not righteous at all to God, recall How Jesus said woe to them and they were sons of Hell, this is one of those funny moments in scripture I think. This is an image problem going on in the minds of the people. Those scribes and pharisees set the bar really high, but in an only outward appearance, as inward they were filthy, full of dead mans bones and all sorts of uncleanliness. So they were fakes and hypocrites, Christ new that, but the common people did not.

Do not ever look at any supposedly super religious great wonderful man and think to compare yourself with them, do not ever call them your rabbi, teacher, master, for you have only one Christ who is your rabbi, master and teacher and everyone else who you think is so wonderfully godly only might be so because God has had mercy on them. Besides all that, the weird and false teachers all have spiritual power of darkness energizing them, and they all seek disciples to make after themselves in their image and lead you away from Christ.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

any required level of righteousness is easily attainable, since such is imputed to us who believe in Christ.

Thanks for being the first (I think) to bring up imputation. This is what I was hoping all Christians had understood as the most basic and foundational ideas of the Christian faith; however, based on many comments in many threads, I'm afraid this essential understanding is missed by more than a few, and without Christ's righteousness, they seek to establish their own.

 

[EmSw]

impossible for all but Christ Jesus

So why does Paul say loving one another is the fulfilling of the law?

 

[Soyeong]

impossible for all but Christ Jesus

According to Galatians 5:14, everyone since Moses who has loved their neighbor has fulfilled the law. God Himself said that his law was not too difficult (Deuteronomy 30:11) and Jesus said that his yoke was easy and his burden was light (Matthew 11:28-30), so practicing obedience to the law is not an impossible task for us to by faith, and even if it were, nothing thing is impossible with God. The problem is not with the difficulty of the law, but with our flesh that prevented us from obeying it, and with the law being unable to compel us to obey it, so God did what the law could not do by setting us free from disobedience and causing us to be able to obey it (Romans 8:3).

 

[Soyeong]

A little of this is difficult to see as we know the scribes and pharisees as bad guys. We do only because Jesus exposed them for us; however, the original hearers knew the scribes and Pharisees as the most righteous people on the planet. When Jesus said you have to do better than them, He might as well have said that you have to jump over the moon to enter the kingdom of heaven!

Jesus was shocking his audience in order to help them see their complete inability. Jesus was bringing the full weight of the law to them, and us, in order to reveal our utter need for a salvation that only he could bring. He was breaking self-relience and self-righteousness.

He isn't urging us to try harder. He is making us cry out for mercy by showing how high the bar really is.

The primary purpose of instructing us to have a righteous conduct is for us to have a righteous conduct. Jesus gave these instructions primarily so that we would obey them. Our failure to obey them highlights God's righteousness and our need for a savior, but that is only significant insofar as it leads us to repentance and obedience. Our salvation is from sin and sin is disobedience to God, so our salvation from disobedience to God is for the purpose of obedience to God.

 

[Soyeong]

Thanks for being the first (I think) to bring up imputation. This is what I was hoping all Christians had understood as the most basic and foundational ideas of the Christian faith; however, based on many comments in many threads, I'm afraid this essential understanding is missed by more than a few, and without Christ's righteousness, they seek to establish their own.

God is righteous, so He does what is righteous, and so to declare that someone is righteous is to declare that they are someone who does what is righteous. Similarly, to say that someone is a Firefighter is to say that they are someone who fights fires. Christ's imputed righteousness is for the purpose of causing us to do what is righteous, not to establish our own righteousness, but because Christ's righteousness has been established.

 

[patrick jane]

According to Galatians 5:14, everyone since Moses who has loved their neighbor has fulfilled the law. God Himself said that his law was not too difficult (Deuteronomy 30:11) and Jesus said that his yoke was easy and his burden was light (Matthew 11:28-30), so practicing obedience to the law is not an impossible task for us to by faith, and even if it were, nothing thing is impossible with God. The problem is not with the difficulty of the law, but with our flesh that prevented us from obeying it, and with the law being unable to compel us to obey it, so God did what the law could not do by setting us free from disobedience and causing us to be able to obey it (Romans 8:3).

You just proved my point. Impossible for anybody but Jesus

 

[Soyeong]

You just proved my point. Impossible for anybody but Jesus

To fulfill the law is a rabbinic technical term used to refer to demonstrating a full understanding of the law by words or by actions. As Jesus said he came to do, he proceeded to fulfill the law six times in the rest of Matthew 5 by instructing how to understand and obey it, and he fulfilled the law by giving us a perfect example to follow of how to obey it. Love is the essence of the law and Jesus summarized it as being about how to love God and how to love your neighbor, so by doing things in obedience to the law that demonstrate love for you neighbor you are fulfilling the law by showing that you understand how to obey it. Every Sabbath in a Synagogue a rabbi would take a Torah scroll to Moses' seat and fulfill the law by interpreting and explaining how to understand it. Anyone and everyone can fulfill the law countless times throughout their life, so it does not refer to obeying the law perfectly, but to obeying it correctly. Our flesh prevents us from obeying the law perfectly, but with God nothing is impossible, so we can be made be like Christ in having perfect obedience to it so that we might meet its righteous requirement (Romans 8:4). That will be the case when He who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it on the day of Christ Jesus.

 

[patrick jane]

To fulfill the law is a rabbinic technical term used to refer to demonstrating a full understanding of the law by words or by actions. As Jesus said he came to do, he proceeded to fulfill the law six times in the rest of Matthew 5 by instructing how to understand and obey it, and he fulfilled the law by giving us a perfect example to follow of how to obey it. Love is the essence of the law and Jesus summarized it as being about how to love God and how to love your neighbor, so by doing things in obedience to the law that demonstrate love for you neighbor you are fulfilling the law by showing that you understand how to obey it. Every Sabbath in a Synagogue a rabbi would take a Torah scroll to Moses' seat and fulfill the law by interpreting and explaining how to understand it. Anyone and everyone can fulfill the law countless times throughout their life, so it does not refer to obeying the law perfectly, but to obeying it correctly. Our flesh prevents us from obeying the law perfectly, but with God nothing is impossible, so we can be made be like Christ in having perfect obedience to it so that we might meet its righteous requirement (Romans 8:4). That will be the case when He who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it on the day of Christ Jesus.

I win

 

[Soyeong]

I win

I have fulfilled the law countless times throughout my life and you likely have to, so far from being impossible, it is rather easy.

 

[patrick jane]

I have fulfilled the law countless times throughout my life and you likely have to, so far from being impossible, it is rather easy.

Not the whole law. James 2:10 -