Matthew 5:13-20

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20, ESV)

I think the greatest lie Satan has told the world is that people are good enough to go to heaven. He focuses them on the good deeds they have done. Where things have gone wrong, then it is the fault of someone else. This self-righteousness dooms them to hell because they never see their desperate need. They never call on the name of the Lord for mercy and forgiveness. They are like the church of Laodicea.

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17, NKJV)

One day their life will be cut off, and they will stand naked before Almighty God—unfit for heaven.

Jesus mentioned the scribes and Pharisees because most people thought they were holy. However, Jesus showed that they were obsessed with outward piety while they neglected inward purity. They were hypocrites, actors, phonies. They thought they were holier than the average Jew, but they were self-deceived. While people thought they were the model of holiness, Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The second great lie of Satan is that you must do good deeds to enter heaven, and if you have done anything bad, then you are shut out. People who believe this lie never feel good enough, but neither do they call out to Jesus for salvation. They are in a prison cell of damnation. Condemned for the evil things they have done but blind to the only way out.

Our only hope is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. We do not receive this by self-effort but by grace through faith in Jesus. We must let Christ remove our filthy clothes of self-righteousness, wash us in His atoning blood, sanctify us with the washing with water of the Word, and finally clothe us with His white robes of righteousness. Only then are we fit for heaven.

May God help us to make our own calling and election sure and then help others to find the only righteousness that heaven accepts.