For I tell you this: you will not enter the kingdom of heaven unless your righteousness goes deeper than the Pharisees’, even more righteous than the most learned learner of the law.

Matthew 5:20 (Voice)

 

Both Jesus and the Pharisees desired that people live righteously, but their approaches differed. The Pharisees were good at telling people what was wrong with them and how undeserving of God's grace they were. However, Jesus exposed their faulty sense of holiness and their abuse of the Law to dominate people and make them feel undesired and unwelcomed by God.

Jesus did not start by telling people how they had fallen short of God's glory. Instead, He reached out to them in the name of God's grace. By embracing and loving people as they were, Jesus invited them to unite their life to His to find their righteousness in Him. This righteousness is God's work, not our own. There is no more fear of rejection or punishment because God's righteousness in Christ enables us to live freely for Him!

Enjoying God's acceptance and love frees us from those false expectations we have of ourselves and others. By embracing this truth, we will be able to view others as God sees them and treat them as God treated us—with love, forgiveness, and mercy, even if they have wounded us or turned against us. While legalism seeks out what is wrong, grace seeks out those who are hurting. This is why grace is so revolutionary. Because it allows us to see beyond people's sins and hardships to their true needs.

Sin is the result of our failure to respond to God’s love. This explains why Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33 to seek first the righteousness that is bestowed on those who belong to God's kingdom. To seek is to continually ponder and reflect on our righteous standing before God, and to rest on God who will not meet our needs but will give us more than we could possibly ask for.

Knowing the truth of our righteousness in Christ not only provides us the capacity to overcome sin, but also qualifies us to be worthy beneficiaries of God's promises.