Excerpts Of Jesus (I)
Matthew 5:20 "For I say unto you, that EXCEPT your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven."
And what was the scribes and Pharisees' righteousness? Answer: Romans 10:3 - "For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God." Now that is certainly not the kind of righteousness which is required of us.
Our righteousness or holiness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees in quality and quantity. The righteousness of Christ's disciples is centered in the heart and must be genuine. Jesus is saying that unless they had more real holiness of character — they could not be saved.
Frequently the "righteousness" of the scribes and Pharisees consisted in outward observance of ceremonial laws and traditions of men. They offered sacrifices, prayed much, fasted frequently, and were very careful about tithes and washings, and the ceremonies of religion (cf. Matt. 15:1,2); but they neglected justice, purity, and humility of heart. And "the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected for themselves the counsel of God" (Luke 7:30)
The Jews, represented by the scribes and Pharisees in this passage, had their own system of justification, but the righteousness of the gospel exceeds it, not in the sense of degree (not more of the same), but exceeds it in kind, source, and quality.
This righteousness demanded by Jesus in Matt. 5:20 was an essential condition for entering the kingdom which was "at hand." The righteousness which should exceed that of the Jews would be a necessary thing in order to enter the coming kingdom.
One interpretation of Matt. 5:20 which has occasionally been given, but which I believe to be erroneous, goes like this: "The Jews tithed; they gave a tenth, and our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Jews, so we must give more than a tenth." If that is a true application of Matt. 5:20, then our "righteousness" is not something different than the righteousness of the Jews — it is just more of the same thing! Did Jesus mean to say that His disciples should have the same kind of "righteousness" as the Jews — but just more of it? Who can believe it? Is this the true meaning of "exceed"? I think not.
Again, if that is the meaning of the passage, then the "tithe-plus" is condition of ENTERING the kingdom and must be performed before admission into the kingdom, or church; for the passage reads that except this righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom. This would make tithing (plus) an element of the new birth and a part of the gospel. Again, who can believe such? So this application is erroneous and tithing is no more a part of Christianity than any other element of Judaism.
No, this does not mean I am against a person giving more than a tenth of his earnings. Most assuredly not! I would encourage every Christian to give as high a percentage as he so desires — whether it be ten percent, eleven percent, twenty-five percent, or seventy-five percent, or any other percent. The New Testament does not give a hard-fast rule of "percentage giving" but rather "Let each man do according as he hath purposed in his heart: not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." (II Cor. 9:7)
The righteousness of Matt. 5:20 and of the fourth beatitude of verse six refers to the system of justification revealed in the gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16, 17). It EXCEEDS the system of the Jews in kind and character. There was no such righteousness in the law, for as stated in Gal. 3:21, "if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law."
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