The Righteousness of God

For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. –Mt. 5:20

The Old Testament displays the righteousness of God primarily in His faithfulness to keep His covenants with Israel. God always, always, always delivers His people—whether out of slavery, exile, or sin. That's why Isaiah speaks of a shoot springing from the stem of Jesse, of whom "righteousness will be the belt about his loins" (Is. 11:5). Jeremiah speaks of a "righteous branch" ruling on David's throne whose name will be "The LORD our righteousness" (Jer. 23:5-6). Zechariah envisions this king coming to the rescue of Israel, "Behold, your king is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey..." (Zech. 9:9).

But, righteousness doesn't just stop with God. He expects humans to be righteous—to uphold their end of the Mosaic covenant by keeping the Law—and He links righteousness to staying alive. Ezekiel says it like this, "But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die" (Ez. 18:21). But, if that man messes up and sins, "All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his treachery and...his sin which he has committed; for them he will die (v. 24). That's quite a predicament! If you sin once, you're toast!

Now, enter Jesus. He lives His life and fulfills all righteousness (Mt. 3:15), for He "didn't come to abolish [the Law] but to fulfill it" (5:17). Jesus perfectly performs the righteousness expected of humans. So, when it comes to righteousness and the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is offering people a way to be righteous and thus fulfill the Mosaic covenant. For Jesus to say that people must be more righteous than the Pharisees is scandalous! It's impossible! It's Jesus' way of saying that no one has kept the Mosaic covenant. They need His righteousness to make it into the kingdom of heaven. That's why Jesus tells people to seek His righteousness (6:33), and "Ask, and it will be given to you" (7:7). In context, the primary thing Jesus means people to ask for is His righteousness! May we all ask, seek, and knock...

But whatever things were gain to me,
those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss
in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, 
and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him,
not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law,
but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.
–Phil. 3:7-9