The Three Kinds of Righteousness (3)

The Righteousness of the Pharisees

From what we can see in the portion of scripture commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), there are three kinds of righteousness that Jesus alluded to. The first is the righteousness of the Pharisees. We can see this in Matt 5:20:

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (NKJV)

It’s plain from Jesus’ words that He doesn’t consider the kind of righteousness like that of the Pharisees to be good enough for one to enter God’s Kingdom. Mind you, not that it’s an easy standard; most of us will fail miserably trying to achieve it. The Pharisees were expert at adhering to Moses’ Law to the letter. As if that’s not good enough, they vigorously studied the Law, interpreted it and added their own traditions. How about making some 1500 oral laws surrounding the law on the Sabbath and keeping them? This was no small feat. They were also given to much prayer, fasting and giving of alms. Where religious discipline was concerned they were second to none. Yet their righteousness is not good enough in Jesus’ estimate.

Jesus didn’t leave us clueless; He went on to tell us exactly why and how the Pharisees fell short. You see, the problem with them was that they stressed too much on the external fulfilment of the Law with little concern or understanding of the spirit of the Law. They made sin so purely external. So Jesus said, “Don’t think that ‘You shall not murder’ means only that you don’t take somebody’s life; in fact anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder.” Also He said, ”Don’t think that so long as you don’t go to bed with a woman other than your wife you are not committing adultery; in fact so long as you look at a woman lustfully you are guilty of adultery.” This, according to Jesus, is the spirit and true standard of the Law. You can read much about it in the rest of the Sermon, but especially in Matt 5:21-48.

It may interest you to find out what kind of funny traditions the ingenuity of the Pharisees came up with. One of their laws regarding the Sabbath stated that if a man rode on his ass he did not break the Sabbath law, but if he carried a switch with which to expedite the pace of the beast he was guilty, because he had laid a burden upon it. Another one basically said that if a donor stretched his hand over his threshold to give alms to a beggar he broke the Sabbath law but if the beggar stretched his hand into the donor’s house the donor didn’t become guilty. What a load of rubbish! No wonder Jesus had little regard for their traditions.

In their quest for righteousness through external forms the Pharisees became more concerned about what people think of them rather than what God think of them. They needed to appear righteous. They hungered after the applause of their fellow men and looked down on anyone who was unable to meet their forms of righteousness. Being educated religious leaders they were supposed to teach people the Law but they actually lowered the standard of the pure Law.

The law they adhered to was sub-standard Law. If the pure Law is reckoned as the gold in Nebuchadnezzar's image (see A Tale of Two Kingdoms (8)), their law is at best some sort of iron. So is their form of righteousness: sub-standard.

Do you feel as if you are under no risk like the Pharisees were because you are not one of them? Think again. There are modern-day Pharisees, even in the church. I think I used to be like one of them; and I sure know many today.

Scripture Link: BibleGateway.com