“So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!” —Matthew 5:19–20
The righteousness Jesus demands from His followers is unlike that of the Pharisees. The Jewish leaders were simply into externals. Externals represent only what man can observe, not what God sees.
Jesus taught quite the opposite! It is obedience at the core, at the heart level, that God desires. When cleansing takes place internally, the external will follow!
Jesus always aimed at the heart. He was looking for true inner righteousness based on faith in God. In Scripture, the heart is the term used to describe the seat of all our affections and desires. Our actions and words come from the overflow of our hearts. That is why Jesus told us the fruit of our lives is a good indicator of what lies within us. Are we full of selfish ambitions, vain conceits, greed, anger, and the like? Or are we full of love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness?
What is in our hearts will always eventually manifest itself in our behavior and words. We may be able to mask it for a while, but ultimately what is at our core will come forth. It is God’s desire for us to get rid of the evil that lies hidden within our hearts. We are pros at justifying our poor behaviors by blaming them on past situations, experiences, dysfunctions, and other people. Our hearts are prone to delude us and they frequently lead us astray and take us down the wrong path. We are often ignorant of the depravity that remains within us.
“Christians are rapidly losing sight of sin as the root of all human woes. And many Christians are explicitly denying that their own sin can be the cause of personal anguish. More and more are attempting to explain the human dilemma in wholly unbiblical terms: temperament, addiction, dysfunctional families, the child within, codependency, and a host of other irresponsible escape mechanisms promoted by secular psychology. The potential impact of such a drift is frightening. Remove the reality of sin, and you take away the possibility of repentance. Abolish the doctrine of human depravity and you void the divine plan of salvation. Erase the notion of personal guilt and you eliminate the need for a Savior.” —John MacArthur
It is God alone who knows the true condition of the heart of man. Scripture tells us:
“The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. Who can understand it? I, the LORD, probe into people’s minds. I examine people’s hearts. I deal with each person according to how he has behaved. I give them what they deserve based on what they have done.” —Jeremiah 17:9–10
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will make your paths straight.” —Proverbs 3:5–6
“Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it are the sources of life.” —Proverbs 4:23
“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world by holding on to the word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.” —Philippians 2:14–16
Become More
“The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity, and had no reason to expect anything but severity. We have seen why the thought of grace means so little to some church people–namely, because they do not share the beliefs about God and man which it presupposes. Now we have to ask: why should this thought mean so much to others? The answer is not far to seek; indeed, it is evident from what has already been said. It is surely clear that, once a man is convinced that his state and need are as described, the New Testament gospel of grace cannot but sweep him off his feet with wonder and joy. For it tells how our Judge has become our Saviour.” —J.I. Packer
Further Reflections
“Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may become clean too!” —Matthew 23:25–26
“But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.” —Philippians 3:7–9