It is of the greatest possible importance that we understand, as accurately as we can, what is the nature of that righteousness which God accepts from us. For heaven is only for the righteous; all the promises arc to the righteous; it is the righteous man's prayer that availeth much. Our Lord's description of the righteousness which is required of us is this: it is an "exceeding righteousness;" it is a righteousness in excess of the righteousness of the most scrupulous moralist.
I. A Christian's righteousness exceeds a natural or a Jewish righteousness in this, that it is positive and not negative. It inculcates a certain state of mind, and a particular line of conduct arising out of it. A negative command circumscribes, and therefore always gives a sense of bondage; a positive command has no limit, and is therefore perfect liberty.
II. All other righteousness does the orders of God; this does His will. It is pleasant to do what we are told by one we love; but it is far pleasanter to do what we are not told. And here lies the greater part of a believer's obedience: it is in doing what he knows will please, though it was never laid down.
III. The motive is different Another man does good, either because he is afraid to do wrong, or because he hopes, by doing good, to obtain a recompense. The Christian has both these feelings, but neither is his actuating motive. His spring is love: he is loved, and he loves back again. It is the love in it which makes the service; and by love the righteousness "exceeds."
IV. And hence two more things result. As the moving power is within, so the righteousness is first an inward righteousness. There is an inner life before the outer one. The outer life is only the reflection of what has been first within therefore the Christian's righteousness is primarily in his thoughts and affections.
V. And no wonder that such an inner righteousness, when it is brought out, goes very deep and soars very high. It does not calculate how little it may do, but how much it can do, for God; it does not stop at one mile, but is glad to go twain.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,7th series, p. 40.
The Pharisees.
I. Christ's denunciation of the Pharisees is a part of the language of the Gospels which strikes us as very remarkable. The language is part of the judicial language of the first advent. Christ's first advent was not indeed a judgment of the world in a final sense; but it was a judgment in this sense, that it laid the foundations of the final judgment. It was essential for this purpose that a great revelation should be made of human character, a great disclosure of its disguises and pretences; unmasking the evil in it, and extricating and bringing to light the good. But how was this decision to be made? In no other way than by declaring what was the very structure of morality that particular virtues are nothing without the general ones. The Gospel was an active religion, and Pharisaism was an active religion too; particular virtues were common to both; but the Gospel was an active religion founded upon love, and Pharisaism was an active religion founded upon egotism. Upon this one fundamental point mankind divided into two parts; the great block split asunder, and our Lord judicially declared and announced this division the division of mankind upon this law and by this criterion.
II. The condemnation of Pharisaism is prophetic; it was a lesson provided for the world's progress. A civilized world wanted it, because it is the very nature of civilization to amplify the body of public virtues without guarding in the least the motive to them. A Christian world wanted it, because it is the law of goodness to produce hypocrisy; it creates it as naturally as the substance creates the shadow; as the standard of goodness rises the standard of profession must rise too.
J. B. Mozley, University Sermons,p. 25.
The scribes and Pharisees represent to us the formalists of all ages, and that in two divisions the scribes, those who are formalists in their treatment of God's Word; the Pharisees, the formalists in religious life.
I. Note, first, the former class. God gave us His Word to be a light to our feet to guide, and cheer, and strengthen us in our way. Therefore let all possess the Scriptures; let all study the Scriptures. The more of this knowledge the better. For we are, far too many of us, as the scribes were, with reference to our Bibles. We are stiffened in certain undiscriminating, unintelligent notions, with regard to their sacred contents. We want now, not a Bible apologized for, but a Bible understood; not Gospels harmonized, but Gospels appreciated and loved and yearned over, and lived; the longer the world lasts, the longer the Church lasts, the more thorns grow over the narrow path, the stiffer turns the latch of the strait gate. We want more firmness of hand to grasp the one, more steadiness of step to tread the other; more courage to look on the wounds of our pilgrimage undismayed, and better medicines to heal them. Verily, if the Scriptures are to lead us to life, if they are to testify to Christ, if they are to carry on the work of the Spirit, then our wisdom in them, our upright dealing with them, our profiting by them, must exceed the righteousness of the scribes among us, or we can in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.
II. Consider the second division of that class whom we are to exceed in righteousness: the formalist in conduct. There has ever been a tyranny of conventionalities in religious practice, and amidst the many blessings of an age of more outward attention to the duties of religion, there is one disadvantage, that this tyranny becomes more widely spread and more rigidly exercised. The whole history of the Church may be described as an alternation of awakenings to the Divine life and relapses into formalism. Our righteousness our obedience to God, our devotion to Christ by faith (for that is our only righteousness) must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, of all those who, having the form of godliness, are practically denying the power thereof.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. iii., p. 50.
References: Matthew 5:20. J. Edmunds, Sermons in a Village Church,p. 209; J. C. Jones, Studies in St. Matthew,p. 130; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 51; vol. ix., p. 27; Spurgeon, Ibid.,vol. xxvi., p. 169; Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. i., p. 174; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 16; W. M. Taylor, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament,p. 20. Matthew 5:20-26. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 343; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 9.