What Does This Mean: Matthew 5:20 Kjv - Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees?
1) Direct answer
It means entrance into the Kingdom requires a righteousness that is not outward rule‑keeping like the scribes and Pharisees, but an inward righteousness—Christ’s own life in you—fulfilling God’s law from the heart by the Holy Ghost.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says the Pharisees were clean outside but full of uncleanness within (Matthew 23:25–28). Jesus was not asking for “more” of that; He demanded a different kind: heart righteousness.
- Right in this chapter, Jesus raises the law to the heart level: anger is murder in seed, lust is adultery in seed (Matthew 5:21–28). That shows the righteousness God requires is inward.
- By the law shall no flesh be justified (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16). If outward works could open the Kingdom, the Pharisees would have qualified.
- Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Romans 10:4). God made Him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
- The new covenant writes the law in the heart (Hebrews 8:10; Ezekiel 36:26–27), so that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:3–4).
- You must be born again to see and enter the Kingdom (John 3:3–5). That new birth is the only way your righteousness can exceed theirs.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- How will you “out‑Pharisee” the Pharisees—men who fasted, tithed, and kept traditions strictly—if righteousness is measured by external performance? You can’t.
- Jesus exposed the heart. Since sin begins within, righteousness must begin within. That’s why He pointed from acts to motives.
- The law can measure you but cannot change you. Christ gives a new nature; then the life of the Spirit produces what the law demanded: love that fulfills the law (Romans 13:10), the fruit of the Spirit against which there is no law (Galatians 5:22–23).
- So “exceed” means a higher quality, not a higher quantity—God’s righteousness, not self‑righteousness. It is received by faith and proven by a transformed walk.
4) Reinforcing statement
Repent and believe the Gospel, be identified with Christ, and receive the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38). Then the One who wrote the law will live it through you. That is the righteousness that exceeds and that opens the Kingdom.
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Seals 8: The Sixth Seal
63-0323 §64
...nd also that it was martyr. "They shall deliver you up and kill you," and so forth. See, the same seal being opened. Now, in the sixth seal is the one we are coming to now. Matthew 24:29 and 30 ... 24, and let's get 29 and 30. Here we are. Now, we are going to get also Revelation 6:12 to 17. That's exactly what we just read. Now, listen at this. Now, it's what Jesus said in Matthew 29 ... 24:29 and 30. Immediately after the tribulation of those days [What ... it's tribulation of this ... amateur tribulation they've...
A Court Trial
64-0412 §79
Now if you believe in divine healing, and have accepted Him now as your healer, we're standing here to lay hands on the sick. The way you act from the end of that line on, the rest of your life, will be the judge---no matter what you say. See what I mean? And you're just as sure to get well as you are to remain a Christian. How long are you a Christian after that? As long as you believe. And you're healed as long as you believe. Notice. "These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out dev...
His unfailing words of promise
64-0120 §2
Lord Jesus, we commit ourselves to You, for this service. I remember all the things that You have told me, and all the things that You've done before the people; to this we give praise and glory. But I remember last fall, coming down, about five hundred miles north of here, when You showed me that mountain, and said, "Go back and pray for the sick people, until the time comes." And here I am, Lord. Not to these people ... hear me, I'm not praying to them; I'm praying to You. And I'm here at Your service tonight, to...
There is a man here that can turn on the light
63-1229M §16
...ht. But now, so that I can get the tapes now, and they can get ready to turn them on, I want to start reading from Isaiah the 42nd chapter and the 1st to the 7th verse, and Matthew the 4th chapter, beginning, I believe, 15 and the 16th verse. Now, in the 42nd chapter of Isaiah we're going to read. Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, or lift up, or cause his voice to be heard in the s...
Revelation, Chapter 4b Twenty-Four Elders
61-0101 §126
The white robes that was on the elders is the righteousness of the saints. The white means "righteousness." And because they were robed, showed they were priests, or judges. White-robed priests, judges, prophets, so forth, see, what they were. They were white-robed, the twenty and four elders. There will be twenty and four elders. There'll be twelve of them for the twelve tribes of Israel; the twelve apostles for the church. And they sit in the courts of the great King. Remember, they're sitting out there, these ar...