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.
Ask a Follow-up Question
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.
It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness
61-1001M §34
...d him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou unto me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. And he suffered him. I would like to take the text from that word there in the fifteenth verse. ... Suffer it to be so now: for thus it is becoming to us to fulfil all righteousness.
Questions and Answers
62-0527 §68
Watch! "For..." Listen now, this is Jesus' own words: For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before my face, and he shall prepare the way before thee. Now watch Malachi 3: Behold, I ... send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: [Malachi 3, not Malachi 4 Now watch Malachi 4: For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubbles: ... the day cometh that shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, ... i...
Investments
63-0126 §13
Now I want to read this morning from St. Matthew's gospel, the 19th chapter beginning with the 16th verse, for just a little text to draw from here, if the Holy Spirit will, a context. And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life? [I mean, have eternal life. I want to stop just a moment.] What good thing could I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou w...
Let your light so shine before men
61-0903 §31
I would like to begin from the fifth chapter at the twelfth verse. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted ... the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thence-forth good for nothing, but to be cast out ... to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but...
A Greater than Solomon is here
61-0515 §49
Over in the book of St. Matthew's gospel, the twelfth chapter and the forty-second verse, just for a little context. I'm ashamed to keep you here this long, but I know I've only got one more night. And I just wish we had a long time. I've never gotten to preach to you yet. I usually just get on a little testimonies because, then I don't get off on... Preaching, you're anointed this way; discernment is this way, see. And you shake yourself, one from the other. So just to talk to you a little while, I want to read a...