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.
The stature of a perfect man
62-1014M §116
...genuine temperance, then genuine patience. See, you're moving right on up the line. All right, fifthly, add godliness. Oh, my. Godliness to be added. What does "godliness" mean? I looked in four or five dictionaries and couldn't even find what it meant. Finally, I was down at Brother Jefferies there. We found it in a dictionary. "Godliness" means "to be like God." Oh, my. After you've got faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, then be like God. Whew! You say, "I can't do that, Brother Branham." Oh, yes, y...
Thy House
61-0808 §30
...the very thing that God told him to do (the only thing it was to be righteous was to offer a burnt offering) that was righteous and He saved Job and his house, then what is righteousness before God? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou and thy house shall be saved." So if I'm believing for my house and you're believing for your house, by believing that, that we trust God, God imputes our own faith like He did Abraham, or Job, or any of them for righteousness, you see. So it's allotted to us for righteousness...
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 1
57-0925 §15
...ey're saved. See, it can't be. Now if you'll watch, the question asked itself ... answers itself, see. And these... Now watch, I will get before here: ...and they... In the 20th ... 44th verse: ...and they also answered, said unto Him, Lord, when saw we thee hungered, when with thirst, and a stranger, and naked, ... and in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Insomuch as ye did it ... unto one of the least of these, you did it ... unto me. And these shall...
He that is in you
63-1110E §38
Now, in the book of St. Mark, the 11th chapter; I John 4:4; and in Matthew 28:20, I wish to read. Now, first, I wish to read from St. Mark, the 11th chapter and the 12th verse to the 24th. Listen real close now as we read. And now this is going to back up for a little testimony and a few words of exhortation, and then we'll see what the Lord will have us to do. Everybody just remain seated, and be prayerful now as we read. Mark 11:12: And on the morrow, when they ... came from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a f...
The sign of this time
63-1113 §19
...a little portion of Scripture, tonight, and many of you might want to read along with me. If you wish to, why, you certainly can. And now we want to turn to the Book of St. Matthew, the 12th chapter, if you would like to read with me as I read. In the 38th verse, of St. Matthew the 12th chapter. And I want to announce now what the subject I want to speak on is: "The Sign Of This Time." This is a little familiar text, and I just speak this because I've been praying. And I don't like to get off on hard preaching and...