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.
Questions and Answers
62-0527 §69
In other wise, the righteousness, in returning with Christ to the earth, shall tread upon the ashes. When you see these people, haughty, arrogant, despicable, snoopy, and yet claiming to be Christians, they're nothing but ashes. That's all. That's what the Scripture says. Now watch. Remember ... the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded ... him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send unto you Elijah the prophet before the coming of that great and dreadful day of the LORD:...
But it wasn't so from the beginning
61-0411 §67
And that's what the church needs. It needs a revival. And what starts this wind? What starts this a-going on, this revival? There comes a wind---who-o-o-ew---picks up all... That's what we need, is another mighty rushing wind to start a revival, to beat the trash out of the church and the unbelief! Get all the unbelief piled up on the bank, and have a real Pentecostal meeting, a real genuine meeting. Amen! That's what we need, exactly. [Tongues and interpretation are given from audience. "Yea, for I shall pour out...
Lean not unto thy own understanding
65-0120 §51
...t look for that. And then if we see the world in perversion, and the things that's in it today, carrying on the way it is, then how can we think that's right, and don't say this other's right? Because somebody... You're leaning on their understanding, and not the understanding of the Prince of life, who was that person that was there at the gate with them, at Sodom. Now we notice... We lean not to our own understanding.
Scriptural Signs of the Time
64-0410 §1
...and that's just going to be about thirty or thirty-five minutes. Shall we stand while we turn to St. Matthew 12, the 12th chapter of St. Matthew beginning with the 38th verse, while we reverently bow our hearts. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and ... no sign shall be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and...
Revelation, Chapter 4c Throne of mercy and judgement
61-0108 §154
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. What? To preach these... this. There's only one gospel; four guards. "Preach this gospel to every creature." Now, remember, He's taking in both... all four guards (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), see, "Preach the gospel to every creature." He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; ^^and^^ he that believeth not shall be damned. ^^ (See, you have to enter this baptism here.)^^ He that believeth and is baptized shall be sa...