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.
The anointed ones at the end time
65-0725M §9
In the book of St. Matthew (Pardon me. [Brother Branham clears his throat.]), twenty-fourth verse ... twenty-fourth chapter, rather, beginning with the fifteenth verse, I wish to read a portion of His Word. And when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which are in Judea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let...
What hearest thou, Elijah?
59-0412E §36
...them. You'll all see God, if you'll just get down and respect it, and listen for God's voice, and take the Scripture, and take the things of God in the light that they are meant for. God's Word is not to be criticized; it's to be believed. Someone said to me not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, Jesus said, 'Greater than this shall you do.'" Said, "Sure. Greater is 'preaching the Gospel.'" Jesus said, "These things that I do shall you also; these works that I do shall you also---the same works---only more of it."...
Church Ages, part 8: The Philadelphian Church Age
60-1210 §18
...shall follow them that believe." You know, Mark 16, His last mission to the church was, "These signs shall follow them that believe." His first commission to the church, in Matthew, the 10th chapter, was, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils: as freely as you have received, freely give." And His last message to the church was, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned, and these signs shall follo...
A Greater than Solomon is here now
64-0306 §21
Many times scripture has its common, or its compound meaning. Like in Matthew 3 it says, "that it might be fulfilled which is spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying 'out of Egypt I call my son.' " Now, if you refer that back, it's to Hosea. And he prophesied that out of Egypt He called God's son, which was Israel. Jacob was God's son, and he called him out of Egypt. That's where the reference runs you to. But also, Christ was his greater Son, and he called Him out, Israel being a type. And so, that being a type...
The Unchangeable Word of God
60-0724 §27
Let us turn tonight to two Scriptures that I've selected for the closing service. And one of them is Luke the first chapter, and the other is Matthew 24:35. Let us read, begin reading Luke in the first chapter of Luke, beginning at the twenty-sixth verse. Now, listen close as we read: And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth. To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in to her,...