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.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 7:E-82
...here is another point to see here. In the great White Throne judgment there will be a separation of people. The Book of Life will be opened and another book will be opened. Matthew 25:31-46, "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: And before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats o...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 7:E-61
"For they are worthy." Do you realize Who is saying this? It is Jesus, the Worthy One, Himself. This is the only One Who is accounted worthy to take the book out of the hand of Him Who sits upon the throne. And now this Worthy One is saying to His saints, "You are worthy." Here is this One, the only One qualified to judge, (and indeed all judgment is committed unto Him,) and He says, "You are worthy." These words are as astounding as are the words in Romans 8:33b, "God says I am righteous." (Way Translation.) There...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-65
...bble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts." There it is again. The SUN shining out in all its strength. Oh, the strength of the Son of Go...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-65
...grace, apart from works, true salvation will bring forth works, or deeds that will please God. I John 3:7, "Little children, let no man deceive you; he that DOETH (worketh) righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous." If this verse means anything at all, it means that what a man DOES he IS. James 3:11, "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" Romans 6:2, "How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?" Matthew 12:33-35 "Either make the tree good and his fruit good;...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-24
In order to further clarify our presentation of this last day prophet, let us particularly note that the prophet of Matthew 11:12, was John the Baptist, who was the one foretold in Malachi 3:1, "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, Whom ye delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts." Matthew 11:1-12, "And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding His...