Righteousness That Exceeds the Scribes and Pharisees
Short answer: In Matthew 5:20, Jesus says, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." The scribes and Pharisees were not notoriously wicked people; they were known for rigorous devotion to the law. So the demand is startling. Jesus is not asking for a slightly better score on the same exam. He is exposing a righteousness that is only external and self-produced, and he is calling for a righteousness of the heart that comes from God. That perfect righteousness is found in Christ himself, received by faith, and then worked out in a life transformed by grace.
Who Were the Scribes and Pharisees?
The scribes were the professional interpreters and teachers of the Jewish law. They copied the Scriptures, studied them closely, and applied them to daily life. The Pharisees were a renewal movement within Judaism that took the law with great seriousness, tithing carefully, fasting regularly, and separating themselves from what they regarded as defilement. When Jesus says your righteousness must exceed theirs, his hearers would have felt the weight of it. These were the most morally serious people in the room, the ones others looked up to as examples.
It would have been easy for an ordinary Israelite to assume that the standard of acceptance with God was somewhere below the Pharisee and above the tax collector. Jesus flips that expectation. He does not say, become a little more devout than the average person. He names the most devout group and says that even their level is not enough. That should stop us in our tracks. If the people who memorized Scripture, fasted twice a week, and tithed down to the herbs were not measuring up, then something is fundamentally wrong with the whole approach of measuring by external performance.
Notice that Jesus does not tell his disciples to stop obeying the law. He says later in the same passage that not one smallest letter will pass from the law until all is accomplished (Matthew 5:18). The problem is not the law itself. The problem is a righteousness that stops at the outside, that manages behavior without addressing the heart. Pharisees could look clean while remaining inwardly unchanged, and Jesus saw it clearly.
Throughout Matthew 23, Jesus pronounces woes on the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites and whitewashed tombs. But those woes come after the Sermon on the Mount, years into his ministry. In Matthew 5 he is still teaching, still inviting, still explaining the standard of his kingdom. Yet the diagnosis is already present: external conformity is not the same as true righteousness, and God sees both.
What Jesus Means by Exceeding
The Greek word behind "exceed" carries the sense of overflowing, of abundance beyond what is expected. It is not a matter of doing a few more good deeds than the Pharisee next door. It is a different kind of righteousness altogether, one that goes deeper than rules and reaches the inner person. In the verses that follow, Jesus illustrates this repeatedly. Anger in the heart is treated as seriously as murder. Lustful looking is treated as seriously as adultery. Oaths are replaced with simple truthfulness. The standard is not relaxed; it is intensified to the level of the heart.
This means the surpassing righteousness is not achievable by accumulating religious credit. It is a righteousness of a different order. The Pharisees and scribes were measured by what people could see. Jesus measures by what God sees: motive, desire, the hidden life. No amount of external compliance can produce that kind of cleanness, because the problem is not just what we do but what we are.
Jesus himself embodies this righteousness. He fulfills the law not by loosening it but by living it completely, down to its deepest intention. Matthew 5:17 says, "Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill." His life, death, and resurrection provide what we cannot produce. So when he demands a righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees, he is not only giving a command; he is pointing to himself as the source of what he commands.
This is the consistent pattern of the New Testament. Paul, himself a former Pharisee, says in Philippians 3:9 that he wants to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of his own, but one through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Paul knew the Pharisee's righteousness from the inside. He counted it as loss compared to knowing Christ.
The Pharisee's Righteousness Was Real But Insufficient
It would be a mistake to caricature the Pharisees as cartoon villains. Many of them were sincere, disciplined, and morally serious. Paul describes his own former life in Philippians 3:5-6, saying he was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. By the standards of his community, he was exemplary.
Yet he came to see that this was not enough. His testimony in Philippians 3:7-8 is that whatever things were gain to him, he counted as loss for Christ, and even more, he counted all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. He had not been a hypocrite in the ordinary sense; he had been genuinely devoted. But his devotion was self-oriented and self-produced, and it could not stand before a holy God.
This is a warning to anyone who grew up in the church, who keeps the rules, who is known as a good person. The temptation is to assume that moral effort equals acceptance with God. The Pharisees are a standing reminder that this is not so. They were not rejected for their zeal but for their confidence in it. Their righteousness was real, but it was still theirs, not God's gift.
The same is true today. Bible reading, church attendance, generous giving, and careful living are good things. But if they become the basis of our standing before God, they become a false refuge. The surpassing righteousness is not our own, and that is precisely the point.
Where the Exceeding Righteousness Comes From
The only righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees is the righteousness of Christ. He is the one who perfectly fulfilled the law, who loved God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, who never sinned in thought, word, or deed. That perfect record is credited to everyone who trusts in him. Paul puts it this way in Romans 3:22, that the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. There is no distinction, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
This is not a righteousness we achieve; it is a righteousness we receive. It is given freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood (Romans 3:24-25). The demand of Matthew 5:20 is met not by our climbing higher but by Christ's descending to us and giving us what we lack.
Once we receive this gift, we are not left unchanged. The Spirit of God begins to produce in us the very righteousness the law describes, not as a means of earning acceptance but as the fruit of having been accepted. Good works flow from union with Christ, not toward it. This is why the Sermon on the Mount is not a ladder to climb but a mirror to see our need, and then a portrait of the life the Spirit produces in those who have been made new.
So the command to exceed the scribes and Pharisees is simultaneously an impossibly high standard and an invitation. It drives us to despair of our own performance and to cast ourselves on Christ, in whom we are made the righteousness of God. That is good news for the morally serious and for the morally broken alike.
Paul's Teaching on Israel and Righteousness
Paul's argument in Romans 9-11 flows directly out of this theme. In Romans 10:1-4, he says his heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. He bears them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The phrase "Christ is the end of the law" does not mean the moral law is abolished or irrelevant. It means that Christ is the goal toward which the law was always pointing, and that the law's demand for perfect righteousness is fulfilled in him for everyone who believes. Israel's mistake was not lack of zeal; it was misplaced confidence. They pursued a law of righteousness but did not attain it because they pursued it by works rather than by faith.
This is the same error Jesus exposes in Matthew 5. The scribes and Pharisees were zealous, but their zeal was directed at establishing their own righteousness. To this day, the temptation is the same. People want to contribute something, to have a stake in their standing. But the gospel does not allow that. It is grace from first to last, and that is why it is called good news.
Romans 3:20 says that by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The law's function is to show us our need, not to save us. When we understand that, we stop trying to climb and start trusting the one who descended.
How This Shapes Daily Life
If the exceeding righteousness is a gift, how does that change the way we live? First, it humbles us. We stop looking down on others who seem less religious or less moral, because we know that we stand only by grace. The distance between the Pharisee and the tax collector is smaller than any of us would like to admit. Both need mercy.
Second, it frees us from the tyranny of performance. If our acceptance does not depend on our track record, we can serve God without fear. We can confess sin honestly instead of hiding it, because our standing is secure in Christ. We can work hard at obedience without being crushed by failure, because we are not working to be accepted but from acceptance.
Third, it produces real heart obedience. Jesus does not lower the bar; he raises it to the level of the heart and then gives us his Spirit to transform us from within. Over time, the fruit appears: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Not perfectly, not overnight, but genuinely. That is the righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees, not because we are better, but because we have been made new.
Living this way means daily repentance and daily faith. We confess that we still fall short, and we rest in the one who never did. We pursue holiness not to earn anything but because we belong to a holy God. And we look forward to the day when we will be like him, fully and finally conformed to his image.
Common Misunderstandings
One misunderstanding is that Jesus is calling for a new, harder set of rules, a stricter legalism. On this reading, the scribes had the bar too low, and Jesus raises it so we can try harder. But that misses the point entirely. A higher bar does not help a person who is already drowning. The problem is not the height of the bar; it is our inability to reach any bar at all. Jesus is not offering a better ladder; he is offering himself.
Another misunderstanding is that obedience no longer matters because we are saved by grace. Paul addresses this directly. If grace abounds because of sin, should we sin more? Absolutely not. The grace that saves us also teaches us to renounce ungodliness and live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. The gospel produces holiness, not license.
Still another error is to divide the Sermon on the Mount into a part that is for us and a part that is not, treating some commands as impossible ideals we can ignore. But Jesus gave these words to his disciples. They are not optional suggestions, and they are not only for a future age. They describe the life of the kingdom, and they are fulfilled in us imperfectly now and perfectly in the world to come.
Finally, some read the surpassing righteousness as entirely future, something we will possess only in heaven. But the New Testament speaks of it as a present reality and a present pursuit. We have been made righteous in Christ, and we are being made righteous by the Spirit. Both are true, and both matter.
Biblical fidelity check
Matthew 5:20 establishes a clear standard: a righteousness that is qualitatively greater than the external, self-produced righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is necessary for entering the kingdom. The passage does not teach that the law is abolished or that obedience is optional. It does not teach that moral effort is useless, but rather that moral effort without a changed heart and without Christ falls short. It also does not teach that we are justified by our own good works; the whole context of the Sermon on the Mount drives us to see our need for a righteousness we do not have.
A common misreading is that Jesus is describing a combination of our effort plus his grace, as if we do our part and he makes up the rest. That is not the gospel. The New Testament consistently presents Christ's righteousness as a gift received by faith, not a supplement to our own. Another misreading is that Jesus is simply issuing a challenge to try harder. But that would leave us in the same hopeless position as the Pharisees, only with a higher bar. The passage points to Christ as the one who fulfills the law on our behalf and gives us his righteousness. Where Christians differ is on how the law functions in the life of the believer after conversion, and faithful believers have held various views on the role of the Old Testament law in Christian ethics.
Other passages that speak to Matthew 5:17-20
Several other passages help us understand the standard Jesus sets here. The Beatitudes describe the character of those who belong to the kingdom and show that it is the poor in spirit, not the self-righteous, who are blessed. Paul's teaching on justification explains how a sinner can be declared righteous, not by works but by faith in Christ. The letter to the Philippians contains Paul's own testimony of counting his religious credentials as loss for the sake of knowing Christ and being found in him. And Romans 9-11 wrestles with Israel's pursuit of righteousness and God's sovereign mercy. These passages together frame the doctrine of the surpassing righteousness and keep us from turning it into a new legalism. See The Beatitudes Explained: Matthew 5:1–12 Meaning, Christ the Believer’s Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption: A Bible Study from George Whitefield’s Classic Sermon, Dikaiosyne: righteousness and justice in Paul: A Biblical Guide, and God’s Sovereignty in Salvation: Mercy, Justice, and Humility Before Romans 9.
Frequently asked questions
Does Matthew 5:20 teach that we are saved by our good works?
No. Jesus is describing the kind of righteousness required for the kingdom, but he is not teaching that we produce it by our own effort. The rest of the New Testament makes clear that this righteousness is a gift received by faith. Paul says in Romans 3:22 that the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. Our good works are the fruit of salvation, not the cause of it. The command exposes our need and drives us to Christ.
What is the difference between the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees and the righteousness Jesus requires?
The difference is not primarily quantity but quality and source. The scribes and Pharisees focused on external conformity to the law, and they did it well by human standards. Jesus requires a righteousness that reaches the heart, that transforms motives and desires, and that can only come from God. Theirs was self-produced; his gift is God-produced. Theirs was measured by human observation; his is measured by God's perfect standard. One leads to pride, the other to humility and gratitude.
How can I pursue this surpassing righteousness in my daily life?
Begin by admitting you cannot produce it on your own. Trust Christ as your righteousness, and rest in his finished work. Then, out of gratitude, pursue obedience with the help of the Holy Spirit. Confess sin honestly, study Scripture, pray, and surround yourself with a community of believers who will encourage you. Growth is gradual and often uneven, but the Spirit is faithful to produce his fruit in those who belong to Christ. It is a lifelong process of becoming what you already are in him.
