Jesus said our righteousness is to surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees (Mt. 5:20). What is righteousness and why did he choose them as comparison. Righteousness is the territory of being right with God. He selected such a group as they represented the elite of getting religious concepts done correctly. Ours is to be better than theirs. This is a tough hill to climb.
He later said that we were to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33). Why? We must seek His righteousness as His is the only one which will surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. In their minds they were right on every topic. His “rightness” is superior. S & P rightness is man-made and failing.
The only way one can truly get right according to the Bible is to seek and eventually possess the rightness which pleases God; His own. II Corinthians 5:21 is clear that God made Jesus wrong on the cross that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus traded us places. We are not right with God except on the basis of how wrong Jesus became. Because he was willing to become every wrong of ours, we become every right of his; God’s righteousness is now ours!
This poses a big problem for the Churches of Christ and any other religious group who pride themselves in doing everything according to God. We have mistakenly prided ourselves in doing church right. Why is it a mistake? We can't see ourselves; we can't see where we get things wrong. We’ve taught right, worshipped right, and saved right. It’s a tough pill to swallow to admit we do a few things right; just as other religious people. Until we confess Jesus is our only and complete righteousness we are hung out to dry with S & P rightness; and such just won’t cut it. If we are going to go by the Bible (which is a right call) we are necessarily led to accept the fact our doing church right will not reach the standard God desires. We must surrender our pride by humbling ourselves and calling upon Him to make us His. That rightness will be the standard of righteousness God insists upon.
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