Grace for your spirit
For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20
I once heard an elder in the church say that this verse was very frightening to him. He thought the Pharisees were so righteous that we would never be able to be as good as them. The Pharisees lived in a self-righteous state, following the rules they had written for themselves. The said they were righteous, but Jesus called them hypocrites. When we are ‘in Christ”, we have the righteousness that comes from God. The first day we are filled with Christ’s righteousness, we have already surpassed the righteousness of those under the Law. Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest man born of women, but the least in the kingdom is greater than he. Rest easy; entrance into the kingdom is not a race with the scribes and Pharisees.
Philippians 4:23
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