“I say to you,” Jesus said, “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

It’s easy to soften the force of this. Don’t. Jesus is not talking about His own personal righteousness imputed to us. He’s not talking about a righteous status granted to us. He’s talking about how you live and act in the day to day demands and relationships of life.

He’s talking about the way you respond to insults, and how you look at women, and how you treat your enemies, and how you pray and give offerings, and the way you use your money. If you want to enter the kingdom, then you have to be more righteous in all these things than the scribes and Pharisees.

Paul, the preacher of righteousness by faith, agrees. “Do you not know,” Paul asks, “that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” It’s not a rhetorical question. Paul adds, “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”

This is not works righteousness. We live righteously only by the power of the Spirit. Like everything else, this righteousness is a gift. Still, this gift has to show up in the way we live.

If you want to inherit the kingdom of heaven, to be with Jesus forever, to enjoy the blessings of the presence of God, there is only one way: Your righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.