<p>5:20&nbsp;<em>For I say to you, that unless your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no way enter into the kingdom of heaven-&nbsp;</em>The Lord asks us to&nbsp;<em>exceed</em>&nbsp;the &ldquo;righteousness&rdquo; of the Pharisees (Mt. 5:20). By &ldquo;righteousness&rdquo; he refers to their charity, for which they were well known. In addition to tithing ten percent of absolutely everything, they gave a fifth of their income to charity such as widows, orphans, newly-wedded couples etc. In addition they made anonymous gifts in a &ldquo;quiet room&rdquo; of the Temple. How does our giving compare to that? And the Lord challenges us that unless we&nbsp;<em>exceed</em>&nbsp;that, &ldquo;ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven&rdquo;. Radical, challenging words- that are hard to re-interpret or get around. And yet surely the answer is that super-abounding (AV 'exceeding') righteousness is only attainable by being justified / counted righteous in Christ. The Lord's challenging statement was surely in order to lead us to the same conclusions reached in Romans 1-8 about being counted righteous when we have no righteousness of our own. For to super-abundantly exceed the technical, points-scoring righteousness of the Pharisees was well-nigh impossible.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>'</em>Entering the Kingdom' is a very common idea in the Lord's teaching. But He understood people to be 'entering' the Kingdom right now (&quot;them that are entering&quot;, Mt. 23:13). In the same way as judgment is ongoing now, so is condemnation and entry into the Kingdom.</p>