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Except Your Righteousness Exceed
by Joseph
Chambers
The Son of
God made one of the strongest proclamations of His life using the title of this
article. It is downright awesome to realize the plain truth of the Lord’s
words. Let me give you three verses that put this title in the proper
context. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I
am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,
till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the
kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19).
Already in
Matthew’s day, shortly after the death and resurrection of the Son of God, men
were trying to water down righteousness and to attack holiness as the Biblical
walk of faith. A very sharp and critical name was given to the heretics of
the faith. They were called antinomics, which means “no law.” We
have a multitude of men and women today that follow the same mindset. They
teach grace without responsibility and holiness without
righteousness. It is one of the church’s present day
pitfalls. Unregenerate people or backsliders love these
doctrines.
Jesus
Christ’s words forever destroy the possibility of born again saints disobeying
the laws and commandments of God. Jesus Christ was the “Word” before He
was born of woman, and the First Testament is the revelation of that Word.
The basic Ten Commandments and the clear principles of His laws are just as real
and even more complete in the Second Testament as in the First Testament.
Notice that Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law (five books
of the Torah) or the prophets (the major and minor prophets of the First
Testament), I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill (complete).” (Matthew
5:17). The Son of man came to put the final touch on His revelation.
He was the Jehovah-Jireh of the first division of His Word and came in flesh to
finish and complete the whole of His Word. When you throw the First
Testament out, you have a corrupted and defiled Holy of Holies with the great
vail of woven tapestry removed. Holiness is non-existent in any redemptive
plan that has destroyed the commandments of God.
The whole of
the Word (Genesis to Revelation) will never pass away. “Heaven and earth
shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” (Luke 21:33).
Every one of us will be judged by the words of Holy Scripture on that awesome
judgment day. Jesus really laid this on the line with the second verse of
our present text. Let’s look again. “For verily (to emphasize) I say
unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle (the two smaller
marks of the Greek alphabet) shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:18). Do what you want to with the Ten
Commandments and all the principles of the Laws of God, but they stand unmoved
and shall judge you in the last days. No wonder Apostle Paul said,
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews
10:31).
Except Your Righteousness
Shall Exceed
On the
foundation of those first two verses that we have considered, the Lord Jesus
established the absolute fact of what the New Testament saints are required to
live. Free grace or cheap grace is utterly excluded. Jesus Christ
did not come to cast off the righteousness of His Word, but to provide the grace
to change man’s heart. He did not come to cover sin, but to destroy
sin. The First Testament standards are the very standards that Jesus and
the early church preached and lived. They simply gave them a Second
Testament of completed interpretation.
Apostle Paul
is accused by some of preaching a different gospel than Jesus Christ. This
false idea is expressed by separating the gospel of Christ as a Jewish message
and the gospel of Paul as a Gentile message. Such thinking is false and
damning. The Apostle Paul preached nothing but the gospel of Jesus Christ
and the righteousness of the completed Word. To the Hebrews, he stated the
following words from the Holy Ghost. “This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more
offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:16-18). The laws of the Lord thus
stated cannot be separated from the whole of the Word of God.
Yes, He
freed us from the ecclesiastical laws that the Jewish sacrifices required
because He became the perfect sacrifice. He also removed the commandments
of men that had become equal to God’s laws and commandments in the Pharisee
systems. He actually purified the whole of the First Testament by
fulfilling the laws of sacrifice and breaking the yoke of ceremonial
bondage. We, as the saints of the Second Covenant, have entered into a
“new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is
to say, his flesh.” (Hebrews 10:20). Does that make us “loose” from
the Ten Commandments and free to live as we please? No, a thousand times
no!
Listen as
the Holy Ghost continues to speak by the pen of the great apostle, “And having
an high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,
and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of
our faith without wavering.” (Hebrews 10:21-23).
“Having our
hearts sprinkled (the application of Christ’s sanctifying blood) from an evil
conscience” is not modern day Christianity, but it is still Biblical. The
soul of a born again believer is a picture in purity. The commandments of
God become our delight and we rejoice in the peace of a pure heart.
Worldly and sinful people love religion without holiness, but it will be wholly
inadequate when they face the awesome judgment bar.
Listen as
the Holy Ghost continues to speak. “He that despised Moses' law died without
mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose
ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and
hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him
that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord.
And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:28-31).
The Half-Brother of Our
Lord
James wrote
what is said to be the first book of the New Testament. It is an
incredible book and beautifully ties the great commandments of the First
Testament to the New Testament church. He stated in the first
chapter. “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of
naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save
your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is
like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth
himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he
was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth
therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall
be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and
bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is
vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself
unspotted from the world.” (James 1:21-27). What a message of
holiness, “Keep yourself unspotted from the world.” Surely, you say, the
early church didn’t preach that.
It gets
better. James begins to quote from God’s commandments in the Book of
Leviticus. “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to
persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For
whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of
all. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of
liberty.” (James 2:8-10,12).
This is
beautiful truth that forever destroys the loose living of this generation.
Someone may say that this letter was only to the Jews. There are two
things to remember. If it was only to the Jews, why did he write it in the
Greek language and second, it was written to the born again Jews, not to the
Orthodox Jews still outside of Christ. Apostle Paul had plainly said the
following when speaking of the New Testament church. “Where there is
neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian,
bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:11). It
is sheer folly to claim that the New Testament has a twin message. All
such thinking originates because of theological systems, not from the literal
study of Scripture.
Faith Without Works is
Dead
The Lord’s
earthly brother really landed a theological bomb with this great truth.
Apostle Paul called James an “apostle” and spoke of him as together with Cephas
(Peter) and John that they “seemed to be pillars in the church.”
(Galatians 1:9,2:9). His words therefore are weighty words and cannot be
treated lightly. He declared, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is
dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works:
shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my
works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils
also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith
without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by
works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how
faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” (James
2:17-22).
We have an
entire generation of church leaders and members that have been schooled and
taught the doctrines of lawlessness. The greatest task of a soul winner
today is to get the sinners lost so you can get them saved. It’s tough to
find a lost person because of the doctrines of cheap grace. People that
live totally outside of Holy Scripture will boldly state that they are
Christians and will be highly offended if you press the claims of the Holy Word
of God. Even the devil believes, but he certainly is not a
saint.
The Law Is Our School
Master
One of
Apostle Paul’s great lessons is found in Romans chapter seven. Conviction
of sin always precedes conversion to Christ. It is impossible to repent of
sin without a sense of guilt. The majority of our world will be lost
forever because the church world will not preach against sin. When a Holy
Ghost filled man of God begins to boldly and humbly preach the whole counsel of
God, conviction of sin rises and revival from God draws near. A thoroughly
anointed man of God proclaiming the claims of righteousness preceded every great
revival.
Listen to
the apostle. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I
had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had
said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was
dead.” (Romans 7:7-8). Sin, when identified by the Holy Spirit, not
a judgmental preacher, creates “all manner of concupiscence” (the sense of
guilt, the foreboding of one’s lost condition). This is the foundation of
a “rending of the Heavens” by the Holy Spirit that causes revival to
occur. Revival never comes until there is conviction of sin. This
conviction always first occurs in the church and then in the world. One
man prayed, “Move the church so you can move the world.”
Paul
continues, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and
good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin,
that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by
the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is
spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” (Romans 7:12-14). The
apostle said that the law is holy and spiritual. Why? Not because
God is magnifying sin, but that He might magnify His grace to forgive and
cleanse. He reveals His laws of holiness that we might see our nature of
sin.
Except Your Righteousness
Shall Exceed
That
statement sounds unfair and harsh until you discover what Jesus came into our
world to accomplish. If He were telling dark sinners that they must lift
up themselves to live more righteousness than the Pharisees, then He would be a
taskmaster, not a Savior. But, His death was already sealed in the plan of
God and Jesus Christ knew well the glory of His suffering. He came to
break the powers of sin and to create a brand new family called the
church.
Jesus Christ
was manifested to destroy the “works of the devil.” The Apostle John, whom
Jesus loved, proclaimed, “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil
sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that
he might destroy the works of the devil.” (I John 3:8)./ John used
the word “manifested” in declaring this statement because he was speaking beyond
the matter of His birth. God had sent His Son into the world by a series
of prophecies and miraculous events which made His life and death a divine
occasion. The life and death of the Son of God was a triumph over every
limitation and calamity of human life. He came out from all eternity into
our little limited world to bring an end to Satan’s schemes and plans.
The result
was redemption on the highest level possible to the human family. We were
redeemed, transformed, translated, made new creatures, filled with His Holy
Spirit; and we live and walk far above the Pharisee’s religion.
Conclusion
Apostle Paul
could not have echoed the idea of Jesus Christ better than in his second letter
to the church of God at Corinth. He penned by the Holy Ghost the
following, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things
are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).
We are new
creatures. We have been translated into a heavenly family and fellowship
and we walk no more by the world’s bondage. It is His grace in us that
accomplishes Holiness. We earn nothing by our good lives or works.
It is grace into this family and grace for each step we take. Soon, our
last step will be taken and then it will be glory forevermore.
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