[Note: This sermon continues the systematic exposition of the Lord's teaching in Matthew, delivered on 17 February 1980. Last week's sermon covered Matthew 3:13–17 with a focus on submission ("let it be so now"); this week the focus moves to the word "righteousness" in the same verse, then to Matthew 4:17.]
Today we concentrate on the word "righteousness" in Matthew 3:15. Jesus said to the Baptist: let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Not some part of righteousness, not most of righteousness, but all righteousness. What does righteousness mean in the Bible? Put simply, it has to do with right relationship — with God and with your fellow man. Righteousness is not a vague theological term; it is a very practical word that has to do with life and with the relationships that make up life. The Lord Jesus himself summed up the whole law in one sentence: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. That is the essence of righteousness — a right relationship defined in terms of love.
Now we come to Matthew 4:17: From that time, Jesus began preaching saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. After John the Baptist was arrested, the flag that fell from his hand was picked up by Jesus — and remarkably, he preached word for word the same message. Compare Matthew 3:2 (John's preaching) with Matthew 4:17 (Jesus' preaching): "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Identical. Every true preacher in the Bible — Noah, Isaiah, Amos, the apostles — preached the same message of righteousness.
What is the kingdom of heaven? Paul's definition in Romans 14:17 is: "The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Notice the order: righteousness first, then peace, then joy. These three are inseparable — without peace you do not have joy, and without righteousness you do not have peace. Without righteousness, then, you will have neither peace nor joy. A person who raises a hand at a summer conference thinking that they will immediately have peace and joy is going to be disappointed — unless righteousness has become a reality in their life, peace and joy will not be their portion. The Holy Spirit is the one who makes this righteousness a reality in the believer's life.
Righteousness is everywhere in the Old Testament. Isaiah thunders against the religious people of Israel: you do not lack religion — the trouble with you is too much religion and too little righteousness. The same diagnosis fits much of the church today: too much hymn singing, too much church attendance, too much Bible pounding and too little action. When a non-Christian says to a Christian "you behave like a hypocrite therefore I don't want to become a Christian," it is no use replying that salvation has nothing to do with behaviour but with faith. That is itself a kind of hypocrisy. The kingdom of God is righteousness — and if you do not have righteousness in your life, you do not know what the kingdom of God is about, no matter how much faith you profess.
Matthew 5:20 states: "Except your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom." That is something. The Pharisees were the most scrupulously religious people in the history of religion — fasting twice a week, praying three times a day, meticulously careful about every detail of religious conduct. Even the Apostle Paul, as a Christian, was not afraid to call himself a Pharisee. The German scholars Strack and Billerbeck, in their massive New Testament commentary drawing from the Talmud, demonstrate that the Pharisees in their doctrinal content held almost everything that Christians hold. Do not kid yourself by thinking that orthodoxy of doctrine alone will secure your salvation. James 2 warns against exactly that: the devil believes there is one God, the devil believes Jesus is the Son of God — the demons in the Gospels said to him, "you are the Son of God." Believing orthodox doctrine is not enough.
Now put Matthew 5:20 alongside John 3:5: "Except a man is born of the Spirit, he shall in no wise enter the kingdom." The second clause is identical in both verses. By simple logic, the first clauses are therefore parallel: "except your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees" is equivalent to "except you be born of the Spirit." The only way our righteousness can exceed that of the Pharisees is through being born of the Spirit. The Spirit transforms us into new people — and this is the whole essence of the Lord's teaching on salvation. It is not merely a declaration of forgiveness, nor merely a matter of faith correctly stated. The Spirit of God must come into your life and change you into a new person.
Ephesians 4:22-24 makes this plain: put off your old nature which is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. That is what the new man looks like — created in the likeness of God, in true righteousness and true holiness. Galatians 6:15 says: neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything — only a new creation. And 2 Corinthians 5:17: if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. These passages all say the same thing: salvation is about becoming a new person by the Spirit of God.
# Righteousness — Matthew 3:15 and Matthew 4:17 (Part B) — Becoming the Righteousness of God, Not Merely Having It
[Note: This is Part B of the sermon on righteousness in Matthew 3:15 and 4:17, continuing directly from Part A. Delivered 17 February 1980.]
Second Corinthians 5:21 is a critical verse: "For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin — that is, a sin offering — who knew no sin, so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God." Read that carefully. Paul does not say "so that we might have the righteousness of God" — he says "so that we might become the righteousness of God." This distinction is everything. Righteousness is not a present you receive and tuck away in your pocket, like a passport to show at heaven's gate while continuing to live in sin. Righteousness is not something you have; it is something you become. You either become the righteousness of God in Christ, or you simply do not have it.
This destroys a very common misunderstanding: the idea that Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer as a kind of legal fiction, so that God declares you righteous even though you are not actually righteous, and you can continue living your sinful life because you have righteousness as a gift. No. That is not Paul's teaching. That is not the Lord's teaching. That is not the Bible. Little wonder that so many Christians live in defeat, forever in an unending cycle of sin, begging for forgiveness each week and experiencing no real victory, finally in utter frustration giving up Christianity altogether — they were told that righteousness does not need to be a reality in their life, only a theological category.
When God makes a person a new creature, he makes a new creature — and you do not mistake it. God's workmanship is good. There is no need to apologize for being a Christian, to say "I'm sorry I behave like this — God hasn't finished with me yet, I've only been a Christian for twenty-five years." That kind of apology either suggests that God does not do very good work, or it confesses that you have not yet let him make you the new creature you should be. God's answer is the same as in Genesis: he looked at what he made and it was good. If we have not become what we should be, the fault is with us — we have not surrendered ourselves to him so that he can move us and put his Spirit within us.
Second Corinthians 6:14 offers a further insight: "Do not be mismated with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with iniquity?" This verse is commonly used to warn young Christians against marrying non-Christians. But notice what Paul's argument actually is: the Christian IS righteousness. He does not merely have righteousness — he has become the righteousness of God, as we just saw. Therefore, what partnership does righteousness have with iniquity? The border between righteousness and iniquity is not blurred or vague — it is sharp and clear. You are either light or you are not a Christian. And if you do not know the difference between righteousness and iniquity in your own life, it is precisely because righteousness has not yet become a reality in you.
The Bible itself — the whole of it — is called "the word of righteousness" in Hebrews 5:13. Anyone who does not preach righteousness does not preach the Bible; it is as simple as that. Second Timothy 3:16 says the scriptures train us in righteousness. Romans 6:18 says Christians have become slaves of righteousness — if you are not a servant of righteousness, you are not a Christian by Paul's definition. Even 2 Corinthians 11:15 notes that the servants of Satan transform themselves into servants of righteousness in order to deceive Christians — even Satan understands the message well enough to know that righteousness is essential to any credible claim.
The vision that kindled Peter's heart in 2 Peter 3:13 was a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Whenever God makes a new creation — whether spiritual in the heart of a believer, or physical at the renewal of all things — the supreme purpose is that righteousness dwells there. And the righteous one in whose likeness we are being made is described in 1 John 2:1 as Jesus Christ the righteous — he is righteousness itself, and we as new people become like him.
When you go and explain to another person how to become a Christian, do not get tangled up in formulas and stop short of the core. Salvation is about a transformed person — a new creation by God's power — who becomes the living expression of God's righteousness in the world. Not because we are better than anyone else, not because we are good in ourselves, but because he made us that way. We have nothing to boast about. If we are righteous, it is because God made us righteous by the Spirit he has given. That is wonderful Christianity — not a constant apology for failure, but an experience of God's grace genuinely transforming us into new creatures. Let us be quiet before God in prayer.