Jesus made a shocking statement that would have stopped His listeners in their tracks: “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). To the people listening, this sounded impossible. The Pharisees were the most religious people they knew – disciplined, knowledgeable, committed, and serious about obedience. How could anyone be more righteous than them?

Why Did Jesus Say Our Righteousness Must Surpass the Pharisees?

The Pharisees looked righteous on the outside. They followed rules, knew the law, and appeared to be model religious people. But Jesus saw something different. He wasn’t talking about an outside-in righteousness – He was pointing to something much deeper. Jesus exposed the real problem with the Pharisees’ approach: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:27-28).

What’s Wrong with External Righteousness?

The Pharisees’ issue wasn’t effort – it was focus. Their hearts weren’t aligned with God. They were doing the right things on the outside, but inside they were spiritually dead. Their righteousness was:

• Visible and measurable
• Outward-focused
• Disconnected from the heart
• Like a mask or facade

Something can look perfect on the outside while being completely wrong on the inside. Jesus used the analogy of whitewashed tombs – clean and beautiful on the outside, but full of death within.

What Is Kingdom Righteousness?

Kingdom righteousness flows from the inside out. It’s not about behavior management or trying harder to follow rules. It’s about heart transformation. God promises this kind of change: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

It Starts with Repentance

True righteousness begins with repentance – not just confessing sins, but acknowledging that God’s way is the only way that gives life. Repentance means saying “God, my way isn’t the right way. Your way is the way life should be.” Without this heart change, we end up wanting to serve God in an advisory role – doing good things while maintaining control, consulting with God when we need something rather than truly following Him.

How Do We Receive This Righteousness?

The good news is that Jesus provides what we cannot manufacture on our own. His righteousness becomes ours through grace: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This righteousness is:

• Not earned, but received
• A gift given freely by God
• Available through relationship with Jesus
• The foundation for true transformation

Abiding vs. Striving

Jesus calls us to stop striving and start abiding. Transformation doesn’t come from pressure – it comes from relationship. Formation happens through staying close to Jesus, aligning our hearts with His, and allowing Him to shape us from the inside out.

Two Types of Righteousness

Jesus immediately follows this teaching by saying, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1). There are two kinds of righteousness:

• External righteousness – performed to be seen by people
• Internal righteousness – formed before the Father

Jesus invites us into the inside-out righteousness where true kingdom influence flows from.

Life Application

This week, move beyond asking “Am I doing the right things?” and ask the deeper question: “Is my heart aligned with God?” When our hearts are aligned with Him, we naturally do what we’re supposed to do without needing a checklist.

Let God deal with the inside areas of your life. Be honest with Him about the places where no one else sees. Invite Him to bring life to the dead areas – He specializes in bringing life out of tombs.

Stop trying to outperform others religiously and start focusing on heart transformation. World transformation happens after heart transformation. You were created to transform the world around you, and it all starts with aligning your heart with Jesus.

Questions for reflection:

• Are you trying to serve God while maintaining control, or are you truly following His lead?
• What areas of your life look good on the outside but need God’s transforming work on the inside?
• How can you move from striving to please God to simply abiding with Him this week?

Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.

In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus makes a profound statement that addresses a question many people have wondered about: Did Jesus come to throw out everything that came before Him? The answer is both surprising and transformative.

What Does It Mean That Jesus Fulfills the Law?

When Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17), He’s addressing something much bigger than just the Ten Commandments. Jesus is referring to what people of His time knew as the Torah – the first five books of the Bible – along with the prophets and other parts of the Old Testament. This includes everything from the creation story in Genesis to the sacrificial system, the entire narrative of how God was forming a people for Himself. The law was never meant to be the end goal. It was always pointing somewhere – pointing to Jesus. Like a rocket booster that’s necessary to get a spacecraft through Earth’s atmosphere but then falls away once its purpose is served, the law served its vital purpose of keeping God’s people in relationship with Him until Jesus came.

Why Was the Law Important?

The law was a good thing – a really good thing. It was there for God’s chosen people to be set apart from the world around them. It was God’s way of keeping them in relationship with Him before Jesus came on the scene. But here’s the key: God’s desire was never just external obedience. He wasn’t simply giving us a checklist to follow whether we liked it or not. The law and the prophets were always about changing hearts and bringing about internal transformation.

What Has God Always Wanted?

Throughout the Old Testament, we see glimpses of God’s ultimate plan. In Jeremiah 31:33, God promises: “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” In Ezekiel 36:26-27, we read: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” God’s plan was always about heart transformation, not just rule-following. He wanted to write His law on our hearts and give us new hearts altogether.

How Does Real Transformation Happen?

Formation happens through relationship, not through rule-following. Jesus illustrates this beautifully in John 15:4-5: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” The most important things in life aren’t learned through lists of instructions – they’re formed in us through relationships. We’re shaped by the people we’re around. Think about how you’ve picked up mannerisms from family members or how someone’s love has changed you from the inside out.

What Does This Mean for Mothers?

This principle is beautifully illustrated in the way mothers shape their children. It’s not through giving endless rules, but through consistent presence, care, and love. The quiet ways mothers help form hearts – often in ways that may never be fully seen this side of eternity – demonstrate how transformation really works. When someone walks with you, loves you, and models something for you, it begins to shape you from the inside out. This is exactly what Jesus does for us.

What’s the Difference Between Rules and Relationship?

You can tell someone what to do, but that doesn’t mean it becomes part of who they are. However, when someone walks with you and loves you, it shapes you from the inside out. Jesus isn’t about behavior management – He’s about heart transformation. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 promises: “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” It’s not about trying harder; it’s about staying connected to Jesus. As we walk with Him, He shapes us from the inside out.

What Happens When We Miss This Message?

If we reduce the Christian life to just following rules, we’ll try to manage appearances and look right on the outside while our hearts remain unchanged on the inside. We’ll miss the deeper transformation Jesus offers. Knowing Jesus is step one to fixing our lives. Everything starts with loving Him and knowing Him. He begins the work in us as we walk with Him.

Life Application

This week, challenge yourself to move beyond rule-following to relationship-building with Jesus. Don’t reduce your life with God to just rules – press into relationship with Him. Pay attention to what’s shaping you and who you’re allowing to influence your heart. Take one intentional step closer to Jesus this week. If you’re already doing devotional time, add a minute to it. If you’re not, start something small. Make a step closer to Him, and He will draw closer to you.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I trying to follow rules, or am I pursuing a relationship with Jesus?
• What or who is currently shaping my heart and character?
• How can I intentionally draw closer to Jesus this week?
• Am I allowing Jesus to transform me from the inside out, or am I just trying to manage my external behavior?

Remember: Jesus didn’t come to make you better at following rules. He came to make you new. He came to form something in you, to shape your heart, and to align your life with the Father. This is the beautiful reality of what it means to follow Jesus – it’s about becoming a new creation through relationship with Him.

Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.