Righteous Rags

Righteous Rags

“…all our righteousness is like filthy rags…” ( Isa.64:6)

The Sermon on the Mount brought all this to an end.  Christ effectively blocked every detour and brought men back to the standards of God’s holiness…Christ demonstrated that defilement lay in the heart.  Now He uttered the words that brought these men under God’s light and also under the gaze of the people: "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.  For I say unto you,"—and this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 5:19-20).

These men were the finest in the community beyond any shadow of a doubt.  They had dominated society and established their standards of morality.  They held to these standards so firmly that they were beyond human reproach.  It took the Son of God to pierce the barriers within which they had entrenched themselves.  They gained distinction and praise by their observance of the external rights of their religion, and were very proud of their good works.  They were marked by their great orthodoxy, which was a slavish faithfulness to their code rather than to God’s.  If we could draw any kind of analogy in our civilization it would have to be with the leaders in all professions.  The Pharisees would have included in their ranks the leading members of the bench and bar.  The most honored among the bankers, the greatest professors, the most renowned philosophers, the best among the moralists and ethical leaders — all these would have been counted among the Pharisees.

So when the Lord Jesus turned to the crowd and said, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees," He was saying, "Except you shall have a code and an accomplishment better than anything the best of earth have produced, you shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven."  This is Christ’s verdict about the possibility of salvation through human accomplishment - our righteousness must exceed any righteousness that can be measured by man.  The best that man can do can take him to Hell but it can never take him to Heaven.  Heaven is too holy to be entered on any such basis of man’s works.

Dr. Barnhouse’s warning should preached among “the righteous” clothed in their filthy rags.  It should be lived by those clothes in Christ’s righteousness for all to see.

Further Reading: Isaiah 64:1-12