Matthew 5:20

Matthew 5:20 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. You have got to be kidding! The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day had so many rules to obey that it was almost impossible to keep up with them. And here Jesus was saying that in order to go to heaven, you had to do more than that! Jesus’ statement must have seemed beyond hopeless for the disciples. But what Jesus was saying was that it is impossible for us to obey everything. Our only hope is to trust in Jesus and trust in His righteousness and not our own. When we reach the place where we realize that we can’t keep all of the rules, it is then that we realize that we need someone else to help us out. It is then that we turn to Jesus as our Savior. Years ago when I was in college, I was a lifeguard at a swimming pool. They taught us that at first, do not to jump in to save a drowning person. The person is so crazy with fear trying to get out of the water that they will climb onto you trying to get some air, and soon there will be two people who drown. To save them, we were taught to wait until they stopped struggling and then you could safely pull them out of the water and to the shore. And that is the way it is with our sinful condition. We must stop trying to be good and trust in Jesus. He was good enough for all of us. If we trust Him, He can take us to heaven. And He will!