Jesus is a pretty straight forward guy isn't He? On first glance, it would appear that the bar has been raised higher than we can reach. That would be correct. Jesus knows just what He said, and He wants to get the crowd (and you) thinking. Righteousness, for many, is obtained from following the rules and living as closely to the Law as possible. The Pharisees in particular, based their entire lives on being perfect in obedience to the law. Their hope was this: if I obey everything in the Scriptures, God will count me righteousness enough to enter Heaven.
Pharisees (both today and 2000 years ago), Jesus has news for you. You can't do it. Christ intentionally made a point that the righteousness you had was not enough to gain entrance to the Kingdom. You could waste your entire life trying to earn, but trust Jesus when He says that it's beyond your reach. Paul echoes this in Romans 3:10-11 as he writes "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God."
That realization must be reached to move forward. The painful truth is that many of us are still caught up in trying to earn holiness. We struggle with laziness - so we ask Jesus to take it away as we lay on the couch watching tv. We have can't seem to stop spending our money on wasteful things, and we promise that we will stop - after we purchase this one last item. But we buy and buy and buy. We know God sees how ugly we are, so we try and clean ourselves up before we come to him.
The mind then begins to wonder, declaring, "There must be another way." That's what Jesus was hinting at. Christ took the religious system of the day and flipped it on its head. He does the same today. The church, quite often is left open-mouthed and confused. No longer can institutions created by man facilitate the growth of righteousness. Instead mankind is left with nothing to make itself worthy.
That's what makes grace scandalous. You see, everything about the word grace is unfair. We receive the righteousness for free without earning it. Jesus faces death so that we can obtain the gift of Heaven that is beyond our reach. You see Jesus not only raised the bar. He also lifts those who seek Him up to it.
This is not a call to rejoice in our worthiness. This is a time to marvel in our worthlessness. Open your eyes. Look at God through the lenses of grace. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God"
For the Righteous One,
-matt
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