Crosswalk.com - Matthew 5:19 - 20

"Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven"
Which commandemnts? Most probable is the ones just talked about: the Law of Moses etc. Another possibility is the ones Jesus is about to give in the rest of the teaching but I reckon the first is the better sense. It tightens the screw of the difficulty we looked at yesterdy still further. It seems to be saying that Jesus' followers should be observing the 613 laws of Torah; or at least it applies to Jewish followers of Christ. There is evidence even within the NT that many Jewish followers of Chirst were zealous for the Law of Moses. However, Paul seems to have theologically disagreed with that and to have been prepared not to observe the 613 Laws in order to win gentiles. So is Paul least in the Kingdom of God? Are we? And remember, unless you as a Christian are having a basically kosher diet, resting on Saturday and so on you are not keeping the commandments. Certainly some muslims would look at what I've just written and see it as evidence that Christians have distorted the word of God that the prophet Isa [Jesus] came to bring.

Perhaps part of the resolving of this issue comes in the words about righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. If anyone kept the Law it was them; they were most careful about it and they are the benchmark of Law-keeping. And yet clearly they didn't measure up; so what chance have we got? How can our righteousness exceed theirs? Even Paul said that his time as a Law-observer was faultless, and yet he didn't make it into the Kingdom of God on that basis.

And we should note that if we don't exceed pharisaic righteousness we are even worse off than the least in the Kingdom -we may not even enter it. Better to be the tax-collector who says "Be merciful to me God, a sinner" and be the least in the Kingdom, than as righteous as the pharisee who sees the other's faults and yet doesn't go away from his prayer time right with God. We can, surely, only exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees by having Christ's; by seeking not our own righteousness but God's mercy. Christ fulfills the Law, all of it. In him the Law is accomplished and reaches its purpose. His fulfililng of it is shared with those of us who are in him. That's what Paul realised as he reflected on the experience of not finding peace with God through the Law and reflecting on the meaning of Christ as the Holy Spirit led him and the Christian community into an ever fuller understanding of the implications of who Christ was and what he did. What we could not do Christ does and shares with us as we become alive to God in him our task then is not to seek to get right with God by being good but to get good by being right with God and consistently living in Christ in every dimension and aspect of our lives. To become who we are in Christ.
Crosswalk.com - Matthew 5:19 - 20: