God's Righteousness, Not Our Own
One of the parts of the Sermon on the Mount that might catch you off guard as you read it is Matthew 5:20 - “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”
Our righteousness must be BETTER than that of even the religious teachers and leaders? The ones who trained their whole lives to try to be perfect?
Uh oh. If those guys weren't good enough to get into Heaven, what hope is there for us?
Only one: Jesus Himself.
Jesus' point is not that we have to be good enough for Heaven. It's that we can't be good enough for Heaven. The only hope we have is accepting the forgiveness that Jesus died to give us. When we do that, we stand on HIS righteousness and perfection, not our own.
That's the hope of the Gospel. Live in that freedom today, and let it drive you to deeper gratitude and love for him!