Jesus told us that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not make it into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20). The scribes were the ones who were charged with writing things down, like the Law. The Pharisees were the “spiritual elite” in the days of Jesus, at least in their own eyes. So, how is our righteousness supposed to surpass the righteousness of those whose sole responsibility was to write the Law and those who lived their lives by it?
The answer is that though they knew the letter of the Law, they did not know the spirit of the Law. John and Jesus both call them a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7; 12:34; 23:33). In Matthew 23, Jesus really let those people have it. Seven times they were called hypocrites. They were called fools and blind men (19) and whitewashed tombs (27). A good summary can be found in verses 23-24. The scribes and Pharisees were supposed to be so holy and so righteous, yet they neglected the weightier matters of the Law. They taught that some aspects of the law were more important than others, and that the less important aspects were not necessary to observe. The way our righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees is that we teach the whole purpose of God (Acts 20:27).
