Here in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus lays out the requirement to be able to enter into heaven. In Mark 5, He says:
"Unless you are more righteous than the Pharisees, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
The same verse as translated in the Message: "Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won't know the first thing about entering the kingdom."
Right living and right standing before a Holy God, how can I accomplish that? I can never do it on my own. It is only when God sees me, standing before Him, covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, that I am able to enter. When God sees me in that way, He actually sees Christ, the One who took all my sins, past present and future, with Him to the cross and paid the price to take them away from me.
The Pharisees obeyed all the law, at least the letter of that Old Testament law, even down to the tithing of the mint leaves that the people brought to them for their own use, but their hearts were not right.
Where is my heart today? If I had to depend on what I could, or would do, I would be in trouble. I know my heart. I will never be perfect, and that is what God requires. There is no one righteous, or perfect, no not one.
Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift, Grace is mine when I accepted it.
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