The Frame Of The Sermon On The Mount: Fulfillment And Greater Righteousness
Not a ladder to climb, but a path of rest in the One who fulfilled all righteousness.
There are certain passages in Scripture that feel like doorways. You read them, and it is as if the Lord turns the handle on a hidden door and says, “Everything that follows must be seen through this frame.”
Matthew 5:17 through 20 is one of those doorways.
Right after Jesus blesses the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers, He pauses. Before He speaks about anger, lust, truthfulness, retaliation, or love for enemies, He gives us the frame that holds the whole Sermon together.
For many of us, this is the point where the Sermon on the Mount begins to feel heavy. “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” On the surface, that sounds like Jesus is raising the bar, tightening the standard, and telling us to climb higher.
But what if that is not what He is doing at all.
What if He is not handing us a ladder to scramble up. What if He is unveiling a Life that already dwells within those who belong to Him. What if “greater righteousness” is not something we produce, but something He expresses through the new heart He has given.
This doorway is not a call to religious strain. It is an invitation into rest.
Let us walk through it slowly.
“I Came To Fulfill, Not To Abolish”
The Frame Jesus Builds
Jesus begins:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.”
(Matthew 5:17)
That one sentence changes everything.
He is not discarding Scripture. He is not relaxing God’s righteousness. He is not loosening the grip of holiness on human life. If anything, He is showing that the standard was always deeper than external behavior.
At the same time, He is revealing that the whole story has always been about Him.
The Law and the Prophets are not a random collection of rules, heroic stories, and poetic prayers. They form a unified witness that points to Jesus. Paul says that the Law was a guardian that led us to Christ, and that Christ is “the end” or goal of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes
(Galatians 3:23–24, Romans 10:4).
Every shadow finds its substance in Him
(Colossians 2:17).
Every promise finds its “Yes” in Him
(2 Corinthians 1:20).
Every sacrifice, every priesthood, every king, every prophet, every Psalm of longing points to Him.
So when Jesus says He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, He is not only saying, “I obeyed perfectly.” He is saying, “I am the One the whole story was waiting for. I am the living answer to what the Law hinted at and what the Prophets longed for.”
The Pharisees saw the Scriptures mostly as a list of obligations. Six hundred plus commands, surrounded by traditions, surrounded again by fences, to make sure no one wandered too close to breaking them. Their sense of righteousness was largely external. It was visible, measurable, and controllable.
But Jesus is about to show that true righteousness goes much deeper than visible performance.
From External Rules To A New Heart
The Sermon on the Mount makes something clear. The issue is not simply, “Did you murder.” It is anger and contempt in the heart
(Matthew 5:21–22).
The issue is not simply, “Did you commit adultery.” It is the lustful gaze and the inner indulgence of desire
(Matthew 5:27–28).
The issue is not just keeping oaths. It is inner truthfulness
(Matthew 5:33–37).
The issue is not just loving your neighbor. It is loving your enemies
(Matthew 5:43–48).
That might sound crushing if we still imagine ourselves standing on our own, trying to keep up with a perfect standard. But Jesus has already prepared us for a different framework.
The prophets had spoken about it long before. God promised a new covenant.
“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules.”
(Ezekiel 36:26–27)
Under this new covenant, God does not simply increase the demands. He gives a new heart and His own Spirit within. The law is no longer written only on stone tablets outside of us. It is written on the heart, not as crushing pressure, but as new desire
(Jeremiah 31:31–34, 2 Corinthians 3:3).
So when Jesus talks about righteousness in the Sermon, He is not inviting the old heart to try harder. He is unveiling what the new heart looks like when His own life flows through it.
He is not raising the bar for the old self.
He is revealing the Life that alone fulfills the righteousness of God.
Fulfillment: Christ As The Embodied Righteousness
Think of how the New Testament describes Jesus.
He is the One who loves the Father with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength
(John 14:31).
He is the One who loves His neighbor perfectly, laying down His life for His friends
(John 15:13, Romans 13:10).
He is “full of grace and truth”
(John 1:14).
He moves with compassion toward the broken.
He speaks truth without compromise.
He is pure in heart, merciful, peacemaking, willing to be persecuted for righteousness.
The Beatitudes are not a random list of virtues. They are a portrait of the life of Jesus. They describe the kind of person He is, and by grace they describe the kind of life He shares with those who are united with Him.
Here is the miracle. The One who fulfilled the Law and the Prophets does not stay external to us. Colossians 1:27 says that the riches of the mystery of the gospel are summed up in this phrase: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
He does not simply stand before us and say, “Do what I did.”
He joins Himself to us and says, “I will live My life in you.”
The Sermon on the Mount, then, is not primarily a description of what we must generate from our own resources. It is a description of what Jesus expresses through those who abide in Him, those who count themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Him
(John 15:5, Romans 6:11).
He is the fulfillment, and His fulfilling life now dwells in you.
“Unless Your Righteousness Exceeds…”
Greater Righteousness Explained
Now we can hear Matthew 5:20 in a different light.
“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
On the surface, that sounds impossible. They fasted twice a week. They prayed publicly. They tithed even from their herbs. They were the religious elite.
How can anyone exceed that.
The key is to realize that Jesus is not calling us to outdo their performance. He is revealing a different kind of righteousness altogether.
Paul gives language to this in Philippians 3. He describes his own life as a Pharisee, blameless according to the law, then says he counts it all as loss in order to be found in Christ, “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith”
(Philippians 3:9).
This greater righteousness is:
Given, not earned
Romans 5:17 speaks of “the free gift of righteousness.”Received by faith, not achieved by effort
Romans 3:21–24.Internal, not merely external
Romans 2:28–29.Produced by the Spirit, not by the flesh
Philippians 2:13, Galatians 5:22–23.Expressing the life of Christ, not our old self dressed up in religious clothing
Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:3–4.
Greater righteousness is not “more of us.”
Greater righteousness is “more of Him.”
It is the righteous standing and righteous life of the risen Jesus, shared with and expressed through those who are united with Him.
New Heart, New Spirit, New Capacity
This only makes sense if we take the new birth seriously.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come.” Ephesians 4:24 speaks of putting on “the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
In your spirit, you are not simply a cleaned up version of your old self. You are new in Christ. You have been joined to the Lord as “one spirit with Him”
(1 Corinthians 6:17).
God has:
Given you a new heart
Ezekiel 36:26.Placed a new spirit within you
Ezekiel 36:26.Put His Spirit in you to cause you to walk in His ways
Ezekiel 36:27, Romans 8:9–11.
The law written on your heart is not a set of external demands pressing on a resistant inner life. It is an inner desire that lines up with His character. First John 5:3 says that His commandments are not burdensome. Romans 5:5 says that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
The heart is made new, and the mind is renewed day by day as we respond to His life within
(Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 4:16).
Righteousness is no longer something you chase as an outsider. It is something Jesus expresses through you as you yield and depend.
From “Be Like Me” To “I Live In You”
Union, Not Mere Imitation
Many of us have heard the Sermon on the Mount taught as if Jesus stood on the hill, gave the standard, and said, “Be like Me, or else.”
The gospel gives us something far richer.
Jesus does not stand at a distance and call us to imitate Him in our own strength. Scripture describes a deeper reality. Colossians 1:27 speaks of “Christ in you.” Galatians 2:20 declares that we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. Romans 8:4 says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
So the Sermon on the Mount is not primarily, “Be like Jesus on your own.”
It is, “This is what the life of Jesus looks like as it flows through new hearts in My kingdom.”
You are not simply near Him. You are in Him, and He is in you
(John 14:20, John 15:4).
That is why this Sermon is not meant to be heard as a burden. It is a revelation of who you already are in Christ and who He is within you. The more you rest in that union, the more naturally the “greater righteousness” He speaks of will be seen in your attitudes, your reactions, and your relationships.
Walking It Out
Abide, Present, Keep In Step, Love
What does this look like on a Monday morning.
You are not asked to carry the entire Sermon in your head every moment. You are called into a simple, living response to the indwelling Lord.
You can think of it in a gentle rhythm.
Abide
Stay aware that Christ is your life. Come back, again and again during the day, to the truth that you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God
(Colossians 3:3–4, John 15:4).You are not trying to live “for God” on your own. You are resting in the fact that the Spirit of God lives in you.
Present
Romans 12:1 calls us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Romans 6:13 calls us to present ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and our members to Him as instruments for righteousness.
Practically, that can be as simple as saying, “Lord, I trust You to respond through me in this conversation. I am available for You in this moment.”
It is not a long speech. It is a heart posture that agrees with what He has already done.
Keep In Step With The Spirit
Galatians 5:25 says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
That is not a frantic hunt for guidance. It is a quiet responsiveness. When He checks you about a harsh word, you listen. When He nudges you toward kindness, you respond. When He brings a verse to mind, you let it shape your thoughts.
Move In Love
The greater righteousness Jesus speaks of is deeply connected to love. Love of God, love of neighbor, love even of enemies. Romans 13:10 says that love is the fulfilling of the law.
As you abide, present, and keep in step with the Spirit, you find that love begins to express itself in simple ways. A gentle answer instead of a sharp one. A willingness to listen instead of winning the argument. A quiet prayer for someone who wounded you.
None of this is an achievement you can boast about. It is evidence that the life of Another is flowing through you.
Conclusion
The Doorway Into Rest
Matthew 5:17 through 20 is indeed a doorway. It opens onto the whole landscape of the Sermon on the Mount.
You can walk through that doorway in one of two ways.
You can hear it with the old heart. As a demand to outdo the Pharisees, to raise your religious performance to an impossible level, and to carry the weight of your own righteousness.
Or you can hear it as someone who is in Christ.
Then it becomes an invitation to see Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, to see His life as the “greater righteousness” the Father delights in, and to rest in the miracle that this very life now dwells in you.
The Sermon on the Mount does not cease to be searching, sharp, and exposing. It still reveals where the flesh wants its own way. But now you can let that exposure be mercy. When something in you does not match the heart of the Sermon, this is not the end of the story. It is a moment to turn again to the One who lives in you and say, “Lord, I agree with You. Express Your life here, where I cannot.”
He fulfilled the law.
He finished the work
(John 19:30).
He gave you a new heart, a new spirit, and His own Spirit within.
Greater righteousness is not the reward for climbing well.
Greater righteousness is Christ Himself, sharing His life with you.
You are not alone on the mountain.
You are united with the One who first spoke these words, and who now writes them on your heart as a promise of what His grace will express in you.