For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:20
The Old Testament is a story of failure. Repeated Failure. A thousand odd pages of God telling people “Trust me and live”, and people responding with a “No thanks.”
And apart from a jump in time, my story and your story would fit in perfectly well.
Which is why these passages from Jeremiah read with such hope.
God says:
“The days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and the people of Judah.”
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel.”
“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.”
“I will be their God.”
“I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
And so when Christ speaks, “Unless your righteousness exceed that of the pharisees….”
you need to understand that it will. But your only contribution to it will be that you are an object of such profound, counter-intuitive, antithetical love that God himself came to earth, to pour out his blood in forming a new covenant that secures you as his own and sets you in right relationship with him.
You are loved.
Go in peace.