Re:Verse reading–Matthew 5:17-48 (day four)
 Jesus was a radical teacher. Radical in that He taught things that no one else even considered, much less taught. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day and they ‘refined the law’ in order to cause the masses to submit to their ‘superior’ religious commitment. Jesus took the law to a new level that the Pharisees could never attain. The key here is that none of us is able to keep the law and by keeping it, to find favor with God. In verse 20, Jesus says that unless you surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. It is impossible for us to earn heaven. We can only achieve forgiveness and heaven through Jesus Christ. “It is by grace that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.
