Entering into the Kingdom of Heaven

Mat 5:20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven.

In the last post, we discussed the strange fact that Christ seems to say that people who break small commandments and teach others to do so still get into the kingdom of heaven, even if they are the least of those there. The conclusion we suggested was that the kingdom of heaven was a process of changing the world that includes both the good and evil and that in the process, people judge on another. However, here, Christ says that to get into heaven, our virtue must exceed that of others who obey at least the traditions of the law. What is going on here? Does heaven describe the afterlife or is it a process happening here on earth? Does it include only the virtuous or does it include everyone?

The answer requires that we think about the kingdom of heaven as a process happening here on earth that not everyone is aware of. We can all, good and evil, be part of the process, but not everyone is necessarily aware of it and driving it.

The term used here for "enter" is the Greek eiserchomai, which not only means to come into a place but also means entering into a state or condition, to come into existence, and to come to life. So what Christ is saying here is that both the good and evil are caught up in the net of the kingdom of heaven or planted in the field of the kingdom of heaven, but that only those who are virtuous are aware of what is happening and that only the virtuous are driving this process, that is, changing the nature of earth.

This idea is not that difficult if we just look at how much the world has changed since the coming of Christ. The moral questions that we wrestle over today were not even considered 2,000 years ago. Even the most tragic parts of modern history, such as the communist movement, has its foundations in Christian thoughts and ideals that are basically good. This goodness and the spread of goodness only arose from the coming of the kingdom of heaven. Christ was the catalyst that changed the world.