Category: Sermon on the Mount

The Narrow Way

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 10

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.  For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

How many times have you heard the straight and narrow way described as a way of life?  We are taught all kinds of sin management ideas for staying on the straight and narrow or how to keep our fellow believers in line on the straight and narrow way.

I don’t believe that Jesus is describing a way OF life at all.  This passage is a picture of the way TO life.  Legalists like to focus on what it takes to stay on the straight and narrow; what rules must be followed to keep on this path of right living; what man-made traditions will keep us on the straight and narrow.

Let me give you this assurance.  When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ you entered into the narrow way.  When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you entered through the narrow gate.  How do I know that?  Jesus is the narrow way.  Jesus is the narrow gate.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me’ “ (John 14:6).  Jesus is the narrow way.  And entering by this way, entering by faith in Jesus, puts us on the path to life.

“I am the gate; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:9-10).  Jesus is the narrow gate.  And entering by this gate, entering by faith in Jesus, puts us on the path to life.  When we enter the narrow way by the narrow gate through faith in Jesus, we receive the promise of life eternal and life abundant.  This promise is yours today.

The narrow way is not a lifestyle of rules to follow.  It is the path TO life; promised to all who believe in Jesus.  Please, don’t worry if you are doing enough to stay on the straight and narrow.  Please, do not carry an angst about whether or not you are on the straight and narrow.  Please, do not let shame-inducers make you question your salvation and suggest that you are on the broad way leading to destruction if you are not doing well enough in your righteous efforts.

Is righteous living important?  Yes, and it is grace that teaches us to deny ungodliness and live righteous lives.  “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12).  Christ living His life through us is how we experience this grace to live righteously.  This is a large topic for another day, but back to our main point.

You can rest in the assurance that if you have believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you have entered by the narrow gate and you are firmly and safely and eternally on the narrow way.  Your path is secure.

Bread or Stones?

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 9

People today are asking for bread.  Folks today are looking for life.  And that life is only found in Jesus.  Jesus is the bread of life.  Let’s never forget the “OF LIFE” part of Jesus’ declaration.  He is the bread that gives us life.

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’ “ (John 6:35).  “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51).

Bread is a picture of the new covenant.  Life is the promise of the new covenant.  How are we answering the request of people seeking life?  Are we offering bread or are we giving them stones?

When we preach the new covenant, we offer the bread of life.  When we preach the new arrangement between us and God whereby we are completely forgiven by Jesus’ finished work on the cross, we preach life.  When we teach Christ’s life now fused with ours to live the Christian life, we offer the power of Christ in us.

But when we preach that the old covenant is still part of our new life in Christ, we are offering cold hard stones in place of soft life-giving bread.  Stone is a picture of the old covenant.  The ten commandments were written on tablets of stone (Exodus 24:12).  Our old covenant heart was described as a “heart of stone” (Ezekiel 36:26).  The apostle Paul referred to the old covenant as “the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones” (II Corinthians 3:7).

Is Jesus making a subtle reference to the two covenants in Matthew chapter 7?  “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9).

When seekers are asking for bread, are we delivering stones; old covenant precepts to follow and obey?  Our friend David Moss calls them “stone sandwiches”; preaching the bread of grace on the outside, but a big fat stone of old covenant law-abiding requirements when people take a bite.  Are we adding law, rules, and regulations to the message of grace?

May we always offer the bread of life; unadulterated, unchanged, and without additives.

Being Perfect

The Sermon on the Mount (Part 11 of 11)

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).  Jesus wraps up Matthew chapter 5 with this powerful summary statement, “Be perfect as your Father is perfect.”

Leading up to this conclusion, Jesus lays out a series of “You have heard it said … but I say to you” directives.  This is Jesus’ way of saying to the braggadocious law-keepers of His day, “You think you know the Law (‘You have heard it said’), check out what I am adding to it (‘But I say to you’).  It is a much higher calling than you know.”  And by the end of the chapter Jesus states it clearly; being right with God requires perfection.  Wow!

(As an aside, I often hear this verse preached with “perfect” being explained as “mature”.  The verse is somehow about us maturing into what God desires of us.  DON’T WATER IT DOWN.  Perfection is perfection.  And perfection is required to be right with God.)

Jesus’ hearers would have been scratching their collective heads or just ignoring His words.  They would have no idea what to do with perfect.  That goal is impossible.  How can any human be perfect in the sight of God?

Because we know the rest of the gospel story, we agree; perfection is impossible.  And if the gospel story ended right here, we would be left in that conundrum.  We would be lost in our imperfection, our sin.  But praise be to God, Someone became perfection FOR US!  Someone became the righteousness that surpasses the scribes and Pharisees FOR US!  “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).

And what about perfection?  Just when you think perfection is impossible, look what the author of the book of Hebrews says, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).  You are sanctified, set apart and perfected, by the offering of Jesus.  He did it all!

Does that mean we are perfect in our actions and attitudes?  No, our behavior is energized by the new resurrection power of Christ living His life in us.  But it also faces headwinds from our enemies of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  But our new identity is perfect, righteous, and blameless.  “Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:22).

In Matthew 5:48, Jesus is not only laying out a requirement that the law-keepers would have found impossible to live up to.  But as with much of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is being prophetic in His announcement.  Something that He has not explained or even alluded to yet is that He will become our perfection.

We and Jesus both know that we can never arrive at perfect on our own.  We are only perfected by what Christ accomplished for us.  We became perfect because God made us perfect by an act of His grace.  Don’t cringe at the word “perfection”.  You did not earn it and left to yourself you cannot keep it.  We are delivered, made perfect, and kept by the beautiful grace of God.

Righteousness that Surpasses

The Sermon on the Mount (Part 10)

“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).  Jesus has come to the end of His introduction to the Sermon on the Mount.  The first 19 verses of Matthew 5 introduce us to who you will become when you enter the kingdom of heaven by faith in Jesus.  Jesus is looking forward to who you will become under the new covenant arrangement when you believe in Jesus.  The promise of the new covenant is that you will become … gentle, peaceful, merciful, pure in heart, have your hunger and thirst satisfied, be persecuted for righteousness, be the salt of the earth, be the light of the world, see the Law requirements fulfilled by Jesus, and be set free from the Law.

Verse 20, quoted above, starts us into the next section of Jesus’ sermon.  Remember, Jesus began His public ministry with this message, “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15).  For those of you who repent and believe, the promise of Matthew 5:3-19 is yours.

For those who do not repent – change their mind about how one is made right with God – Jesus goes on to what’s next.  And Jesus is basically saying, “If you choose to stick with the Law system, here is what you are up against.  Your expression of righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees.”  What in the world does that look like?

Moving ahead in Matthew chapter 5, it looks like this.  “You think you are keeping the ‘do not kill’?  What if you are angry with your brother?  Guilty (Matthew 5:21-22).  You think you can call someone any derogatory name you wish?  Call your brother a fool and you are guilty enough for hell (Matthew 5:22).  You think that you are passing the test on not committing adultery?  Do you desire a woman who is not your wife with lustful intentions?  Guilty (Matthew 5:27-28).

Your eye causes you to sin.  Poke it out (Matthew 5:29).  Your hand makes you stumble.  Cut it off (Matthew 5:30).  We don’t even know what to do with that.  Are you putting away your wife for your own selfish desires?  Guilty (Matthew 5:31-32).  Think you have found a loophole in breaking an oath, breaking a vow with some creative language?  If your yes does not clearly mean yes and your no mean no, you are guilty (Matthew 5:33-37).

Are you comfortable with an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth?  Is revenge your thing?  You are guilty if you are not turning the other cheek, loving your enemy (Matthew 5:38-47).

This entire large section of Matthew 5 verses 21 through 47 is Jesus exceeding the Law in His requirements.  And it fits the introduction to this passage, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).  “If you are going to go with the Law as your entrance to God, you must do better than even those who appear to be the best law keepers, the scribes and Pharisees.”  How is that even possible?

Of course, we know looking back that it is not possible.  This is why we need Jesus.  Jesus became perfection for us.  Did you notice the word “perfection”?  Where did that come in?  Jesus finally comes to the conclusion of what exceeding the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees looks like, perfection.  “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).  How is that even possible?  We will talk about it next time.

The Law Fulfilled

The Sermon on the Mount (Part 9)

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18).

Teachers who unnecessarily burden New Testament believers with a form of law are quick to quote the first part of Matthew 5:17.  They proclaim, “Christ did not come to abolish the Law!”  And they miss the entire point of the rest of the verse.

Let’s look at some key words in these verses.  First, ABOLISH.  Yes, Jesus said that He did not come to destroy or blow up the Law.  The Law is still in existence.  In fact, Paul writes that the Law still has a purpose today.  “But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous man, BUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane” (I Timothy 1:8-9).  This list describes the lost.  The Law is for the lost.  The Law exists to convict unbelievers of their sin.

But you are a “righteous man” having been made righteous by the work of Christ and your faith in Jesus.  So the Law has nothing to do with you now.  The Law is “not made” for you.  Why?

Let’s look at the second word, FULFILL.  Christ fulfilled, Christ completed, any requirement the Law placed on us.  “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4).  We have arrived at our righteousness through the gift of God’s grace, not through keeping any Law requirement.  We are dead to the Law as is made clear in Romans chapters 5 through 8, the entire book of Galatians, II Corinthians 3, and many other passages.

Think about a contract that has been fulfilled.  Once the obligations laid out in the contract are fulfilled, the contract is over.  I don’t have to physically destroy the contract.  I don’t have to tear it up and throw it away.  Whether or not the paper copy exists makes no difference.  If the contract has been fulfilled, the deal is finished.  The contract no longer carries any weight or obligation.  Christ prophesied in Matthew 5:17 that He was going to fulfill the Law.  And that is exactly what He did.

Finally, let’s look at UNTIL ALL IS ACCOMPLISHED.  The interaction between us and the Law ended at the cross.  The cross is where all was accomplished.  Jesus declared “It is finished” and the sacrifice was complete.  We are now saved by grace through the shed blood of Jesus in our place.  Our connection to the Law is permanently over.  The tearing of the temple veil is a visual of the end of the old covenant of the Law and the ushering in of the new covenant of grace.

The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day had twisted the Law into all kinds of requirements, confusion, and loopholes.  Jesus is addressing the Jews saying, “You can tweak the Law.  You can twist the Law.  You can water down the Law.  But until my death that fulfills the Law, every commandment remains intact.  Christ did not come to lessen the requirements of the Law.  In fact, He seems to crank them up a notch in the rest of Matthew chapter 5.

But for you and I, the Law – and what Jesus added to it – is over, fulfilled by Christ on our behalf.  Jesus is again looking forward in this part of the Sermon on the Mount.  Looking ahead to the cross where the Law would be fulfilled when “all will be accomplished.”  You have been set free from the Law!