What was Jesus’ motive in preaching the Sermon on the Mount? What was He aiming for? Was He giving us a set of rules to live by? Or was He trying to prove that we are sinners who can’t follow God’s rules? Or, was He trying to show us what our behavior can be when He changes our hearts?
What if He is doing all three - giving us a set of rules that will prove we are sinners, and will subsequently lead us to life-changing faith and spiritual conversion?
I would submit that the theme of the Sermon on the Mount is the righteousness of God. It is a righteousness that is from God, to God, and through God. It is above man's righteousness, and actually presupposes that our best righteousness is false and invalid. Read through Matthew 5-7 and you will see it plain as day.
THE BEATITUDES
This theme can be seen throughout the sermon, beginning with the beatitudes, which are at once a description of God’s own righteous character and the path by which we enter into that character.
For us, the beatitudes open with a bankruptcy called “poverty of spirit.” We come to God with nothing but our sins. We come empty of virtue, full of filth. We come depraved, and in desperate need of a goodness we do not possess. Here, in the very first verse, we’ve already departed miles away from the Gandhian ideal of a noble humanity full of divine potential.Add mourning over sin and a meekness that willingly complies with God’s instructions, and you have a perfect formula for total spiritual surrender. We ACKNOWLEDGE our sin (spiritual poverty), BREAK UNDER THE WEIGHT of our sin (mourning), and WILLINGLY DO ANYTHING GOD SAYS to overcome our sin (meekness).
Central to the beatitudes is the “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” The first three beatitudes are a description of this spiritual hunger and thirst, while the fifth through seventh beatitudes are a description of what it means to be filled with God’s righteousness. To hunger and thirst is to be poor, broken-hearted and meek. To be filled with God’s righteousness is to be merciful, pure-hearted and peaceable (what a shock this definition must have been to the Pharisees!).
Blessed are the poor in spirit …
Blessed are those who mourn …
Blessed are the meek …
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
For they shall be filled
Blessed are the merciful …
Blessed are the pure in heart …
Blessed are the peacemakers …
The eighth beatitude describes the result: persecution from a world which rejects God’s righteousness. Note the parallel structure of verses 10 and 11, in which Jesus equates Himself with righteousness:
Matt. 5:10
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness
Matt. 5:11
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me
“For the sake of righteousness” = “because of Me”. Do you see what Jesus Christ is saying here? HE HIMSELF IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. He is the only righteousness that can save us from sin, change our hearts and make us merciful, pure, and peaceable. Can I get an “amen” from Gandhi? How about those Emergent folks who adhere to the Sermon on the Mount? Somehow this sermon's mere introduction has led us right back to the Gospel preached by Paul and the other apostles. Should we be surprised by this?
In the next post, we’ll examine some other places where the Lord weaves in this theme of God’s righteousness . . .
The "poverty of the spirit" you spoke of is identified in Is. 61:1,2. Jesus, at that moment on the mount, was actively involved in the culmination of this particular prophecy. How AMAZING is that???!!!
ReplyDeleteAngie
Ex 15:11 "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?"
"What if He is doing all three - giving us a set of rules that will prove we are sinners, and will subsequently lead us to life-changing faith and spiritual conversion?"
ReplyDeleteBrilliant.
"It is above man's righteousness, and actually presupposes that our best righteousness is false and invalid."
I like this, but it's not clear from the post. Could you explain this better?
"Note the parallel structure of verses 10 and 11, in which Jesus equates Himself with righteousness"
I don't see that either (but I really, really want to)!
"“For the sake of righteousness” = “because of Me”. Do you see what Jesus Christ is saying here? HE HIMSELF IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. He is the only righteousness that can save us from sin, change our hearts and make us merciful, pure, and peaceable. Can I get an “amen” from Gandhi? How about those Emergent folks who adhere to the Sermon on the Mount? Somehow this sermon's mere introduction has led us right back to the Gospel preached by Paul and the other apostles. Should we be surprised by this?"
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap
::roaring applause, moving into a standing ovation::
I love it!!!
I saw the gospel again in another verse I've seen over and over to motivate me to work hard: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward." (Colossians 3:23-24a ESV) The gospel is seen because of the word "inheritance;" no matter how hard you want to, you cannot earn your parent's inheritance. Indeed, for some children of rich parents, they could work from sunup to sundown for the rest of their lives and not earn the inheritance. And from the parent's perspective, they would despise any attempt to earn the inheritance; from the parent's perspective, the giving of inheritance is without conditions, partly because the parents know they will not be able to spend it, partly because they love the children and are looking out for their best interests. The parents have a generous, lavish, selfless heart toward their children.
As it is with God; He has so many riches -- His own glory -- that they're spilling over. And He wants to the very best for us. His lavish, generous and selfless heart pours out itself toward us even though we have done nothing to earn it.
So think of God as dad and the gospel comes into focus. "Our Father in heaven..." (Matthew 6:9 ESV, see also Luke 11 and Hebrews 12).
Angie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the note. Your input is always welcome.
Chris,
You're too funny. I'll try to explain a little further what I mean by some of these assertions.
Concerning God's righteousness being above ours and proving ours false and invalid:
1. I'm generalizing, based on the overall content of the sermon. One of the basic principles of the sermon is that our righteousness is external, not heart based. God's righteousness in us is internal first, then external, affecting our whole person. This is why ours is false (clean on the outside, still dirty on the inside). The higher (or as Jesus says, "surpassing" - Gk PERISSON)righteousness of God is the only true righteousness man can have.
2. I'm foreshadowing the observations that will be made in the next post, dealing more directly with the rest of the references to righteousness. It may become clearer as we go along (or possibly more confusing?)
Concerning Christ as our righteousness in Matthew 5:10-11
Hebrew poetry is famous for its paralellism. I am observing the paralell structure of these two verses, and what may be implied in it. This is the part of the sermon where the Lord begins to turn from the abstract principles of the beatitudes (blessed are THEY...) to a direct affirmation of His disciples (blessed are YOU...) He basically repeats verse 10 in verse 11, but this time He makes direct application to the disicples. Here are three parallels of verses 10 and 11:
Blessed are those (v. 10)
Blessed are you (v. 11)
who have been persecuted (v. 10)
when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you (v. 11)
for the sake of righteousness (v. 10)
because of Me (v. 11)
Notice that persecution is expanded to include insults and lies, and the tense is changed from past to present/future. And notice that righteousness is parallel to "ME," that is, Jesus Himself.
Do you see it?
I like what you said about inheritances. An inheritance is grace rooted in relationship. And that is exactly what God gives us. I'll go deeper into our relationship with God as our "Father" in a future post. That is a strong theme in the sermon on the mount, along with the kingdom of God, but I'm getting ahead of myself. More on that later.
Grace & peace,
Derek
I think I see it now. Cool.
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