LOC 049 Christ’s Exacting Standards

049 The Life of Christ: Christ’s Exacting Standards

Last week we looked at Luke’s summary of the first part of the Sermon on the Mount.  We found four pronouncements of weal, or four ways to blessedness or Gospel happiness and we saw four woes or ways to condemnation.

We saw that our ways naturally are more in line with the dangerous path of woes, rather than the safe path of weal.

It is important to grasp these four contrasting ideas because they are the Exacting standards of the Lord Jesus Christ.  All of his teaching with the disciples is an attempt to get them on board with this agenda of righteousness and all the subsequent dealings with the Scribes and Pharisees have shades of these woes pronounced upon those who refuse to conform to Christ’s true standards of what is right and just. 

This is how Luke summarized what Jesus taught.this is what he said:

The path to Weal:

1. 20b“Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God.

2. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled.

3. 21B Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.

4. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.  23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

Blessed are the spiritually destitute, they are the ones who throw themselves on God for Grace.

Blessed are those who long to be satisfied with God’s righteousness.

Blessed are those who are mournful over their sin, now, for God has in store the fulfillment of great and precious promises.

Blessed are those who are hated of men for following the Son of Man for great is your reward in heaven.

These are the basics of Christ’s exacting standards. They are contrasted with the way of WOE:

1. 24 “ ¶ But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.

2.  25 Woe to you who are full, For you shall hunger.

3. 25B Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep.

4.  26 ¶ Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.

It is in this context that Jesus goes on to put more meat on this skeleton of his instruction to his disciples.  He wants blessedness and happiness with godly contentment to be their own.

It is with these things in the background that Matt 5:13-20 makes sense.  But, it is not an ordinary thing to have these verses taught as a further explanation of Christ’s exacting standards of righteousness.  However, I hope when we are done this morning, that you will see why this perspective is important.

Jesus still addressing the disciples in Matthew 5:13-20 said:

Christ’s exacting standards:

1. Likened to Salt

¶ You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

2. Likened to Light

14  “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

15  “Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

16  “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

3. His Purpose as regards the Law

17 “ ¶ Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

18  “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

4. Application of the Principle

19  “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

5. The Need for Exemplary Righteousness

20  “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Let’s look a little deeper:

Christ’s exacting standards:

1. Likened to Salt

¶ You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

I would like to remind you of the answer to the who questions: who spoke this and to whom was it spoken. 

This was spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ immediately after he taught his disciples the basics about life in God’s kingdom. 

He is telling them that there is something similar between the effect that they are to have among men and the effect that salt has when rightly used. 

Salt was used primarily to season and preserve food. All meat-offerings were to be flavored with salt (Lev. 2:13). To eat salt with one is to partake of his hospitality, to derive subsistence from him; and hence he who did so was bound to look after his host’s interests (Ezra 4:14, “We have maintenance from the king’s palace;” A.V. marg., “We are salted with the salt of the palace;” R.V., “We eat the salt of the palace”).

A “covenant of salt” (Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 13:5) was a covenant of perpetual obligation. New-born children were rubbed with salt to “cleanse” them(Ezek. 16:4).

These are the basic ways in which the twelve Disciples are likened unto salt, with reference to its cleansing and preserving uses (Matt. 5:13).

Note it does not say, you will become the salt of the earth, as if this effect was something to be realized in the future,  but it reads you are the salt of the earth.  There is some way in which they were a cleansing and preserving effect in the world then which would continue indefinitely into the future.

They are further warned to be useful or useable salt. but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

If salt loses its flavor it is good for nothing, but to throw down on a path to restrict the growth of weeds.  The disciples are challenged to keep themselves savory in order to have the desired effect of their saltiness to cleans and preserve in the world.  But, how would they have understood these words? How could they measure their effects and saltiness spiritually in their ministry?

It must be understood as being a life lived according to Christ’s teaching of how to know true spiritual blessedness and contentment.  It is by following the way to weal and spiritual prosperity.

It is when they seek the path of righteousness as defined by God:

They must be those who are the spiritually destitute, they are the ones who throw themselves on God for continual sustaining Grace.

They must be those who long to be satisfied with God’s righteousness alone.

They must be those who are mournful over their many sins and their sin, now, knowing that God has in store the fulfillment of great and precious promises.

They must be those who are hated of men for following the Son of Man’s knowing their reward in heaven is great.

This is how they will cleanse and preserve what that they encounter. They will live and teach as the Lord Jesus Christ, and after his death, resurrection and ascension, in his place with his authority.

The disciples will be the main means of preserving what is good and right, even in societies and in the world.  But, they must do it on God’s terms.

We also have the disciples ministry .....

2. Likened to Light

14  “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

There was something about them at this point, soon after their calling and soon after Jesus laid out his basic principles that made them lights to show the way and to make things clear, then and into the future indefinitely.

They are as a city up on a hill that can’t be hidden. They can;t go back to their old ways of human comfort: they have been called to be Jesus disciples and instructed in the way that they are to follow.  They are out there, in full view of the multitudes, being taught by Jesus as the others listen in. 

Jesus continues:

15  “Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Outside of the sun, light was scarce and prized.  Oil was plentiful, but costly. Nobody in their right mind would light a lamp to hide its light.  They are lamps, God has set them aflame for the purpose of spreading light wherever they go and do.  They are to follow this pattern, they have a lot to learn, but they are obligated to a life of spreading forth the light of the light of the world.  Jesus tells them plainly....

16  “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

As disciples they have no choice in the matter.  It is not, if you want to be my front men and you have enough confidence and self-esteem tell others about my grace while confronting them with my truth that they may see the wondrous work of God in the things we do and then glorify God in heaven.  It is that they are compelled, they ought to live in this way, the disciples must live and minister in such a way that men would see their works as ultimately good and seeing the otherworldliness of what they have done, be compelled to glorify God the father in heaven.

That is how the lights of disciples are to shine before the watching multitudes who observe the disciples. No other option for Christ’s true disciples, then or now. 

Jesus lays this way of weal and contentment upon them as a way in opposition to the world, but he tells them that it is consistent with God’s Law. Lest they think he is doing something completely new, he teaches them.....

3. His Purpose as regards the Law

17 “ ¶ Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Jesus sees what he is doing as completely in line with the purposes of God as expressed in the Law of the Old Testament.  Jesus said that he did not come to destroy the law.  There are many who believe that Jesus did away with the Law of God by fulfilling it.  They like to come to this passage to show that perspective.  They see Jesus’s fulfillment of the Law as having made the Law of God unnecessary believing that Christ fulfilled the Law in every respect for his people.  Well, there are five ways in which the Greek word is used in the New Testament.  Let’s take a quick look at the ways in which this word for destroy is used.

1. How it isn’t used.  This is not the word used of the Pharisees when they sought to destroy Jesus after the Sabbath incidents.  That word means to cause a thing to cease to exist entirely.

2. This meaning is most like the above, as the word can be used to mean to cause to cease to exist — ‘to cause to come to an end, to cause to become nothing, to put an end to.’as in-- ‘in order to put an end to the works of the Devil’ 1Jn 3:8 or ‘but God will put an end to both’ 1Cor 6:13.  Since the Law is mentioned and used after the ascension of Christ, it can not mean that he will completely undo the Law causing it to go out of existence.

3.  Another use is to destroy completely by tearing down and dismantling — ‘to destroy, to tear down, destruction.’ Such as in ‘there will not be one stone left on another which will not be torn down’ Lk 21:6. And, ‘I will tear my barns down and build bigger ones’ Lk 12:18. It may be important in rendering Lk 12:18 to indicate clearly that there is purpose in tearing down the barns, and that presumably materials resulting from the dismantling of the barns would be used in building bigger ones. Or even, ‘but God’s powerful weapons, with which to tear down strongholds’ 2Cor 10:4.

4.  It could also mean to destroy completely the efforts or work of someone else — ‘to destroy, to ruin utterly.’‘for the sake of meat, do not destroy the work of God’ Ro 14:20. In Ro 14:20 the work of God involves the building up of the community of faith.  Jesus did not come to destroy anything of God’s but to establish it and do God’s will.  It would be absurd to think that Jesus came to destroy the efforts of God in revealing his Law.  It makes no sense.

5.  Strangely enough this word has the connotation sometimes of “to experience the hospitality of someone, with principal focus upon lodging — ‘to be a guest.’ To go to be a guest. ‘this man has gone as a guest to (the home of) a sinner’ Lk 19:7; ‘in order that they may go to the villages and hamlets round about and find lodging and food’ Lk 9:12. In the context, this would make no sense, it is not about seeking lodging or hospitality or going out with the Law in any sense.

6. Or preferably, in this context, to completely invalidate something which has been in force — ‘to do away with, to invalidate, to make invalid.’‘do not think that I have come to do away with the Law’ Mt 5:17. Jesus did not come to invalidate the Law, but to fulfill it. 

What does fulfill mean?

There are about ten different ways in which the word fulfill or filled to the brim is used in the New Testament.  Again, as we compare the nuances there is only one that is reasonable in the context.  plhrw◊sai : to give the true or complete meaning to something — ‘to give the true meaning to, to provide the real significance of.’ ‘I did not come to invalidate the Law of God but to give the true meaning of it’ Mt 5:17; and ‘for the whole Law has its true meaning in one expression, Love your neighbor as yourself’ Ga 5:14. In speaking of ‘true meaning,’ it may be useful in some languages to use a phrase meaning ‘real intent’ or ‘real purpose.’ There is also a practical element as well as a theoretical element to the text.  Fulfilled, in this particular case,  includes ideas of till all is taught and done.

Jesus did not come to do away with the Law, but to teach to men its real intent by his words and in his actions.  And, that true meaning of the Law is to abide forever.  Listen to how Jesus follows up this concern.

18  “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Not even a single part of a letter, nor a point, in a word, will go away until all is fulfilled.  As long as Christ’s teaching or work is active, a right understanding of his Law is in force. His teaching and work are ongoing, therefore a right understanding of his Law is in force.

That is why Jesus went on to apply the principle in the present and for the future.  He shows us.....

4. Application of the Principle

19  “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments (he’s talking about the Law.  And, by using the present tense shows that he is talking about the right use of these things), and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven;

He is talking to the disciples and warning them against adopting a view that would be against God’s Law.  Jesus did not want them to end up as antinomians, but theonomians--with a right understanding of and a right use of God’s Law.  The theonomists have hijacked a perfectly good word for questionable purposes.

But Jesus isn’t just concerned about their knowledge and use of the Law, he extends it to others they will teach....

19B but whoever does and teaches them [a right use of God’s Law], he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

Disciples, do you want to be great in my Kingdom?  Teach men the right understanding of the Law and Live it before them.  If you want to be the least, do otherwise.  You might get in with some error, but you will be among the least of the brethren.  Jesus warns then and motivates them to pursue the best, what pleases Christ and what does his will in its fullest sense.  That is why Jesus goes on to teach about ....

5. The Need for Exemplary Righteousness

20  “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Scribes and Pharisee lived lives of outward conformity to a wrong understanding of the Law.  They had no internal means to guard their hearts and therefore please God.  Their religion was one of externals. They defined themselves by what they did.  Jesus wants his disciples to live a life from the inside out, from the heart, the well-spring of life. 

The righteousness outwardly perceived and inwardly experienced had to be a righteousness greater than that of the Pharisees. 

They could only see that true in their words and experience if they would see themselves as those of utter spiritual poverty in order that they might utterly rely upon God for his work in them. 

This could only be true of they lived in opposition to the ways of the world with a hunger and thirst after righteousness, that God might fill them. 

This could only be true of them if the mourned for their sin and cried out to God to sanctify them.

This could only be true if they were willing to suffer the reproach and revilement of men for the sake of the Son of man.

Christ’s exacting standards and their application to all disciples in a timeless manner leaving us in the same situation as those early disciples.  In need of a righteousness that does not come from ourselves, but from a work of God in us.  We must work out what God is working within.  With the first alone we will end up like the self-righteous pharisees with an external form of “keeping up appearances” while the inner man is dying a slow and cruel death.  With a work of God within, the struggle of a soul reliant upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit’s accompanying graces, men and women can have a real righteousness that exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees.  However, it is not the flashy, pompous sort we see condemned in those who are full of themselves, satisfied with themselves, laughing at life as if it had no seriousness at all and living in a way to gain the favor of other men in order to be liked at all cost. 

Christ’s exacting standards for his disciples are:

They would see themselves as those of utter spiritual poverty in order that they might utterly rely upon God for his work in them. 

They would live in opposition to the ways of the world with a hunger and thirst after righteousness, that God might fill them. 

They would mourn for their sin and cried out to God to sanctify them.

They would be willing to suffer the reproach and revilement of men for the sake of the smile of the Son of man.

The answer is often asked, How should we live?  In these ways, in order to be salt and light, and in a way that teaches a right understanding of God’s Laws and ways. 

His burden is light.  He will give the grace to his own to live in the way he has commanded his disciples to live.  For that, I am thankful.  God’s calling of his disciples is all of grace, and nothing from within man. His call to follow is also of Grace and full of labors of love as we submit to King Jesus.  To enter his kingdom, you must believe his words and live in his ways.