LOC 050: The Life of Christ:
Righteousness Required
Two weeks ago we looked at Matthew 5:13-29 were Jesus was
adressing his disciples in what is commonly called the sermon on the mount.
We read:
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.
We went to look a little deeper:
at Christ’s exacting
standards:
The braod context is the sermon on the mount where Jesus is
addressing his newly called disciples.
Jesus’ first principles of Kingdom life laid the foundation for
these important words:
We noted from Luke’s summary of the Beatitudes:
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’s sake for great is your reward in heaven.
Jesus then goes on to liken them to earthy things to illustrate
the importance of the way of true spiritual prosperity. The disciples who follow the path to true
spiritual blessedness are....
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.
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. The way to true
influence among men is to live bywalking on
God’s path of righteousness.
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.
The disciples were to be lights to the nations by their message
and lives.
They are as a city up on a hill that can’t be hidden, nor should
it be. 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.
Light and sources of light were greatly desired and sought
after. It is mindless to light a light
and then to not use it. They have been
lit before the world in their calling to be Christ’s Twelve. They must.......
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. 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 then goes to say a word about the use of God’s Commandments,
meaning the 10 Commandments. The context
bears this out and we will see that in a few minutes. He said....
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. There are some
who believe that Jesus did away with the Law of God by fulfilling it. Jesus did not come to do away with the Law of
God, but to affirm its rightful place--even with regard to his disciples.
We looked at what fulfill and destroy meant and how they relate to
this text and the ministry of Jesus.
Then we saw the....
4. Application of the
Principle
This is so important to get right because after verse 20 Jesus
goes on to show haw six of the commandments are to be properly understood. The verses that follow in Chapter 5 are
called the six Antitheses. Jesus
principle is this....
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. Jesus did not want his disciples to become
PHARISEES NOR SCRIBES. He guards against
that by giving them the true understanding of the Law--remember that definition
of fulfilled? To make something
compplete or understandable? We will see
that is exactly whaqt Jesus did.
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 still 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....
Now, to the place we stopped:
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.
In the original Greek, rigteousness only appears once in the
sentence. It is not used directly as a
modifier for the Pharisees, but as a modifier of the disciples. Literally this would be a better translation:
20. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness excells that of
the scribes and Pharisees....
The superiority to the Pharisaic righteousness that was required of the disciples is plainly in kind,
not degree; for all Scripture teaches that entrance into
God’s kingdom at anytime in history, depends, not on the degree of our
excellence in anything, but solely on our having the character itself which God
demands which is worked in us by his grace. Our righteousness, then — if it is
to contrast with the outward and formal righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees —
must be inward, vital, spiritual.
Some, indeed, of the scribes and Pharisees themselves might have
the very righteousness here demanded; but our Lord is speaking, not of persons,
but of the system they represented and taught. You
all shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven — If this refer, as
in Matthew 5:19, rather to the earthly stage of this kingdom, the meaning is
that without a righteousness exceeding that of the Pharisees, we cannot be
members of it at all, except in outward appearances and in name only. This is
not a new doctrine (Romans 2:28, 29; 9:6; Philippians 3:3). But our Lord’s
teaching here stretches beyond the present scene of his earthly manifestation
of his kingdom, to that everlasting stage of the kingdom, where without “purity
of heart” none “shall see God.”
It is a high and difficult standard. It is the highest standard men can ever be
called unto. It is a standard that is
impossible for man on his own to attain.
Read on to Verse forty-eight.
What is the final pronouncement of this standard of righteousness? Jesus
draws this conclusion:
Matt. 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Jesus is telling them that they must be a perfect image of their
Father in Heaven. That is the ideal he
hold before the disciples. That is what
we would usually call an impossible standard.
Our notion of depravity and remaining sin becomes an excuse for us to
not pursue that great ideal according to the terms Jesus revealed for his
disciples. Just as means in the same way.
Just as your heavenly Father is perfect, therefore shall you be.
Any other standard, is a doctrine of man. Any doctrine of man that eclipses a doctrine
of God is the same sort of will-worship introduced by the Pharisees. They believed themselves to have kept the
whole Law only because they had redefined the whole Law in terms they could
live with. And, in doing that, they viewed themselves as being zealous, true
and righteous before God. Yet they had
the wrong standard--even though they called it and thought it to be God’s Law.
The Scribes and Pharisee lived lives of outward conformity to a
wrong understanding of the Law. It
really is a tragedy in the truest sense.
They brought it upon themselves. They had no internal means to guard
their hearts and therefore please God.
Their religion was one of externals and displeasing to the Messiah. 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.
Disciples are defined by what they are.
The righteousness outwardly perceived and inwardly experienced had
to be a righteousness greater than that of the Pharisees. It had to be Godlike perfection.
We know the external righteousness was displeasing to God. Listen to just one of the condemnation of the
Lord Jesus:
Matt. 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected
the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought
to have done, without leaving the others undone.
If you knew someone who was religious and claimed to be a
Christian and tithed a tenth of everything including his herbs and spices, you
would probably be impressed--I would.
Yet, there are people who do these sorts of things in order to excuse
themselves from doing the important things that God requires. They are busy doing the externals before the
eyes of man without a clue as to hois they are viewed by a holy God.
Paul had to write a warning and corrective to the small church in
Colossae for this very reason. And, it
is instructive because there is still a endency to bring a Pharisaic spirit
into the Church. This is what Paul wrote
in.....
Col. 2:20 Therefore, if you died with
Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the
world, do you subject yourselves to regulations — 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,”
Col. 2:22 which all concern things
which perish with the using — according to the commandments and doctrines of
men?
The punch line comes in in verse 23:
23 These things indeed have an
appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of
the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
There are things that look good as far as externals go, but they
are of no value against the flesh and all it desires. It is self-imposed---Not God-imposed. It is virtual wisdom, not actual wisdom. And, there are issues in our circles that
have their basis in these very things.
May God keep us from doing things for expediecy sake and give us
principle upon which to live and act.
Pharisees ancient and modern need to see themselves as those of
utter spiritual poverty in order that they might utterly rely upon God for his
work in them.
They need to live 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. They concentrate
on externals to be admired by the people around them, oblivious to eternal
concerns.
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.
To drive home the importance of the Law, to correct its
understanding and to put some meat on the sort of rigtheousness that ought to
be longed for by any and all disciples, Jesus gives us six anthesises where he
tells them what they had been taught wrongly with how they are to understand
GOD’s Law rightly.
It is interesting that Jesus does this by correcting the
understanding of six of God’s commands.
Jesus shows that truew righteousness is not consistent with the
prevailing understanding of the Law. The
teachers had done Israel a disservice by teaching them error.
Antithesis #1 The Sixth COmmandment--MURDER
Matt. 5:21 “ ¶ You have heard that it
was said to those of old, ‘You shall not
murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’
22 “But I say to you that
whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment. And whoever says to his brother,
‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.
23 “Therefore if you bring
your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something
against you, 24 “leave your gift
there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother,
and then come and offer your gift. 25
“Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him,
lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the
officer, and you be thrown into prison. 26 “Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no
means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.
Antithesis #2 The Seventh Commandment &-- Adultery
Matt. 5:27 “ ¶ You have heard that it
was said to those of old, ‘You shall not
commit adultery.’
28 “But I say to you that whoever looks at a
woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his
heart. 29 “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck
it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your
members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30
“And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from
you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than
for your whole body to be cast into hell.
Antithesis #3 The Seventh Commandment & Divorce
31 “ ¶ Furthermore it has been
said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let
him give her a certificate of divorce.’
32 “But I say to you that
whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to
commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.
Antithesis #4 The Commandment concerning the Oath an extension of
not bearing false witness.
Matt. 5:33 “ ¶ Again you have heard that
it was said to those of old, ‘You shall
not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’
34 “But I say to you, do not
swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35
“nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is
the city of the great King.
36 “Nor shall you swear by
your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black 37 “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your
‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than
these is from the evil one.
Antithesis #5 The Commandment concerning retaliation
Matt. 5:38 “ ¶ You have heard that it
was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth.’
39 “But I tell you not to resist an evil person.
But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 “If anyone wants to sue you and take away
your tunic, let him have your cloak also. 41 “And whoever compels you to go one mile, go
with him two. 42 “Give to him who asks you, and from him who
wants to borrow from you do not turn away.
Antithesis #6 The Second
Table of the Law Summarized --Love is a timeless principle for Disciples.
Matt. 5:43 “ ¶ You have heard that it
was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.’
44 “But I say to you, love
your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and
pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45
“that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun
rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust. 46 “For if you love those who love you, what
reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47
“And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?
Do not even the tax collectors do so?
The Conclusion:
48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your
Father in heaven is perfect.
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