Is the Sermon on the Mount for Today?
Is the Sermon on the Mount for Today?
The truths taught in the Sermon on the Mount are the righteous foundation of all God’s dealings with men. He demands absolute perfection. This statement concerning the Sermon on the Mount naturally raises certain problems that must be considered - that is, what the attitude of the Biblical Christian must be toward this great ethical statement of our Lord Jesus.
We find that many of the principles expressed in the Sermon on the Mount are repeated in no uncertain terms for the daily walk of the believer. Are not all the implications of the beatitudes summed up in that great promise made to the Galatian Church? "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control: against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23). All the comfort that is to be found in the promises concerning the lilies of the field and the birds of the air is to be found in the repeated promises which are made to us. In fact, the repetition of these promises is made in a form that is much more sure and strong. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). This is a promise that is based on the covenant of blood, while the same promises as found in the Sermon on the Mount are based more on that which man is doing.
The attitude of the true believer in Christ is not that of wondering how little he must do to satisfy God, but that of eager desire to fulfill all that is possible. His is the attitude that desires to find out about the known and the unknown will of God. The one who has been born again will learn to love our Lord because He first loved us. We will study His Word, not with any thought of fear, but because we love our Lord and wish to know His will. And if we can find in some passage like the Sermon on the Mount a picture of that which He will fulfill upon the earth when He comes to reign, our eager hearts will turn to Him and say, " Lord, this may not be for the time in which the world agonizes in its bitter pain today. But Lord, here is Thy redeemed child. I desire Thy will, all Thy will that I can know. Do in me as Thou dost desire." And there will be the delight of fellowship between us as we turn to that Sermon on the Mount which shall find its world-wide fulfillment in the future, and as we say to Him, " Thy will be done"—IN ME—"as it is in Heaven."
Dr. Barnhouse shows us that the Sermon on The Mount provides us with a standard and a hope. The standard shows our complete personal inability to fulfill all that is demanded by the principles of the standard. But it also provides a great hope that a day will come when the blessings will be realized on earth. The former guides, the latter encourages, but grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, is the basis of righteousness.
Further Reading: Matthew 5:1-12
