2004-04-16
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Just as I know God treasures you for reading about Him from my messages, I also treasure you for sticking with me [and Him] week after week. He leads me to continue writing about the different outlooks on the Sermon on the Mount. You’ll remember that last week I wrote about the one in which its proponents believe the Sermon gives a lifestyle which is impossible to live and which has no purpose but to show man’s sin. The next interpretation that followed it asserted that grace wouldn’t require such a lifestyle, and that it’s another interpretation of the law not belonging to the age of grace. The third one was Albert Schweitzer’s concept of “interim ethics” which make one suitable for the Kingdom of God. He believed that if we could live it under our own strength, then it would hold us until the Kingdom was realized. And now, we’ll look at a fourth one upheld by ultra dispensationalists. This group believes that the lifestyle in the Sermon of the Mount is only for the Millennial age when Christ will rule for 1000 years, but not for today. Remember that a dispensation is an era in time, and that some theologians believe that mankind’s history has been divided into specific dispensations.
All of these outlooks mentioned so far are hard for me to write about, because I simply don’t agree with them. But, if I’m to have a stand on this issue, one that believes that the lifestyle of the Sermon on the Mount is for today and can be lived today, then I must present evidence for this belief. I believe that the Sermon can speak for itself better than anything I can say. Let’s begin by looking again at MT 5 :3 [KJV], “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their’s is Kingdom of heaven.” Notice that it is in the present tense. It doesn’t say, blessed will be the poor in spirit: for their’s will be the Kingdom of heaven. We can see in MT 5: 20 [GNV] a statement that demands present action to receive future blessing. “I tell you, then, that you will be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven only if you are more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires.” I purposely used more than one version here, to point out that the main versions of the Bible all agree on the tense in these verses. It’s the present and not the future tense. My belief that not one jot or tittle in God’s word is a lie or a mistake is the foundation for my strong stand about the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle being for today. God has only truth in Him.
I believe that MT 7: 13-14 was not said to prove that this lifestyle can’t be lived today. Notice the way this is worded. “Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it.” Christ didn’t say no one can pass through that narrow gate; He just said it would be hard. And He also said, “Go,” which would indicate that it can be done, and it is His will that believer’s should pass through that gate. Had the lifestyle He wants for us been impossible for today, He wouldn’t have told us, “Go.”
Look at MT 5: 9-10 [KJV] again from this perspective. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for their’s is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.” Once again, we see the underlined words are all in the present tense. Christ’s choice of words is no mistake, and all the major translations of the Bible agree that He is using the present tense. The same thing can be said of MT 5: 39 [GNV], “But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too.” These underlined words denote a command to take action now, not just in the future. One last example is MT 5: 40-42 [GNV], “And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. When someone asks you for something, give it to Him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him.” Christ is commanding us to take action now, not to wait for the Millennium age or the establishment of His Kingdom to take such action. In my humble opinion, that is why we are given assurance, as we see in RO 8: 16-18 of His love for those who will live the lifestyle He has given us. “God’s Spirit joins Himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children. Since we are His children, we will possess the blessings He keeps for His people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for Him; for if we share Chris’s suffering, we will also share His glory. I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at will with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.”
We who believe in Jesus Christ (my “Yeshua Ha-Meshia Adonai” in Hebrew and “Christ, Messiah Who is God” in English) can take enormous eternal comfort in the truth that while He has asked us to live the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle today, He has also equipped us to do that. Furthermore, we can celebrate the fact that our God Who never lies has promised us that if we will take that hard path through the narrow gate, we will be richly rewarded for eternity and will rule jointly over the Kingdom with Jesus Christ- the “first among many brothers” [RO 8: 29] to be resurrected [returned to God’s side for an eternal life of joy and bliss]. Dear Ones, that is a goal that worth our effort!
PRAYER: O Lord, we stand before You as imperfect sinners who simply can’t live the lifestyle to which we have been commanded on our own. Our need for Your Spirit to join with ours and to take leadership in our lives is real and palpable. Through the death of Your only Son on the cross, You take the lock off of that narrow gate and enable us to walk that hard path that is the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle. You have given us Your Spirit to guide us, and through Your most excellent grace, You have saved us from spiritual death. The faith we have is part of Your gift to us; the Holy Spirit is the other part. Yes, Dearest Abba, we can still sin, but because of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, we now have the choice not to sin. Christ has told us in MT 5: 5 [KJV], “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” We come before Your altar to express our dedication to being humble. We acknowledge the many blessings You give us and stand in awe of You-both for Your marvelous attributes and for Your loving and compassionate deeds. Long ago, You inspired King Solomon to write in PR 3: 5-6 [KJV], “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct they paths.” Other Bible versions say the same thing in more modern language. We dedicate ourselves to putting our lives in Your very capable hands. We know that You have promised never to abandon us [IS 49: 14-16; 2 COR 3: 8-10; PS 9: 9-12; PS 16: 8-11; HE 13: 5-6], and we believe You. We live in an increasingly evil world, Dearest Abba, but You have fitted us to avoid being sucked into its wrongful and horrific ways. We know it isn’t easy, but we will not waste the authority or the power You have given us to live in ways which please You. This, we pray in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
The Holy Spirit leads me to begin writing about how God transforms our hearts, so that today we can lead the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle in next week’s message. In the meanwhile, we can bask in the warmth of God’s grace, knowing that He has enabled us to obey His commands. When we take that hard path, we can know that God is pleased with us. One such path for me will be overcoming my abhorrence of anything violent to go see the Mel Gibson movie “The Passion of the Christ.” No one likes to see suffering, but seeing an accurate biblically-based depiction of the suffering that Christ did for all of us will give us some inkling of the extent of the sacrifice that He and the Father have made for us. None of us is without sin, so none of us deserve the grace He gives us [RO 3: 23]. And yet, He has offered us reconciliation [RO 6: 9-11], uncountable blessings, justification [RO 4: 3, 23-25], His Spirit to dwell within us [JN 14: 16-17], and the hope of a blissful eternal life with Him [HE 6: 18-20]. Now, that’s love in my book! How many of us would do the same for our enemies? For we were His enemies when all this was done for us. Revel in the knowledge that our supreme and sovereign God loves each of us dearly. Remember RO 8: 28, “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love Him, those whom He has called according to His purpose.”
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn