Bible Study Column
The Sermon on the Mount for Today
G. H. Lang
The Sermon on the Mount is for present Christian application. Proofs of this are as
follows:
I. The
Discourse is addressed specifically to "disciples" (Matt. iv. 25; v. 1,
2).
For the notion that the Lord spake on the supposition that those disciples were
representative of the Remnant of Israel of the end days not a line of Scripture can be
adduced, and it is decisively negatived by three considerations.
1. The Word of God shows that the
Remnant will not have believed that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah they await until they
actually see Him. For it is "in that day" in which He saves the tents of
Judah" and "seeks to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem,"
it is in that day that the Remnant will first mourn concerning Him Whom their
nation pierced, and will first have recourse unto the fountain to be opened in that same
day for sin and for uncleanness (Zech. xii. 7-xiii. 1). As their sorrow and faith do
not arise until they see His pierced form it is clear that they had not been His disciples
during the days preceding; therefore precepts for disciples of Christ are not addressed to
them.
2. The Lord, when speaking to the
disciples then gathered on the mountain, knew perfectly that in about three years only
these very men and women would for ever lose before God their Jewish standing, and would
form the commencement of that new Society, the Church of God, the building of which was
already in His mind and plan (Matt. xvi. 18). How then could He rightly address them
as representing a company of Jews with which He, on His part, knew they would have nothing
to do?
3. At the time (say twenty to thirty years
after Pentecost) when Matthew sent out this Gospel to be read by the Christian community,
the name "disciple" had an established Christian application and applied to
Christians only. The terms "disciple" and "Christian" were
synonymous: "the disciples were called Christians" (Acts
xi. 26). Therefore the first readers of this report of the Discourse would naturally
take the well-known term in its then only meaning, and, in the absence of special
direction to the contrary, would have no reason at all for giving it any other meaning.
At what point in their personal history did the Apostles, addressed by Christ,
become entitled to say, From this hour we are free from obligation to practise the
earliest of the precepts which the Lord gave us?
If any one professes to be a disciple
of Christ, the onus is upon him to prove that a discourse addressed to disciples is not
addressed to him.
II. All the conditions of
society and of life contemplated in the Discourse apply throughout this present age.
It is a period of mourning (V. 4); of strife, for "blessed are the peacemakers"
(v. 9); of persecution specifically for Christ's sake (vs. 10, 11).* It is an age of
corruption, against which the disciple is to act as salt (vs. 13); and of darkness, in
which he is to be the light (vs. 14-16). Adultery and divorce are known (vs. 27-32);
violence and official oppression are met (vs. 38-42); there is opportunity and call to
show love unto enemies (vs. 43-48). It is an era of poverty, for almsgiving is
encouraged (vi. 2-4).
Prayer is a necessity for daily matters the Evil One is at large to attack; the disciple
must practise forgiveness for wrongs received (vi. 5-15). Fasting is in vogue (vi.
16-18), showing that the Bridegroom is still absent (Mark ii.18-20). Moreover, these
godly practices are regulated because, in the time contemplated, they are means by which
Hypocrites gain a reputation for sanctity.
Further, it is an age in which men lay
up treasures on earth, and so continue earth-bound in heart, and disciples also may fall
into this snare, and (Demas-like) be worshippers of Mammon (vi.19-24). Anxiety as to
the necessities of life is possible, and particularly as to
It is a day in which we may misjudge, and be hypocritical (vii. 1-5).
"Dogs" and "swine" are about (vii. 6). Disciples are yet in a
narrow way, and are only a small minority among men (vii. 13, 14). There are false
prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing, trees bringing forth rotten fruit (vii.15-20).
There are those who profess discipleship, saying, Lord ! Lord! but who are workers of
lawlessness, self-willed (vii. 21-23). It is a time in which men are left free to
obey or disobey the words of Christ, as they choose; and His final valuation of their
life-work will be according to such obedience or disobedience (vii. 24-27).
Each and all of these conditions were
existing in Christ's day; each and all have existed continuously ever since, and will
continue to obtain down to the close of this age, at the Lord's return to the earth.
Therefore these precepts are needful and suitable throughout this whole age.
Moreover, not one of these conditions will be found in the Millennial Kingdom, which shows
conclusively that the precepts do not apply to that happy era, when men "shall dwell
securely, and none shall make them afraid" (Ezek. xxxiv. 28).
III. But as if to put beyond the possibility of doubt that He was giving
instructions for this age, not for the Kingdom age, Christ bade disciples to pray,
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth" (vi.
10). The Discourse, therefore, applies to the period whilst the kingdom has not come
and God's will does not yet rule men on earth.
And a second consideration like unto this is, that during the era contemplated the reward
of disciples for fidelity is yet in heaven, and not yet received (v.12), even as Peter long after this wrote
concerning "an inheritance" still "reserved in heaven"(1Pet. 1. 4).
And a third similar, and equally conclusive, feature is that the Discourse regards the
judgment of the Lord upon the works of disciples as still in the future: indeed, it
has as a main object the instructing them how they may so live as that their
life-structure shall endure the severe testings of that judgment. For it is to be
much observed that the parable of the houses built on rock or sand does not at all raise
the question of the destruction or salvation of the builders, but is confined to the
enduring or collapsing of their work, that is, the "house," the character, the
life-business, upon which each had laboured.
IV. (a) The last evening of
His intercourse with the disciples before He suffered the Lord devoted to instruction
designed to fit them for the mighty task to which they would very shortly be sent, even
the preaching the gospel to the whole creation.
The most important element in this
preparatory instruction concerned His sending to them the Spirit of truth; and of all the
supernatural aid which the Spirit should afford them this was that which Christ first
mentioned, that "He shall teach you all things, and bring to your Remembrance all
that I said unto you" (John xiv.26). This necessarily included the Sermon on the
Mount.
(b)After His resurrection the Lord cast
their commission into the well-known triple command that they were (1) to make
disciples: (2) to immerse in water those who were ready to profess discipleship:
(3) to teach these "to observe all things whatsoever I commanded
you" (Matt. xxviii. 18-20). "All things" would have sufficed;
"all things whatsoever" is emphatic. By what right would some have us
virtually to read these words thus: "teach them to observe all things
whatsoever I commanded you except the Sermon on the Mount?" If the
Apostles had not taught their converts to observe thesecommandments they would not
have fulfilled their commission.
(c)But it is conclusive on this point
that the Apostles did in fact teach all Christians to observe all Christ's precepts, and
that for inculcating the Christian spirit and enforcing Christian practice they employed
largely this very Discourse.
A comparison of the following groups of passages will reveal this.
(1) Matt. v.5; xi. 29; Eph. iv. I, 2 ; Jas. i. 21,
iii.13; I Pet. iii. 4, 15, 16.
(2) Matt. v. 11, 12 ; I Pet. iv. 13, 14, i.
4.
(3) Matt. v. 14 ; Phil. ii. 15.
(4) Matt. v. 16 ; I Pet. ii.12.
(5) Matt. v. 34-37; Jas. v. 12.
(6) Matt. vi. 44-48 ; Acts. vii. 6o; Rom. xii. 20; I Cor.
iv. 12 ; I Pet. iii. 9.
(7) Matt. vi.
(8) Matt. vii.1, 2 ; Rom. xiv.4, 10, 13 ; I Cor. iv. 5;
Jas.v.
(9) Matt. vii.15 ; I John. iv. 1; 2 Pet. ii. 1.
(10) Matt.Vii. 24-27 ; I Cor. iii.10-15.
Thus it is plain that the Holy Spirit
was to remind the Apostles of all that the Lord had taught them, and that He did this;
and then that they were to teach their converts to obey all things whatsoever Christ had
commanded themselves, and that they did this.
Two facts are specially noteworthy.
First, that the Apostles in discharging this duty quoted so largely and literally
from the words of the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore he who sets aside the precepts
of the Sermon will inevitably disregard the precepts of the Epistles. Surely
here is explanation of laxity as regards the practical instructions of the latter part of
the Epistles, even by some whose minds are immersed in the doctrinal openings of the same.
Second, It is highly significant that
Paul quotes so freely from Christ, and from this early Discourse in particular. This
negatives in the most direct manner every attempt to divide his epistles from the Gospels.
The theory that his writings are for the Church of God, and that the rest of the
New Testament is "Jewish," refuses to square with the fact before us, as well as
with the further fact, evidenced by the above quotations, that Peter, John, James and Paul
alike adorn and enforce their teachings from the one common source, the sayings of their
one Lord and Teacher. So far was Paul from relegating to Jews the utterances of the
Lord, or suggesting that Christians were not under direct obligation to obey His precepts,
that it was with a saying of the Lord's that he concluded and emphasized his farewell
instructions to the elders of the church at Ephesus, saying: "Ye ought ...
to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said" (Acts xx. 35).
And what is remarkable is that he then quotes a sentence not recorded in the
Gospels, thus showing that in his judgment any and every saying authenticated as
from Christ ought to be rememmembered and obeyed by Christians. At that time
there were, of course, many sayings known on sufficient, first-hand authority to be from
Christ. Now our only, but entirely adequate, record of His words is in the New
Testament. Collateral proof that the above was the attitude of the early Church to
the sayings of the Lord is the fact that it continued to be the attitude of the
sub-Apostolic days. (See Westcott, Canon of N,T., 99, 208, note 5).
And we may ask, How otherwise shall we,
His disciples, avoid His reproachful question, "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not
the things which I say?"(Luke vi. 46).
V. This Sermon is in
reality a full-length portrait of Christ Himself, drawn by His own hand. He Himself
was the complete embodiment of the character delineated in the Beatitudes, and Himself
practised perfectly the precepts here enunciated. He, in divine degree, was the salt
of the earth; He, in heavenly splendour, was the light of the world. It is in His
own conduct that we may best learn how to apply the principles of life, and to obey the
precepts He laid down.
Peter summarises His life, and very much of this Discourse, in these words:
"Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: Who, when He was
reviled, reviled not again: when He suffered threatened not; but committed Himself
to Him that judgeth righteously." The Apostle declares that in all this Christ
was "leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps"
(I Pet. ii. 21-23).
Whoever follows Christ's steps will thereby be a practiser of this Sermon, and whoever
refuses obedience to these precepts will not follow Christ's steps, nor will be like Him
in character or ways.
VI.
That a key was intended for a given lock may be inferred from it fitting accurately
and turning easily. That Christ intended this Discourse for disciples all through
this age may be seen in its perfect adaptation to their needs.
To illustrate. A Christian soldier is liable to be required to do what Christ
forbids, for example, to deceive the enemy by trickery or lying. He breaks the law
of God by obeying, or he violates his oath of obedience, taken in the name of God, by
disobeying, thus becoming liable to military penalties and to the still more solemn
sentence, "Jehovah will not hold him guiltless who taketh His name in vain"
(Exod. xx. 7: Deut. v. 11). From this dreadful and inevadable dilemma Christ showed
the way of escape by the injunction, "Swear not at all (Matt. v. 33-37).
Or consider how exactly suitable to the Christian are both the warnings against anxiety
and the encouragements to trust in God as Father (chap. vi.). What child of God can afford
to lose this most precious passage in the interests of a dispensational theory?
VII. The class of persons
to whom this Discourse applies is clearly discerned from the place in which it came in the
sequence and development of our Lord's teaching.
His earliest recorded instruction is that a man must be born from above ere God, and His
realm and its life, can be known (John. iii.). To the now regenerated believer
Christ adds that not life simply, but life in abundance is available; in such abundance as
that of a perpetually flowing spring, which welling up within the believer, by the
indwelling Spirit, affords increasing satisfaction, of heavenly quality and degree (John
iv.). The next discourse shows that he who is thus filled with the Spirit, and so
weaned from resort to worldly streams of pleasure, will be able to appreciate Jesus as the
Son of God, and to understand much of His relationship with the Father in His coequality
in the Godhead (John v.). This one will be an overcomer of the world, instead of
being conquered by it (1 John v. 4, 5).
This spiritual progress is undeniably that of the class of believer upon the Son of God
contemplated everywhere in the writings of John, that is, the Christian. Now it is
here chronologically that the Sermon on the Mount belongs. It was to disciples
already led to this point that it was addressed.
The disciple who has been brought as far as this experimentally will feel no
reluctance towards the practising of these commands. For to one daily feeding upon
Christ these precepts will be simple and suitable: he will adopt them
naturally. The Sermon on the Mount is a description in precepts of the outworking of
the indwelling Christ into the practice of the believer.
The desire to set aside the three first Gospels as being Jewish not Christian, in their
application, may be traced to two causes.
(1) The prophetic teachings of our
Lord cannot be fitted into certain schemes of exposition concerning the privileges of the
Church of God and the resurrection and rapture of its members. If it is to be held
that every Christian, apart altogether from his moral state, must inevitably share the
first resurrection, and the honour of inheriting the Kingdom with Christ, and that this
resurrection and rapture must necessarily be before
Again, if it is to be held that only
Paul's Church Epistles are addressed directly to the Church of God for its particular
instruction, and that Peter, Jude, James and John wrote their epistles and the Apocalypse
to or concerning "Jewish" believers, then also it isimperative that the three
Gospels also should be "Jewish," and very particularly that of Matthew.
But if it is the case-as we believe we
have before proved-that the very beginning of Matthew's Gospel, even this principal,
characteristic and germinal Discourse, certainly is addressed to Christians for their
obedience, then it will be very hard (that we say not impossible) to show that the
remainder of the Lord's instructions and parables are not for Christians.
(2) The second reason for seeking to
avoid the present-day application of the Sermon is that its precepts make exacting
demands, not pleasing to the carnal or natural man in a Christian. The Discourse
silently presupposes that a disciple is a person who has resolutely determined to bear his
own cross, go outside the city, and be crucified with Christ, rather than endure the smile
of the world that scowled onhis
beloved Lord.
That great saint and disciple, George
Muller of Bristol, early learned the value to
"WHOSOEVER IS WILLING TO ACT OUT
these commandments of the Lord LITERALLY will, I believe, be led with me to see that, to
take them LITERALLY, is the will of God. Those who do so take them will
doubtless be often brought into difficulties, hard to the flesh to bear, but these will
have a tendency to make them constantly feel that they are strangers and pilgrims here,
that this world is not their home, and thus to throw them more upon God, who will
assuredly help us through any difficulty into which we may be brought by seeking to act in
obedience to His word!"
The rich fruitfulness of Mr. Muller's life proved that he inherited the blessing of the
doer of the Lord's words.
We conclude by observing that the
commands given are intended for the practice of the type of person sketched in the
Beatitudes. Hence the futility of setting forth the Discourse as binding upon
nations. How can "wild beasts" (Dan.vii.) behave like "sheep"
(Matt. x. 16)? No unregenerate or unspiritual heart can keep these precepts.
"A pure heart," said Tauler,"is one to which all that is not of God is
strange and jarring." Let us then give good heed to the exhortation to "cleanse
ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of
God" (2 Cor. vii. 1). So shall we be able to sing with truth and joy,
"My gracious Lord, I own Thy right
To every service I can pay,
And count it my supreme delight
To hear Thy dictates and obey."
So shall we build upon the rock, and
our work be approved by the Lord in that day.
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