We’ve been working through Matthew 5, 6 & 7 at our family Bible study. It’s where Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount, which famously contains the Beatitudes. It’s so good to be able to teach my children the true context of Christ’s whole sermon so that they don’t accidentally grow up religious. So many believers are earnestly trying to do all the RED LETTERS of Jesus without rightly dividing the Word, which is to put them in their rightful context and Covenant. If you truly understood what Christ was trying to achieve with the Sermon on the Mount you could sum it all up with this:
Jesus + anything = nothing.
Jesus + nothing = everything!
Jesus wasn’t preaching to the Church or New Covenant believer, He was preaching to religious Israel who were under the law and seeking to be righteous by works. He was showing them how impossible it is to enter into heaven by your own works, and until we realise that, we will never reach out to a saviour and receive Christ by faith. Jesus heightened the law to include not just their external behaviour but to expose the internal sin and hypocrisy of their hearts that they thought they were getting away with. He was showing that UNLESS we come to God bankrupt, empty and spiritually poor with a revelation that we have nothing to offer God in achieving our own righteousness and salvation, THEN we are not yet ready to receive a saviour.
Christ was TRANSITIONING Israel out of a WORKS mentality into a FAITH mentality. From Moses as a temporary deliverer to Christ as an eternal saviour. It is crucial to see this if you want to understand the Sermon on the Mount.
Those who truly understand these words of Christ will wisely build their life on the Rock which is Christ. Those who don’t will build their life on works and everything they built will be swept away.
I’m glad my children are learning these things now. It sets them up for a lifetime of understanding grace and recognising religion.

 

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