Thursday Thoughts

Today in Bible Study we covered Matthew 5, the first part of the Sermon on the Mount. As a reminder, it is where you will find the Beatitudes - the “Blessed are…”


We sat at the feet of Matthew, the Apostle, as he spoke to us about the King of kings and Lord of lords. We have learned from the gospel of Matthew that God anointed Him as King, God anointed Him as Christ and Messiah, the promised ruler, the Lord of heaven and earth. And throughout the Beatitudes we see the standard by which those belonging to Christ are to live culminating in verse 48.

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

WHAT! Let me allow John MacArthur to sum it up beautifully!

This is the whole point of Christianity. The King comes and the King says here's the standard. And everybody says hopeless. That's exactly where you need to be. It's exactly where you need to be. I can't do it. You're right. There's no effort within human religion that can achieve it. What do I do? You do what people throughout all of redemptive history have done, you fall on your face before God and you say, "I can't do it. I cannot reach the standard, I cannot be perfect as God is perfect. What will I do? And God says, "Because of your penitence, because of your recognition of your inability I have made provision to give you the righteousness you need." Isn't that it? And when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and receive Him as Lord and Savior, you are given the righteousness of God so that now in the eyes of God you are as perfect as God is and He plants His Holy Spirit in you and love is shed abroad in your heart so that you can love on a transcendent level.

Now, you see, that's the manifesto of the King. And it leads us really to a Beatitude Attitude. It leads us back to the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. It leads us to being poor in spirit. What does that mean? Spiritually bankrupt and saying, "Well I fall horribly short." It leads us to mourning over our condition, to meekness and humility. It leads us to hunger and thirst for a righteousness we cannot achieve. And when we realize our spiritual poverty, and realize the sadness and sorrow of our condition and in meekness and a hunger and thirst for righteousness, then it says we receive the Kingdom, we are comforted, we inherit the earth and we're satisfied. God saves the broken penitent who knows he or she can't attain the standard.

So Jesus came, set a standard nobody could keep, dismantled the religion of Judaism and every other system of human religion. And left the sinner in total despair with nowhere to turn but to fall on his face before God and plead for God to give him a righteousness that would satisfy God. And that is the story of Christianity. Listen to this, God grants us the very righteousness He requires. He gives us the righteousness of Christ.

You say, "How can He do that? How can He do that? How can God just give the sinner the righteousness of Christ?" I'll tell you how, because He gave Christ the sinner's sin. He imputed to Jesus Christ our sins and He imputes to us Christ's righteousness. That was the message of the King. And some heard it and believed. Some did not and so it is, even until now.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

John 3:16