the case of a sinning believer, the Spirit will operate by producing conviction, hatred for his sin, and
The Nature of True Faith
of the law as well (vv. 21 – 48). This kind of righ teous ness does not merely avoid acts of adultery; it goes so far as to avoid adulterous thoughts. It eschews hatred the same as murder.
If you see that God's standard is higher than you can possibly attain, you are on the road to the blessedness Jesus spoke of in the Beatitudes. It begins with the humility that grows out of a sense of utter spiritual poverty, the knowledge that we are poor in spirit. And it consummates inevitably in righ teous obedience. Those are characteristics of a supernatural life. They are impossible apart from faith, and it is impossible that someone with true faith might be utterly lacking these characteristics that are common to everyone in the kingdom (Matt. 5:3).
When Jesus wanted to illustrate the character of saving faith, He took a little child, stood him in the midst of the disciples, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). A child was the perfect picture of obedient humility,19 an object lesson about saving faith.
Jesus used this illustration to teach that if we insist on retaining the privileges of adulthood — if we want to be our own boss, do our own thing, govern our own lives — we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. But if we are willing to come on the basis of childlike faith and receive salvation with the humility of a child, with a willingness to surrender to Christ's authority, then we are coming with the right attitude.
Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish" (John 10:27 – 28, emphasis added). Who are the true sheep? The ones who follow. Who are the ones who follow? The ones who are given eternal life.
Faith obeys. Unbelief rebels. The direction of one's life should reveal whether that person is a believer or an unbeliever. There is no middle ground.20 Merely knowing and affirming facts apart from obedience to the truth is not believing in the biblical sense. Those who cling to the memory of a one-time decision of "faith" but lack any evidence of the outworking of faith had better heed the clear and solemn warning of Scripture: "He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36).
19. Children, of course, do not always obey. But they are under the authority of another, and when they disobey, they are chastened.
20. Again, this is not to deny the obvious truth that Chris tians can and do fall into sin. But even in the case of a sinning believer, the Spirit will operate by producing conviction, hatred for his sin, and some kind of desire for obedience. Th e idea that a true believer can continue in unbroken disobedience from the moment of conversion, without ever producing any righ teous fruit whatsoever, is foreign to Scripture.
The Promise of Justifi cation
ithout a doubt, the most unsettling aspect of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount was this shocking statement: "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48).
If the gauge of righ teous ness is absolute perfection, what hope is there for anyone?
The people listening to Jesus that day believed that the scribes and Pharisees were the embodiment of the highest human righ teous ness. And in a sense they were — they held to the strictest imaginable legalistic standards. Here is how the apostle Paul chronicled his life as a Pharisee: "Circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righ teousness which is in the Law, found blameless" (Phil. 3:5 – 6). The Pharisees fasted, prayed, abstained from questionable practices, paid tithes, gave alms, memorized Scripture — and even devised their own rigid laws that went beyond what God had commanded in Scripture.
Yet Jesus said, "Unless your righ teous ness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20, emphasis added). If you believe that establishes an impossible standard, you have understood the message.
Remember the rich young ruler? He was a Pharisee who evidently believed he had kept the law as completely as humanly possible. After he walked away unbelieving, Jesus told His disciples, "It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19:23). What was their response? Astonished, they asked Him, "Then who can be saved?" (v. 25).
Jesus' reply was, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Salvation is impossible for sinful humanity. We have no redeeming resources of our own. We cannot atone for our sins. We cannot even believe without God's sovereign enablement (John 6:44, 65); we cannot conjure up faith out of the human will. And we certainly cannot live up to God's standard of perfect righ teous ness.