The King Is Here!
2
The King Is Here!
A New Book
The Beatitudes are part of what we call the Sermon on the Mount, and the Sermon on the Mount is a part of the gospel of Matthew, the gospel of the King. If we are going to understand the message of the Beatitudes, then we are going to have to know something about both the gospel of Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 1:1 is a key verse: “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
The Old Testament is “the written account of Adam’s line” (Genesis 5:1), and, of course, Adam was the first king in human history. God blessed Adam and told him to “rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28). But those who cannot rule over themselves do not have a right to rule over others. That explains why God tested Adam, for if Adam was to be God’s king, he had to be under authority before he could exercise authority.
Adam failed, and his sin plunged the human race into depravity and death. When you read “the written account of Adam’s line,” you find failure in generation after generation. Abraham lied about his wife, and so did Isaac, his son. Jacob was a schemer, and Moses was a murderer. David was an adulterer and murderer. And these men were the spiritual leaders of the Jewish nation! No wonder the Old Testament ends with the ominous words, “or else I will come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4:6).
What a relief it is to turn to the gospel of Matthew and enter a new book, “the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). Here is God’s new king! And unlike the first Adam, Jesus Christ, the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45), obeyed God and was therefore able to exercise dominion. Because He was under authority, He was able to exercise authority. The first Adam was tested in a beautiful garden and failed, but the last Adam was tested in a dangerous wilderness, and triumphed. Because the first Adam was a thief, he was cast out of Paradise, but the last Adam turned to a thief on a cross and said, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). “The written account of Adam’s line” ends with a curse, but the “record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” ends with the promise: “No longer will there be any curse” (Revelation 22:3).
You and I were born the first time into “Adam’s line,” and that made us sinners and slaves. When you are born again through faith in Jesus Christ, you enter “the genealogy of Jesus Christ,” and you are born an heir of God and a king. “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” (Revelation 1:5–6). Because we belong to the family of the King, we “reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).
The gospel of Matthew presents Jesus Christ as God’s king. In the first ten chapters, Matthew answers the three questions most people would ask about a king: Where did He come from? What does He believe? What can He do? In Matthew 1–4, the person of the King is presented: His background, birth, baptism, and temptation. In those chapters we are assured that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, sent by the Father to be the Savior of the world. In Matthew 5–7, the Sermon on the Mount, we have the principles of the King: what He believes and what He wants to do in our lives. Chapters 8–10 reveal the power of the King and show us our Lord’s power over demons, disease, and even death. In other words, in Jesus Christ we have the perfect king. When you trust Him as your Savior, He sets you free from sin and judgment, and He enables you to reign in life as an heir of the King and enjoy His spiritual kingdom here and now.
A New Kingdom
But what kind of a kingdom do we share as we yield to Christ and reign in life? The answer to that question is given in the Sermon on the Mount. It is unfortunate that people rob this magnificent sermon of its importance by claiming that it applies only to the Jews or only to some future period in God’s prophetic plan. It is my conviction that the Sermon on the Mount applies to Christians today—and only to Christians. To apply it to unsaved nations is to twist the Scriptures, and to move it into some future age is to rob it of its spiritual power today. I might add that the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is not evangelism, although certainly the Spirit could use it to give light to a seeking sinner. (I had a Jewish friend who was converted reading the genealogy in Matthew 1, but I do not recommend you add the chapter to your tools for evangelism.) The Sermon on the Mount was given to explain to the disciples the kind of kingdom Jesus wants to build in the lives of His followers.
When our Lord began His ministry, there were several groups in Palestine that claimed to have the answer to Israel’s problems. The Pharisees clamed that the nation could experience freedom and blessing only if the people returned to the traditions of the fathers. The Sadducees, on the other hand, urged the people to update their religion and become more liberal. The Essenes taught that salvation would come only through separation from the world, so they established their own communities and remained outside the life of the nation. At the other extreme were Zealots, a revolutionary group that sought to overthrow Rome by revolt and force. Unwilling to wait for gradual change, the Zealots murdered and destroyed in the name of Jewish patriotism.
If you look deeply enough, you will see that we have similar groups today. We have those who cry, “Go back!” and attempt to return us to the “the good old days” of our fathers. Another group cries, “Go ahead!” and urges us to modernize and liberalize our religion and our philosophy of life. The radical extremists shout, “Go against!” and try to destroy vital institutions necessary for the strength and progress of society. The separatists say, “Go out!” and isolate themselves from the very people who may need their help. The names of the groups will change from generation to generation, but the basic aims are the same.
In contrast to all of these solutions to the human problem is what Jesus calls the “kingdom of God” or the “kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew seemed to prefer “kingdom of heaven,” probably because his Jewish readers would be afraid to pronounce the name of God.) In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus in effect says, “All of these approaches are right in some respects and wrong in other respects. Their chief weakness is that they are fragmentary; they each deal with a facet of truth but not with the whole of truth.”
For example, there is nothing wrong with the tradition of the fathers. But the Old Testament law was temporary; it was preparation for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. We should not duplicate the religion of Israel under the old covenant. Instead, we must let this Old Testament truth develop into New Testament truth through Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). The Old Testament law was the seed; the gospel of Christ is the fruit. You can destroy a seed by pulverizing it with a hammer or by planting it in the ground and letting it fulfill its purpose by becoming a plant. It destroys itself by fulfilling itself. This is how Jesus Christ fulfilled the law: He brought it to its fruition in His life, death, and resurrection, and now “the righteous requirements of the law [are] fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).
If the Pharisees wanted to hold on to the past and reject the present, the Sadducees went to the other extreme: They wanted to take the rational approach to life and sacrifice the authority of the Word on the altar of intellectual credibility. They were the modernists of their day. Jesus agreed with them that the Word must be a living reality today, but He rejected their anti-supernatural approach. “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits” (Acts 23:8). When the Sadducees tried to trip Jesus up with their theological questions, He swept them aside with one devastating statement: “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). It is through the Word of God and the power of God by His Spirit that believers today experience the reign of God in their lives. The Pharisees lost the present by trying to return to the past. The Sadducees lost the present by denying the past. Both were wrong.
Jesus would have sympathized with the Essenes in their desire for holy living, but He would have rejected their isolationism. If the Sermon on the Mount emphasizes anything, it is that sin is a matter of the heart and not merely outward action. People do not have to murder to be sinners; they only have to hate (Matthew 5:21–26). And they can carry hateful hearts into the desert wastes with them. Years ago, a religious college announced in its catalog: “Our campus is located forty miles from any known sin.” What a preposterous claim! The Sermon on the Mount emphasizes holy living, but not at the expense of the normal duties and demands of human life. A change in geography is no guarantee of an improvement in character.
As for the Zealots, Jesus chose one of their number to be one of His disciples: “Simon, who was called the Zealot” (Luke 6:15). Imagine selecting a political fanatic to be among the first disciples! No doubt Jesus admired their zeal and devotion, just as He certainly opposed their violent methods. He would say to Simon, “Yes, some things in ‘the establishment’ need to be destroyed, but not through hatred, violence, and human force. The weapons we use are not of the flesh; they are of the Spirit. It is not by killing others but by being willing to die yourself that you will establish God’s kingdom.”
The Sermon on the Mount has for its theme our Lord’s statement in Matthew 5:20: “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
A New Righteousness
What was wrong with the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? For one thing, they believed that holiness was a matter only of outward actions, and they ignored the inward attitudes of the heart. Their righteousness was only external, a safe system of dos and don’ts by which they could measure their spirituality. In one of His parables, Jesus had the Pharisee pray: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get” (Luke 18:11–12). Certainly there is nothing good about being an extortionist or an adulterer, and there is nothing bad about fasting or tithing. But if that is the whole of a person’s religion, he or she has nothing. And if people are proud of their religious activities to the point of looking down upon fellow sinners, then they are in bad condition spiritually.
In the Beatitudes Jesus teaches us that true righteousness is a matter of the heart. It has been well said: “The Beatitudes describe the attitudes that ought to be in the believer’s life.” What good are tithing, fasting, and outward obedience to rules and regulations if the heart is proud, critical, and condemning? Conduct must be based upon character. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
In Matthew 5:21–48 Jesus illustrates this basic principle that righteousness must be a matter of the heart. He takes some of the traditions of the elders and shows they are inadequate. “You shall not murder” involves much more than physical violence; hatred in the heart is the equivalent of murder with the hand. “You shall not commit adultery” involves much more than an immoral act. Cultivating the desire in the heart is the equivalent of adultery. The Sermon on the Mount goes much deeper than the Ten Commandments, for, with one exception (“You shall not covet”), the Ten Commandments deal only with outward actions, whereas the Sermon on the Mount deals with inward attitudes. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus not only breaks away the shell of pharisaic tradition that covered God’s law, but He also penetrates to the heart of that law and explains its deeper, spiritual meaning. The Word of God is like seed. The Pharisees put a “crust” of tradition around the seed so that it could not give life and bear fruit. Jesus breaks that crust and then opens the husk of the seed so the spiritual life can be fulfilled in us.
The Beatitudes, then, are a description of true righteousness in contrast to the false righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. If we are going to live like heirs of the King, then we must manifest this kind of character; and we can do it only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Interestingly enough, the Holy Spirit is not even mentioned in these chapters, yet it is obvious that believers could never in their own power attain this high level of Christian experience. “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3–4).
Not only were the Pharisees and scribes mistaken about righteousness and sin, but they were also mistaken in their motives for serving God, and Jesus deals with this error in Matthew 6. The Pharisees and scribes were religious in order to get the approval and praise of others. But true Christians have a greater motive than that: They live for the approval and praise of God. After all, if true righteousness is a matter of the heart and only God can see the heart, then only God can give the reward. “I am he who searches hearts and minds” (Revelation 2:23). Jesus warns us in Matthew 6 not to “do righteousness”—whether it be giving, fasting, or praying—in order to be seen of others. He says, “Live your life before the eye of God, not the eyes of others. Your Father sees in secret, and that is sufficient. If you live for the praise of others, you have your reward.”
The Beatitudes, then, are God’s description of Christian character, the kind of character that leads to right conduct. When the Pharisee wondered because Jesus did not go through the ceremonial washing of hands at dinner, Jesus said to him: “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you” (Luke 11:39–41). If there is dirty water coming out of the faucet, I do not buy a new faucet—I cleanse the cistern.
A New Challenge
In this book we will consider the Beatitudes individually, but there is truth to be gained by first considering them collectively. To begin with, the Beatitudes show us how to enter the kingdom. The first step is admitting my spiritual bankruptcy and having a humble, honest attitude toward myself. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” applies the ax to the very root of pharisaical pride and hypocrisy. “Blessed are they that mourn” deals with my attitude toward my sin; instead of criticizing the other person, I judge myself. “Blessed are the meek” deals with my attitude toward God: I am submissive to Him and not trying to impress Him with who I am or what I have done. When I “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” then God provides that righteousness in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Like the Pharisee Saul of Tarsus, I exchange my own self-righteousness for the grace-righteousness of Christ (Philippians 3:1–11).
But this is more than a commercial transaction, for the results can be seen in everyday life. Having received the righteousness of Christ, I can begin to manifest in my life the character of God. I become merciful instead of condemning; I seek to cultivate purity of heart; I become a peacemaker, not a troublemaker. As I grow to become more like Christ, I experience the kind of treatment He received when He was on earth—reviling, persecution, and false accusations. But because of His grace, I become salt and light in a world that is decayed and dark. Having entered the kingdom, it is now my privilege to enlarge the kingdom by applying His righteousness in the world about me.
This means that the Beatitudes are practically meaningless to the person who has never trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. They may illustrate an ideal, but that ideal can never be reached in human strength alone. But the person who begins with “blessed are the poor in spirit” should ultimately come to that place of trusting the Savior. “This is the one I esteem,” says the Lord, “he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).
The Beatitudes tell us how to enter and enlarge the kingdom, but they also tell us how to enjoy the kingdom. “Blessed are . . . for they will . . .” They will what? Just read the promises, and you will see how much believers enjoy from God when they seek to cultivate true Christian character. “Theirs is the kingdom”—authority. “They will be comforted”—encouragement. “They will inherit the earth”—provision for every need. “They will be filled”—satisfaction. “They will be shown mercy”—provision for ministry to others. “They will see God”—spiritual vision. “They will be called sons of God”—becoming more like God in daily life. There is a price to pay, but the results are well worth it.
Jesus Christ invites you and me into a life of enrichment and enlargement.
Will you and I pay the price?