Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

CHAPTER

Thus the defective doctrine of sin and the shallow idea of joy, working together, of necessity produce a superficial kind of person and a very inadequate kind of Christian life.

The Christian is not under the law in that respect; his salvation does not depend upon his keeping of it.

Look at Him; and the more we look at Him, the more hopeless shall we feel by ourselves, and in and of ourselves, and the more shall we become `poor in spirit'. Look at Him, keep looking at Him.

It is because the law has been written in our minds and our hearts that we are anxious to fulfil it, and are enabled to do so.

We are children of God and citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Because of that, we have to manifest the characteristics of such people. We do this in order to manifest His glory, and so that others may be brought to glorify Him.

The first and, in a sense, the basic charge against them is that their religion was entirely external and formal instead of being a religion of the heart.

Man has been so made by God that he cannot truly live unless he is in the right relationship to God. He was made like that. He was made by God; he was made for God. And God has put certain rules in his nature and being and existence, and unless he conforms to them he is bound to go wrong.

Christ endured the cross, and despised the shame `for the joy that was set before him'? It was by looking beyond it to what was coming that He endured.