What Is God’s Purpose for My Life? The Sermon on the Mountናሙና

Day 2: Christ’s Standards for Discipleship

Jesus has already made his followers radically rethink their relationship with God:

• He has redefined the nature of what it means to be blessed by God.
• He has called his disciples to be public examples of a kind of devotion that starkly contrasted the way religion was most often practiced in his day.

And he was about to spend the rest of the Sermon going even farther in that direction.

It’s important to pause here and say that Jesus’ teaching doesn’t cancel out the Old Testament. Rather, with authority, he’s showing his audience a new, deeper understanding.

And, for context, the Pharisees and scribes were similar to present-day priests or seminary graduates. They were Jewish theological scholars but also had considerable authority over the Jews. Jesus often fell into conflict with them since they believed Jesus was breaking the laws of the Old Testament.

The way they taught the Law and Prophets created a system of works righteousness rather than encouraging a closer relationship with the Lord. Ultimately, the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders often came down to a fundamental disagreement on the purpose of the law. Paul speaks to this issue in his letter to the Galatian church (Galatians 3:21–24).

While we want to save ourselves by following rules, we simply cannot. Faith requires an understanding of our own weakness, and when we relax the truth of God’s word to make it more accommodating to others or twist our interpretation in order to disregard the parts we don’t like, then it becomes more difficult to fully appreciate our need for the Lord.

Jesus concludes this passage by warning, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

Ask yourself: How would you describe the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? What would it look like to exceed that?

Ultimately, this saying means we can’t keep God’s commandments without God’s help. The standards that Jesus establishes in the Sermon on the Mount can seem impossibly high because they are. But the inevitability of our failure is not a reason for discouragement or for relaxing those standards. Rather, it’s meant to serve as a constant reminder of our need for the Lord and keep us walking close to him.

Close with prayer, asking God to help you embrace your need, cast your cares and flaws on him, and know that he’s faithful to forgive you when you do. Ask the Lord to help you rely on him as you work in accordance with his will. Ask him for specific convictions over sin and the renewed conviction to pursue a relationship with him. Ask him to reveal any legalism, self-righteousness, or people-pleasing.