God Gives Us a New Heart

Before you start todays devotional, ask the Lord to use it to grow you up in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Many think the Sermon on the Mount is a guidebook for the way we are to live today. But to be truthful, it’s a standard we just can’t live up to. Let’s look at it one more time from a higher perspective.

God’s Word gives us three great systems by which God has governed and rules mankind.

The first is the Law given to Moses, including the Ten Commandments. This Law didn’t save people, it just convinced them they were sinners. At the heart of the Law was a sacrificial system, pointing to the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. God never forgave sin apart from a sacrifice.

As a radical departure from Moses’ Law, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus explained a way to live, yet future. This sermon takes the Law to another level. Jesus says if you’re angry with your brother, you’re guilty of murder. He says if you so much as look at a woman to commit adultery in your thoughts, then you’re guilty of it. This was a new thought. Jesus was looking to a time still future when He will reign as King.

Today, Jesus calls us to a third system—an Age of Grace, under the power of the Holy Spirit. Since you are not saved by anything you do, we need not follow a law or make sacrifices. You are not a Christian until you believe the gospel, “…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

The Sermon on the Mount gives people a veneer of “religiousness” even when their heart hasn’t changed. As a result, people talk about how we should all be brothers and how God is everyone’s Father, but the Lord Jesus never said that. In fact, He told the religious rulers of His day that their father was the devil (John 8:44).

No matter how hard the world tries to live in a spirit of brotherly love and peace, it knows nothing but turmoil. Why? Because we have desperate heart trouble and exercise and diet just won’t help. We need Jesus, not jogging! Only He can give us new hearts.

The law can’t produce love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. It’s not in us to naturally love the Lord Jesus Christ or others on our own.

Someday, the principles Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount will be reality. The poor in spirit will have the kingdom of heaven. The meek will inherit the earth. That’s for a future day when a King comes who was the meekest man that ever walked this earth. But then He will come with great power and glory, and He will reign in righteousness. When He does, we’ll live under the law of the kingdom.

But how are we to live today? By the power of His Spirit! When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce fruit in us. He will enable us to live and love and serve God with a new heart.

1. What does it mean to “live in the age of grace”? How would you respond to people saying we are supposed to keep the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount?

2. What was the purpose of the Law and the sacrifices God commanded in the Old Testament if they couldn’t save people?

3. How does regeneration, being born again, change how we should think about our ability to keep God’s commands?

Additional Resources

Listen to Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s complete teachings on Mathew 5:1-5 and Matthew 5:5-48.