6 Words That Will Change Your LifeSample

It’s uncomfortable for me to listen to preachers who think that the Sermon on the Mount is some feel good, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps sermon. The words of Jesus go straight for the jugular and illuminate our utter depravity with the white hot glare of God’s holiness. Because staring into the Son that day would have provided a retina-burning view of the stark reality that you were a sinner on the highway to hell—no ifs, ands or buts about it. 

Jesus was basically saying… 

“If you’ve ever lusted, you’re an adulterer.” 

“If you’ve ever hated, you’re a murderer.” 

“If you don’t love your enemy, you’re a sinner.” 

“If you’re not as righteous as God, you’re going to hell.” 

In just one short sermon, Jesus illuminates the law fully, and our depravity completely. Going beyond the words on the pages of the Torah, he brings to light the Ten Commandments’ meaning, their full intent and the ultimate consequences of failing to keep them perfectly. 

Personally, it was this very reality that prepared me to hear the gospel. When I was just a kid, I had heard some preacher or Sunday school teacher say that I had to confess my sins to be saved. I thought if I missed one, I would be going straight to hell. So I would confess all the sins that an eight-year-old could remember.  

But God used the frustration and conviction that the law stirred up in my soul to prepare me for the message of grace. The guilt trip I was on packed my bags for the grace trip Jesus wanted to take me on. 

Just recently, I was talking to a young Muslim in a Starbucks. After talking with him for a bit, I shared about how much God loved him. He responded to me by explaining that Allah would only love him if he was good. I took him to the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 about the price of admission into heaven. The more I explained that God looks at our internal thoughts and motives, and not just our external actions, the more nervous he got.   

Then I shared with him the good news of what Jesus did for him on the cross 2,000 years ago. While he didn’t trust in Jesus that day, my prayer is that someday he will. 

The Sermon on the Mount pushes us off the cliff. But it’s only so we know that we need to be rescued.