Sermon on the Mount: 12th Blessing
MATTHEW 7:21-27
CHRISTIAN COMMITMENT / A RADICAL CHOICE
It is not only false prophets and false teachers who make the narrow way difficult to find and even harder to walk. A man may also be grievously self-deceived.
Jesus confronts us with Himself and sets before us the radical choice between obedience and disobedience, and calls us to an unconditional commitment of mind, will, and life to His teaching. The way he does it is to warn us of two unacceptable alternatives. The first is a mere verbal profession as described in verses 21-23. The second is a mere intellectual knowledge of Him as seen in verses 24-27. Neither of these can be a substitute for obedience.
Nothing can take the place of active and practical daily obedience.
THE DANGER OF A MERE VERBAL PROFESSION
Jesus insists that our final reward will be settled not by what we are saying to Him today or what we say to Him tomorrow, but by whether we do what we say, by whether our verbal profession is coupled with moral obedience.
A verbal profession of Christ is indispensable. In order to be saved, wrote the apostle Paul, we have to confess with our lips and believe in our hearts (Romans 10:9-10). A true profession of Jesus as Lord and Savior is impossible without the Holy Spirit which acts as the agent of the Father’s drawing of our hearts. None can otherwise come (1st Cor 12:3).
The reason that Jesus allows this teaching is to show that some have verbal profession but not moral acceptance of His teaching. Their spiritual existence is concerned with lips only, not their life. They called Jesus “Lord” but never submitted to His Lordship. The vital difference is between saying and doing.
THE DANGER OF MERE INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE
The previous contrast was between saying and doing. Now the next contrast is between hearing and doing. On one hand Jesus says there is the person who hears His words and does them and on the other hand is the person who hears His words but does not do them. He illustrates this difference with a small parable of the two builders. One was a wise man who dug deep to build his house and made the foundation to rest on solid rock. The other was a foolish builder who could not be bothered with foundations and built his house on sand. The difference was the foundation, and it is important to note that foundations are not seen after a house is built. Only when a storm came and battered both houses was the fatal difference of the foundations revealed. One house stood, and the other fell.
The real question is not whether they hear Christ’s teaching but whether they do what they hear. Like the two houses, only a storm of life will reveal the spiritual foundation and how it was set.
This is not to be interpreted as Jesus teaching the way of salvation is through works. He does not teach us that the way to enter the kingdom is found in works. The entire New Testament offers us the truth of salvation found only through grace by faith. What Jesus is stressing is that those who truly hear the gospel and profess faith will always obey Him, expressing their faith in good works which are proof of the obedience of the heart.
In applying this teaching to ourselves, we need to consider that the Bible is a dangerous book to read, and that the true church is a dangerous society to join. Our membership lays upon us the most serious responsibility or ensuring that what we know and what we say is translated into what we do.
The Sermon ends on the same radical choice that has been presented to us in every part of it. We have become aware of how radical these choices are. Jesus does not set before His followers a string of easy ethical rules, so much as a set of values and ideals, which is far away from those of the world. We have heard His call in every verse of our study that we who follow Him must be different from everybody else.
Our righteousness is to be deeper because it reaches into the heart and our love is to be broader because it includes loving even our enemies. The treasure we choose endures through eternity and will never fade for our master is God, not mammon (money or possessions). Our ambition (what occupies our minds) is not found in material security but in our part in spreading the Word and it’s special righteousness in the world.
Here then is the alternative, either to follow the crowd or to follow or Father in heaven. The overriding purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to present us with this alternative, and so to face us with the necessity of our choice.
Which road will we travel? On which foundation will we build?
