I just read remarks by a Christian artist who talked about how a reading of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' teachings recounted in Matthew, chapters 5 to 7, had led him to sorrow and repentance.
God does that through His Word, of course. But He always does it to lead us back to Him, His grace, and His forgiveness, to dependence on Him and His finished good works--Christ's death and resurrection--done for us. (Always remember, the work of making us right with God--justification--and maturing us in that rightness--sanctification--is God's work, not ours.)
Anyway, I responded to the artist's Facebook post with these comments.
The Sermon on the Mount isn't a new law. It's a description of what the life that is being transformed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ looks like.
Jesus says, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29) When we believe in Jesus, He will be at work doing the Sermon on the Mount through us in ways that we will likely not know (Matthew 25:31-46).
Daily repent and be renewed in His grace, to be sure.
But we can live in the freedom of the Gospel.
I like Paul's words in Ephesians: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:8-10)
Follow Jesus today. He'll do the good works He wants to do through you if you'll just do that. Chill in His grace.
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