Does the teaching of Christ in the
Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) apply to the children of God today? I suggest
an affirmative answer to this question for reasons that I will now present.
In the passage referred to, the
Lord unfolds the moral character and principles that are to govern the action
and relation of His disciples in a time preceding the thousand-year reign of
Christ over the earth. It is plain that much of the Lord’s teaching has in view
a time of suffering, rejection, and persecution—conditions such as we know in
the present age, not those of the time when the glory of the kingdom fills the
earth. The kingdom in glory could not come without a people being prepared for
the Lord. The Lord’s teaching makes plain the moral character and holy
principles that govern those to whom the kingdom in reality belongs, whether
viewed in its aspect of present spiritual blessing, or of future manifestation
in glory in either the earthly or heavenly spheres.
The Lord’s rejection was a matter
of prophecy, with His ascension to God’s right hand and later coming in glory;
therefore an interval must be contemplated between His first coming as
"born King of the Jews" (Matt. 2:2) and the actual setting up of that
heavenly kingdom of which Daniel prophesied (7:13,14). What, then, did the
message mean that both John the Baptist and the Lord delivered, "The
kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7)?
First, it is evident that the King
Himself had come. His works of power witnessed to Him. He was Master over all
creation, and of Satan too. Yet He was rejected—"His own received Him
not" (John 1:11). Did this necessitate the postponement of the announced
kingdom, or put in abeyance what would have then been set up if He, the King,
had been treated otherwise? No, for there was the predetermined purpose of God
to be fulfilled in any case.
It was not His purpose to set up at
that time the kingdom in glory, for it could only come when the Son of Man
should come from heaven. The nation of Israel, because of their fleshly desires
and carnal interpretations, were entirely mistaken in their expectations. They
had missed God’s mind in at least one important feature as made known in the
Old Testament. This was one reason they saw no beauty in Jesus that they should
desire Him (Isa. 53:2), and in due time their cry was, "Away with
Him" (John 19:15). He was not the man to rule over them.
It seems clear then that no matter
what the Jews expected, it was not the kingdom in glory that was being
proclaimed as near. God’s purposes were in process of accomplishment, and the
test for Israel in particular, yet also for the world, at this juncture, was
not whether they would have the kingdom in glory but whether they would have
God’s King of that kingdom. He was rejected. Did that mean that the
kingdom He announced as at hand was pushed off into the distant future? No; it
came, now exists, and in the form that was according to the purpose of God for
that foreshadowed interval which continues until the coming of the Son of Man
in the clouds of heaven to take His own throne. In its present form, as fully
revealed in the Lord’s parables, it fills the interval of which we have spoken,
and then continues in its form of manifested glory and power in what is called
the kingdom of the Son of Man.
What is the present form of
the kingdom that fills this interval? Its moral character, governing principles,
and condition in various ways is what very largely made up the Lord’s teaching.
To this belong the mysteries of the kingdom, those similitudes found in the
parables, and "things new and old" (Matt. 13:52). The kingdom in this
form embraces all who profess allegiance to Christ. Such are responsible to
show conformity to the moral character that the King Himself made known in His
teaching concerning the kingdom. This is surely to find manifestation in and
among those who gather together unto His name—His disciples. To them in
particular the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) is addressed.
The kingdom of heaven was at hand
during the Lord’s ministry on earth. It actually came when in resurrection He
could proclaim that all power in heaven and on earth was His (Matt. 28:19,20),
though that still did not mean the immediate restoration of the kingdom to
Israel (Acts 1:6,7). For during the course of the kingdom that had now come in
there were other purposes to be fulfilled that were not made known until the
apostle Paul was raised up to reveal the mystery of Christ and the Church (Eph.
3:9,10). The kingdom of heaven is not the Church, which is the body of Christ,
but this Church is in the kingdom. The kingdom embraces Christendom, the sphere
of profession which may be real or not; but all true disciples of the
kingdom since Pentecost and until the rapture (1 Thess. 4:13-18) are in the
body of Christ which is the Church.
Now whatever may be the high and
heavenly calling and position of the Church as revealed by Paul, it remains
true that the assembly of those who are gathered together unto Christ’s name,
whether before or after the conversion and apostolic ministry of Saul/Paul, is
that company in which the kingdom should find manifestation in its moral and spiritual
features and holy principles as made known by the King. This remains true, no
matter what higher and more intimate relation Church truth makes known. In
fact, all the practical teaching of the Epistles is in agreement with and only
emphasizes that of the Lord Himself in relation to the character and conduct of
disciples of His kingdom. These teachings of the Lord may be too little
observed and heeded as applying to practical Christian walk by those who firmly
hold to the truth of the Church and Christ its Head in heaven. Surely we,
of all people, should show ourselves good citizens of the kingdom of the
heavens, "for our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens
(Phil. 3:20, JND). The following Scriptures make mention of the kingdom as
having a present application:Rom. 14:16-18; Eph. 5:5-10; Col. 1:13; 2 Pet.
1:10,11; Rev. 1:5,6,9.
With these considerations before
us, we may see that while parts of our Lord’s teaching may primarily relate to
Israel (Matt. 13:44), or to the nations (Matt. 13:47-50), or to the time after
the removal of the Church when another Jewish remnant will be raised up (Matt.
10:22,23; 24:3-32), or to the Church itself (Matt. 13:45,46; 16:18; 18:20; John
10:13-17), yet there is that which applies in moral and spiritual ways to the
believer today. This is true even where the reference is evidently to the
millennial form of the kingdom as in Matt. 5:5 ("the meek … shall
inherit the earth"), for is not the earth part of Christ’s
inheritance, and are not those who now believe co-heirs with Christ (Rom.
8:17)? Hence may not even such a word apply to those who as meek do not put
forth present claim as to inheritance here, but await the hour when He takes
possession as the Son of Man, the appointed Heir of all things (Psa. 8:6-8; Heb.
2:7,8)? Surely it is so, even though they are distinctly heavenly in destiny as
the body and the bride.
A further question is asked,
"Is a man not saved if there is no mercy in him?" the reference being
to the fifth beatitude—"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive
mercy" (Matt. 5:7). Now God is rich in mercy, and those who are His
children are to be imitators of Him (Eph. 2:4; 5:1). To find a man implacable,
merciless, unforgiving, unmercifully pursuing the erring, refusing to show mercy
and forgiveness to those who have injured him, raises serious question as to
whether that man’s sin-hardened soul has ever been softened by the blessed
inflow of God’s mercy meeting his own great need as ungodly and without
strength, no matter how loud the profession of the lips. It is by his fruits
that we know the real, the true believer. In this both Paul and James agree.
That believers should be merciful is to be expected. That alone is consistent
with the knowledge of how God has been rich in mercy for them. Thus they will
glorify their Father who is in heaven, and receive mercy according to His
perfect love and interest in His children, while also to show mercy to another
is the sure way to reap it in our own time of need. Not to show mercy is to
lack in righteousness, which is to act in consistency with the place we are in
and the way we have been put into it (see Matt. 18:21-35).
"Be ye therefore merciful as
your Father also is merciful" (Luke 6:36). "Put on therefore …
bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind" (Col. 3:12).