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Sermon on the Mount
183
The Depth and Breadth of God’s Law
Jesus took up the commandments separately and showed how
far-reaching their principles are. He declared that by the evil thought
or lustful look the law of God is transgressed. The least injustice is
breaking the law. He who gives hatred a place in his heart is setting
his feet in the path of the murderer.
The Jews cultivated a spirit of retaliation. In their hatred of
the Romans they gave utterance to hard denunciations, training
themselves to do terrible deeds. There is an indignation that is
justifiable, even in the followers of Christ. When they see God
dishonored and the innocent oppressed, a righteous indignation stirs
the soul. Such anger is not sin. But bitterness and animosity must
be banished from the soul if we would be in harmony with heaven.
God’s ideal for His children is higher than the highest human
thought can reach. “Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect.” This command is a promise. The plan
of redemption contemplates our complete recovery from the power
of Satan. Christ always separates the contrite soul from sin. He
has made provision that the Holy Spirit shall be imparted to every
repentant soul, to keep him from sinning.
Temptations Are Not Excuses
Satan’s temptations are not to be accounted an excuse for one
wrong act. There is no excuse for sinning. A holy temper, a Christ-
like life, is accessible to every repenting, believing child of God.
As the Son of man was perfect in His life, so His followers are
to be perfect in their lives. Jesus was in all things made like unto
His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are. He shared the lot
of man; yet He was the blameless Son of God. He was God in the
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flesh. His character is to be ours.
Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw, the base resting on the earth,
the topmost round reaching heaven. If that ladder had failed by a
single step of reaching the earth, we should have been lost. But
Christ reaches us where we are. He took our nature and overcame,
that we, through taking His nature, might overcome. Made “in the
likeness of sinful flesh” (
Romans 8:3
), He lived a sinless life. Now