"For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:20
Last time we spoke about the first of two main themes of the Sermon on the Mount (SOTM). The first theme is the impossibility of earning one’s way into Heaven by keeping the law. Jesus accurately raised the bar of the law, instructing us regarding the importance of the spirit of the Law, as opposed to mechanically obeying the letter of the law. Jesus pointed out that the most righteous of all, the scribes and Pharisees, were not righteous enough for Heaven, so how could anyone else be righteous enough?
The only hope, therefore, is to trust in a forgiving Savior, namely Jesus.
The second of the two main themes of the SOTM is instructing those who trust in Jesus what the life of a believer is to look like. Believers are not called to obey either the letter or the spirit of the law to earn salvation. Not at all. We are to obey the letter and the spirit of the law because we have been forgiven. As those who are forgiven, we obey the law for three reasons:
Believers obey the law out of gratitude (Romans 8:12). We owe the Lord an infinite debt of gratitude for His gracious forgiveness we have received by faith alone in Christ alone.
Believers obey the law out of love. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). So compelling is His love that we may have reason to doubt our salvation if we do not love Him!
Believers obey the law because we have received new hearts and are new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Salvation only begins with forgiveness. It must necessarily continue with a new set of affections—for Christ and to follow Him. Those who are only interested in a Savior who lets us into Heaven when we die but to whom we have no affection, ought not rest easy concerning their salvation. Salvation includes a growing measure of spiritual mindedness (Romans 8:4-10). Believers follow and obey Christ because of who we are in Christ.
Of course, none of those who believe follow obey perfectly 100% of the time. We are in process as we grow in grace, culminating with our glorification in Heaven. But until that time, we are serious about obeying the letter and the spirit of the law as outlined by Jesus in the SOTM.