Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Sunday, May 04, 2008 9:47:16 PM
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount with help from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us His description of what a Christian looks like on the inside and how he interfaces with the world in which he lives.
We would do well to know how Jesus characterizes His people regardless of what the world thinks and what many professors say, His is the only definition that matters.
To take parts of this sermon and apply it to state relationships as between state and criminal is to wrest the Scriptures from their meaning. Let’s take this passage for example…
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” [Matthew 6:12].
What is its meaning? Does God forgive us because we forgive others? God forbid! Just as good works are a result of justification and not its cause, the heart willing to forgive has first experienced the mercy of God in the forgiveness of sins.
From the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Jesus gives us insight into His meaning…
’You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ [Matthew 18:32-33]
The apostle is faithful in his exposition of Christ’s doctrine to the people of God…
‘… as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do’ [Colossians 3:12-13].
We are exhorted to longsuffering, to bear with one another and to forgive one another, but what is the motive; where is the power to persevere in these things? It goes back to considering the great mercy extended to us in the forgiveness of sins in the gospel…
‘Just as Christ forgave you, so also should you’. What warrant is there to withhold forgiveness when we stand forgiven for a debt that we could not pay? This is what it means that the grace of God puts to death the pride of men. A Christian can forgive because he has been humbled by his own sinfulness and is awed by the grace of God.