Not Good Enough

It would have been a delight to sit on that mountain side and hear Jesus deliver the Sermon which we now identify as the Sermon on the Mount. But it would not have the impact it does when we can study it today section by section from the Bible.

Two thoughts from Jesus’s Sermon for today.

The most important truth spoken on the mountain that day is this:

No one is good enough.

Not one human qualifies as righteous. None. Zero. (It is impossible for a human to keep God’s requirements.) The Bible states our righteousness is like filthy rags…

“All of us have become like one who is unclean,  and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Isaiah 64:6

The second truth is one of the examples Jesus gave to make His point that all our righteousness is like filthy rags. It is this: Thinking about sin is sin. Again, thinking about sin is sin. The example Jesus used is adultery.

The Pharisees sitting on the mountain that day had “organized” religion to keeping a set of human rules to be right with God. Jesus refuted their righteousness by works religion. He said that to look with lust is to commit adultery.

With this example alone no human qualifies as righteous (reminder: and Jesus gave 6 examples!)

27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'

28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” Matthew 5:27-30

Don’t be distracted by His statement that we should gouge out an eye to prevent lust. Blind people lust. Jesus is not teaching self-mutilation. The point Jesus makes is lust must be dealt with and we cannot ever fix it by our good works. You’ve read this before-We are not good enough. Feel trapped?

Jesus is the way.

Believe in Him.

Jesus is the only way any human qualifies as righteous.

“For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” Rom5.19

Who is that one obedient man?

Jesus.