THE PARABLES
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(2) The laws of 5:21-48 legislate for those who entertain `murder' and `adultery' in their hearts, who evade
the law concerning `divorce' and `oaths', who are smitten on the cheek, who are sued at law for their cloak, who
are pressed into the service of the state, who are cursed and hated, despitefully used and persecuted.
Is this the state of affairs that shall obtain when the kingdom comes?
(3) The kingdom is future in this Sermon:
`Thy kingdom COME, Thy will be DONE in earth, as it is in heaven (6:10)
`They SHALL inherit the earth' (5:5)
`They SHALL be filled' (5:6)
`Many will say to Me in THAT DAY' (7:22).
(4) These `laws' are in force while there lie before men two paths, the strait and narrow that few find, and the
wide and broad into which the many go (7:14,13).
If this represents the state of affairs when Christ reigns as King, then the glowing words of prophecy are an
illusion, evil is supreme, hope will be made ashamed, vanity and vexation will still mark the steps of man. We
believe that the Sermon on the Mount relates to the `kingdom' and not to the `church', nevertheless we believe
much harm has been done to the cause of dispensational truth (which is the essence of all truth) by the rather
hasty conclusion that this sermon gives the `Laws of the kingdom'. The passage contains its own explanation,
which is enforced by the literary structure, and echoed by the whole of the Gospel according to Matthew. This
explanation we will now consider.
Leaving the examination of opinions, we turn our attention to that which is more profitable, namely, the
testimony of the Word itself.
The BEATITUDES, with which the Sermon on the Mount opens, contain the key thought, and if we do not find
the key here we shall miss our way through the remainder of the passage. That key word is REWARD. Verse 12
sums up all that is said under varying aspects in verses 3 to 11:
`Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your REWARD in heaven'.
The literary structure now comes to our aid by expanding this idea of reward. In chapter 6 the reward which
the hypocrite receives now is set over against the reward which shall be given by the Lord at His coming.
Almsgiving must not be done to be seen of men, otherwise there will be no reward from the Father in heaven.
Those who give alms as the hypocrites do have their reward. The same thing is said of prayer and of fasting.
There is a present reward given by mortal man, or there is a future reward to be given openly by the Father, and
the section reaches its climax in the words, `Ye cannot serve God and mammon' (6:24).
The second feature of this Sermon on the Mount, and one which expands and expounds the character of the
reward, is the emphasis upon entry into the kingdom. Unless the righteousness of those addressed exceeded that
of the Scribes and Pharisees, the Lord said they should in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. In the
conclusion of the Sermon He says, `Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven ...' (7:21), and a little earlier He gives the exhortation to enter in at the strait gate (7:13). Suffering now,
with the reward of the Father and entry into the kingdom as a future compensation, is held out by the Lord to
those who possessed certain qualities which are summed up in 5:48, `Be ye therefore perfect'.
Our studies in The Berean Expositor under the titles of `The Hope and the Prize' and the `The Epistle to the
Hebrews' will have prepared us to see the fitness of associating reward, and entry into the kingdom, with
perfection. The structure places the `wise man' in correspondence with the perfect, which further emphasizes
and illuminates the great theme. This we shall see the better when we deal with the Sermon in the light of the
whole Gospel. There remain the references to the Law and the Prophets, and the sayings of the Lord Himself.
The authority of the Law and the Prophets is upheld and enforced, while a deeper and more spiritual
apprehension of their teaching is required of those who would enter the kingdom. We can now appreciate the
main outline of the Sermon on the Mount:
Matthew 5 to 7
A 5:3-16.
Reward.
B 5:17,18.
The Law and the Prophets.
C 5:19,20.
Entry into the Kingdom.