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deserves no glorification. All glorification should go to the Lord. He Who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness and to shine in our hearts (II Cor. 4: 4-6) deserves all
the glory, for the glory is not ours.
Likewise Phil. 2: 15 (margin) exhorts us to "shine as lights in the world, holding
forth the Word of life" and this is not the first time the Sermon on the Mount is referred
to in Paul's epistles. The world's darkness is intense and Christ, as the world's Light, is
absent. All the more need then for His followers to reflect the light of His truth which
alone can dispel the darkness.
The Fulfillment of the Law.
The Lord now comes to His relationship to the law given through Moses:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to
abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not
the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the
Law until everything is accomplished" (5: 17, 18, N.I.V.).
The idea that, as a Teacher, He had come to make known something that was novel
and exciting, is absolutely wrong. He had not come to alter or abolish God's law, but to
fulfil it and remove the traditional misinterpretations of the scribes and Pharisees, thus
opening the way to the correct interpretation of the laws of God. There are six
illustrations of this, grouped in two "threes", which are separated from one another by the
word "again" in verse 13. Six times the Lord says, with the calm assertion of supreme
authority, "But I say unto you", correcting what had been said to previous generations
(verses 22, 28, 32; 34, 39, 44).
The Lord asserts:
"Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do
the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven (that is he will have no position of
authority in it), but whosoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great
in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of
the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven"
(5: 19, 20, N.I.V.).
Note the order of practicing the law first, and teaching it afterwards. Nothing can be
clearer that the righteousness to which the Lord refers here, is the righteousness of
obedience, not the imputed righteousness which is the characteristic of the epistle to the
Romans. Again we remind the reader that He is addressing saved men, His disciples, and
telling them that their conduct and practical working out of the law is essential for
admittance into the kingdom of heaven. We are on the ground of "reward teaching" here,
not salvation by grace, and those who attempt to introduce this into this context are
utterly confusing the purposes of God. (For the frequent groups of three in this Gospel,
the reader is referred to Volume LI, page 233). The Pharisees were men who "say and
do not" (25: 3), who preach and do not perform. This practicing of the law is the Lord's
test of greatness in the kingdom.