I’ve seen a general pattern in “Christ-centered” or “gospel-centered” Bible teaching, that preaching the gospel requires us to always make ourselves and others feel bad for our sin. That the gospel has not been preached unless we get to the conclusion that “We cannot do what this text is saying, but Jesus can and did, so let’s trust him.” I’ve contributed to this tendency in years past, and have come to see how this actually flattens the Scriptures, often using them in a way contrary to their stated intentions.
One key place where this tendency shows up is in studies on the Sermon on the Mount.
Kevin DeYoung has a wonderful piece, excerpted from a recent book, where he debunks — from the text itself — this way of reading Jesus’ most famous sermon.
If we approach the Sermon on the Mount only or mainly as a means by which we see our sinfulness, we’ve not taken the sermon on its own terms… We’ve turned the Sermon on the Mount into a giant spanking spoon—good for making you squeal in pain, but not a welcome instrument or a way of life. The Great Commission, then, becomes a summons to teach the nations everything Jesus has said—which, of course, they cannot do, and he doesn’t expect them to observe.
DeYoung then observes four ways in which the text points us “away from thinking Jesus means to give us an impossible discipleship plan.”
- Jesus presents us with bracing either/or options at several points in his sermon.
- Jesus understands that there is an already-and-not-yet dimension to our Christian walk.
- Woven into the fabric of Christ’s kingdom living is the expectation that we will need grace and forgiveness.
- The Sermon on the Mount is not an impossible standard, because pleasing Jesus is not impossible.
DeYoung observes the text carefully, following the sermon’s own logic, to free us from unnecessary guilt to walk in the joy of allegiance to the Lord Jesus. I highly commend his article to you.
nice