What did Jesus teach?

The preaching of Jesus announcing the kingdom, showed that the time was fulfilled, that the kingdom of God was at hand, that the people must repent and believe the gospel. We should distinguish between the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of our salvation. Christ is the centre of both; but there is a great difference between the preaching of a kingdom which is drawing near, and that of an eternal redemption accomplished upon the cross. It is quite possible that the two truths should be announced together. And, indeed, we find that the apostle Paul preached the kingdom; but he certainly also proclaimed an eternal redemption accomplished for us on the cross. Christ prophesied of His death, and announced that the Son of man should give His life for the ransom of many; but He could not announce an accomplished redemption during His life. Men ought to have received Him and not to have put Him to death: hence His testimony was about the kingdom which was drawing nigh.

As for His teaching, He taught men of the Father (Matt. 5 — 7), and taught His disciples to pray to the Father (Matt. 6); and intimated that true, acceptable, spiritual worship His disciples were to cultivate, even worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth. Very early in His ministry He introduced the teaching of the heavenly calling (Matt. 5:11-12; Luke 6:22-23). He set forth too the way of salvation, unfolding that it now depended on faith in Him, so was open to all who would enter in by Him, the door (John 10:9). Then He spoke, and that frequently, of everlasting life, and presented Himself as the object of faith for men to possess it (John 3:16), and stood forth as the light of the world, whom, following, men would not walk in darkness, but have the light of life (John 8:12). To the weary and the heavy-laden He offered rest (Matt. 11:28). To the hungry, to the thirsty, to the unsatisfied ones, He stood forth as the answer to all their need (John 6:35, 7:37). What a ministry indeed it was!

But the Lord having done what the Pharisees, adversaries of the Sadducees, could not do, the curiosity of the Pharisees is excited, and they were gathered together (v. 34) One among them questions the Lord; but his demand 'has for result that Jesus lays the true foundation of the law and the prophets, and then establishes clearly the situation of things, the question of the moment, as God regarded it. Which, asks the lawyer, is the great commandment in the law? A question much debated among the Jews, for whom each commandment had a special value, the observance of each of them gaining, as in an examination, so many good marks from God. The Lord seizes the occasion, offered in the ways of God, to establish the fundamental principles of the divine law. To love God with all the heart, such is the first commandment. The second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. All in man hung on these two things. It is the summary of what man ought to be, the root and the measure of human righteousness. It is not in any way a revelation of divine love; it is not at all a question of grace, nor of an open way for the sinner to come to God; but it is the perfect rule of what a man should be, a divine compendium of the substance of the law, the law on which the prophets insisted in seeking to recall the people to its observance.

(4) We now come to the declarations of the Lord as they are summarised in this Gospel. They contained a twofold announcement, and a twofold exhortation. The Servant-Prophet announced (a) that the time was fulfilled, and (b) that the kingdom of God was at hand; while He called upon men (a) to repent, and (b) to believe the gospel.

To Jewish ears then it was no strange sound which John the Baptist gave forth as he proclaimed, "The kingdom of heaven [or, the heavens] is at hand." After him the Lord Jesus uttered the same words, when He began His ministry in Galilee; but both prefixed to their announcements the imperative call to repentance (Matt. 3:2; 4:17). For the children of Israel being sons of the kingdom (Matt. 8:12), its establishment in power is connected with that nation's blessing, and their future glory depends on it, as Daniel had predicted: "The kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High" (Dan. 7:27). To them, then, whilst announcing the near approach of the kingdom, it was needful to declare the terms upon which they could enter it, and what God looked for from those who should receive it. In Galilee, therefore, the Lord preached repentance; on Nicodemus He impressed the necessity of the new birth (John 3:3, 5) to His disciples He made known the childlike spirit requisite for those who shall enter it (Matt. 18:3), and warned all against mere profession without practice, which would for ever shut out souls from that which Israel had been taught to expect (Matt. 5:20; Luke 13:25-29). To John the kingdom was future, for dispensationally whilst on earth he was outside it (Matt. 11:11); but the Lord could speak of it as existing on earth, manifested by the power over Satan which He Himself exercised (Matt. 12:28).

Well might the officers who were sent by the Pharisees and chief priests to arrest Jesus say, “Never man spake like this Man,” for surely it was so. Hitherto men had spoken of the claims of God, man’s responsibility and failure, but Jesus spoke of the grace of God to man; not of man’s righteousness, but of God’s; not of man’s goodness, but of God’s; not of man’s love, but of God’s; not of man’s work, but of God’s; not of what man ought to be, but of what God is. He did not set man to toil to obtain righteousness and life, but presented these blessings in Himself for all, through the rich grace of a Saviour God. He could say, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Moses had set the people to toil, with a promise of rest when they had fulfilled their obligations. They were to work their six days, and get their Sabbath when they had done all their work; but as they never did all their work, they never got their Sabbath. But Jesus gives the Sabbath to begin with. The prophets testified of the intervention of God in a coming day, but in the meantime man must go on laden with a burden which was altogether too heavy for him, but in Jesus the intervention of God was manifested, and the burden was to be transferred from the shoulders of the creature to His, who upholds the universe. Nothing had been accomplished by the efforts of man. At the end of man’s long probation Satan remained the oppressor of the human race, sin reigned in the power of death, and the power of darkness held undisputed dominion. The law had brought no deliverance for those under it, it revealed no object for the heart, and in spite of its prohibitions and denunciations man still wandered in his own wilful way. It was ushered in with blackness and darkness and tempest, and these accompaniments characterized its whole history, and its merciless curse blasted all under its sway. But in Jesus we are face to face with God fully revealed. He draws near to man in the kindness and love of His heart. He comes not in devouring fire, and draped in blackness, mists and obscurity, but through the human veil of the flesh of Jesus the light of His fathomless love shines in all its power before the eyes of men. God Himself is there in the Person of His Son as the Saviour of the lost, and Satan must relax his hold upon his wretched captive, the evils that afflict man must back into the shadows at His approach, and the brazen gates of death and hades confess weakness and defeat. The Seed of the woman that was to bruise the serpent’s head is revealed, and the strong man no longer retains in peace armed possession of his palace, for the stronger than he is there plundering his goods. The virgin’s Son, whose birth had been long foretold by the prophet, has come into the world, and God says to Him, “Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.”

At this juncture Matthew gives us “the Sermon on the Mount,” consisting, as it does, of maxims of the highest possible kind. If the Law, which was holy and just and good, forbade outward acts of evil, this touched the innermost springs of the heart. It makes known to us, not redemption, nor the way of peace with God, but the holy principles of that kingdom of which Christ was the blessed exponent. Such principles, while condemning the innate evil of the human heart, show the intrinsic purity of the kingdom of heaven. It may be added that the Father’s name occurs nearly twenty times, in order to indicate that, back of all, there was a fountain of grace, deeper than that which Moses learned ere he received the second set of Tables from the hand of the Lord God, “merciful and gracious.” To be “perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48), is clearly the very acme of highest practical attainment. But the way to this is not taught in the Sermon.

In the portion that follows we enter upon a most important subject. If there was this new kind of blessedness, so foreign to the thoughts of Israel after the flesh, what was the relation of the law to Christ's doctrine and the new state of things about to be introduced? Did not the law come from God through Moses? If Christ brought in that which was so unexpected, even by the disciples, what would be the bearing of this truth upon that which they had previously received through God's inspired servants, and for which they had His own authority? Weaken the authority of the law, and it is clear that you destroy the foundation on which the gospel rests; for the law was of God as certainly as the gospel. Hence came in a most weighty question, especially for an Israelite: what was the bearing of the doctrine of Christ, respecting the kingdom of heaven, upon the precepts of the law? The Lord opens this subject (vers. 17-48) with these words: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets." They might have thought so from the fact of His having introduced something not mentioned in either; but "Think not," He says, "that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." I take this word "fulfil" in its largest sense. In His own person the Lord fulfilled the law and the prophets, in His own ways, in righteous subjection and obedience. His life here below exhibited its beauty for the first time without flaw. His death was the most solemn sanction which the law ever could receive, because the curse that it pronounced upon the guilty, the Saviour took upon Himself. There was nothing the Saviour would not undergo, rather than God should have dishonour. But our Lord's words warrant, I think, a further application. There is an expansion of the law, or δικαίωμα (righteous requirement), giving to its moral element the largest scope, so that all which was honouring to God in it should be brought out in its fullest power and extent. The light of heaven was now let fall upon the law, and the law interpreted, not by weak, failing men, but by One who had no reason to evade one jot of its requirements; whose heart, full of love, thought only of the honour and the will of God; whose zeal for His Father's house consumed Him, and who restored that which He took not away. Who but He could expound the law thus — not as the scribes, but in the heavenly light? For the commandment of God is exceeding broad, whether we look at its making an end of all perfection in man, or the sum of it in Christ.

Far from annulling the law, the Lord, on the contrary, illustrated it more brightly than ever, and gave it a spiritual application that man was entirely unprepared for before He came. And this is what the Lord proceeds to do in the wonderful discourse that follows. After having said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled," He adds, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven" (vers. 18-20). Our Lord is going to expand the great moral principles of the law into commandments that flow from Himself, and not merely from Moses, and shows that this would be the great thing whereby persons would be tested. It would no longer be a question of the ten words spoken on Sinai merely; but, while recognizing their full value, He was about to open out the mind of God in a way so much deeper than had ever been thought of before that this would henceforth be the great test.

Our Lord turns to the disciples and puts before them that not merely is He going to the cross, but they must be prepared to follow Him there. If I am to be in the true path of Jesus, I must deny myself and take up the cross and follow — not the disciples — not this church or that church, but — Jesus Himself. I must turn from what is pleasing to my heart naturally. I must meet with shame and rejection in this present evil world. If not, depend upon it, I am not following Jesus; and remember, it is a dangerous thing to believe in Jesus without following Him. Following Jesus maybe like losing one's life. At the present time much confession of Christ is, comparatively, an easy matter. There is little opposition, or persecution. People imagine that the world is changed; they talk of progress and enlightenment. The truth is, Christians are changed. Let us ask ourselves whether we desire to be found taking up our cross and following Jesus. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it" (vers. 24, 25).

In verse 45, the Lord not only brings His death before His disciples for the fifth time, but He explains its significance. Previously He had emphasized the fact of His death, so that the minds of the disciples might no longer be obsessed by expectations of a coming visible kingdom. Now the meaning of the fact appears. He would die to pay the ransom price for many. Here then we have a plain statement as to the substitutionary and atoning character of His death from His own lips. It is "many" here, for the actual, realized effect of His ransoming death is the point. In 1 Timothy 2:6, where the bearing and scope of it is in question, the word is "all."