(Mat) 5:20, 22, 29-30, 48 CJB “For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P’rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven! But I tell you that anyone who nurses anger against his brother will be subject to judgment; that whoever calls his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing!’ will be brought before the Sanhedrin; that whoever says, ‘Fool!’ incurs the penalty of burning in the fire of Gei-Hinnom! If your right eye makes you sin, gouge it out and throw it away! Better that you should lose one part of you than have your whole body thrown into Gei-Hinnom. And if your right hand makes you sin, cut it off and throw it away! Better that you should lose one part of you than have your whole body thrown into Gei-Hinnom. Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

If we are going to live as Jesus lived, we first have to understand just how impossible His standard is apart from Him. It must have been overwhelming to hear Jesus say that their righteousness needed to exceed that of the Torah-teachers and Pharisees. These were men known for meticulously attempting to obey the Law of God. Yet Jesus said that wasn’t enough.

Then He went even deeper.

Jesus moved beyond outward behavior and exposed the heart. Anger and hatred reveal the heart from which murder comes. Lust is adultery of the heart. Sin is so serious that Jesus described dealing with it in drastic terms: if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out; if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

Then comes the crescendo:

“Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

That ought to destroy any confidence we have in our own righteousness.

None of us measures up.

How Can We Live as Jesus Lived?

Thankfully, the Sermon on the Mount is not telling us to make ourselves perfect enough to earn salvation. If perfect obedience were required from us as the means of being saved, none of us would enter the Kingdom.

But Jesus did what we could never do.

He perfectly obeyed His Father. He lived without sin. Then He willingly offered Himself as the sacrifice for sinners. Through faith in Christ, we are forgiven, reconciled to God, and declared righteous because of what Jesus accomplished—not because we have successfully made ourselves righteous.

But grace does not make Jesus’ commands irrelevant.

Jesus was absolutely serious about how His followers should live.

Having been saved by grace through faith, we are now called to live as Jesus lived. Not to earn salvation, but because we have received it. Obedience is not the root of our salvation; it is the fruit of genuine faith.

Jesus loved sacrificially.
Jesus served humbly.
Jesus resisted temptation.
Jesus obeyed His Father.
Jesus lived to accomplish His Father’s work.

That is now the direction of the Christian life.

God has not left us to accomplish this in our own strength. He has given us His Word so we can know Him and understand His will. He has given us His Spirit to empower us to obey Him. And He has given us His Church to encourage, challenge, correct, and strengthen us as we follow Christ together.

Christianity is not passive acceptance of forgiveness followed by a return to living however we please.

We have been pardoned so that we might belong completely to the One who pardoned us.

The man who has truly been reconciled to God increasingly wants his thoughts, desires, priorities, relationships, work, money, sexuality, and mission surrendered to the Father.

We will not reach sinless perfection in this life. But neither should we become comfortable with sin. Our desire should be to increasingly reflect the character of Christ while participating in His mission of making disciples and calling people to reconciliation with God.

Run Today’s Play

Examine more than your actions today—examine your heart.

Where are you tolerating anger, lust, pride, selfishness, bitterness, or disobedience because no one else can see it?

Don’t manage it. Don’t excuse it. Bring it to Christ.

Confess it. Repent of it. Ask the Holy Spirit to change you. Then obey what God has already told you to do.

You were not saved because you lived perfectly.

You were saved by the One who did.

Now go live as Jesus lived—for the glory of the Father and the advancement of His Kingdom.