Important Transitions - Matthew 5:17-20 - Scripture and Salvation

 

On another hike up into the Rockies developing a friendship with another brother in Christ.  This one was on some trails less traveled by others.  This second picture is the Old Fall River Road which used to be the road over the mountain pass before the modern road we have today.  On the west side of the pass it has been left to go back to nature but walking on these switchbacks you couldn't help but think of the history of those who traveled over this way.  The second picture is how we traverse it today.



Our passage last Sunday was another transition passage.  Jesus is getting us ready for some major teachings just as He did before giving His disciples the Beatitudes.  These transitions are not just getting us from point A to point B, but rather you find an outline of what the major teaching is going to be about.  Matthew told us we have a teaching Jesus, a preaching Jesus, and a healing Jesus and lets view teaching Jesus first.  In this passage, Jesus lets us hear that He has a high view of the Scriptures (not one jot or tittle) and a high view of salvation (unless your righteousness exceeds...you will be no means...).  Now Jesus will start speaking of the Scriptures to be deepen in our understanding to follow them and Him and also pointing out the our insufficiency of our righteousness to obtain salvation.

I present that we also need to have a high view of God's words and also a high view of salvation in Christ alone.  When we diminish God's words and we crack the door for other ways to be right with God, we open a "can of worms" as they say.  Jesus is about to disrupt our "rating" system of the commandments.  What we consider as "bad" he will put on the same level as what we have made "acceptable."  He is going to call His disciples to a different level that is unattainable without His involvement.  The Word of God is going to convict them and us of where we have fallen short and it is also going to point us to the only solution, Jesus Himself.  

Our walking through the Sermon on the Mount is coinciding with some tremendous news about some more fallen spiritual leaders in the Christian world.  I am praying this walk through will help us to have our sights and our understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ righted if need be.  I pray that our view of what Jesus says will have a tremendous weight to it as so crucial for us to follow and that it reinforces our desperate need for a savior, a righteousness beyond our own.  Oh how we need to be close to the Word and close to the One who saved us.

Adam





A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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