If saving faith is just "trust in the cross" how to make sense of Jesus' sermon on the mount?

Albion · Mar 26, 2020

That's not what the passage tells us, however. Christ is clearly speaking to Peter, not to Satan. And he is clearly not merely speaking about one or the other of them.

Sure, there are a half-dozen different ways to re-interpret what Christ meant, but all the others fail IF the entire wording is taken into account.

Dkh587 · Mar 26, 2020

Faith is trusting and doing what somebody sAys, according to the Bible.

faith without works is dead...

Charlie24 · Mar 26, 2020

You said that Peter was likened unto Satan. That is not true!

Luke 18:31-34 tells us that the twelve did not know that Christ was to die on the Cross, it was hid from them.

Peter was innocent in what he did. He was saying that death would be far from Him, he said this of Christ out of love for Him.

Satan saw it as an opportunity to tempt Christ of His death on the Cross. Christ was speaking and rebuking Satan who was working through Peter.

Albion · Mar 26, 2020

Is it just the word "likened" that you don't care for? In response to a rebuke from Peter, Christ certainly did turn to Peter and say "Get thee behind me, Satan." And then in the very next verse, he says that the person he is speaking of savors the things of men rather than the things of God. That cannot be something addressed to the Devil himself.

That's not the verse under consideration.

redleghunter · Mar 26, 2020

There is the answer.

Charlie24 · Mar 26, 2020

It's the verse that proves Peter was innocent.

How could Peter be guilty of denying the death of Christ on the cross, when he didn't even know Christ was to die on the cross.

You are attributing to Peter what Satan has done!

Bible Highlighter · Mar 26, 2020

Jesus said with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Faith. We have to ask God and take it by faith that God is going to move and act in our life when we put His Word into practice. It takes a trust and belief in His Word first. Doubting God's Word will just lead to doubting even more. Don't trust what men say, but believe the words of Jesus and put them into action for your life. The more you trust and obey, the more God will move in your life (When you ask Him) and you are sincere in your desire to obey God. By doing so, you will find yourself obeying God (Not by your own power, but by the Lord working in you to do so). Others will want you to not obey God. They will say it is impossible to obey.

Let me give you an example: A man named Rick threatened a man named Bob by putting a gun to his head and said he will be back to kill him if he does not at least make an attempt at obeying these things and make some improvement by the end of the year, otherwise he will be a dead man. I am sure if Bob values his life, he will at least make an attempt at making such a thing a reality for his life. So why don't we do the same thing for GOD? For I believe obeying God is a life an death matter in my opinion. If we are not doers of the Word, we are only deceiving ourselves (See: James 1:22).

Maria Billingsley · Mar 26, 2020

You missed the last two verses and they are very important because it establishes the authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, God in the Flesh. The Kingdom of God was revealed right there and then.
How powerful is that my friend! Be blessed and stay healthy.

28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

GirdYourLoins · Mar 26, 2020

I so not recall anywhere in the bible where it says you are saved by just "trust in the cross". This seems to me to be a man made description of faith. What the bible does say is believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved. Jesus not only died on the cross but also rose again victorious over sin and death. It was when he rose again victorious he became king f kings and lord of lords.

HatGuy · Mar 26, 2020

Faith in Christ energises those works. You can't do those works without faith in Him.

lsume · Mar 26, 2020

If you believe honestly and seek, you will find. No it’s impossible to live up to without being changed. This great mystery must be experienced. As you continue to pray for living the life Christ taught us to life, please know that if keep it up you will experience the Ancient Greek definition of apocalypse. The mysteries in The Word will be revealed and you will see God’s Great Wisdom in how this works.

renniks · Mar 26, 2020

I have often thought no one can live up to the sermon on the mount, and maybe that's the whole point. The Jews thought they could be saved by the law. Jesus was showing what the law would be taken to its final applications...one would have to be perfect as God is perfect, and no one is. So, he was in effect, preparing them for Paul's teachings about salvation only through faith in Jesus' death and Resurrection.

zoidar · Mar 26, 2020

I was changed 10 years ago. Things are just not the same.

John42 · Mar 26, 2020

I read Christian books. They provide context. In the past, just reading of the Bible made me self critical.

Jamdoc · Mar 26, 2020

Peter was a man, and a man is imperfect and men are sinners.
He called Peter "Ye of little faith" as well, how humbling, to declare that Jesus is the son of God to His face, showing your faith in Him, to step out and walk on the water to meet Him, that's faith in Him, but just a little wind, and he slips up, and cries out to His Lord, and Jesus says He has little faith.

We're all like that aren't we? We profess faith in Jesus, we try to walk when He says to come, but a little wind and we stumble, and we cry out "Lord, save me!"

How humbling it must have been, for Peter to declare that he would DIE with Jesus, and Jesus told him that before the [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] crowed he would deny Jesus 3 times publicly.

Aussie Pete · Mar 26, 2020

You've just answered your own question. Your response is exactly what Lord Jesus wanted. There are many people, including the Pharisees in Jesus' day, who outwardly observed the Law. Inwardly they were as far away from God as it is possible to get.

The Sermon on the Mount puts paid to the conceit that we can please God out our own attempts to live a righteous life. God calls self-righteousness filthy rags. Lord came that we might have Life (In Greek, "Zoe"). It is not the life that we are born with. The natural life is in the soul of man. That life ("Pseuche" in Greek) is simply unable to match up to God's standard. The only Person ever to please God is Lord Jesus. He has life in Himself and He gives it to those who receive Him.

The new life that Christ gives us is not in the soul. It is in the new, born again spirit - assuming that we have been born again, of course. If we are not born again, there is no way that Lord Jesus will dwell in us.

It is possible to live a life of trying to be a better person, trying to cut out the bad and promote the good. Most Christians start out like that. Some come to an end of that and just give up. Others come to realise that the life of trying is a life of defeat. They ask the Lord Jesus to live in place of them. They give up trying and start trusting. It is not just "letting go and let God". It is actively cooperating with the new life in the spirit. That is the life of victory and overcoming that God intends for all His people.

We are not exempt from problems. Often, things get more difficult. But nothing is too hard for Lord Jesus! We can laugh at adversity. We triumph over Satan's attempts to bring us down. It's the only way to live. Why? Because all the pressure, responsibility and demands fall on the shoulders of the Lord Jesus. He has no problem living the Christian life.

martymonster · Mar 26, 2020

Not everyone can act on those words, because they can't hear them.

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Kind of puts the nail in the coffin of the idea, that God is furiously rushing around, trying to save everybody, right now.

Guojing · Mar 26, 2020

Jesus was under the Law of Moses before he died. He had to preach the Law to the Jews.

But after his death on the cross, and Israel's final rejection of him as their Messiah by the time Stephen was stoned, a new way to Christ without the Law has been revealed, through believing in the cross.

Romans 9 to Romans 11 have the details.

fhansen · Mar 26, 2020

Man is obligated to be righteous/obedient! Always has been, since Eden. But he can only accomplish this to the extent that he's in relationship/communion with God. That's the basis of the New Covenant; that's what Adam missed and, in fact, denied and dismissed with his act of disobedience. But, "Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). We're all here to learn this simple and vital truth, with the help of revelation and grace; man needs God.

So when the time was ripe in human history Jesus came to definitively introduce us to the true and living God, so we can know Him and so come to believe in Him and enter communion with Him as is the right and just order of things for man.
"Now this is eternal life: that they know you,the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3

We just need to experience a bit of life in the pigsty for awhile so we may learn of the relevance and seriousness of Jesus' words in John 15:5. So that we want to know Him. This is meant to be a cooperative effort between man and God, which is why God didn't simply stock heaven with the elect and hell with the reprobate to begin with. Instead He draws us towards the light, most brilliantly shown by His act of self-sacrifice on the cross, an act that places love squarely at the forefront of His motivation-and at the forefront of His will for us to have as well.

Love fulfills that obligation to be righteousness, which is why love is said to fulfill the law. It excludes sin by its nature, the two being mutually exclusive. Paul understood this as 1 Cor 13 makes clear. And Augustine could accurately say, "Without love faith may indeed exist, but avails nothing." But we have to want it, to hunger and thirst for it enough to turn to, and remain with, Him.

Yeshua HaDerekh · Mar 26, 2020

that is Torah, from Deuteronomy and Leviticus...

If saving faith is just "trust in the cross" how to make sense of Jesus' sermon on the mount?

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