Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:13-14

Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount are the Eternal instructions for living in His Kingdom.  It is by these words, that we ensure our stability through the storms, and it is by these words that we can know God’s will for us.

Upon first approaching this teaching, there may be many different conclusions drawn.  In general, these are the approach, not it’s application.  Take the passages on anger.  Suppose you find yourself angry.  One approach to hearing the words of Jesus, seeing that He says you’re liable to the judgement if you’re angry, is to attempt to not be angry.  On the surface, this is actually the correct first step.  It is called repentance, but it is only superficial.

Suppose all you needed to do was simply not want to any more, by way of a written or oral law or command.  If this was all that was required, the Mosaic law would have been sufficient.  Perhaps some level of righteous repentance is necessary, even commanded by the scriptures.  This, however, is not the total fulfilment of the Sermon on the Mount, however.

Jesus said that the one who heard His words and did them was the man who built His house upon the rock.  This means that, built right, if you find the right thing, you will find yourself built upon something that does not shake, does not shift or move.

Yet, as we repent, as we try to bring ourselves in line with what our see, what would we use but our own efforts?  This is the basic problem at the heart of both “the approach” to the Sermon on the Mount AND the Mosaic law, it is the weakness of the flesh.  The same weakness of the flesh guarantees that a flesh-only approach to the Sermon will produce the same level of failure, if not greater, than that of the Mosaic Law.  Surely something else is intended.

This is all well and good, and is expected.  How can one who knows nothing of faith nor the Kingdom (John 3:3-5) function by any other way.  This is the essence of religion.  Yet, something happens when faith enters the room.

When a person meets Christ, through Faith, and experiences the work of Calvary, we are no longer dealing with a person with no abilities outside of their flesh.  Yet, there is often a choice to make about which to yield to.  Paul tells the recipients of his letters in various places to simply put off the deeds of the flesh.  This is his instruction.  It is presented that simply.  The Kingdom.

As we approach the Sermon, and as we try to live it, and as our flesh fails, we find ourselves falling upon the mercy and grace of Heaven.  As we realize that our own strengths are not making it, we look to find another who can help us.  In our desparation, we find God, for ourselves, who He is, a very present help.

We do not necessarily learn it the first time.  But, eventually, if we are faithful, we will learn to stand on that strength, rely on that strength, and cling to that strength alone.  We will find ourselves not getting angry without cause, because we are living completely out of that Spirit within, and He doesn’t get unrighteously angry.  We find ourselves not judging amiss, because He does not judge amiss.  We will find ourselves not anxious, because, in our flesh, we couldn’t preserve anything, but in God, He preserves us, and we have no other defense.

 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world– our faith.

1 John 5:4

The victory for us is our faith.  The victory is the substance of that strength, that substance of that new heart within us, the substance of the victory, here, and now.  The way to overcome certainly isn’t to work harder, it is to encounter God, with the eyes of Faith, to see clearly, above the doubt and the veil of this world, and be blinded to everything else except the Gospel’s light.

When we are born again, we are given a new heart.  As we look to Him, His strength, ability, and holiness flow through us.  Though it may go through trials, and it probably won’t be just a few, our hearts are purified by His truth (1 Peter 1:22).  What began as only a work of the flesh or as a new set of rules to follow, which could not be followed by the natural, becomes that which is lived out of His Spirit within us, and we learn to lean wholly upon our beloved (Song of Songs 3:6).

As we truly learn to hate (Luke 14:26) our old life, and forsake every thing from our old life, and look steadfastly upon the only one who is worthy of all our love, we will find, more and more, that the very words of Jesus are being lived out in our lives.  Not out of our own ability, but, as Paul wrote, the life I live I live by faith the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me (Galatians 2:20).

It is a narrow road.  We should be diligent, we should be faithful and excellent.  We cannot say that we are living by His Spirit fully while we continue to sin.  Yet, He is patient in our weakness, and He is gracious is our inability.  But, when we are serious about living the Gospel, living as Jesus commanded us to live, which is only possible by His Spirit, we will find His Life.  We will find His Power.  We will find His Heart.  And the Sermon on the Mount will be fulfilled.