Exceeding the righteousness of Pharisees, Matthew 5:17-20

For those of you that are visiting this morning, I should explain that we are studying the Sermon on the Mount as a series on Sunday mornings.  We have been studying it in detail over the last few months and find ourselves at this particular passage today as we look at it in the order that Jesus presented.  I would remind you that this is Jesus’s first recorded sermon as He begins His ministry on earth.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the incarnate Word made flesh, who was with God in the beginning and who was God,  came to earth as a man, and as the Messiah, the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.  And in His first sermon, Jesus as King  presents His Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus declares the characteristics and blessings of a spiritual kingdom, in which He rules in the hearts and minds of His people. 

He begins by describing the essence of the citizens of the kingdom.  He does that in the first 12 verses which we call the Beatitudes.  The essence of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven details the essential nature of His citizens; those who belong to the Kingdom of Heaven.  He says they recognize their spiritual bankruptcy,  they mourn over their sin, they are humble and merciful, they hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc.  Jesus delineates the essence of their nature.  It is a new nature, a spiritual nature that is given to them by God.

Then Jesus elucidates the effect of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven will have in the world. The effect of the citizens of the kingdom He says are that they are salt and light in the world.  He uses salt is a metaphor for righteousness, and light as a metaphor for truth.  By these two effects, righteousness and truth, the citizens of the kingdom of heaven affect the world and bring glory to God.

The third point in Jesus’s message is that the righteousness of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven will exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Now we touched on this last time, but we didn’t spend a lot of time on it.  However, this is a very important point.  In context, Jesus has said that He did not come to abolish the law, but rather to fulfill it or accomplish it, to bring it about. Furthermore, He said that none of the law was going to pass away, not even the smallest point, until all of it was accomplished.   And so rather than Jesus abolishing the law, He establishes it.  Rather than Jesus coming to do away with the law, He came to fulfill all that it said, all that it represented, all that it prophesied, and He came to make it possible for His citizens to keep the law.

Now it needs to be understood that the Pharisees and the scribes were considered the most holy, righteous people in Judaism.  The common people looked up to them as the teachers of what the scriptures said.  They trusted them to properly interpret the scriptures.  And the Pharisees reveled in that perception.  They were not unlike modern day priests who go about in long robes and pointy hats and talk in measured tones and we think that they are almost other worldly.  They are considered holy men.  And they are revered.

Now the scribes and the Pharisees were undoubtedly in attendance that day when Jesus was speaking.  And notice what Jesus says.  He kind of gives them a backhanded compliment, and a condemnation at the same time.  He says, “unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  So what He is saying first of all, is that the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is not enough to grant them entrance into the kingdom of heaven.  Now I say it’s a backhanded compliment because on the other hand Jesus is acknowledging their righteousness.  He is acknowledging their fastidiousness in regards to keeping the law.  They were known for keeping the minutia of the law.  For instance, they tithed of mint and dill and cumin, Jesus said in another place.  They tithed 10% of their herb garden.  In another place Jesus said they fasted twice a week.  The law only required that Jews fasted once a year.  They added to that law so that they fasted 108 times a year. They were zealous for the law to an extreme level.  And yet Jesus says in effect that they are still not entering heaven.

I want to make sure you understand an important point here.  That is, you can be very religious and be unsaved.  You can be a student of the scriptures and yet be unsaved. You can be very moral and be unsaved. You can claim citizenship in the kingdom of heaven, and yet not be a part of it. There is a dangerous possibility of trusting in the wrong thing. Of resting on things that pertain to worship, but not being in a position of true worship. It is a possiblity that should be very sobering to those who claim to be evangelical Christians, but who may in effect have fallen short of what God requires.

Some of you may be aware that in the last couple of weeks there have been two high profile people from the ranks of Christian leadership who have very publicly renounced their faith and fallen away.   Interestingly, one was from a traditional, conservative, Reformed church who was a pastor and a Christian author.  He was very well known in those circles.  The other came from the other end of the evangelical spectrum.  He was a worship leader in a charismatic church who was also very well known.  I believe he wrote very popular praise songs.  And yet both of these men publicly renounced their faith and said that they no longer believed in the Christian faith.  One man pursued  Christianity from a doctrinal, intellectual approach.  The other had pursued Christianity from more of an emotional, experiential base.  And yet both fell away.

At the risk of presuming to be a judge of these men, if I were to try to come up with a reason for their fall, I would have to say in both of their cases it was very likely the same reason that the Pharisees fell short.  They were basing their citizenship in the kingdom of heaven on the performance of  external things rather than on an internal transformation of the heart.  They were basing their faith on faulty theology that focused on an outward manifestation but did not include and inward transformation.

Now let me elaborate on the religion of the scribes and Pharisees for just a minute more and then we will move on.  The religion of the scribes and Pharisees was one that was concerned more with the ceremonial than with righteousness.  Jesus said in another place that they washed the outside but inwardly they were unclean.  They were fastidious in their outward appearance, in the ceremonies, in the rituals of public worship, by which they thought they achieved righteousness.

Furthermore, they were known for their adherence to the traditions of their religion.  They interpreted the scriptures by the traditions of the elders. They had rabbinical books which interpreted and expounded the law of Moses.  And in so doing, they added to the law and in effect took away from the intent of the law through their traditions of their elders.  All in all, the result of their religion was they were very self satisfied that they had figured out and were keeping the letter of the law.  To some extent, the ultimate goal of their religion was to glorify themselves rather than to glorify God.  To make themselves look holy, to give themselves a false confidence, and to bring attention to themselves and their self righteousness to get glory from men.  Such men, Jesus said, will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

On the other hand, Jesus taught that the true citizen of the kingdom of heaven will love the law of God, because, according to Jeremiah, God has written the law upon their hearts.  The true citizen of the kingdom of heaven has a new heart, a new nature, which is the gift of God, that we might love God and do the works of God.  He is no longe opposed to the things of God, for God has transformed him by giving him a new life in Christ.  So by faith in what Christ did on the cross, we receive the righteousness of Christ credited to our account, we receive the life essence of Christ by the indwelling of His Spirit in us, so that we are spiritually born again, children of God, doing the works of God and bringing glory to God.  And that is the only way that we can have a righteousness which exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Now this next section of Christ’s sermon must be understood in the context of the previous verses.  That is why I spent so much time reviewing what had been said so far.  Because the danger is in looking at the following verses about the law and making wrong deductions based on looking at them in isolation.  Jesus is now going to expound the law.  The same law that He said He did not come to abolish.  The same law that the Pharisees said they were keeping, Jesus said we must exceed their efforts.  Jesus is going to expound it.

I want to point out also that Jesus connects here quite clearly the relationship between keeping the law and righteousness. Notice in vs 17 and 18 that Jesus says He is not abolishing the law.  Then in vs.19, He says if you don’t keep the law you are the least in the kingdom, and if you do keep the law then you are the greatest in the kingdom.  Then in vs.20, Jesus points to those who are perceived by the people to be the greatest, most virtuous in the kingdom and says, unless your righteousness exceeds their righteousness you cannot enter the kingdom.  So He correlates righteousness and the law.  As I said last week, you cannot define righteousness without the law.  Righteousness is not an experience, it’s holy living.  As Jesus says in vs 48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  God is righteousness, and His law is the declaration of the character of His kingdom, which is righteousness.

What I want to do then in the remainder of the time we have today is to lay down certain principles which we need to recognize in order to understand Jesus’s exposition.  Starting in vs 21, Jesus is expounding the relationship of the citizen of heaven to the law.  He does that by giving an exposition of the law, and also contrasting it with the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees.  In fact, the rest of the sermon, all the way to the end of chapter 7, is just an exposition of the statement that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.  He expounds the true teaching of the law while contrasting it with the false teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.

Now in the remainder of this chapter, Jesus presents six statements concerning the law and  the contrasting teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.  I want to point them out to you.  In vs 21 He says, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’.  The second is in vs.27, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’. The third is in vs 31 "It was said, 'WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE’.  The next is vs 33, “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS.” Then in vs 38 "You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’  The sixth is in vs.43 "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.'

Next week we will begin to take each one of those injunctions and examine them.  But today I want to look at them as a whole so that we can understand the overriding principles that Jesus is teaching.  There are certain things that are common to all of them, and I believe the Lord was saying this in such a way as to teach the common principles as well as the particulars of each statement.

First of all, notice the formula which Jesus uses in His exposition of the law.  Notice He says in the majority of instances, “You have heard that the ancients were told…”  What Jesus is referring to is not the law of Moses, per se, but the teachings of the Pharisees and the scribes.  These were traditions handed down from generations of scribes who had written concerning the law.  In most cases they were based on the law of Moses, but the way they had written about them and taught them had diminished or changed the original intent of the law.

Notice also that Jesus said, “you have heard…” That indicates that the common Israelite was not privy to the actual scriptures.  For one, the scriptures were hand written on scrolls.  That was painstaking work that was fastidiously done by the scribes.  Such scrolls were very scarce and very expensive.  So the average person did not have access to the scriptures.  Secondly, the scrolls were written originally in Hebrew.  After the Babylonian exile the Jews spoke Aramaic.  Only the religious leaders were trained to read Hebrew.  So whatever the average Jew knew of the Bible had to come by way of hearing it taught by the scribes and Pharisees.  And they were more inclined to teach the traditions of the elders, which was a representation of the law, than they were to teach from the actual scriptures.

So the teaching of the Lord is two fold, to give them a correct exposition of the law, and to expose the false teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.  And by the way,  I want to claim that formula.  I believe the job of the preacher is to preach the truth and point out false teaching and false teachers.  I get criticized sometimes for naming names and pointing out  false teachers.  So I try to talk about the false doctrine and not name the false teachers most of the time.  But I want to emphasize that the Lord doesn’t have a problem naming names.  In fact, He calls them hypocrites.  His preaching throughout His ministry was punctuated by pointing out the hypocritical, self righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes.  And so if I’m guilty of anything this morning, I am guilty of following His example. 

I told someone the other day in reference to those two pastors who publicly renounced their faith, though I grieve for these men that have  fallen away, at the same time I'm glad that they have come out, so to speak, because it exposes the shallow theology that they teach.  A lot of false teachers have defined the theology of the church today according to a warped view of scripture.  Some of what they say sounds good, but they overemphasize some doctrines at the expense of other just as essential doctrines and that leads to a lop sided, out of balance Christianity. And when a person's life hit's the fan, so to speak, and God doesn't perform according to the way we have been taught that He should, then we are left to question our faith.  A lot of people's faith fails at that point, and they fall away.  Not all as publicly as these guys, but it's just as devastating to the church.  They simply stop coming to church, stop practicing their faith, and turn back to the world.  I think that is what is happening especially to our younger generation today. Hosea 4:6  says "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…"  And that lack of knowledge or doctrine is the fault of pastors and leaders who are either  tragically naive or outright unconverted.

So then in His exposition of the law, Jesus states what they have been taught in relation to the law, and then He sets forth another important principle.  He says in effect, “this is what you have been told, but I say to you.”  I want to draw your attention to that phrase, “but I say to you.” What Jesus is doing there is He is setting Himself up as the ultimate authority.   Not the religious leaders, but Jesus is the authority concerning the scriptures, because He is actually the author of scripture.  John said He was the Word made flesh, who dwelt among us.  

He is basically claiming to be the one responsible for the law of Moses and therefore His interpretation is true and can be trusted.  He claims to speak as God. He claims the authority of God. That’s why the critics of Jesus had to say, “never a man spake like this man.” He was not a mere teacher of the law.  He was not a mere man. He was not just a Rabbi.  He was God incarnate.  He is the way, the truth and the life of God.  Folks that is why we study the word of God.  Jesus said in John 6:63, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”  

So as we consider what Jesus said, it’s important that we understand the statement as a whole before we consider the individual injunctions.  Because Jesus was teaching principles, not a new law, or even a new way to interpret the law.  He isn’t giving us a new code of ethics, which if we master these principles then we are accepted in the sight of God.But He is giving a series of illustrations which describe how Christians are going to live. 

Most of us would rather have a list, a short list perhaps, but a list of do’s and don’ts which we can keep and then be sure we are good to go. The Pharisees thought that was the case concerning the law of Moses.  And Jesus is saying that they have come up short.  It’s always easier to think of holiness or righteousness as something you can do; you are baptized, you take communion, or you observe a month of Lent, rather than to live under the principles which must be applied day after day.  If you come away from the Sermon on the Mount with the attitude that as long as you don’t murder, you don’t commit adultery, etc, then you are ok, then you have missed the point of Jesus’s sermon entirely.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not some new list, it is something which gives us life.  It lays down certain principles of spiritual life and asks us to apply them in our day to day experience. It’s essence is that it gives us a new nature and a new understanding of God’s word which we have to apply to every aspect of our lives. 

Jesus’s formula of “you have heard it said, but I say to you..” teaches the same principle in each of the six illustrations. In one illustration He i dealing with sexual morality, in another with murder and the other with divorce, but in every one the principles are the same.

The first principle which He illustrates is that the spirit of the law is the primary emphasis, not the letter.  2 Cor. 3:6 says, “for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The Pharisees concentrated on the letter of the law, and ignored the spirit or intent of the law. That doesn’t mean that the letter doesn’t matter, but that we interpret the letter by the spirit. 

The second  principle Jesus is illustrating is that conformity to the law is not just actions but thoughts.  It’s the thought behind the action that matters.  Thought always precedes action. James says, “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.” In other words our motives must be examined.  That’s why our hearts are of great concern to God.  Our heart is where all our actions come from.  Jesus said in Matt. 15:18-19  "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”  So the concern of the gospel is to change the heart.  Then the actions will be different.  And that order is essential.

Another principle that Jesus was teaching is that it is not what we don’t do that define us, but what we do.  If you will remember when Jesus was asked what was the foremost commandment, He did not turn to the 10 commandments, which were written mostly in the negative, what we cannot do.  But instead He turned to the commandment for what you should do; Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  And the second was like it, not what you don’t do, but you should love your neighbor as yourself.  And if you apply those two laws in the intent they were given, then all the don’ts of the law will also be accomplished.

The point of the law, as Jesus illustrates, is not to give us a code by which we may come to be accepted by God.  But it is intended to lead us to God.  It is given that we might come to know God. That we might come to have the life of God in us.  These six illustrations are simply to teach us the principles of living, of life, in the kingdom of heaven.  As children of God, how we might be like God, and pattern our behavior after Him. That we might be perfect, even as our heavenly Father is perfect.  

That new life begins with a new heart, being born again, by the grace of God.  He gives us this new nature and the indwelling of His Spirit in response to our repentance of our sins, and faith in what Jesus has done to pay the penalty for our sins on the cross, and trusting in Him as our Lord and Savior. He gives us life, so we give Him our lives and live for His glory.  This life He gives us is not some burden that we have to endure.  But it is a life that is eternal, a life that is abundant, a life of joy, a life of freedom, a life of fulfillment.  I invite you today to take this life that Jesus died to procure for you.  The invitation is extended to all who will come.  Come to Jesus today, and receive forgiveness of sin, the righteousness of Christ, a new heart and  everlasting life. 

The Kingdom of Heaven and the Law, Matthew 5:17-20

We are studying the Sermon on the Mount; what might be called the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  It was given by Jesus Christ the Son of God, very likely as His first public sermon on earth, or at least, the first recorded sermon that we have an account of.  Up to this point, Jesus has given us a series of Beatitudes, which are the characteristics of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. In so doing, Jesus reminded of what we are, and then Jesus said what effect a Christian shall have in the world.

As we concluded our study last week, we saw that Jesus said that His citizens were to be  salt and light in the world.  As Christians, our righteousness acts as a preservative against the corruption of the world and to convict the world of sin, and the truth we share serves as a light to those in darkness and exposes the darkness.  And just as importantly, our righteousness manifests Jesus Christ to the world and cause others to come to Christ so that they may glorify God.

So this is what Jesus has been saying, that we are the children of God and citizens of heaven and we are to manifest the character of God so that the world may come to know Him and glorify Him.  Now, as Jesus continues His message, He tells us how this is done.  How we are to live a life of righteousness.  He tells us not only how we are to live righteously, but how we are to define righteousness.  And He does so by turning our attention to the law.

A lot of people today make the mistake of thinking that the law is at odds with the teaching of Jesus Christ.  And  even as Jesus was beginning His earthly ministry there were questions about whether or not Jesus kept the law, or advocated keeping the law, or whether He was bringing in a new doctrine. And so the first principle that Jesus is establishing is that His doctrine is in complete harmony with the teaching of the Old Testament.  Nothing He will say contradicts the law or the prophecies which were taught in the Old Testament.  He is not teaching something new, but rather He affirms the authority of the scriptures and His obedience and adherence to it, and therefore by extension, He asserts it’s authority over the kingdom of heaven and it’s citizens.

I feel it’s necessary to make a couple of observations at this point.  You should be aware of the fact, and I emphasize that it is an indisputable fact, that the Old Testament canon of scripture was already established as the word of God, and accepted by all Jewish scholars by 300 BC.  So the very same Old Testament that we have in our Bibles today is the very same scriptures that Jesus and the disciples had access to.  When Jesus quotes from and affirms and claims the authority of the scriptures, He is speaking of the Old Testament scriptures that we have in front of us today.  And these scriptures we have today have been shown to be reliable and accurate, especially in light of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered from caves in the 1940’s. And it is widely accepted by all scholars that most of the scrolls were written before the birth of Christ.  Those scrolls contain the same exact scriptures which we have before us today.  

I say that because some uninformed critics of the Bible tend to try to discredit the scriptures by saying they are all of relatively recent authorship.  And yet there is undeniable evidence that these writings were extant in the days of Jesus Christ and had long been accepted as the word of God.  So when the Old Testament prophesied of something that didn’t happen until the days of Christ or afterwards, we should recognize that is something remarkable; that the prophecy made hundreds of years earlier came true and was verifiable.

Now that’s important to understand and believe, because Jesus says here that “not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” He is saying that everything that is prophesied in the Old Testament, not only the future things spoken of by the prophets, but also the types of things symbolized in the Old Testament, will be fulfilled.  And a vast number of prophesies and types were given concerning Jesus.

Also it’s important to understand what Jesus means when He speaks of the law and the prophets.  That phrase refers to the entire Old Testament.  But let’s look at the word law first of all.  The law consists of three parts; the moral, judicial and ceremonial law that was given to the children of Israel.  The moral law is comprised of the 10 commandments and the moral injunctions that we laid down once for all.  The judicial law was the civic and legislative laws which were given to the nation of Israel living under theocratic rule. Then the ceremonial law referred to the laws given concerning offerings and sacrifices and their worship of God. Many of those ceremonies and rituals are what we call types, which are in effect prophecy, and which typified the ministry of Christ. So all three of those constitute what is called the law.

The word prophets, as in the law and the prophets means all that we have in the prophetic books of the Old Testament. The prophets also taught the law, as well as making prophetic statements about events to come in the course of history.  They foretell the coming of the Messiah and the future of Israel and the church.

There is one other word in Jesus’s statement which we should explain, and that’s the word translated in the NASB “accomplished.”  In the KJV it is rendered “fulfilled.”  What it means is to carry out, to fulfill in the sense of giving full obedience to it, carrying out everything that has been said in the law and the prophets.   Now let’s look at what Jesus said.

Vs. 17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”  The primary principle that Jesus is giving here is that God’s law is absolute.  It is absolute and eternal. It doesn’t change from culture to culture, from one generation to another.  Psalm 119:89 says, “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.”  That permanence is expressed by the Lord in the phrase, “until heaven and earth pass away…”  The word of the Lord, the law and the prophets, shall never pass away until all is accomplished.

When the Lord said “jot or title” that indicates the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and the smallest stroke in the smallest letter. In other words, even the smallest detail of the law will be fulfilled, all will be accomplished before heaven and earth pass away.  Every prophecy, every type, every law will be fulfilled, will be completely carried out. Furthermore, rather than modifying the law, or changing the law, or abolishing the law, Jesus is saying that He has come to accomplish the law.  All the law and the prophets point to Him and will be fulfilled in Him to the smallest detail.

We need to recognize that Jesus confirms the whole of the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi. He recognizes it’s authority. He affirms it’s accuracy.  As you look at the ministry of Jesus, you will notice that He quotes from almost all of it.  He especially quotes from Genesis, especially the creation story and even from the story of Jonah and the whale.  The parts of the OT that the critics love to dismiss, Jesus quotes as evidence which points to Himself.  To deny the truth of those passages is to deny the truthfulness of Jesus Christ, which is to deny that He was holy and righteous. I will go further and say that if you deny the legitimacy of the Old Testament, then in effect you deny the legitimacy of Jesus Christ and HIs power to save.  If you claim to believe in Jesus Christ, then you must believe in the word of God, because Jesus affirmed that it was authoritative and cannot be annulled.  In John 10:35 Jesus said, “the Scripture cannot be broken.” It’s God’s word that is going to be accomplished to the minutest detail.

Now how this fulfillment of the law and the prophets is accomplished is something that Jesus compels us to consider. Think of the prophecies concerning His birth.  His birthplace in  the tiny town of Bethlehem was prophesied hundreds of years before He was born.  Everyone knew that the scriptures said He was to be born in Bethlehem.  And yet they somehow missed it. 

Consider the description of His ministry that was prophesied in Isaiah 53.  Jesus fulfilled it perfectly, and yet they missed it because they wanted a king to overthrow their enemies, not a Savior who would redeem His people. I wish I could read all of Isaiah 53 this morning, but I don’t have the time.  Let me just quote a few lines; “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being [fell] upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.” Jesus fulfilled these prophesies of the Messiah being our Savior down to the smallest detail.

In Psalm 22 David wrote centuries before Christ how He would die in minute detail. Listen to this;  “I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.  I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;  They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.”  Written hundreds of years before His death on the cross, and yet it all was accomplished exactly as David prophesied.  

If time permitted, I could give you many more examples of ways in which Jesus fulfilled the prophesies of the Old Testament.  We must never separate the Old and the New Testament as if they are divergent from one another.  But we understand the Old from the New and the New from the Old.  And the gospel of Christ is found intertwined in it’s passages from Genesis to Revelation.

Let’s consider further how Chris fulfills the law. In Galatians 4:4 Paul said, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,  so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”  Notice, that Christ was born as a man under the law. He was made under the law, as one who had to carry it out.  God showed the absoluteness of HIs law by making His Son to be under it.   And Jesus kept the law down to it’s minute detail. No  one could find any evidence to accuse Him of breaking the law in any respect. He obeyed it perfectly, not only in letter, but in it’s intent. 

Jesus fulfilled the law by keeping it, but also in bearing the penalty of it for our sakes.  The cross of Calvary is not understandable except in the context of the law.  The crucifixion is often displayed in a sentimental manner.  We focus on the physical suffering of the cross from a standpoint of injustice of an innocent man.  But the doctrine of the cross is so much more than that.  What happened on the cross was that the Holy  Son of God was enduring in His body the penalty prescribed by the law for our sins.  For your sins and mine, He bore our penalty as required by the law.  The law required death.  Romans 6:23, “for the wages of sin is death.”  Jesus came to fulfill the law, and the law required punishment for sin which is death.  And so Jesus suffered and died on the cross to pay that penalty for us.

Please understand that God forgives sin not because He chose to ignore it, or wink at it, but because He exacted the punishment that was due to us on His only Son. God did not disregard the law in order to save us, but He punished Jesus for our transgressions.

Furthermore, we see that Jesus fulfilled the law by fulfilling all the Old Testament types that served as prophesies concerning Him.  When we read in the OT about all the sacrifices, and the altar, and the ceremonies of the temple, and so forth, we see that they all are pictures, shadows or types of the ministry of Jesus Christ.  He has fulfilled and carried out all the symbols and types pictured in the ceremonies and rituals of the OT.  He is the high priest, He is the offering, He is the sacrifice, and He has presented His blood in heaven so that the entire ceremonial law is fulfilled in Him.

To take this idea of fulfillment one step further, consider that Jesus has fulfilled the law in us and through us by His Holy Spirit.  That’s what Paul says in Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God [did:] sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and [as an offering] for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,  so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”   Notice that Paul connects the way that Christ fulfills the law Himself and fulfills the law in us.  

In other words, Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of the law, and we are to do the same.  As Peter said in 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”   Jesus accomplishes this in us by giving us the Holy Spirit to enable us to love the law and keep it.  We are given the righteousness of Christ which makes us holy, that we might receive the Holy Spirit, by whom we are able to be righteous and live righteously because we have a new heart and a new nature.  This new heart we have been given enables us to love the law.  We are no longer at enmity with God, but we love the things of God.

As God promised through the prophet Jeremiah, (Jer. 31:33) "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  The law is written in our hearts and minds so that we want to fulfill it and we are empowered to do so.

Then Jesus says that "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others [to do] the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches [them,] he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  So then it remains for us to keep them.  The question is how are we to do this?

Well in regards to the ceremonial law, we have shown that it has already been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  All the rituals and ceremonies and types in the temple were accomplished by Jesus Christ. As proof of that, the temple was destroyed, the sacrifices abolished, and the veil of the temple was torn into opening up the holy of holies.  I fulfill the ceremonial law then by believing in Him and submitting myself to Him.  In regards to the ceremonial law then, we have rest in Christ because they were fulfilled in Him.  As Heb. 4:9 says, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”

Now in regards to the judicial law, we understand that this was primarily for the nation of Israel under the theocracy of God’s rule of the nation.  Jesus said in Matthew 21:43 "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.”  This new people of God is now the church.  1Peter 2:9-10 says, “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR [God's] OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;  for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”

There is no longer a theocratic nation, so the judicial law has been fulfilled as well.

There remains then the moral law. The moral law is the standard for righteousness.  It is delineated not only by what we must not do, but what we must do.  Jesus said the greatest and foremost commandment was you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and all your mind.”  That is a continual, permanent law for all mankind.  

And He says the second is like it; “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”  So all the moral law is comprised in these two commandments, which are not just for the theocratic nation, but for the entire world.  It is the basis for our relationship to God.  Peter quoted the Lord as saying, “You shall be holy even as I am holy.”  We cannot comprehend holiness outside of the moral law.  We cannot know righteousness outside of the moral law.  And we are commanded to be holy and righteous in the New Testament just as He is holy and righteous.   So the moral law still applies to us.

Finally then, we must ask, what is the relationship of the Christian to the law? The Christian is not under the law as a covenant of works. Our salvation does not depend upon keeping it. Salvation is by faith in the New Testament just as it was in the Old Testament. Christ has delivered us from the curse of the law.  The curse is death.  Jesus paid that penalty for those that believe in Him.  So we are not under the curse of the law.  But we still live under it as a standard of righteousness. 

The problem today is that many confuse the relationship between law and grace.  The law was never meant to save man.  Abraham was declared righteous by God because of His faith.  The law didn’t come until 430 years later.  The law came, according to Paul, to show us our sin and the need for a Savior.  Paul said the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

In a similar fashion, people have a false view of grace. They think grace has nothing to do with the law.  That’s what is called antinomianism, claiming grace so that they might live in sin and think that it has nothing to do with our sanctification.  Paul wrote in Romans 6, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

The whole premise of grace is to provide a way to enable us to keep the law.  We are justified by grace, because Jesus paid our penalty, and then having been declared righteous we are able to receive the Holy Spirit so that we are empowered to live righteously.  The Holy Spirit isn’t given to give us an “experience” so that we can experience God.  We show that we are children of God because we keep His commandments, according to 1 John 2:3. “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:  the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked."

The problem with many of us is that we have the wrong view of holiness.  It is a dangerous thing to misconstrue holiness and sanctification as some sort of experience to be received. Holiness means righteousness, and being righteous means keeping the law. Therefore if your so called grace does not make you keep the law, you haven’t received grace, but merely a psychological experience.   Grace is the gift of God that delivers us from the curse of the law, enables us to keep the law as Christ kept the law and to be righteous as Christ was righteous. Grace is that which causes me to love God, and love His law.  And because I love Him, I keep His commandments.  John 14:15  "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

In summary, Jesus makes the case that the law of God has never been annulled. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. HIs word endures forever.  He gave Himself for us that we might become righteous and holy, a peculiar people, a holy nation, that we might do the works of God, that we might act like sons and daughters of God.  

Jesus goes on to say that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.  We will consider that more next week, but suffice it to say that God intends for us to exceed even the meticulous law keeping of the Pharisees.  He wants us to keep the spirit of the law as well as the letter.  The Pharisees were artful dodgers in the sense that they interpreted the law so that they might appear to keep the letter of the law, but miss the intent of the heart.  Remember, God said in Jeremiah that He would write His law upon our hearts.  That is what is necessary to keep the law.  It requires a new heart, a heart that desires the things of God, that loves what He loves and despises what He despises.  

I wonder if someone here today recognizes that they fail to meet the righteous standard of God because they have not received a new heart and a new spiritual nature as the gift of God.   I want to encourage you today, if that is your situation, that you call upon the Lord to forgive your sins, believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior who paid the penalty on the cross for your sins, and if you do that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  He will give you new life, a new heart, and a new nature, so that you might be born again into the kingdom of heaven, and enable you to be the son or daughter of God so that you may do the works of God.  Don’t put it off.  Call on the Lord today and be saved.

You are the light of the world, Matthew 5:14-16

For the last several weeks we have been studying what is known as the Sermon on the Mount.  This is the first recorded sermon in the ministry of Jesus Christ.  That’s significant in and of itself.  That God incarnate, the Word made flesh, delivers the message of God to the world.  And we have this message before us today.  How essential it is that we should learn from it what God has to say to us.  

What we have learned so far is that God has provided a way for men and women of the world to become citizens of the kingdom of heaven.  And we have learned that this is a supernatural process of being born again as children of God.  We are not naturally so.  Jesus actually said in another place that we are by nature children of our father the devil.  But through Christ it is possible to be born again spiritually, so that we are spiritually children of God and thereby citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

And in the first 12 verses of this chapter, Jesus gives us eight characteristics of Christians, who are the children of God, citizens of the kingdom of heaven.  We call these the Beatitudes.  Each of them starts with the word “blessed.”  That speaks of the blessing of God on those who manifest these characteristics  of their new life in Christ. These Beatitudes describe the life of a Christian, what type of person he or she is.

Then, Jesus moves from what we are to what we shall be.  He gives us a couple of characteristics of what effect the Christian has on the world.  We learned last week that the Christian is like salt in the world.  He has the effect of impeding the corruption that is in the world.  We learned that salt may be correlated to righteousness.  And Jesus said that our righteousness serves to impede the corruption which is at work in the world though sin.  And Jesus issued a warning that if the salt loses it’s saltiness, then it is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.  In other words, if the Christian ceases to practice righteousness, ceases to preach righteousness, then he no longer serves the purpose for which God has us here.  And in the case of churches that have abandoned the truth and no longer preach against sin, they have succumbed to being trampled underfoot by ungodly men.  

Now in today’s passage we are looking at, Jesus continues to speak of the effect of the  Christian on the world he lives in. In addition to being salt in the world, Jesus now says to the disciples, “you are the light of the world.”  This is a tremendous statement and it deserves careful analysis.

The first thing we should note, by way of implication, is that the world is in darkness. The Bible speaks repeatedly about the fact that the world lives in darkness.  Darkness is related in a manner of speaking to ignorance, or a lack of comprehension.  It is related to spiritual blindness.  Colossians 1 speaks of the fact that the world is under the dominion of darkness. That is speaking of the kingdom of Satan.  Jesus said in the book of John that the devil is the ruler of this world.  His is the dominion, or kingdom of darkness.  He wants to keep the world in ignorance, to keep the world blind and unseeing so that they do not come to the truth.

Jesus in speaking to the apostle Paul about what his ministry was to be said in Acts 26:18 that he was sending him  “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”  Notice there that Jesus equates the darkness as the dominion of Satan.  Paul at that point had been blinded by the intense light on the Damascus road in order that God might emphasize the spiritual blindness and darkness that Paul was a part of  before his conversion.

And by the way, hell is characterized in the Bible as darkness.  In one place it’s called the outer darkness, in another black darkness, in another place, pits of darkness.  Darkness is the primary description of the domain of Satan, and the condition of the world, and it is  the characteristic of hell which is reserved for those condemned to spend eternity without God.

However, in a startling contrast, those who have been born again by faith in Jesus Christ are described here by Christ as being the light of the world which is in darkness.  This is amazing, that God has made us to be light in the world.  The entire world dwells in darkness, and yet God has chosen us, to be lights in the world.

Now the logical question that follows this must be what is meant by light? Well, I think that intuitively we should know the answer.  Light has for many centuries been equated with knowledge.  We  had in the eighteenth century for instance, the age of enlightenment.  Great discoveries in science and mathematics and geography, as well as advancements in philosophy and the arts were characteristic of this age of a great increase in knowledge.  So we have throughout history a correlation of knowledge with light.

And that has continued down through the ages.  Even in our day, we have a saying of “a light bulb went off” to describe an “a ha” moment, or a moment of discovery, or some new knowledge.  And certainly we live today in an age of what is considered enlightened.  We hear that phrase bandied about.  And certainly modern man has made tremendous advancements in knowledge, but they are mostly scientific, or mechanical, or technical in nature.  And yet with all the knowledge that society boasts of today, there are still fundamental evils in the world that never seem to be affected. In fact, it would seem that we are experiencing a breakdown in society.  Crime, poverty, homelessness, addiction, broken homes, wars, murders, anarchy, and political unrest are endemic to the age we live in.  It would seem clear that in spite of our advancements in knowledge, the world is still in a state of utter darkness.

The true knowledge that enlightens the world is the knowledge of the truth of God. It is what Solomon calls wisdom. Jesus spoke the truth of God, and in Him, and through Him, we are enlightened not just in our minds, but in our hearts.  It is the knowledge that leads to salvation. Two thousand years ago, God appeared in the form of a  man, and His words were the truth of life that brought light to a world in darkness. Matthew 4:16 says,  "THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”

John said of Jesus in John chapter one, “He was the true light which coming into the world, enlightens every man.”  And yet, though the Jews saw the light, for the most part they did not accept it.  John says in vs 5, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John goes on to say that Jesus came unto His own people, but they did not receive Him. 

Jesus Himself emphasized again and again in HIs ministry that He was the true light which has come into the world.  He is the manifestation of the truth, the way to God, and the source of the life of God. Thus Jesus said in John 8:12, ““I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Even more specifically, Jesus is, according to John 1, the Word, the Word made flesh, the Word which was in the beginning with God, and the Word of God was light. John said “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”  Psalm 139 says, “your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  So the knowledge that is the light of life is revealed in the word of God, who was made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, and whose word still shines for us today in the scriptures.

Now in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking primarily to His disciples.  His followers.  And I just want to emphasize this morning that to be a follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ is to have received the life of God.  To be a follower is to be born again.  To be a follower is to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.  The Christian life is not a static experience.  Nor is it a once and done experience.  It is a life continually following Jesus Christ and walking in HIs footsteps.  It is a life in which Christ lives in us. It is walking in the light.  I think far to many Christians claim an experience grounded in some sort of emotional episode in the past, and then ever since they are just resting on their laurels. They fail to walk in the light.

Look again John 8:12, ““I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” Notice that Jesus correlates His light with those who follow Him.  First of all, He says that those who follow Him will no longer walk in darkness, and then secondly, that they will have the Light of life in themselves.  Now that statement should help us to understand what Jesus is saying here in the text we are looking at today.  Jesus says in it that you are the light of the world.  And so we see how it is possible for us to be light.  We are made light as we walk in HIs light.  As we by faith in Jesus follow Him, we are so illuminated by HIs light so that the light of truth shines out of us to the world.

So not only has the Christian received light, we have been made light, and we have become transmitters, or reflectors of light.  I think it can be compared with the sun and the moon.  The moon has no light in itself.  It is the reflection of light from the sun.  And yet, even so, it still reflects a lot of light in the darkness of the night.  And as we become children of God, being born again through the truth of the gospel, we reflect the light of Christ to the world. It’s what Peter refers to in his second epistle as having been made “partakers of HIs divine nature.”  The light that is in Christ, is the light that is in the Christian.  That is the way that we become the light of the world.  Paul said in Eph. 5:8 “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.”

It’s interesting to notice that in the order of Christ’s sermon, we are first made salt and then we are described as light.  It’s important that we are first made righteous, and then act righteously, before we start speaking the truth. If we are speaking enlightenment, but we are living in darkness, or at least are not living in accord with the claims of our faith, then our words will not accomplish much. We must be something before we begin to act like something.  And so we must be salt, and then light.

Now how then is the Christian to show forth the light to the world? What is the effect of this light which we have in ourselves? First of all, the light exposes darkness.  It reveals the things which are hidden.  One of my favorite things is to go surfing very early in the morning before the sunrises.  And usually it’s still very dark when I suit up and walk down to the beach.  I can’t see the waves, or the rock jetty or practically anything around me.  But when the sun starts to come up, and light begins to dawn,  the details of the darkened beach became apparent.  Things that you hadn’t been able to see around you, then are clearly seen.

Ephesians 5:13 says, “But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.”  There is a sense that we are not truly aware of life until the light appears. We are spiritually blind until by the grace of God He illuminates our hearts so that we might see the truth. As Matthew said, “the people that sat in darkness saw a great light.”  The effect of Christ’s coming was to expose the darkness of the world. And if you are a child of God,  a partaker of His divine nature, then you will reveal the darkness around you as well.  The world is divided by the children of darkness and the children of light. And so the Christian exposes the darkness that is in the world.

That’s the way the Christian is the light of the world.  He life is such that his faith and his character and his actions are in stark contrast to those of the world around hIm.  He lives in such a way as to cause people to start to wonder and question what it is about him that is so different.  If he is truly light, then he lives in such a way as to make people aware of their own darkness.  The influence that a Christian has is to show that certain things belong to the darkness.  They love the darkness and they cannot stand the light.  John 3:19 says, ”This is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

So not only does the light reveal the darkness, but it explains the cause of the darkness.  The trouble with the world is not a lack of education, but being separated from God who is light. The sin of the world has caused it to be estranged from God.  But the Christian has the light of God within him, and they can shine that light on the world.  The Christian can explain that man was made by God and made for God, and without God he cannot truly live.  In fact, without God he is condemned to die and be eternally estranged from God, consigned to the utter darkness of hell.  That is the condemnation that John speaks of.  And the light which reveals that and explains that is the Christian.  As a lighthouse on the coast warns ships of the dangers of the shoals, so the Christian must warn the world according to the truth which God has revealed. He must explain God and how we can come to know Him and be united with Him.  That is the purpose for which Christ has given us light and life here on this earth.

So light not only exposes the darkness, it shows and provides the way out of darkness.  Through sharing the word of God we can be a lamp to their feet and a light to their path, that they might follow Christ unto salvation.  The Christian’s purpose is to show the way to God by being a light in the world.

Paul wrote to the Philippians in chapter 2, and by extension speaks to all Christians, that “you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,  holding fast the word of life…”  That is our purpose, to be light, in whom is no darkness.  

And so Jesus speaks to that purpose we are to have, by saying, “a city sat on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to all the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

What Jesus is indicating here is that first of all, we are designed to be lights in the world.  Just as salt is meant to be salty, so lights are meant to illuminate.  Though that should be obvious to all, yet I wonder if we are not rebuked by this thought.  How prone are we to be consumed with  the business of living and disregard our greater commission to be light in the world? Jesus said a lamp is lit to give light to all in the house. That is it’s purpose.

So if we are not acting like light, then are we not living according to our design?  It is ridiculous for a person to live in a way that we are not designed to live, to go against nature.  And in the same way, it’s ridiculous to live in opposition to our spiritual nature.  We are made lights in the world.  Jesus illustrates that ridiculousness by saying imagine a person lighting a lamp and then putting it under a bushel, or a basket.  What could be the purpose of that?  It makes no sense.  And neither does it make sense for a Christian to deny his purpose.  When we do so, then we really become as useless as the salt that has lost it’s savor.  It’s worth nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.  And so also the Christian who has extinguished his light or let his light go out.

Jesus spoke of churches which no longer shined the light.  In Revelation 2, Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, “But I have [this] against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent.”

It is possible, I suppose, for a Christian to be merely a Christian in name, and not in deed. They appear to be Christians, but they are not functioning as Christians.  They are salt without saltiness, or a lamp without light. Such a person is to be pitied.  Because he cannot be happy in the world, though he may be seeking it, and he cannot be happy in his Christianity, because he cannot know the fullness that brings joy and peace and contentment.

That fullness I speak of is the continual filling of the Holy Spirit, which might be thought of as the oil in the lamp.  First of all, we need to be filled with oil of the Spirit, which is the life of the Spirit.  That is what it means to be born again.  It’s to be given a new nature.  A lamp cannot be a light without oil which has to be supplied from outside itself.  You cannot be a light unless you have first been filled.

But then there is a need for a continual filling that goes on in the life of a Christian.  It is something we have to have continuously renewed.  We have to live in continuous dependence upon Christ, in continual repentance of sin that breaks  fellowship with Him, and it’s only in that relationship can we be light in the world.  We must continue to hunger and thirst for righteousness as Jesus said of us in the Beatitudes, that we might be continually filled as we continue to follow Him.

You might stretch the analogy of the lamp even further and say that you need to keep your wick trimmed.  For a lamp to burn brightly, it must have a wick, and the wick must be trimmed.  That speaks of a continual reminder of who I am by the grace of God, and what God intends me to be in the world.  It s’s a daily walk with Christ in HIs word, by prayer and supplication, to be in a right communication with the Lord every day.  It’s a daily occurrence, this time with the Lord, that trims my wick and makes me more effective in giving light to the world.

The last admonition that Christ gives us is to be light in the world, but to do so in the right way.  “Let your light so shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”   The point here is very simple.   A vital element of our light is that we do good works.  And these good works are going to be seen of men.  However, the principle Jesus teaches here is that we do these good works not for our own glory or credit, but so that men might glorify God.

We do good works, whatever they are, to bring others to God.  Our good works are to reveal the truth of God that leads to salvation.  The primary good work then that we are to do is to shine the light of truth into men’s hearts.  To tell the good news, the gospel, that they might come to a saving knowledge of the truth.

What Jesus is warning against is doing your good works for selfish purposes. We see that all the time in the realm of the world.  Some rich person wants to improve his legacy, and so he donates a lot of money to some charity.  But then he wants to make sure that everyone knows about it.  His concern is not so much for the charity as it is for his legacy.  And so he sends out press releases and holds a press conference to announce what he has done.

We see that in the world, but unfortunately, the same temptation exists in the church.  We can often do our good works to be seen of men.  Jesus later on in this sermon will explain how to tithe, how to fast, and how to pray.  And the principle that He teaches is that you do your work in secret, and  your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  The effect of the work that you do is still seen by the world, but it’s done in such a way that your Father gets the credit.  And then the Father who sees the secrets of men’s hearts, will reward you.

Finally then, we should consider the whole of this teaching of Christ, that if we are born of Him, then we should be like Him. As He was light in the world, so we are to be light in the world.  The watching world will see our good works, will hear our gospel message, will see the light of truth illuminate from us, and will be drawn to Christ and give God the glory.  That is the purpose we have as children of God, as citizens of the kingdom of heaven.  May God give us the grace to be all that He has designed us to be, the light of the world.