6
Feb
2008

The Sermon on the Mount and the Cross of Christ

/
/
0
/
06 Feb 2008

Years ago I came across a great quote out of J. Gresham Machen’s The New Testament: An Introduction to its Literature and History. While explaining how to understand the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) in light of the larger context of the Gospels, Machen wrote:

Without the cross the Sermon on the Mount would be an intolerable burden; with the cross it becomes the guide to a way of life. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus held up an unattainable ideal, he has revealed the depths of human guilt, he has made demands far too lofty for human strength. But thank God, he has revealed guilt only to wash it away, and with his demands he has given strength to fulfill them. It is a sadly superficial view of the sermon on the mount which substitutes it for the story of the cross. A deeper understanding of it leads straight to Calvary. [1]

[1] J. Gresham Machen The New Testament: An Introduction to its
Literature and History, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust) pp. 196-97

About Post Author

Nick Batzig is the senior pastor of Church Creek PCA in Charleston, SC and an associate editor for Ligonier Ministries. Prior to serving at Church Creek, Nick was a pastor at Wayside PCA on Signal Mountain, TN. Formerly, Nick served as the founding pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Richmond Hill, GA and as the editor of Reformation21 and the Christward Collective--sites of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He frequently writes for Tabletalk Magazine, Reformation 21, He Reads Truth, and the Christward Collective. Nick was also the host of East of Eden, a podcast devoted to the Biblical and Systematic Theology of Jonathan Edwards. You can friend him on Facebook here and follow him on Twitter @nick_batzig

Leave a Reply