October 7 Daily Devotional

Perfection’s challenge

Everything we do in this world is of tremendous significance, and we cannot afford to take anything for granted ... our Lord ... starts with the question of judging other people. We must be careful about that because we ourselves are under judgement. But why then does our Lord utter this promise of [Matthew 7] verses 7–11 at this point? Surely the answer is this. In verses 1–6 He has shown us the danger of condemning other people as if we were the judges, and of harbouring bitterness and hatred in our hearts. He has also told us to see to it that we remove the beam out of our own eye before trying to extract the mote out of our brother’s eye. The effect of all that upon us is to reveal us to ourselves and to show us our terrible need for grace ... we are humbled and begin to ask, ‘Who is sufficient for these things? How can I possibly live up to such a standard?’ ... we realize how unworthy and sinful we are. And the result of this is that we feel utterly hopeless and helpless. We say, ‘How can we live the Sermon on the Mount? How can anybody come up to such a standard? We need help and grace. Where can we get it?’ Here is the answer: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’. That is the connexion and we should thank God for it, because standing face to face with this glorious gospel we must all feel undone and unworthy. Those foolish people who think of Christianity only in terms of a little morality which they themselves can produce have never really seen it. The standard by which we are confronted is that found in the Sermon on the Mount, and by it we are all crushed to the ground and made to realize our utter helplessness and our desperate need of grace. Here is the answer; the supply is available, and our Lord repeats it (v. 8).

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, pp. 198–9