was finally made perfect, were the men in whom Jesus Christ laid the foundations of His Kingdom in the world. Having secured these leaders, the Lord Jesus took up at once the next problem of organization. That problem was concerned with the inner principles by which Christian life within His Kingdom should be defined and regulated. CHAPTER VII THE KINGDOM: THE CITIZENS "Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21. "For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Grost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men." Romans 14:17-18. "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house." 1. Peter 2:5. "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ." Revelation 12:10. Christ chose the Twelve Apostles, as recounted in the previous chapter, to be the personal element with which to begin His Kingdom in the world. Having done that, Christ began almost immediately to declare the body of principles which define and govern all life within that Kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount as the Constitution of Christ's Kingdom in the World. This body of principles, or fundamental laws, was set forth in the Sermon on the Mount, which may very properly be thought of as the Constitution of Christ's Kingdom in the world. Human machinery and a constitution are the essentials of an organization. Therefore this Sermon on the Mount, which was delivered as early as occasion would allow 1. Place and Nature after the choosing of the Twelve Apostles, was the next logical step taken by Jesus in the organizing of His Kingdom. This work the Lord Jesus pushed forward at this time of This Sermon Matthew 5:1-7:29 with as little interruption as possible. The Sermon on the Mount, as a statement of fundamental law, did three things. First, it recognized that the Kingdom of Christ is a spiritual Kindom. That Kingdom is essentially a renewed spiritual life in the heart, a life that results from a living faith in the Son of God. Secondly, this Sermon defined a connection, deep in the regenerated heart, between all laws and that new spiritual life, which radiates with power, and sanctifies life itself, and all of life's relationships. Finally, this Sermon, with Divine authority, traced outward, from the hidden depths of the heart, the proper and adequate expression of that new life with which the Kingdom of Christ begins. This Sermon is, therefore, in its broadest meaning, possibly the most comprehensive statement of the Christ-life to be found in any one place in the entire Word of God. 2. Divine Purpose of This Sermon The purpose of this Sermon is therefore very definite. It deals primarily with the realization and expression of spiritual life. It gives not so much a condition of life, as a prescription for living. It presupposes salvation, and then tells how a saved life should be lived in order to realize itself, and to accomplish its mission in the world. This underlying purpose of the Sermon on the Mount has not always had sufficient emphasis. Christ spoke this message to Christians. He delivered this Sermon to His own disciples, to believers who were already saved, to those who were even then already citizens of His newly organized Kingdom. Every word of this Sermon presupposed faith in Christ on the part of those to whom these words were addressed. The Lord Jesus, in this extended discourse, defined the right and adequate outworking of a living faith in the heart. He declared how a Christian should live. He analyzed the qualities of character and conduct that should appear in the life of a citizen of His Kingdom. He set forth the right relations of such a citizen to the unsaved world. He outlined the principles of law by which the conduct of a saved man, in his personal, social, and religious life, must be governed. He described, and also prescribed, the tests by which the integrity of the Christian life of the citizen of His Kingdom must be, and will be tested. These obligations, all of them, rest ultimately upon the unsaved man also. But the unsaved man must answer first for the supreme obligation of saving faith in Jesus Christ. With that begins, and upon that alone is built up, the more advanced obligations which Christ, in this Sermon, has laid upon the hearts of men in all ages. First Faith; and then its adequate expression, as outlined in this Sermon. For both men are held in definite responsibility before the searching judgments of God. This truth of faith first was greatly emphasized by the circumstances under which this Sermon was delivered. The immediate 3. Special Setting of This Sermon Matthew 5:1 occasion involved two local movements on the part of Jesus. First, He came down from the mountain where He had chosen the Twelve Apostles, to the multitude on the level place below. There He found, besides many of His own disciples, a great mixed multitude of other Luke 6:17-19 people, who had gathered from all Judea and Jerusalem on the South, and from the sea coasts of Tyre and Sidon on the North. Many of them were sick. Some had unclean spirits. All desired to hear, and to be healed. Eagerly, and possibly with great confusion, the crowd pressed upon Jesus while He was ministering to their needs. After a time, the Lord Jesus withdrew again from the general crowd, with its noise and disorder. He went a second time apart, to a mountain not far away. To Him, in that place of retirement, came His disciples, who had also withdrawn from the general multitude in the plain below. It was there, in the quiet of the mountain side, to a select audience of those who believed in Him already, that Christ delivered this Sermon on the Mount. To those who were already Christians He addressed this message. For them He analyzed the meaning of discipleship, or of citizenship in His Kingdom. He discussed that citizenship as a life that is built upon personal faith, such a life as is ultimately the solemn obligation of all men. This Sermon was long; but its outline was clear. The discourse falls into three main divisons, which treat the three prin 4. General Outline of This Sermon cipal topics about which the fundamental law of His Kingdom is concerned. In the first division of the Sermon, Christ dealt, in a comprehensive way, with the question of citizenship in His Kingdom. In the second division, He analyzed at great length the principles of moral and spiritual law which must govern the personal, religious, and social life of those within His Kingdom. In the third division, He set forth the tests of the Kingdom. The questions of the moral law, and of the tests of the Kingdom, will be considered later. The present chapter is concerned with the two aspects of citizenship in the Kingdom which Christ emphasized in the first division of this Sermon. First, in the Beatitudes, beginning with the fact that citizenship is blessedness, Christ stated, point by point, the underlying principles upon which that blessedness rests, and under which it may be attained. In giving this analysis, He stated the necessary qualities and characteristics of a citizen in His Kingdom. Then, after He had thus defined the Citizen, Christ next defined, under the two figures of Salt and Light, the right relations of the Citizen within the Kingdom to the outside unsaved world. I. The Characteristics of the Citizens of Christ's Kingdom Christianity in the heart is both an achievement and a working force. Salvation, as seen already in Chapter IV above, involves both an intake and an outflow of that saving grace which results from personal faith in Christ. This conception of spiritual life runs through all of Christ's thought in this discussion of citizenship in His Kingdom. First, men must believe, and receive, and become; and then, there must be a right response of their acquired life, and grace, and power. Thus only can the saved life become blessed. 1. Underlying Law of Blessedness: Being and Doing in Actual Life That is the Divine Truth which underlies all of the Beatitudes. In speaking them, Christ began with the fact of faith and life already in the hearts of His hearers. He considered that the life which results from faith was the beginning of blessedness. He emphasized that the unfolding blessedness of a Christian life was conditioned upon the attaining, and the doing of certain things in one's life. He reasserted, with each Beatitude, that the blessedness of life and the conditions of blessedness are united in the bonds of law. Sometimes the result is the natural effect of laws that are obvious. Always the bond is a "shall be" from the Divine Lawgiver Himself. "Blessed are they that attain and do these things," says the Voice of Authority; "for the results shall follow." But effective faith and life must be expressed in fulfillment of certain definite obligations, as seen in the following analysis. The Lord spoke nine Beatitudes, defining nine 2. Grouping of the conditions of blessedness to be fulfilled. Beatitudes Those nine Beatitudes fall into three Groups. The first Group contains four Beatitudes, all of which are concerned with the development of right personal character. They deal with what a man ought to be in himself. The second Group, containing three Beatitudes, is concerned with the right relations of a man's life to his fellowmen and to his God. The third Group, which has only two Beatitudes, lays down the principles of faithfulness to the Kingdom of Christ, and to Christ the King. Through these three Groups of the Beatitudes Christ has opened up the channels whereby a saved life may express itself into blessedness. In being, and in doing, these things which Christ has set forth as necessary, the Citizen of His Kingdom is privileged to work out, not a condition of salvation, but the |