Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 115:459 (Jul 1958)
Article: The Purpose of the Sermon on the Mount Part II
Author: J. Dwight Pentecost

BSac 115:459 (Jul 58) p. 212

The Purpose of the Sermon on the Mount
Part II

J. Dwight Pentecost

In the previous treatment of this subject, three popular interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount were presented and shown to be inadequate. These were (1) the view that the sermon is addressed to Christendom; (2) the view that the sermon is addressed to Christians in this age to guide them in their Christian life; and (3) the view that the sermon applies to the future earthly kingdom.

We now turn to another view: that the Sermon on the Mount is to be connected with the offer of the kingdom to Israel at the first advent of Christ, so that its primary application is to that day and time, and must be so interpreted. Chafer, although adopting a previously discussed view, makes statements which show that he did not eliminate this aspect of interpretation, for he has written: “…it is to be seen that the Sermon on the Mount was given in the midst and as a feature of the kingdom proclamation which first occupied the ministry of Christ on earth. It constituted the authoritative edict of the King relative to the character of the kingdom, its requirements, and the conditions of admission into it” (Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, V, 101). Again, Chafer states: “The conclusion growing out of this analysis of this discourse is that it is the direct and official pronouncement of the King Himself of that manner of life which will be the ground for admission into the kingdom of heaven and the manner of life to be lived in the kingdom” (ibid., p. 111).

It would seem then that this discourse in its primary interpretation is to be related to the offer of the kingdom by the King and should be so understood and applied. We would like to support this position by a number of considerations.

The setting of the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew was written to bridge the gap between the

BSac 115:459 (Jul 58) p. 213

Old and New Testaments. It picks up the thread of the promise of the kingdom in the Old Testament and presents Christ and His offer of the kingdom to Israel just as though there had not been a silence for four hundred years. The Gospel of Matthew records the offer of the kingdom to Israel and the rejection of that offer with the refusal to receive and acknowledge Christ as the Messiah, so that we have an explanation as to why God is not dealing with that nation Israel in the New Testament. Without the revelation contained in Matthew’s Gospel the purpose of God would be a mystery and the character of God an enigma, for we would not understand the change in purpose and program from the Old to the New Testament. In Matthew we have a presentation of Israel’s Messiah, in accordance wi...