The key point of Matthew 5:17-20 is: Our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. Jesus said that he came to fulfill the Law, meaning Jesus came to demonstrate the true meaning of the Law. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law added traditions to the Law. The Law + Traditions is the righteousness of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, as a result, God’s Law lost its intended meaning.

Jesus gave five examples to explain the point. We covered the first two in our previous sermon: (1.) about murder v.21-26 (2.) about adultery and divorce v.27-32. Today, we would like to study the other three examples: (3.) about taking oaths in verses 33-37; (4.) about an eye for an eye in verses 38-42, and (5.) about loving one’s enemies in verses 43-47.

These thirty-one verses in Matthew 5:17-48 tell us a very important truth, that our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. The passage’s main point can be found in verses 17 to 20 and Jesus gave us 5 examples to illustrate this point in verses 21-48. We cover the first two examples in this sermon.

We are all familiar with this scripture passage. Jesus clearly defined our identity as Christians – we are the salt of the earth, we are light of the world. We must take note of a very important verb in this passage, “are”. We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. Jesus is not saying we must be the salt and light of the world. This is an issue of life – if we are not salt, we are not light; no matter what we do we cannot become salt and light. Salt and light are our identity, we are salt and light. Salt cannot lose its saltiness, light cannot be hidden. We are salt, we are light. What are the uses of salt and light?

Today we continue our Sermon on the Mount series by discussing the last three of the eight Beatitudes.