Daily Devotional

January 25

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Taking the gospel seriously

Is it not true to say of many of us that . . . our view of the doctrine of grace is such that we scarcely ever take the plain teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ seriously? We have so emphasized the teaching that all is of grace and that we ought not to try to imitate His example in order to make our­selves Christians, that we are virtually in the position of ignoring His teaching altogether and of saying that it has nothing to do with us because we are under grace.

Now I wonder how seriously we take the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The best way of concentrating on that question is, I think, to face the Sermon on the Mount.
What is our view, I wonder, of this Sermon? Supposing that at this point I suggested that we should all write down on paper our answers to the following questions:

What does the Sermon on the Mount mean to us?
Where does it come in our lives and what is its place in our thinking and outlook?
What is our relationship to this extraordinary Sermon that has such a prominent position in these three chapters in the Gospel according to St. Matthew?

I think you would find the result would be very interesting and perhaps very surprising. Oh, yes, we know all about the doctrine of grace and forgiveness, and we are looking to Christ. But here in these documents, which we claim to be authorita­tive, is this Sermon. Where does it come in our scheme ?

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, pp. 12-13

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”