The demands our Lord makes in the Sermon on the Mount are impossible for us to meet\u2014unless he has done a supernatural work inside us. Not only does Jesus Christ demand that his disciples go the second mile, he also demands that there be no trace of resentment inside them when they come up against tyranny and injustice because of their commitment to him: \u201cBlessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad\u201d (Matthew 5:11\u201312). There\u2019s no enthusiasm, no natural human quality, that can withstand the strain that Jesus Christ places upon his workers. The only thing strong enough is a personal relationship with him. This relationship must be put to the test until the disciple has just one purpose remaining: \u201cI am here for God to send me wherever he will.\u201d Everything else in a disciple\u2019s life may get muddied, but this relationship to Jesus Christ must remain perfectly clear.<\/p>\n
If I am going to be a disciple of Jesus, I must be made one supernaturally. As long as I\u2019m dead set on being a disciple, I can be sure I am not one. Discipleship isn\u2019t a matter of my determination, but of God\u2019s: \u201cYou did not choose me, but I chose you\u201d (John 15:16). This is the way the call to discipleship begins. I can ignore God\u2019s call, but I can neither generate it nor decide how to answer it. When our Lord makes disciples, he doesn\u2019t ask them to do things they\u2019re naturally cut out for. He asks them to do things they\u2019ve been supernaturally<\/em> cut out for by his grace.<\/p>\n The Sermon on the Mount isn\u2019t some unattainable ideal. It\u2019s a statement of what will actually happen in me when Jesus Christ has changed my disposition and put into me a disposition like his own. Jesus Christ is the only one who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The demands our Lord makes in the Sermon on the Mount are impossible for us to meet\u2014unless he has done a supernatural work inside us. Not only does Jesus Christ demand that …<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":2274,"template":"","collection":[],"class_list":["post-2700","modern-classic","type-modern-classic","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic\/2700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/modern-classic"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/modern-classic\/2700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utmost.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=2700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}