The very first thing that Jesus preached in his earthly ministry, after His temptation as told in Luke 4, was His mission statement of setting captives free from the bondage of sin.  "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind,  To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD" (Luke 4:18,19).

The second thing He preached is recorded in Matthew 4 right after He left Nazareth in Luke 4 and went to Capernaum.  "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'"  (Matthew 4:17).

The most important thing to a king is his kingdom.  The most important thing to a benevolent King is the people of His Kingdom.  Adam was created to colonize the earth with the Kingdom of God.  He failed.  Jesus came as the Last Adam and He has prevailed.  Now it is up to us to be under-rulers, sub-kings under the authority of the King of Kings!

Jesus wants us to be free from sin and its effects.  He wants us to be whole people like we were originally designed to be.  He wants to supply all of our needs like a King does.  However He needs for us to repent, turn away from Satan's kingdom and come under the authority of His Kingdom in order to be our benevolent King.  He has no other choice.  His work is finished; the choice now is ours.  He cannot deal with proud people.

There are at least two types of repentance.  We need to repent from our self-sufficiency, and/or our dependence upon others.  We need to repent from our way of living so that we keep the ways and laws of the Kingdom.  When we live in America, the government is supposed to protect us as long as we are law-abiding citizens.  If we fail to keep the law of paying our taxes, we will loose many rights and we will suffer.  It is the same in God's Kingdom.  So far we have discussed some qualifications and disciplines for entering and living in good standing in God's Kingdom like, being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, being merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers and being persecuted.

After these things in the Sermon on The Mount in Matthew 4-7, Jesus compares the righteousness of religion to the righteousness of His Kingdom.  They are altogether different.  Christianity is not a religion.  Some call it a relationship, and it is.  However, it is also a Kingdom with a King, an actual government that we may choose to live under.

"For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder.  And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace"  (Isaiah 9:6).

Religions have laws and doctrines.  Most religions are not kingdoms and governments in themselves, although many attempt to take over worldly governments for their own selfish interests and as a way to control others to join their religion.  Governments have laws.  We have to obey those laws to keep righteous in the eyes of the government.  One great difference between religion and governments when compared to a kingdom is that in a kingdom the citizens are to take on the character of the king.

Kingdom righteousness is represented in two parts.  First, we are made righteous by faith, that is by believing that Jesus took our sinful nature and freely gave us His righteous nature.  Secondly, we need to walk or live in righteousness.  I am not talking about legalism, but I am saying that we have hourly and daily choices to repent from our unrighteous attitudes and deeds and by grace allow Jesus' character to live through us.

In the next several parts of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, He talks about maintaining our righteousness so that we may prosper in His Kingdom.  However he digs deeper into the type of righteousness, showing a marked difference between what the religious people of His day were attempting to do, the Pharisees.  They had reduced their kingdom rights to keeping laws on the exterior even though their hearts were not into what they were doing.  That is when Jesus said, ""For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven"  (Matthew 5:20).

Jesus was not annulling God's original law given by Moses.  That law was actually a description of God and His perfect blueprint for His man.  It became obvious to most that the unregenerated man could not keep God's law, which is the reason that God provided, as part of that law, a sacrifice for sin as man failed from time to time.

The religious community took that law and made a religion out of it, like many do today.  Jesus came not to do away with that law, nor to demand our performance to adhere to it because He knew it was impossible, especially when viewing the Pharisees who were trying.  All they could accomplish was an outer "whitewash."

 Our Lord always leads us to the secret innermost roots of things.  He does not concern Himself with symptoms, but with causes.  He does not begin with the molten lava flowing down the fair mountain slope and destroying the vineyards.  He begins with the central fires in which the lava is born.  He does not begin with uncleanness.  He begins with the thoughts which produce it.  He does not begin with murder, but with the anger which causes it.  "He that hateth his brother is a murderer," does not mean that hatred is as great a crime as murder, but that it grows from the same root and is of the same nature.  Murder is only anger fullgrown.

John Henry Jowett, from My Daily Meditation, 1914

The Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 7, admitted that no matter how hard he tried, the Law could not save him from sin.  He tried and tried, but he could not perform.  Then he said in Romans 8, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit"  (Romans 8:1-4).

In order to get this point across to His disciples and the people at large, Jesus made some stark comparisons.  As we go through these, do not read them like many religious people who try to make a new law out of them.  Jesus was simply explaining that only He, living inside of them, could keep these Kingdom points of righteousness.  An unregenerated man or woman cannot keep righteous in God's Kingdom.  It takes the Holy Spirit changing a person, and that person allowing the King to reign in their life.  However it takes your free will to allow this to happen by continual repentance.

Romans 6.  The great truth!

"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace"  (Romans 6:14).  When one attempts to live under the law of God in their own strength, the result is that sin and its imprisoning affects become stronger.  The solution is grace.  Grace is simply this.  It is allowing the Holy Spirit within you to live His live through you.  He has already kept the law you just have to "move over" by repentance!

Romans 7.  The great failure!

After Paul expresses this wonderful supernatural and finished work of God in Romans 6, he honestly admits that he cannot live that way by his own strength.  He cries out for help.  He stated over and over, that the main purpose of the law was to reveal sin in us, so that we may repent.

Romans 8.  The great grace!

In Romans chapter 8, he lets us know that he did receive this help, where it came from and how we can appropriate it.  He tells us that the righteousness of the law was kept perfect by Jesus.  He goes on to say that the same Holy Spirit that personifies Jesus is in us, and if we allow Him to live His life through us, we will live properly in godliness and holiness.  This is not by our power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit given free access in and to us.

This statement in Luke 18 pretty much covers the subject.

"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.   I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'  And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'   I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted"  (Luke 18:11-14).

When you are justified, you are freed from guilt!  It means to be declared just, righteous, and without fault, no guilt!

The keynote of this lesson is:  Do you have doctrinal belief, or personal belief? 

A lot of people, both Christian and non-Christian, have only a doctrinal belief in the Bible or some religion.  Doctrines are important, and we need them as our foundation.  However, doctrines alone usually motivate a person to become legalistic, harsh, and quite often devoted to work for a cause.  The Pharisees in Jesus' day were a perfect example.  However, a personal belief comes to one who has "seen" Jesus as King, as the resurrected Lord and as the Almighty God.

What is the dividing line between these two types of people?  The doctrine only people have signed onto a doctrine and attempt to live by it in their own power.  The personal people are the repentant people; those who know that they are sinners, like the Publican.  When a person, in humility, repents, God reveals Himself in a greater way, so that your personal belief is ever increasing as you see Jesus more and more and as the Holy Spirit takes over your soul.  You then live in righteousness by the power of the God in you, and not by your own will power or fleshly attempts.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proceeds to give some examples of what He means by our righteousness needs to exceed that of the Pharisees.  Following are three of His examples.  In a later chapter we will discuss the others.

You will not live under the protection and provisions of the Kingdom of God unless you deal with these issues, as we have described, on a continual basis in your life.

Murder.

As was stated above, murder is simply the maturity of hatred.  We need to sense it in ourselves, confess it as sin and quickly repent of it.  We cannot afford to court hatred!

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.'  But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!  ' shall be in danger of the council.  But whoever says, 'You fool!'   shall be in danger of hell fire.  Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,  leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.  Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny" (Matthew 5:21-26).

Adultery.

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:27,28).

"Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.'  But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery" Matthew 5:31,32).

Jesus' emphasis here was to correct the Pharisee's false thinking about marriage and divorce.  It was not to write a new divorce law or to give modern day Pharisees a way to condemn those who unfortunately had to go through divorce.  I have heard quotes by some religious people say that murder can be forgiven but not divorce.  Take that idea to its conclusion and you really have a mess. 

The Pharisees had a real heart for God and the Word of God.  They wanted to be righteous, but they were attempting that in their own legalistic perfectionism.  They would marry a woman for the wrong reasons.  They wanted a "slave."  Then when that woman bore children and/or became older and perhaps they just no longer cared for her cooking, they would use Moses' law of divorce.  They thought that would exonerate them and that they would still remain righteous.  Jesus said no to that idea!  That did not keep them righteous.

Taking oaths.

Matthew Henry's Commentary states:

There is no reason to consider that solemn oaths in a court of justice, or on other proper occasions, are wrong, provided they are taken with due reverence. But all oaths taken without necessity, or in common conversation, must be sinful, as well as all those expressions which are appeals to God, though persons think thereby to evade the guilt of swearing. The worse men are, the less they are bound by oaths; the better they are, the less there is need for them. Our Lord does not enjoin the precise terms wherein we are to affirm or deny, but such a constant regard to truth as would render oaths unnecessary. 

From what I can gather on this subject, Jesus was again addressing the Pharisees with their habit of keeping an external law, but breaking it in their hearts.  Moses' law had permitted and required oaths in some instances.  I submit that Jesus is saying that in the Kingdom of God oaths are not necessary because a Kingdom person is honest in his/her heart.  A Kingdom person can trust a real Kingdom person.  However, and in my opinion, as long as we are in a sinful world, God allows us to take oaths in legal settings.  When we sign contracts we are taking an oath.

Another level of understanding about oaths have to do with covenant.  When people are in covenant, they have already made their oaths.  Believers within the Body of Christ are blood covenant brothers and sisters.  If one cheats or lies to another, they are in grave trouble; there are in affect breaking their oath.  The gangs and Mafias makes covenant between members with blood.  If one member crosses another, death is the penalty. 

Your word must be reliable.  If for some reason your cannot keep your word, you should go to the offended party and explain what happened, and if needed, ask for forgiveness.

Coming soon.

Going the second mile.

Loving your enemies.

Charitable deeds in public.

Praying.

Fasting.