Despite the record and cycle of rebellion against God, the people and nation of Israel is described in Scripture as the apple of God’s eye. Yet, throughout church history, there has been a question concerning Israel’s role in God’s kingdom. With the new covenant, some say Israel is no longer considered chosen by God. Beyond the questions in the church, our culture today is becoming increasingly overt in its challenging of the place of Israel in our country’s foreign policy.

How do we, as followers of Christ, understand God’s view of Israel today? What is the history of Israel in God’s salvation plan? What is the relationship of the church to modern day Israel?

Jesus proclaimed, “I am the Light of the world, whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.” He set Himself apart from the darkness of the world and of Satan. He alone is the Light of the world.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made another bold claim. He taught His disciples that they (and all who follow Him) are to be the Light of the world. In this teaching, Jesus gives a clear picture of our identity as salt and light, of our role in the world and our calling in the work of His kingdom. It is an amazing teaching for us to grasp, but it is key to understanding our identity in Christ.

The word of our time seems to be “resist”. Resist the government. Resist the political views that you don’t agree with. Resist anything you don’t approve of or support. This resistance often leads to civil disobedience, destructive rhetoric and even physical violence. Resist.

For the follower of Christ, there is another calling. It is a calling that collides with conventional, worldly wisdom. It is the call to non-resistance. His teaching was no less radical when He delivered the Sermon on the Mount as it is today. To be a citizen of the Kingdom of God means to be radically counter-cultural. The law of love and the law of non-resistance is our calling.

While the religious leaders sought to view the ten commandments through the prism of behaviour, Jesus brought a more comprehensive view of the Law that gazed into the heart of man. There is perhaps no clearer example of the nature of sin than in the issue of adultery. It is a physical action with devastating consequences that has its roots in the furnace room of our hearts. So much so that Jesus equates lustful thoughts with the actual act of adultery.

Today, we have seen much compromise in the area of sexual purity. In many ways, there has been a significant collapse of God’s design for marriage and sexual purity. The teaching of Jesus on a Galilean hillside so many years ago echoes a clarion call to radical discipleship in the area of sexuality for our time.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus compares the conventional interpretation of the command “do not murder” with the more complete kingdom version of the command. His teaching of the command is actually much more severe and profound than the disciples had imagined. So it is with us. This teaching on murder and anger hits all too close to home for most of us.

While helping us to understand how serious God takes this issue, Jesus also gives us clear instruction on how to confront our anger in stressed relationships. The power of the gospel is seen in the way we confront the passion of anger in our lives.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared that He had come to fulfill, not to abolish the Old Testament Law given to Moses. Not only did His own life, ministry and death on the cross fulfill the Old Testament law, but His teaching completed what was understood with the Law. To understand that, Jesus gives six examples of the Old Testament Law and the fulfilling teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

It is no surprise that the first example has to do with something we have all dealt with – anger. According to Jesus, the issue of anger is the foundation for the law, “You shall not murder.” In this way, the law of murder is much more profound than we have understood, as well as its implications for our daily life.

If we consider the Beatitudes to be a simple collection of wonderful sayings by Jesus, we are missing the full depth of Kingdom life He is calling us to. The beatitudes are a new matrix of evaluation to be used by everyone who calls on the name of Jesus. And the measurements are profoundly life altering.

As we come to the end of the Beatitudes, the Kingdom life becomes obviously Spirit-empowered. The calling of persecution for anyone who calls on the name of Jesus cannot be lived out without the power of Christ. This last Beatitude culminates a radical change of heart and life for anyone seeking to follow Jesus.