by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
C. J. Wright wrote concerning Jesus:<\/p>\n
“There is, then, a basic simplicity about the moral teaching of Jesus which reflects the same characteristic of the Old Testament. This is not, of course, to say that obedience is easy. There is a commitment, a cost, a challenge. There is precisely the struggle against tempting alternatives that Jesus himself faced and recognized as idolatrous and satanic. What it is saying is that obedience ought not to be complicated, either by the competing claims of other gods (the moral maze of polytheism), or by the confusing rules of human experts (the moral bondage of legalism). You get the feeling in reading the Gospels that the common people heard Jesus gladly and responded to his invitation to enter the kingdom of God, not because he made things easy (quite the opposite), but because he made them simple” [Knowing Jesus Through The Old Testament<\/em>, pg 190, Logos edition].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When Jesus preached what we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount, the people were astonished. Mark could summarize the preaching of Jesus in four terse phrases: (see Mark 1:15).<\/p>\n
\n
- The time is fulfilled<\/li>\n
- The kingdom of God is at hand<\/li>\n
- Repent<\/li>\n
- Believe the good news.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Yet, behind each of the phrases lies a depth of ideas. But see, I have already introduced complications!<\/p>\n
The time is fulfilled<\/strong> – all the promises that God had been making since the Garden were now upon them. The promised child of Abraham? The promised seed of David? The coming Savior of Isaiah? The coming kingdom of Daniel – the time was fulfilled!<\/p>\n
The kingdom of God is at hand<\/strong>. God is <\/b>the eternal king. God has from the beginning ruled in (over) the kingdoms of men. God rules even though men deny such and rebel against it. With the coming of Jesus and man’s reconciliation, God’s rule is here.<\/p>\n
Repent<\/strong>. How does this rule of God happen? Through repentance! God has provided, and we are now called to repent. God demands that all men everywhere<\/strong>\u00a0repent (Acts 17:30). John preached this. Peter preached this (Acts 2:38). Paul preached this (Acts 17:30). Jesus preached this!<\/p>\n
Believe the good news<\/strong>. Not just hear it. Not just believe it is true, but trust it<\/strong>, let it guide your life. Let your life be lived by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. No longer live by your <\/b>rules, but by the faith of Jesus. Hear ye Him<\/strong>. Obey Him. Be a wise man and build your house upon the Rock: hear His words and do them (Matthew 7:24), do the will of the Father and be saved (Matthew 7:21).<\/p>\n
Is God ruling in your life? Is Jesus your Lord and King?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Hugh DeLong C. J. Wright wrote concerning Jesus: “There is, then, a basic simplicity about the moral teaching of Jesus which reflects the same characteristic of the Old Testament. This is not, of course, to say that obedience is easy. There is a commitment, a cost, a challenge. There is precisely the struggle against…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[100,38],"class_list":["post-96880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-gospel","tag-morality"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":91540,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/even-a-caveman-can-do-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":96880,"position":0},"title":"Even a Caveman Can Do It","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Remember the old insurance commercials that claimed to be so simple, \"even a caveman can do it\"? We had become so \"politically correct\" that no one wants to insult anyone else, so Geico came up with a victim they were sure we could poke fun at with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68768,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/confessing-jesus-as-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":96880,"position":1},"title":"Confessing Jesus as Lord","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer There is no conversion to Christ and His kingdom without recognizing He is King. In the context of teaching the message of good news, peace, happiness, and salvation, the proclamation is made, \"Your God reigns!\" (Isaiah 52:7). This is the passage quoted by Paul in Romans 10,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87853,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/he-died-for-my-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":96880,"position":2},"title":"He Died for My Sins","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Allen Dvorak via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 2, February 2015 What would you be willing to do for your enemy? To the Romans, Paul wrote that God demonstrated His love for us \"in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us\" (Romans 5:8). We (men in general)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9880,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-role-of-obedience-in-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":96880,"position":3},"title":"The Role of Obedience in Salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jack Holt Obedience is an obligation each human being sustains to God. This is so because God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe, and we are his creatures. Beyond the fact that God is Creator and Ruler, love places us under a moral obligation to obey. As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39052,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/justification-by-works-and-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":96880,"position":4},"title":"Justification by Works and Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford At the end of Romans 3 and the beginning of Romans 4, we encounter the most famous of Paul's teachings: justification by faith in Jesus. Throughout the context, he contrasts it with justification by works. Abraham was not justified by works, nor was David, nor can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/baptism2-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30191,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/since-jesus-paid-the-debt-for-sin-isnt-hell-an-additional-payment\/","url_meta":{"origin":96880,"position":5},"title":"Since Jesus paid the debt for sin, isn’t Hell an additional payment?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been posed a question by a conditionalist. He says:\u00a0The wages of sin is death.\u00a0Did Jesus pay the price at the cross?\u00a0Can we pay more than He paid at the cross? He then goes on to say that eternal hell would be paying more than Jesus paid and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}