The Foundation

Matthew’s Gospel contains a sermon Jesus gave—a talk we refer to as His Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon Jesus taught about humility, love, the law of God, prayer, and how to live the Christian life. There were two aspects to this sermon that made it truly revolutionary. The first is that this sermon was preached by God incarnate, the God-man Jesus Christ. He was the living Word, preaching and teaching with authority.

Second, Christ’s teaching was in direct opposition to the religious leaders of His day, the Pharisees. The Pharisees attempted to follow an external righteousness, one characterized by rule-keeping and following the letter of the law. But Christ taught something very different, which is that true righteousness is a result of internal change brought through a relationship with Him.

At the end of Jesus’ sermon He told a parable about two men who had built houses. Then, when a storm came, one house collapsed because it lacked a firm foundation. The one that remained standing was the one built on rock. Jesus’ parable teaches us that He is our one true foundation and that building our lives on anything except Him will fail.