Matthew 7:29

For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

For he taught them as [one] having authority. The word "one" which our translators have here inserted, only weakens the statement.

And not as the scribes. The consciousness of divine authority, as Lawgiver, Expounder, and Judge, so beamed through His teaching, that the scribes teaching could not but appear drivelling in such a light.

Remarks:

(1) Let the disciples of Christ beware of obliterating the distinction between the "broad" and the "narrow" way; and neither be carried away by the plausibilities of that 'liberal' school of preachers and writers whose aim is to refine away the distinguishing peculiarities of the two classes, nor be ashamed of the fidelity which holds them up in bold, clear, sharp outline. It is easy to run down the latter class as narrow bigots, and cry up the former as sensible and large-minded. But He, Whom none claiming the Christian name dare call narrow or harsh, concludes this incomparable discourse with the assurance that there are but two great courses-the one ending in "life," the other in "destruction;" that the easy one is the fatal, the difficult the only safe way; and that true wisdom lies in eschewing the former and making choice of the latter. Genuine, out-and-out discipleship yields its devout assent to this, and casts in its lot with all that teach it, however despised; stopping its ears to the preachers of smooth things, charm they never so wisely.

(2) While corrupt teaching is followed, sooner or later, by corresponding practice, the immediate effects are often, to all appearance, the reverse. There is often a simplicity, an earnestness, an absorption in the objects at which they aim, in preachers who are conscious that they have special ideas to lodge in the minds of their hearers; and there are other subtle elements in the popularity of some, who, by widening the strait gate and broadening the narrow way, win to religious thought and earnestness not a few who otherwise would in all probability have remained strangers to both. But when we see clearly the character of such teaching, let us never doubt what its ultimate issue must be, and, in spite of all present appearances, and in answer to all charges of bigotry, let us be ready, with our Master, to exclaim, "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"

(3) The light in which our Lord presents Himself in the closing words of this Discourse has a grandeur, on supposition of His proper personal Divinity, which must commend itself to every devout, reflecting mind; whereas, if we regard Him as a mere creature, they are so dishonouring to God as to be repulsive in the last degree to all who are jealous for His glory. The dialogue form in which the appeals at the great day are said to be made to Him, and rejected by Him-though expressive, it my be, of nothing more than the principles and feelings of both parties toward each other, which will then be brought out-places our Lord Himself in a light wholly incompatible with anything which Scripture warrants a creature to assume. Not only does it exhibit Him as the Judge, but it represents all moral and religious duties as terminating in Him, and the blissful or blighted future of men as turning upon their doing or not doing all to Him. In perfect, yet awful accordance with this is the sentence - "DEPART FROM ME" - as if separation from HIM were death and hell. If the Speaker were a mere creature, no language can express the mingled absurdity and profanity of such assumptions; but if He was the Word, who at the beginning was with God and was God, and if thus rich He for our sakes only became poor, then all that He says here is worthy of Himself, and shines in its own luster. See Remark 2 at the close of the corresponding Section (Luke 13:23).

(4) While most persons within the pale of the Christian Church are ready to admit that, not professed, but proved subjection to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ-not lip, but life service-will avail "in that day," It is not so readily admitted and felt that services such as "prophesying in Christ's name, and in His name casting out devils, and in His name doing many miracles" - or, what in later ages correspond to these, eloquent and successful preaching-even to the deliverance of souls from the thraldom of sin and Satan; learned contributions to theological literature; great exertions for the diffusion of Christianity and the vindication of religious liberty; and princely donations for either or both of these-may all be rendered in honour of Christ, while the heart is not subjected to Him, and the life is a contradiction to His precepts. What need, then, have we to tremble at the closing words of this great Discourse; and, "Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity"! See Remark 1 at the close of the corresponding Section (Luke 13:23).

(5) Is there not something awful in the astonishment and dismay with which the inconsistent disciples of the Lord Jesus are here represented as receiving their sentence at the great day? What a light does it throw upon the extent to which men may be the victims of self-deception, and the awful inveteracy of it-as if nothing would open their eyes but the Judge's own sentence: "I never knew you: depart from me"! Well may one, on rising from the study of this solemn close to the Sermon on the Mount, exclaim with, Bunyan, in the closing words of his immortal 'Pilgrim,' 'THEN I SAW THAT THERE WAS A WAY TO HELL EVEN FROM THE words of his immortal 'Pilgrim,' 'THEN I SAW THAT THERE WAS A WAY TO HELL EVEN FROM THE GATES OF HEAVEN.'