The Sermon on the Mount is not a dissertation on how to be saved by works any more than the Law is a dissertation on how to be saved by works.
It was an expounding on the Law, showing what the true intent was. If keeping the letter of the OT Law was unable to save anyone, then what Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount is incapable of saving anyone because no one person, save Christ Himself, is capable of keeping the intent of the Law as presented in the Sermon on the Mount.
The Law was put into effect to lead us to Christ by showing us that we could NOT meet the righteous requirements of God and thus show us the need for a Savior.
What we earn for what we do is death and hell. Anyone who appeals to their own good works for salvation to God is going to be judged by them and that WILL result in condemnation. The only way the works could be counted as worthy is if the motivation for them were entirely pure and if the person were doing the good works to earn salvation, that would immediately disqualify them because the motivation would be self-seeking and impure.
Not only that, but since all it takes is one sin to render someone guilty of breaking the entire Law, once someone sinned one time, it wouldn’t matter if they were perfect for the entire rest of their lives. It’s too late. The wages of sin is death. All it takes is one. There is no good works outweighing bad works. That’s not God’s economy.
Galatians 2:15-21 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Galatians 3:1-29
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
I am so humbled by God's mercy and grace that he looked beyond all my faults and saw my need, like the song says. How can someone hope to stand before God with the filthy rags of their own goodness and merit and expect him to favor that over the simple child-like faith in Jesus as their Savior? "Oh, NO! That's "easy believism.", they say. How to get through to them that it is because of God's undeserved mercy, his unfathomable grace that we are not consumed?
I will not throw his grace back in his face and say, "No thanks, I'll do it my way.". I will fall upon his mercy seat with the blood of Jesus Christ washed all over every inch of me and proclaim, "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.". For I was lost and now am found. I was without hope and I have been given glory by his amazing grace!
Which is exactly to a tee what happened in my own conversion to Christ. Read the ten commandments....sense of guilt and hopelessness because if you sin in ANY of the LEAST of the commandments you are guilty of them all! Just as it is written.
What is interesting is The commandments and a few childhood stories about God and Jesus was all I knew.......and yet when I asked God to reveal Himself, if He was indeed real, and began to look in the Bible to see what it said about Him, I ran square into the commandments...and when He reveals you are doomed thru those commandments you do fear God.
But when you seek Him He will bring you beyond the commandments to Jesus as your Savior.. as your search continues. And the moment of decision is before you.
Not once was did the catholic church come into the equation....nor any of it's endless literature or writings. It was all about the scriptures, which attest of Christ, and those God brought in my path who used the scriptures, along with my own reading and study and personal prayers.
So these scripture references you have used, Metmom and Boatbums,...ring very close to my heart and mind. ......the end result, which was really the beginning,....was I said yes to Christ.
So who are the sheep in Matthew 25:31-46? They seem to do what Matthew 5-7 teaches and end up saved.
Also, you are telling us that Jesus said the Sermon on the Mount in order to tease us, like a cruel person would urge a lame to run Marathon. Is there any indication in the text of the Sermon itself that it is given as an example of the impossible?
once someone sinned one time, it wouldn’t matter if they were perfect for the entire rest of their lives. It’s too late
True. This is why Christ also gave the Church the "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18, cf. John 20:22-23)
[quotes Gal 2 and 3]
I explained it to you many times. The Church agrees with St. Paul that works of the law do not save anyone.