The Christian Righteousness: Jesus’ Expansion of the Law
Matthew 5:21-32
OUTLINE: The Christian Righteousness: Jesus’ Expansion of the Law
Matthew 5:21-32
I. Jesus’ View of Murder (Jere. 17:10, Matt. 15: 18, Luke 6:45)
A. ANGER or an unforgiving heart is a crime of HIGH TREASON in God’s Court.
B. Character assassination is committed with murderous thought AND words.
C. Your ACTIONS are the externalized by-product of what is actually in your heart.
D. Two little parables to prove Jesus’ Point
1. Followers of Jesus pursue reconciliation. (5:23-24)
2. Anger and love cannot coexist and anger and worship cannot coexist.
3. Settle differences quickly and before trial. (5:25-26, 1 Peter 5:8
II. Jesus’ View of Adultery (5:27-32)
A. Two ingredients for committing adultery without ever touching someone:
LOOK and LUST.
B. Jesus demonstrates the seriousness of sin externally as well as internally.
1. Sin is destructive.
2. “Sin” should be understood apart from “sins”.
3. Sin must be “torn out” with the help of the Holy Spirit.
4. Recognize the price that was paid for “sin”.
C. Divorce is not legal: Marriage is to be the unity, not only of a husband and wife, but the very picture of Christ and His Church.
We live in a world which has changed so dramatically over a very short time, and often we have seen how “law” actually changes when the Supreme Court “interprets the law”; they can actually CHANGE the intent of the law. In our text today, Jesus, Himself, broadens the spectrum of the Old Testament law and shows, not the Supreme Court’s version, but the HIGHEST COURT’S VERSION…God’s INTERPRETATION and INTENT.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:17: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill (the law).” He now gives concrete examples of how the Old Testament interpretation of the law was inadequate.
Jesus’ View of MURDER
Matthew 5: 21"You have heard that the ancients (Old Testament prophets) were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER ' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.'22"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court ; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court ; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”
We are so quick to apply SELF-righteousness to ourselves, while being judgmental toward others. We are quick to offer a guilty plea to a murderer without seeing the sin of anger or bitterness WITHIN OURSELVES as sin. There certainly are so-called “degrees” of sin in society: For instance, you won’t be jailed for not forgiving or being angry with your brother, but you WILL BE tried for assault or murder. Jesus in no way justifies murder, but if it only takes one sin for a person to become UNPERFECT and so be condemned to hell, then even ANGER or an unforgiving heart is a crime of HIGH TREASON in God’s Court. In God’s framework, anger is punishable by eternal death as well as murder.
God has only righteous anger; His anger is perfect because His Justice is Perfect. IN the HUMAN HEART, anger and love are not compatible; those two emotions can seldom live side by side.
A FEW NOTES ON SOME OF THE WORDS in these verses: (The word for “Good for nothing” is “Raca”-It was a saying by the Jews of Jesus’ time meaning, “empty-headed”; the increased idea of the word follows with “You fool” (moron), which carries with it, contempt for someone’s CHARACTER!) shall be guilty before the supreme court; (the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the Jews). “Shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell’ (gehenna- recent reformed theologians say that there has never actually been evidence of gehenna being a smoldering garbage dump, however, this Valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem; was where they sacrificed children by fire to the Ammonite god, Molech. Worshiping false gods leads people to do even MORE abominable things. This place was where, supposed “Children of God”, Israelites sacrificed their own children to a false God. Hell will be an appalling place because people have chosen to serve the devil instead of the True God.)
In God’s Court, CHARACTER assassination is contemptuous. In God’s Court, wicked thoughts are sinful. Not being tender-hearted and loving toward others who are made in God’s image, displays your own hateful PRIDE and PREJUDICE. Character assassination is committed with murderous words and even thoughts toward others.
Remember where sin begins: It begins (it’s born) in the heart, and God examines the HEART where evil is conceived, not just your EXTERNAL ACTIONS. Your ACTIONS are the externalized expression or by-product of what is actually in your heart. Jeremiah 17:10 says: “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.”
Matthew 15: 18 "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.19"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”
Luke 6:45: "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good ; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil ; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
Two Parables to Prove Jesus’ Point
Jesus gives two little parables to prove His Point: Matt. 5:23 "Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”
Followers of Jesus do not wait for others to come to them in order to settle a matter. Followers of Jesus actually pursue reconciliation. Why is that? Well, Jesus came to you first, didn’t He? He came to you because you needed forgiveness. You needed reconciliation with God and since YOU may not have recognized that need at first, God sent Jesus into the world and to YOU. You can’t have worship and fellowship with God unless you have been forgiven and you forgive others. You’re brothers cannot have worship with God without reconciliation with you, and so if they don’t realize the need, you have to pursue it to help them. Anger and love cannot coexist and anger and worship cannot coexist.
Look at verse 25: "Make friends quickly with your opponent at law (Antidikos-adversary) while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.26 "Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.”
In the first section concerning MURDER, Jesus mentioned the court, the supreme or HIGH) court and finally hell. Here Jesus impresses upon us the necessity to settle differences quickly and before trial, while we are traveling or journeying. Do not wait until the last minute to settle a difference: the judge’s penalty will be that you will be thrown into prison until you have paid complete restitution.
Your adversary wants you to pay! Settle now because the same punishment that applies to MURDER applies to all sin. The word that Jesus uses in vs. 25 for “opponent” is used in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary (Antidikos-adversary), the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (Luke 18:3: "There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent (Antidikos-adversary).' DO NOT RISK GOING before the judge but settle. We need to seek our legal protection NOW from the only one who will represent us properly, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ View of Adultery
Look at Jesus’ View of Adultery in verse 27: "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY '; (The word for “committing adultery” includes any and all sexual relations which are not within God’s parameters of a husband and wife unity.)
28 but I say to you that everyone who LOOKS at a woman (seeing with not only your eye but your mind’s eye!) with LUST for her (desiring something that is forbidden by God) has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Jesus gives two ingredients for committing adultery without ever touching someone: If you LOOK and you LUST, you have committed adultery. Murder is anger in the heart, and adultery is looking with the eye and lusting in the heart. In this entire section, Jesus is demonstrating the seriousness of SIN but also exceeding sinfulness of the HEART. It is not only what is seen EXTERNALLY , but what is NOT seen by anyone but God INTERNALLY.
Jesus tells how severe sin and its penalties are in verses 29-30: "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 If your right hand makes you stumble (causes you to sin), cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”
Jesus isn’t saying that you should LITERALLY tear out your right eye or cut off your right hand because you would still have your left eye and left hand to sin externally, but if you cut your left ones off as well, YOU COULD STILL SIN IN YOUR HEART which is where sin originates! Sin is extremely destructive! Sin pollutes the heart. It creeps into every area of our lives and contaminates and destroys every attitude, action, and relationship.
“Sin” should be understood apart from “sins”. Sin is at our very core, and so the things that we commit are sinful. Sinful is who we are, not who we become. We are sinners because we are full of sin, not only because we commit sinful acts.
Sin must be “torn out” from our lives with the help of the Holy Spirit. Sin should be hated and abhorred, realizing that sin causes people to go to eternal punishment. It is eternally LETHAL. Romans 8:13, we studied: 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die ; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” 1 Cor. 9:2-27: “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim ; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” We have to practice the mortification of sin in our lives. We have to choose the death of sin in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In this battle, we recognize the need for the Holy Spirit in order to battle sin. Sins like fornication ad idolatry have to be conquered by fleeing, by turning and running, not by seeing how close you can get without getting burned. With many other sins, YOU MUST STAND FIRM against sin. Paul said in Romans 7:25: “Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Often Christians seem to wonder “how far” they can go or what they can get away with without sinning; Instead, we should be praying and seeking how much like Christ we can BECOME by obeying and living pure and sinless lives. Leaning on Jesus, His Spirit and His Word are paramount to produce the type of fruit that God produces in our lives. Phil. 2:12-13 says: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
True Holiness is focused on pleasing God, yielding to His working and leading so that we glorify Him and point others TO HIM.
Jesus is speaking of the seriousness of sin to the crowds in this sermon, and they certainly knew that He was different, but they did not recognize Him as the solution and Savior from sin. We know differently: As Followers of Jesus, we must recognize the price that was paid for “sin”. In Christ, we are delivered from the penalty of sin and death, but also from sins hold on us now.
In verses 31-32, Jesus says: "It WAS said, 'WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE '; 32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery ;and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Adultery is sin and divorce leads to sin so in Jesus’ view, DIVORCE is not legal. Israel was granted divorce because of the hardness of their hearts; what they actually did was to divorce themselves from God’s Perfect Will. In the Old Testament, a wife was given a certificate of divorce to protect her from the possibility of punishment under the law, which could be death, but certainly destitution with no means of support. Many divorced women became prostitutes to survive. But under God, marriage is not only the unity of a husband and wife, but the very picture of Christ and His Church. Remember the O.T. picture of Israel divorcing itself from the God who loved them.
In Christ, we are saved to be the Holy One of Christ, the Bride who pledges her undivided love to Him. Because of His Great LOVE to us and by the power of His Holy Spirit, may we strive to become perfect as He is perfect. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)
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Romans 13: 8-Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. 11 Do this, knowing the time, that IT IS already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.”
