Review
SOTM- Mtt 5-7 … You Good for Nothing.
We learned (5:17) Jesus did not come to abolish- Law
Jesus made Himself the pivotal point in History.
The entirety of the OT points towards His coming, and when He came, He introduced His Kingdom.
Mtt 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." NASU
The OT finds its ultimate validity in Jesus/teachings.
To fully understand what Jesus is saying in the SOTM, one must be born-again/from above.
Jn 3:3 … unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." NASU
Once- born from above- begin to see what Jesus sees.
Jesuscame to reveal the righteousness of God that was behind the Law.
Jesus did not do away w/commands of OT- extended them beyond outward actions to- true heart issues.
Look at Mtt 5:21-26
This is- 1st of 5 blocks of scripture where Jesus says-
You have heard that it was said, but I say to you
Mtt 5:21, 27, 33, 38, 43
Jesus was not discrediting the OT but correcting the Jews misunderstanding of what the OT said.
He was opening to them God’s heart behind the Law.
No man can make himself pure by obeying laws.
Purity is not a matter of doing or living right, but the doer being right in His heart.
Every man/woman is born in an immoral state.
You may not have fallen into some dark sin, and therefore see yourself as innocent …
this is a false/dangerous sense of security.
My lack of awareness of my own sin does not make me acceptable to God.
It does not mean I am going to heaven because I see myself as innocent.
A true encounter w/God awakens in me an awareness of the possibility of evil that lies within us.
Mtt 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. NASU
Oswald Chambers …
The Gospel of God is not that Jesus died for my sins only, but that He gave Himself for me that I might give myself to Him.
Paul said …
2 Cor 5:21He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. NASU
When we are born from above, we take on the very disposition of Christ.
V5:21-22
Jesus is elaborating on the sixth commandment.
Ex 20:13 "You shall not murder. NASU
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Aside: Do not murder- not a general prohibition against the taking human life.
The 6th C is saying that there can be no unauthorized killing/taking of another human life.
You cannot by your own determination remove the life of somebody else- not your decision to make.
This verse, taken with others in the Bible, does not preclude capital punishment or just wars.
The Bible makes room for both.
Gen 9:6 "Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man. NASU
There is a place to take the life of a person who takes the lives of others.
There is a place to go to war defensively and in some cases offensively to bring judgment- for taking life
God has given to society the authority to punish evil.
Rom 13:3-4
3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;
4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. NASU
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Jesus is broadening the sixth commandment to address the true righteous heart of God behind it.
The Pharisees limited it to the physical act of murder.
Jesus broadened it to include …
thoughts and words as well as deeds,
anger and insult as well as murder.
Not all anger is evil as evidenced by the wrath of God.
Righteous anger- wishes no evil towards another.
Our problem is that we burn with indignation and anger, not at sin and injustice, but at offense to ourselves. In none of the cases in which Jesus became angry was his personal ego wrapped up in the issue. DA Carson
Unrighteous anger- anger that is the result of pride, vanity, hatred, malice, revenge, unforgiveness.
We must see anger/insult as serious and dangerous.
It is the wrath and anger in the murderer’s heart that is the real issue behind the outward deed of murder.
I can outwardly not commit murder, but inwardly be fully guilty of murder.
God seems to make no distinction between the two.
You who think yourselves far removed, morally speaking, from murderers- have you not hated? Have you never wished someone were dead” Have you not frequently stooped to the use of contempt, even to character assassination? DA Carson
Look at the heart of Jesus …
1 Pet 2:23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; NASU
Mtt 5:23-26
God calls us to be generous in our behavior towards every person.
We must guard against living by natural affections.
In the natural- people we like, others we do not like.
1 Jn 1:7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another … NASU
Throughout Mtt 5, the picture we have is not that of a good person or a good Christian, but of God.
Mtt 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. NASU
We must show towards others, what God has shown towards us.
Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God’s interests in other people. Oswald Chambers
Jesus says …
Jn 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. NASU
Oswald Chambers …
God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly.
Conclusion
Deliverance from sin is not deliverance from conscious sin, but that which is sin in God’s sight.
Psa 139:1-6, 23-24
I cannot live the life God has called me to, unless He puts His Spirit in me and remakes me from within.
This is my hope.
I go astray when I refuse to allow the Son of God to rule my disposition and claim my right to myself.
That is the essence/root of sin … I will exercise my right to myself in this particular area.
1Jn 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. NIV
