I would be blind and lame if I did what He said. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out…if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off…” See what I mean? Blind and lame.
Then there’s that portion about hell. I don’t much like talking about hell and the lake of fire and gnashing of teeth. It isn’t very “feel-good.” But Jesus talked about it a lot. And here He said that it’s better to tear out our sin-seducing eye or cut off our rebellious hand, than live a life of sin and be thrown into hell.
Jesus didn’t mince His words. He spoke tough sayings.
Bottom line, next to the holy standard of this perfect God, we cannot measure up. Left to ourselves we think lust thoughts and do mean things, hurting people and grieving God. That’s what I do anyway. And sin deserves serious consequences.
But grace.
We deserve hell, but Jesus took the punishment. We deserve condemnation, but He bore the wounds that bring our healing. All we have to do is believe from our heart and say, “Thank you! I’m Yours.”
I come full circle, back to my conclusion from last Sunday. It’s only by His grace that I see. It’s only by His grace that I’m whole.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 6:12-14
For those joining me in memorizing the Sermon on the Mount, our verses this week are Matthew 5:31-33 — His words on divorce and remarriage. Keep running this race with me, friends. We will have a week to catch our breath after next week’s verses.
