Matthew 5:21-26…
Jesus had just told the crowd that He was to fulfill the Law, over and against the Pharisees who only held up their lower level version of the Law. The distinction was being made.
But I say to you – Now Jesus goes even further than the letter of the Law and begins to reveal the spirit of the Law, the deep down, heart essence of the ways of God. A person isn’t a sinner because he sins, he sins because he is a sinner. What’s in a person’s heart is revealed through the person’s life (Proverbs 4:23).
The deeper your anger is for someone else, the deeper the disaster is for yourself. Hatred leads to hell. Holding an argument makes your worship out of order. Stubbornness soils your sacrifices. Handling a matter is better done in private before it goes public. The longer you wait the worse it will get. Pride can lead to prison.
The problem is not with the Law, but that it was weakened by the flesh and therefore could not do what it intended (Deuteronomy 8:1). Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin but without that weakness so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us (Romans 8:3-4). Jesus had no sin, not on the outside, not from the inside, none at all. Every one of us might at times conform to the outer standards but there is no way we can pass the heart standard, not in every facet, in every precept, in every way. Yet Jesus does.
Are you angry with Jesus? Do you hold something against Him? Will you settle out of court, or have to face the ultimate judge? Be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).
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