Horror of Sin

Mat 5:29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
Mat 5:30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.


Do you think for ONE moment that plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand would stop a sinner from sinning? Seriously. How wondrous it would be to think that all we had to do was sacrifice and eye and we would no longer sin through the things we look on to lust for. And our hand, is it truly the hand that is sinning? Think about it. If we could lose a hand and gain salvation why we'd have whole churches filled with one-handed, one-eyed people guaranteed salvation. Sin is in our hearts and we can't pluck or cut those out.


Jesus knew that the actuality of us plucking out our eyes and chopping off our hands wasn't what He was trying to teach us. Using such GRAPHIC depictions allows us to realize just how important it is that we don't accept sin in any form in our lives. We cannot condone sin. It's better for us to do all we can not to sin, to rid our hearts of sin through Him than it is to die eternally. It's better for us to SUFFER the agonies of denying ourselves our sinful desires than to burn in the lake of fire.


Remember our study on Hell? Maybe not, let's just recap a bit of it…


We talk of hell and there are different meanings for that word throughout our Bibles. Geenna is one of those words--and the particular word used here in Matthew 5:29,30

G1067
γέεννα
geenna
Thayer Definition:
1) Hell is the place of the future punishment call “Gehenna” or “Gehenna of fire”. This was originally the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned; a fit symbol of the wicked and their future destruction.


Originally the valley of Hinnom- a place that had a fire continually burning to burn the constant refuse brought to be destroyed- much like a garbage dump only this dump destroyed the garbage turning it into ash rather than let the garbage just simply accumulate. The fire there in the valley never went out - day and night it burned having a constant, steady stream of refuse to feed it.


Using this word for hell here in Matthew 5:29,30 refers to the body being cast in the 'lake of fire' the lake of permanent punishment that all wicked will be burned in.


Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.


Obviously Jesus is telling us that it's better to SUFFER whatever we need to suffer in order not to sin than to give into sin and make it part of our lives- accepting sin, indulging in the perversities of sinning rather that risk being among the wicked not found in the book of life.


THESE are Jesus' words! These aren't my words! I'm not telling you it's better to pluck out your own eye, or cut off your hand than be burned to the point of total annihilation in the lake of fire reserved for the wicked.


I can already hear the cries- WE CAN'T SAVE OURSELVES! You're telling us by our actions we are saved! You're telling us if we don't sin then we are saved! You're telling us if we mortify the flesh we have salvation! It's not me, it's not my words, it's the word of Inspiration! It's the word of GOD!


Col 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Col 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Col 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him


Rom 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.


Don't you see? It's better for US to realize that we are NOT the same people after we accept Christ as our Savior. We have HIM on our side. We have the Holy Spirit to lead us! We HAVE to put off sinning. We HAVE to mortify our members. We HAVE to mortify the deed of the body. We have to live after the Spirit, not the flesh at all costs! And don't make the mistake of thinking that it's not hard, or that you must not be right with God if it's hard. Such a HUGE mistake. Jesus is telling us to CUT OFF OUR HANDS! Jesus is telling us to PLUCK OUT OUR EYES! Just for one moment imagine doing it…go on, IMAGINE IT!

Visualize yourself bringing your hand up to your face, your thumb and forefinger heading towards your eye… touching your eye…pressing inwards… are you shuddering at the thought yet? Can you truly imagine plucking your own eye out? How about raising a butcher knife over your wrist getting ready to slam it down and hack your own hand off? SICK! Disgusting! Horrifying thoughts! We NEED to understand how horrific sin is. You and I will suffer when we war against the cherished sins in our lives. You and I will agonize over the hold sin has on us as we weep at the feet of our Savior begging forgiveness. We must constantly seek forgiveness and we must constantly place our salvation in the hands of our Savior who alone has the power to save us. We must never forget the horror of sin and Satan would have us do just that, Satan wants us to trivialize sin and make it of little consequence. We can't do that, we mustn't do that! We have to recognize sin and fight it, mortify our flesh, resisting sin, striving unto blood against sin!


Heb 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.


Never minimalize sin, never ever think that it is of no importance, it is sin that brings eternal death, it is sin that reserves for us a place in the lake of fire, it is sin that will make us as if we never were one day, it is sin that killed our innocent Savior!


Jesus was talking to a group of people who had a sacrificial system in place- they knew all about sin and what they needed to do to find atonement - to be one with God again. They had daily sacrifices, yearly sacrifices- they knew that sin cost the life of an animal that symbolized the coming Messiah. They knew blood had to be shed for the remission of sins. These people understood, but they'd grown complacent, they'd become immune to the horrors of sinning. This had become a way of life for them- they sin- they sought forgiveness through a sacrifice the priests made for them. Sin had lost a lot of it's horror, much as it has today for so many people - in fact for the majority of people.


Here Jesus was teaching that what they knew to be sin was even more sinful than they'd imagined, that their thoughts could be sin, that their hearts could be corrupted by sin and that sin was so horrific they needed to understand that it would be better to maim themselves than sin and warrant everlasting destruction. And we understand just as our Savior wanted us to understand that to rip out our own eyes, to cut off our own hands are very graphic reminders of the horrors of sinning going unchecked within us.


By His grace through the Holy Spirit may we keep from sinning, may we be found in the Book of Life! In His amazing love now and forever!


Amen.