Mat 5:21-48; A Heart Operation by Christ Is Life Saving and Free.

Class Outline:

Tuesday June 25, 2024

 

Idea: Christ interprets the law in a way that shows us our need for circumcision of our hearts - the removal of sin.

 

Intro: Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint the next king. God conveniently left out the name of the person so that He could teach Samuel and us an eternal lesson (1SA 16:1-7).

 

Jesus interprets the spirit of the law:

 

The depth (spirit) of the commandment “You shall not murder” brought us on a journey to a place where we are offering love in order to reconcile any broken relationships.

 

The depth (spirit) of the commandment “You shall not commit adultery” brought us on a journey to the core of all our problems - the heart infected with the cancer of sin.

 

Jesus is using illustrations that demand union in relationships.

 

Union comes from knowing and loving and living the spirit of the law.

 

Hence, you cannot look at the outward appearance but must look at the heart. Love seeks the benefit and blessing of the other.

 

Christ is teaching us the heart of God who overlooks all of that, or pushes aside in order to look into the heart of that person and see their need, and not only see it, but to do something about it.

 

To look at the heart, you really have to consider and look and consider some more. You actually have to care about that other person like God does.

 

ROM 2:25-29

 

The circumcised of heart are those for whom the death, burial, and resurrection has torn out sin from their heart and thrown it away and who, as a result, walk in newness of life.

 

GAL 5:1-6

 

Free (GAL 5:1) means freedom from sin, and not as some have interpreted it to mean freedom to sin, or freedom to obey God when they feel like it.

 

Obligation to the law means that it is your judge and you are under it. If the law is over your head as judge, you can only be judged as unrighteous, guilty, and worthy of death.

 

GAL 5:13-15

 

Fulfilled does not mean that we automatically do it, it means that we can do it to the extent that God had always desired, by the word and Holy Spirit.

 

The flesh always wants to boast.

 

Paul relates to us, Paul who knew enough to write half of the NT, that he would only boast in the cross of Christ, meaning, he would boast in Christ’s love of all by which He gave His life in judgment for their sins (GAL 6:13-16).

 

The fact of the result of the cross of Christ is that your heart has been circumcised - the removal of the cancer of sin and the giving of new life.

 

COL 2:9-15

 

ROM 13:8-10, love does no wrong to a neighbor.

 

Our love for them will do for them. It must. If I love in word only, I’m a noisy gong (1CO 13:1). James says that you are a fool with a terrible memory.

 

JAM 1:19-25

 

Isn’t doing overt? Yes, but proper doing comes from the heart. The hearer only has not put the word in his heart. The hearer with faith puts the word in his heart and then he does work based on the precepts of that truth.

 

JAM 2:8-13

 

The law of liberty (meaning also all the moral law of the OT) has its foundation in mercy. Mercy seeks the heart of the other person, their real need, and does something about it.

 

Each of these 6 commandments that Christ is going to expound on are journeys to the heart of God.

 

Do not fear what you have to lose to enter in.