This morning I started my day by listening to a sermon series by John MacArthur called the Sinfulness of Sin. This one was entitled "Who is a Murderer?". He was referencing Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:21-22. I was absolutely rocked. You can listen to the sermon here.
"You have heard that the ancients (another term for the rabbis) were told, 'you shall not commit murder' and 'whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother , 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell."
Think about it. Every time you have been angry with someone, God says you deserve the death penalty. Even if you don't murder someone. Even if you never say an angry word to them at all. How many times have we all done that? In a day? You get into traffic and someone cuts you off. You mutter under your breath a nasty name. Congratulations, in God's eyes you are now a murderer. So much for getting off for good behaviour. So much for the proverbial monk on the mountain who seems so holy.
The Bible also says that if you have broken one command, you are guilty of them all. So not only are we ALL murderers, according to the Ten Commandments we are also adulterers, thieves, liars, greedy, blasphemers, haters of God, and revilers of parents. We are the very worst of humanity. What are we to do? We have no way of keeping God's perfect standard, for try as we might, we screw up all the time, and even when we want to do right, nine times out of ten we do wrong. We like to pretend that we're better than everyone else, and we point out their flaws to make ourselves feel better about the horrible, gnawing feeling that lies deep in our hearts, in the heart of every human.
You know that feeling, that when you turn out the lights you are not the picture of perfection you present to the world. You know your own darkness, and wonder how you can go on hiding it from everyone else. You hide that playboy magazine behind the dresser because you don't want your wife to find it. You hide the under-the-table payments you've been taking on the sly at work because you don't want your boss to find it. You empty the history and cookies folder on your internet browser, because you don't want your husband to know that for the millionth and one time, you've visited that online casino that he warned you never to visit again. And you may succeed in hiding all this from human eyes your whole life but you can never hide from God, who searches not only the external behaviour, but the heart of every man, woman and child.
Oh what to do? This thankfully, does not have to end here in this doom and gloom. For God in His infinite wisdom, grace, unending mercy and love has given us a way out. Since we cannot get to heaven on our own steam, and instead deserve the very hottest flames in hell for all of eternity, He has sent His Son Jesus to die for us. Picture Him there nailed to the cross - the sinless, innocent Lamb of God, who died to take away the sins of the world - though He himself never did anything wrong. He paid the price for us, even though we revile Him daily, and we were the ones who nailed Him to the cross. Romans 5: 6-11 reads as follows:
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
If you have never repented (that is turned completely from your sins to follow Jesus Christ and realised your own inability to save yourself), and this blog post is tugging on your heart, then friend, please do so now. You will get a whole new life, and those nagging feelings in your heart will be gone. Your past will be wiped away completely, for if you follow Jesus, for as far is the east is from the west, He has removed our transgression from us. And, whoever the Son sets free, will be free indeed.
