Dear Explorer,
Re-Read Matthew 5:17-20
In Matthew 5:20, Jesus again repeats that keeping the Laws were not enough. You would have to do better than the scribes and Pharisees (assuming they were doing their best to keep the Law). The Laws were given to show you that no matter how hard you try – you will sin! Everyone ever born (except Jesus) was born empty, even the Pharisees and leaders of the Jews.
Do you remember the definition of sin that we talked about earlier? Sin is any time that SELF makes the decisions. Sin is doing things my way instead of God's way. Sin is being empty and not connected to God and therefore making all my own decisions.
Jesus saw how miserable the Pharisees were as they tried and tried to keep all the Laws and it was hopeless and they were frustrated, and the people were frustrated. Yes, it looks to me like the cocoon was doing its job to prepare the people and the time was perfect for God to send a solution for their sins!
Read Matthew 5:21-22
I believe Jesus was saying that once He fulfilled the old Law, then there would no longer be a Law to live by. Jesus would establish a NEW WAY that would be radically different.
Now, as you can imagine, this infuriated the Jewish leaders. Who did He think He was! He claimed to be the Messiah, now He's throwing out Moses' Laws and setting up new ways!
What Law did Jesus use as His example in Matthew 5:21-22? For your information, Raca was an Aramaic derogatory term like calling someone a “fool” or “stupid”.
How did Jesus say His NEW WAY would be different?
What would be the penalty for this?
Whoa! I thought inviting Jesus into my empty core was the only thing I needed to do to get to Heaven and avoid Hell. Now you are adding behavior!!!! What exactly is Jesus saying?????
Throughout this study, we'll talk about Jesus' NEW WAY. In fact, the early followers of Jesus talked about His NEW WAY so much that they became known as the people who followed “The Way”. And I've titled this study The NEW WAY.
I believe that when you allow Jesus (the Holy Spirit) into the control center of your life, you will see changes. One change is that you will learn to love people the way God loves them. So, if you find yourself behaving in a non-loving way toward someone – it should cause you to run to Jesus and talk about it. You need to confess it as sin and repent (make a U-turn, a 180-degree change). If you discover ugliness that continues to grow and overwhelm your life – you need to check and make sure who is at the control center of Your life. The Holy Spirit will not lead you to be ugly toward any of God's creation!
Do followers of Jesus sin?
I want us to spend some time looking at this question, so, we'll continue this discussion tomorrow.
In His service, dale
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