Sermon on the Mount 14- You who killed Jesus, there is no more slaughter.
Matthew 5:21-26
You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother[c] will be liable to judgment; whoever insults[d] his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell[e] of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
Last week, we studied what ‘Jesus fulfilled and perfected the law’ means. Jesus was the true substance of the Gospel, which the law and the prophets had been pointing to all throughout the Old Testament. Jesus became the representative of God’s people and showed the uselessness of the law and the impossibility of men before the law and revealed the true nature of the sons of God, who would only have to depend on God’s power of creation. This is His fulfillment. That is why the picture of Jesus the Son of God powerlessly dying before the law was painted in history.
He died being beaten by the Pharisees or Israel. He was beaten to death before the law. This was also the death of the law. The law was denied by Jesus. The law in its own zeal ended up killing God. That means the law also died. That is what God clearly showed as the mechanism of how other sons of God, who are already completed in heaven, are being born. It means it cannot be done by the law. That is why it says the law and the prophets are fulfilled on the cross. What did Jesus say at the end on the cross? He said all is done, all is completed. He said, “Tetelestai”, “it is finished.” Jesus revealed the true meaning of the law and the prophets by dying to the law and this is fulfillment of the law.
In Hebrews 1, it says God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things. What did God speak through the prophets? What did the prophets say? “Messiah is coming. Repent! Messiah is coming!” They threw a bomb of the Gospel into legalism. They threw a bomb of grace. The prophets went to those who were keeping the law and offering sacrifices well and cried out “repent! The Messiah is coming!” It means they said, “You are doing the wrong things now”. They denied their law keeping and sacrifices saying, “Men do not come to life by keeping the law but by trusting the Messiah” in the midst of legalism, which bragged about pleasing God by offering up sacrifices and keeping the law. At last, the Son fulfilled the law and the prophets on the cross. If so, now the law which is fulfilled must not be some kind of law that forces the saints to keep it.
However, why would the sixth commandment of ‘thou shall not murder’ appear after “God fulfilled the law’? It does not make sense, people. Right after saying the law is fulfilled by Jesus, the sixth commandment of the Ten Commandments, ‘thou shall not murder’, comes out. Didn’t He previously say He fulfilled it? Jesus fulfilled the law that was forced on the saints to keep. Then, ‘do not murder’ here is not a command prohibiting murder as we commonly know in the law. What does it mean then? First, let’s go to Exodus and look at where this command comes out. It is the Ten Commandments. Please look at Exodus 20:1-16.
Exodus 20:1-16
And God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands[b] of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.[c]
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
This is the law, the Ten Commandments. If you look at it carefully, up to the fifth commandment there is an explanation attached, but from the sixth commandment of “you shall not murder” there are just commandments without further explanation. Easily speaking, the first five commandments, the commandments about loving God, have an explanation attached but the remaining five commandments do not have any explanation. “Honor your father and mother” is also about loving God; I will explain this to you later. Jesus is now explaining the remaining five commandments on the mountain. Why? God already explained the first five in Exodus and now Jesus is explaining the latter part on the mountain. God explained the commandments about loving God and Jesus is now explaining the commandments about loving neighbors on the mountain. The law is divided into two categories like this and Jesus talks about it like this:
Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Here the phrase “And a second is like it” means the first and the second are alike. So it means the love for God comes out as love for the neighbors. It means when the love of God appears in this world, it is shown as loving the neighbors. Both of these, loving God and loving the neighbor, were done by Jesus primarily.
The content of loving the neighbor begins with ‘you shall not murder’. But, think about it. After saying love your neighbor, what did Jesus say to the lawyer who asked who is my neighbor? What parable did He tell? He told the parable of the Good Samaritan. And then He asked, “Who is the neighbor of the one who fell by a robber? This means He explained through the parable that Jesus, who comes as the Good Samaritan, is the one who loves you as His neighbor and you do not gain eternal life by loving your neighbor yourself. Therefore, loving the neighbor is what Jesus had done.
So the part about loving the neighbor spoken by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is about something Jesus primarily completed. The ‘ten’ of the law is the complete number- that is why it is the Ten Commandments. To explain that complete number is to be fulfilled by Jesus, God explains the part about loving God and Jesus, who came to fulfill this, is explaining the remaining part on the mountain as the one who is to fulfill. By this, it is explaining that Jesus is to fulfill the ten, the law. That is why Jesus is explaining, starting with the sixth one.
If the first stone plate was the Ten Commandments, the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is acting as the second stone plate. The second stone plate is saving Israel. The first stone plate brings judgment and it is the law. The first stone plate was shattered as soon as it came to the world of men. It was to clearly show that men are who will be judged by the word when the word of God comes down to them and they cannot reach eternal life by keeping it. They swore sprinkling the blood but their impossibility was exposed even before it came down to them through the golden calf incident. It means this is not it. The first stone plate, the law of the Old Testament, is judgment. It is judgment. And the second stone plate comes down and it is not to be taken over by Israel and be used as a doctrine to practice, but it, the second stone plate, the ark of the Lord, dominates Israel and leads them around. “This second stone plate is the only way to the holy of holy.” That is why the ark of the Lord goes into the holy of holy.
This second stone plate is the law of grace which forgives Israel by being hidden inside the ark of the Lord and being covered over by the blood. It is ‘nomos’ the new law. It is representing Jesus Christ. It is symbolizing Him. Like this, the second one is fulfilling and establishing the law of God. That is why in the Bible, you see the second sons, not the first sons, always receiving the right as heirs of God. It means the second one is to establish. That is what it means. That is why Jesus is deciphering the ‘love your neighbor’ part of the law in the Sermon on the Mount. He is showing “I fulfill and complete the ten. The fulfiller of the law is here.”
Then, what is the true meaning of the commandment of ‘you shall not murder’? If it simply means you shall not kill a man, even God is caught by it. God instructed to enter Canaan and kill all, even the babies. This will make God a sinner too. This will make God break the law. If He says “Go and kill all. If you don’t it is sin” in one place and in another, say “Do not kill”, He is not making sense. If ‘you shall not murder’ means that… Furthermore, if this is a law emphasizing “even calling your brother ‘raca’ is murdering” God should not have ordered killing in the Old Testament. This is the law of the Old Testament. You shall not murder. It comes out in the Ten Commandments, too. Then, does it make sense if God says not to kill when giving the commandments and comes to Israel on a separate occasion and says kill and murder all? So it probably does not mean this at least. Is God double-tongued?
The word used in “You shall not murder” in Exodus 20 is a Hebrew word ‘ratsach’ and it means to kill or slay. Jesus takes the Hebrew word ‘ratsach’ and explains it with a Greek word ‘phoneuo’. This word is originally a sacrificial word. It is used when slaying or slaughtering an animal. It is not a word simply prohibiting killing men. It is about killing and slaughtering an animal. ‘Ou phoneuseis’ means repeated killing and slaughtering of animals including human beings. It means do not do that habitual and repeated killing. Why, people? Why Is He forbidding repeated and habitual slaughtering? This is what ‘You shall not murder” means. Sacrifice is done by the one-time death, the one-time slaying of the perfect sacrificial offering and that is it is forbidding repeated sacrificial slaughtering. This is “You shall not murder”, “Ou phoneuseis”. Do not slay. Do not repeatedly and habitually slaughter. It means this. “You shall not murder” means “Do not keep killing the Son of Man. It means “Do not continue to kill that son of that man”. If you go to Hosea, there is a scene where Israel’s sin of murdering and slaughtering and the Bible pictures well what that sin of slaughtering is. Please look at Hosea 5:1-6.
Hosea 5:1-6
Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! (Priests and Israel, the sum of legalism comes out.) For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor. 2 And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them. 3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. (What does? Their slaughter, their deeds do not permit them to return to God) For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord. (They keep slaughtering because they do not know the Lord)
5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face;[a] Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them. With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.
What is that sin of slaughtering? It is saying “They will not meet God by the act of repeated sacrifices of the flocks and herds they brought and God will leave them.” Hosea is explaining the sin of slaughtering like this. The Bible calls this adultery and playing the whore. So, if you study well the true meaning of “you shall not murder”, the problem of adultery and divorce under that can easily be solved. It does not mean the kind you are thinking like “It is adultery even if you have a lustful intent when looking at a woman passing by.” It is talking about the law. It is talking about salvation. It is talking about Jesus. All the law is. God warns those who keep repeating the legal slaughtering that they themselves will be slaughtered like that. He is saying their work of offering sacrifices, the act of the law, will eventually kill them. Please look at Ezekiel 6:3-5.
Ezekiel 6:3-5
and say, You Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. 5 And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.
Israel came to the altar and offered a sacrifice of some kind and God sees this as idol worship. He is saying such repeated slaughtering, the religious act to keep their pride and worth is what will kill them and it is a sin of slaughtering. The prophets are explaining the sin of slaughtering saying, “This is what breaking the law of ‘You shall not murder’ is.” People, God gave sacrifice for us to know the sacrifice of the lamb, Jesus Christ, who was killed and slaughtered once for all on the cross and gave life to the people of God.
But the repeated sacrifice of the law, which is not understood as Jesus Christ, is insulting the cross or Jesus getting slaughtered. What happens to the death of Jesus if people keep coming when He died once for all? When God gave it to know something but they forget Jesus and focus on giving sacrifices- this is the repeated and habitual slaughter. He is saying, “Don’t do this. Don’t do this.” Why? This is an act of denying the very work Jesus had done and denying Jesus is the act of killing of Jesus in itself. It is holding onto the law and killing Jesus of grace. It means “Children, stop slaughtering me. Stop slaughtering me.”
I will speak in today’s language. People, it says Jesus redeemed all your sins and completed you on the cross. But what happens when you keep coming to church and continue to regret, reflect, and repent? Jesus keeps being offered up as a sacrifice. I am not saying you should not do this. I am telling you to look at ourselves not being able to believe in Jesus as you do that. Why would regretting, reflecting, and repenting be bad? It is not. But I am saying we should not forget doing such thing is an act of insult to Jesus, in itself. We are to do this till we die. But in fact, that is disbelief. It says Jesus fulfilled all but we are insecure and feel like God will be happy and forgive us only if we reflect and repent shedding tears from our eyes and nose. Like this, we do not believe in Jesus even though we say we do. People, this is continuously killing Jesus.
This act of slaughtering Jesus Christ has been continuously explained since Genesis. The event of the fruit of good and evil of Adam and Eve takes place in the Garden of Eden. The knowledge in the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the law since it is the knowledge that judges good and evil. That is the law. Men’s attempt to understand, to interpret, and to dominate the word of God in their own level is called ‘eating the fruit of good and evil’ or ‘eating the law’. They are mistaken to think that they can dominate the fruit of good and evil. This is like eating the law, eating the word. When they treat the word like that, it becomes the law. The word becomes the law. Men ate up the word and are mistaken to think they can digest the word in the flesh of men. “By eating this and using it as energy, I can judge the good and evil like God and keep it.” This is how they are eating it. Like this, the incident of men eating the word of God is the incident of slaughtering Jesus, who is the word. They murdered God the Creator.
We are to be created by God the Creator but our wanting to eat it and contribute to our own creation is an act of ignoring and denying the Creator, so it is an incident of murdering the Creator. That is when God slaughters innocent animals and forgives men’s slaughter of God. That was the primitive model for the event of the cross. This incident occurs in the Garden of Eden. The Hebrew word ‘gan’ translated as ‘garden’ means a fenced area, a temple. So this is explaining as a model and a picture of a certain thing happening in the temple. Adam and Eve, who deserve death for slaughtering God by eating the law, are coming to life by the slaughter of an innocent sacrificial offering. Where? In ‘gan, the temple. God made them to offer sacrifices in the temple to teach them this. And God already gave sacrifices at the time of Cain and Abel, who were the children of Adam and Eve. Why? He did so to teach them “this is how you came to life”. That is why they are already offering sacrifices at the time of Adam. He is revealing Jesus.
However, ignorant men can never find out the mystery of heaven. That is why they kept repeatedly and continuously doing the act of the law of slaughtering the sacrificial offerings. That is when the Lord is saying, “Do not slaughter. Do not murder anymore. Do not kill the Son of Man. Do not kill me.” This is what “You shall not murder” is. “I have already died and fulfilled. Then, why do you keep killing? Why do you keep killing?”
The second place where the incident of the slaughter of the Son is pictured is the story of Cain and Abel. Where did this take place? It took place in the field. This ‘field’ is ‘sade’ in Hebrew. This also is the field of the temple, the temple court. What is in the temple court? The altar is there. In the field, a certain sacrifice is being offered on the altar. It is the story of an offering killed by Cain and Cain resurrecting as Seth. Who does Cain kill? He kills his brother. People, do you know why Jesus all of a sudden brings out a story of brothers when saying “do not kill” in today’s text? He is talking about this. He is saying He has already pictured this before. First, please look at Genesis 4:1-2.
Genesis 4:1-2
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten[a] a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
I will do a literal translation of this from the original Hebrew text. “And Adam knew his adulterous woman as a woman who gives birth to life.” “Ishshah” is adulteress, a female adulterer, a woman who sinned, a woman who ate the fruit of good and evil. It is talking about us, who are adulterous Gomer. “How does this adulteress give birth to life?” It means God made him know. “Oh~ this woman is to give birth to life.” That is why she is the mother of all living. “And she was conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she spoke. I gave birth to ‘ish’, a man, by the Lord. And she was added to give birth. She gave another birth to ‘hebel’ as his brother. She gave birth to his brother ‘hebel’. Hebel was a shepherd of sheep and Cain was a server of the land. This is a literal translation done by me.
It is a scene of an adulteress, ‘Ishshah’, giving birth to an offspring. But that life first comes as Cain. And in addition to this, his brother Abel appears. The meaning of Abel is nothing. It means nonthingness, fog, or useless to breathe if you decipher by each letter. Abel is someone who obviously is to die. A brother who came to this world as ‘nothingness’ and must die appears and Cain, who was born by an adulteress, kills his own brother Abel. And He resurrects as a being called Seth and please see what the name Seth means.
Genesis 4:25
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed[a] for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
Seth means ‘another offspring born instead of Abel, who Cain killed.” It is about Jesus embracing us and uniting with the Holy Spirit and being born as the church when we killed Jesus. This is Seth. However, why did God accept the sacrifice of Abel and not that of Cain? Cain killed Abel because God only accepted the sacrifice of Abel. It says Cain’s sacrifice was of the fruit of the ground. But previously in chapter 3, God clearly said the fruit of the ground is the result of the curse. Please look at Genesis 3:17-18.
Genesis 3:17-18
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
Instead of who is the ground cursed? It is cursed instead of Adam, who ate the fruit of good and evil. Then, what would be cursed fruit, the fruit brought out by Adam, who ate the fruit of good and evil? It would be the work of the law. Then, what are the thorns and thistles brought out by the ground cursed instead of Adam? They are representing the work of the law. That is why they are thorns and thistles. The ground is cursed instead of Adam, who ate the fruit of good and evil, and something comes out from the ground. After that, immediately in connection to that, Cain, who sacrifices with these, comes out. So, the fruit brought out by Adam, who ate the fruit of good and evil, would be fruit of his works since he said “I can do it after eating the fruit of good and evil. I have become like God. I autonomously judge good and evil.”
Instead the ground is cursed and produces thorns and thistles, but Cain is sacrificing with the fruit of the ground, with the fruit of the curse, with the work of the law. God does not accept this. God cursed it because they did this but Cain offered exactly that. By what? By the work of sacrifice. He said “It is good enough that I do a sacrifice. What does it matter what I offer?” When we come to worship, we worship by giving Jesus who is in us to God. Even the offering is giving Jesus who is in us to God. Why? It is because Jesus was given as a tithe, as an offering instead of me. Knowing that, I give Jesus as an offering. So all you are putting in that offering box is Jesus. But coming here without knowing this and thinking, “If I keep the Lord’s Day, work and serve diligently, God will be happy to accept me” is Cain’s sacrifice. People, this is the sacrifice of works. God does not accept this. Already, an innocent sacrificial offering was offered. And with its outer skin, the shame of the father and the mother was covered up. To commemorate and understand this, sacrifice was given to be made but Cain proudly went before God, offering an act of sacrifice with the fruit of the ground and saying, “God, I am doing alright, yeah?” God gave sacrifice for him to know the reality of a saint who comes to life and becomes a living being by the sacrifice of a lamb. However, Cain did not know this but Abel knew. That is why Abel offered a sacrifice of a lamb. How did he know this? Doesn’t the writer of Hebrews say this? Hebrews 11:4 says this:
Hebrews 11:4
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, (A more acceptable sacrifice means a different sacrifice. It means Abel offered the true sacrifice of the heaven.) through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
It means God testified to Abel what the sacrifice he is offering meant. It means Abel knew it. How? By faith, by grace. That is why God accepted the sacrifice of Abel. He accepted Jesus. Abel offered Jesus. Abel knew, “I came to life by the sacrifice made by Jesus, by the sacrifice of someone outside of me” and confessed this to God and this is called Abel’s sacrifice. God accepted this. Cain did not know this. That is why he is doing the repetitive religious act with his works, with the fruit of the ground. The law always implies repetition and habitualness in its meaning. That is why God did not accept it. That is how the Pharisees and Israel were like at the time of Jesus and how we are now. We still repeatedly kill Jesus. He already died but we keep coming, feeling insecure, fearful, and sad, and that is why we cannot help offering sacrifices. Why did the Pharisees diligently offer sacrifices and fast like that? They did because they were insecure and fearful. Doesn’t your conviction of salvation become shaky if you do not keep on doing it? When you were out drinking soju with your friends, you did not realize it but when you wake up in the morning, you say, “What could have happened if Jesus came last night?” Right? It is okay even if He comes at that time. Even Jesus drank wine with the harlots. People, Jesus came and talked about the gospel of grace, which is fulfilled by the sacrifice of the lamb offered once for all. Jesus, Hebel, came to offer a sacrifice, and what did the Pharisees do? Just as Cain beat Abel and killed him, they beat and killed Jesus to keep their own sacrifices. This is what it means. Who is this Abel? He is a brother, a certain brother who came to die for us. Please see what kind of heart Cain had for his brother Abel.
Genesis 4:5
but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
“Was very angry and his face fell” means he was very angry and failed by standing in the place of the enemy, if translated literally. It means Cain failed. How? He was very angry and failed by standing in the opposite place, in the place of an adversary. It means this. My sacrifice being denied means I am being denied. Men cannot stand this. That is why they become very angry and go to the opposite place of grace and stand against. The Bible calls this a failure. Please look at Matthew 5:22.
Matthew 5:22
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother[a] will be liable to judgment; whoever insults[b] his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell[c] of fire
In today’s text, ‘everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment’ does not mean anyone who becomes angry at his brother will be absolutely judged. It is speaking about Cain, Israel, Pharisees, and me, who killed his brother because he was angry at his brother. It is speaking about someone who is angry at his brother and kills him. This verse is not a simple lesson about not getting mad or angry at your neighbors or brothers but it is a story of Jesus Christ. It is our story about how we were angry at Jesus and beat Him to death. It is about “Why should we only trust His grace? Why deny me when I became like God after eating the fruit of good and evil?”
Being angry like that and standing in the opposite place, in the place of an adversary means we are enemies, right? We became the adversary and stood in the opposite side and beat and killed the enemy, right? But we resurrected as Seth by the death of the enemy. When we know this, how can we not love the enemy we killed? This is ‘love your enemy’ means. It does not mean ‘forgive those who hurt you no matter what’. The Bible does not require of us such a thing at all. How can it tell us to do something we cannot do? How can we forgive our enemy? Can this be done? Can it be done unless you are schizophrenic?
Where does this happen? It happens in the temple. ‘Gan’ and ‘sade’ both mean a temple. Inside the temple, a slaughter of an innocent man is taking place. Where did Jesus die? In Jerusalem. It is where the temple of Jerusalem is. That is why Jesus is pictured as being judged by the high priest, by the law, and die in the temple. In the temple, the law kills Jesus the lamb and the lamb brings Israel to life. This is the story of salvation. This very work is about making the people of God who are already completed in the temple of the heaven. And the Bible calls each of the saints as a temple.
Primarily, this story takes place in us who are adulterous women. Aren’t we the adulterous woman? The woman, the bride who does not qualify to be a bride gives birth to Cain and also Abel in the same womb. And inside us, like the story in Romans, two babies are fighting. Grace and the law are fighting. But every time, grace, Abel, gets beaten to death. Why? It is because we ate the fruit of good and evil but only the saints know as they experience grace being beaten to death that “Like this, because I am impossible, Abel died like this and I came to life.” This is your life. We do this till the day we die. And the saints realize more and more: I am an impossible being.
It does not mean we get better, mature, or advance, but as we do this till the end, faith comes into us and makes us realize “We cannot be like this. This is why Jesus had to come.” This is the life of a saint. Every time this happens, we would hear such a voice: “Hey, do not slaughter. Stop killing. Stop murdering. Stop killing. I have already fulfilled. Stop killing.” Apostle Paul explains this as a story of a husband and wife.
Romans 7:1-2
Or do you not know, brothers[a]—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage
Please look at it carefully. In verse 1, it is explaining about the law and a man, the saint, and he calls the law a husband and says we must die in order to be free from the husband. And from verse 2, it is explaining the death of the husband. Does it make sense? Look at verse 2 again. ‘For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies’ The death of the wife should be explained but all of a sudden the death of the husband comes out. It is explaining that the husband died in order to kill the wife here. In verse 1, the wife must die so she can be free from the law. But it is saying here that in order to make the wife die like that, the husband first died.
Romans 7:3-6
Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code
The new way of the Spirit, the old way of the written code, the old law, the new law, the old covenant, and the new covenant come out. A husband and a wife come out. Look. In verse 1, it says the wife must die and from verse 2, it says the husband dies. And again in verse 4, it says we died to the law. It says by the husband dying, we died to the law. How? In husband. If so, the husband is the law and someone who kills the law at the same time. Who is this husband? Who is the one who came under the law, as the law, as the one to fulfill the law and disarms the law? It is speaking about Jesus. By Jesus proving the law as something useless in the completion of the kingdom of God, we become free to the law. And this is Jesus having killed the law, and we, in Jesus, having killed the law and died to the law. This is the husband. That is why God says “I became your husband when taking you out of Egypt” as He was giving the new covenant. He takes Israel out of Egypt and gives the law on the Mount Sinai and leads them by the law saying, “Try keeping the law!” But they could not keep it. They all died. Thus, it means “If I come to you as your husband, you would all die.” This husband must die for them to live, right? Please look at Jeremiah 31:31-33.
Jeremiah 31:31-33
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
“I will put my law within them, I will put my word within them.” It means He will send Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and now it won’t be them keeping the law but He will bring them to life as Jesus, of whom the word became flesh. It means He will bring them to life by grace. Therefore, Jesus should not remain as the husband, right? The husband as the law must die and He must produce Jesus Christ as His offspring, as the seed. That is why the picture of a woman giving birth to Jesus, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, is depicted in Revelation. If so, this picture has to be at the scene of Jesus’ death. As Jesus dies on the cross, He calls Mary. Mary is Mara and it means bitter water or someone who needs to be saved. So the bitter water of Mara becoming sweet water by throwing in a tree branch is about bitter water, or the false word, becoming sweet water, or the word of life, by the cross. It is about being united into the word, Jesus Christ, by the work of the cross. That is Mary is the only name written among the women around the cross. Other women’ names are not written.
Only Mary’s name is recorded. There were several Mary’s and only their names are written. Why? These Maras are now being saved by the cross of Jesus. At the cross, Jesus calls to Mary, “Woman~!” This is a typical way of calling a lady but it is also how a husband calls his wife. He says, “Mary!” Here Jesus, who is her son, is dying to Mary as her husband, as the law. Jesus is dying as the bronze serpent, as the law. This must die and He is dying. As He says “Woman”, He gives her another son. “This is your son.” This is the story of the cross. The story of Jeremiah or Romans, or the story under the cross, they are all connected like this. It was the serpent and the woman who played the role as the law well in the Garden of Eden. The serpent seduced the woman and she ate the fruit of good and evil. That is why the bronze serpent is hanging on the cross. Jesus is dying as the law, as the serpent. Serpent, the one who ate the fruit of good and evil, is dying. People, I have told you the word translated as serpent in Genesis 3 is ‘nahash’. It means ‘having no word’ or ‘analyzing and passing on in distortion as a thing from below’. So ‘nahash’ means distorted word, which is the same as having no word. This is serpent. Having no word. False word. This is demon, Diablo, distorted spirit. Evil spirits are not something that you see in a vision when you are weak in body and mind because you are on a diet. You are being deceived like that, people. Those are nothing. They are illusions. Not recognizing is a real evil spirit. That is demon-possession. Doesn’t Apostle Paul say an evil spirit makes you not able to understand Jesus? That is why the serpent is perverting and delivering the word of God. “Did God really say that you would die? You will become like God if you eat the fruit of good and evil. You will be wise.” This is a distorted word. “If you keep the word of the Bible, God will reward you. You will be an offering God will be pleased with.” This is a distorted word. It was the same for Eve. God said, “Do not even touch.” But the word kept changing. This is the Bible intentionally depicting those who are distorting the word of God. This is the distorted word, people. This is the serpent. It is distorting the truth of the word and drawing it to humanism and legalism. That is why Jesus becomes the serpent and dies. People, do you know what the altar in the temple is made of? Isn’t it bronze? The word bronze is ‘nechosheth’. That is ‘nechushtan’, the bronze serpent. The brazen altar is where Jesus Christ, who is dying as the serpent, is offered up. That is why it is made of bronze. And Jesus becomes the bronze serpent and is hung. There is not even a small error in the Bible. Up to this, most of today’s text is explained, right? The one who is angry at his brother, the one who is angry at Abel and kills his brother Abel, is ‘me’. But this brother is killed for me and and brings me to life as an offspring called Seth and this is salvation. This is the message it has. Jesus expresses such love like this. Please look at John 15:12-13.
John 15:12-13
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (He is talking about this from the sixth commandment in the Sermon on the Mount? And then, what does He say?)
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
He is saying, “I loved in such a way. I laid my life down for my friend.” For Hebrews, the concept of a friend is someone you can give all you have without any reservation and show all that is yours. That is why the parable of a friend who comes in the middle of the night demanding loaves of bread comes out. If he says, “Hey, bring out bread!” then, the friend has to. Jesus has become such a friend to us. To a friend, everything has to be revealed and that is why this friend goes to the house and says, “Give me bread” because he knows what is inside. That is why the Gospel of Luke and also Acts begin with ‘Theophilus”’. ‘Theophilus’ means God is my friend. “I will reveal all about God and teach you in detail.” This is why ‘most excellent Theophilus’ comes out. Like that, Jesus reveals all about God and explained to us. That is why we call Him a friend. And then, what does God call us? He calls us His friends. A friend is someone who lays his life down for his friends. But we are not able to do this. It means God has done this for us. People, this is the brother who dies for us.
However, we consider Him as our enemy. Why? We do this to keep our own work, our pride, and our own worth. How can this not be good news and how can we not love this enemy, whom we treated like an enemy and killed, is bringing us to life through such death? To Hebrews, the word ‘brother’ has a meaning of being someone who will pull other brothers out of a slough of sin. It is a brother, as in having the power to bring others out of a place of sin. Thus, primarily, only Jesus is our brother. But once we receive the gospel of Jesus, or when it is preached to the people of God, their ears will open and they will return to God, won’t they? That is why we are brothers.
If so, what does “whoever insults his brother (calls his brother raca in other translation) will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” mean? Brotherly love is Abel, who dies for me. Here the word ‘raca (whoever insults his brother)’ means vain, empty, and worthless. A stupid. This word ‘raca’ phonetically written in Hebrew is the word ‘reyq’. It means an empty man. It says one who calls his brother ‘raca’ ‘will be liable to the council’. ‘The council’ is ‘synedrion’ and ‘sy’ means together. And ‘hedraios’ is a word that means something firm and steadfast once securely positioned, something that is set firm by the law. Legalism, the council, something that is firmly set with the law, the assembly of the Pharisees, and Israel- all these are synedrion. It’s not things like the Council of Chalcedon or the Council of Nicaea. Therefore, it means those who are held firm by legalism will call the brother who talks of grace, Jesus, a worthless fool. That is why they killed Him. This is what it means to be liable to the council. It does not mean if you call your brother ‘raca’, you will be taken to the council and be punished or put into prison. It means those who are held by the law can only call the brother who came to die for them an empty headed, fool, or ‘raca’. They would say, “No way, why would you say no when we have the power and might to do and when we are putting this much effort?” And if you take ‘whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire’ literally, is there anyone who can go to heaven? Is there anyone who has never cursed anyone? ‘You fool’ is rather a respectful term.
You must not take ‘to the hell of fire’ as the lowest dungeon that comes out in the Buddhist text. Where is the hell in ‘to the hell of fire’? The word hell is ‘gehenna’ and it is the Hinnom Valley. What is Hinnom Valley? That is where the King Uzziah destroyed all the idols in a religious revolution and threw them, and carcasses from the cross were put there and the feces of the animals, the sacrificial animals were burnt there. Because there was a sacrifice every day, it was burning 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So, maggots do not even die there. It is where feces burn. What did the Apostle Paul call feces? He said all his self-righteousness and works he put out in his diligence is feces. People, this is “I”. Hell is where “I” burns. In history, you receive such burning of the “I” and that is why it is said you are given a vaccine of hell in history. After diligently amassing all saying, “Yeah~ this is good enough now!” but you end up living in a place where all that burns forever is called hell. Please look how the Bible describes ‘gehenna’, the Hinnom Valley.
Jeremiah 7:31-32
And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. 32 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere.
Here, a Son called Jesus was not offered but they offered their own sons to Molech to receive blessings for themselves. Human beings are capable of giving away their own son to keep their own worth. This is called slaughter. This is sin, people. And it is called the hell. It is saying human beings will do anything for themselves. They can even kill themselves. And that is the hell of Hinnom Valley. Here in Jeremiah 7, it is not talking about the actual Hinnom Valley but it is calling the temple of Jerusalem Hinnom Valley. The Bible is saying the continuous sacrifice offered up in the temple of Jerusalem is a slaughter and it is no different from the act of offering your own son to Molech and that is where the hell is. It is what ‘to the hell of fire’ means.
Those who call their brother a fool or those who do not accept but reject grace, can only continuously offer up their own works as their sacrifice. This is hell. What do you call tens of thousands of people coming together every morning and crying out “Bless us, bless us” when told God will reward them if they diligently do morning prayers? It is hell. “If we diligently do discipleship programs God will mature us and as these kinds of efforts pile up, God will reward us.” This is hell. In verse 22 of today’s text, the word judgment is written in the dative case. So it means judgment does not come later but those who do not recognize the brother and get angry at him and call him ‘raca’ and a fool already have the judgment in themselves. That is why it is written in the dative case. Those already have the judgment in themselves cannot accept Jesus. They are all taking about this. It is hell in itself. What is the reason we ache and suffer and live like we are in hell? Isn’t it because of things like how others perceive us or their evaluation of us or relative deprivation? Isn’t this hell? Hell is where these kinds of things get maximized and continue on forever. That is why Jesus says come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden. He says His yoke is easy and His burden is light. How is the yoke He took upon easy and light when it is the cross? How is that light and easy? The yoke the cows of Israel took upon was always worn in pairs of two. Therefore, when He says ‘come to me and take my yoke upon yourself’ means He will go together with us just like the two heifers that carried the ark of the Lord to Beit Shemesh. These heifers were nursing their calves. But they were separated from their calves, and the ark of the Lord was placed on them and they were sent to the court of the priests. These were the two heifers going to Beit Shemesh. But these heifers were going into the site of slaughter. How? It is talking about how Jesus Christ and we are doing there. Like that we are taken to the cross together. We are going carrying a single yoke. But He is saying it is easy. We must understand this. Please think about it. How happy can we be when we are free from money, our children, and others’ evaluation of us? All our worries are these kinds of things. Even though we know this we cannot let them go because they are embedded in us in our flesh and blood and bones. But God says He will cut off all those. He is telling us to come to Him and rest. “I will set you free!” I don’t know why this is so hard to do but we still refuse to go to Jesus and continue to diligently offer up sacrifices. We are continually killing Jesus. He is telling us to stop this. Do not murder. Do not slaughter. That is why verse 23 of today’s text continues like this.
Matthew 5:23-24
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
This does not mean you first need to reconcile with the ones you fought with and then come to worship. Here the word gift is ‘doro’ which means gift or offering. It means Jesus. Altar is ‘thusiasterion’. Only Jesus must be placed upon the altar. We bring a gift to worship and the gift must be Jesus. But we are not reconciled with a brother still. We are still enemies with the brother and angry at Him. We still trust our own works. The gift is useless when we are like this.
It does not mean you must go and come back after reconciling but it means we must come knowing the grace of Jesus because our worship, works, or any kind of religious acts are worthless before God. God is not requiring us of certain zealous religious works but He is requiring us to trust and believe the work of His Son. Only then, we can stop the slaughter. If not, Jesus is continuously being killed in the sanctuary because of your fear and insecurity. Believe in Jesus. Why do you still fear and feel insecure when Jesus was sacrificed once for all? Just cry out to the Lord. Do you know why Jesus said whoever cries out “Lord, lord” cannot enter the kingdom of heaven? They cannot enter because they do not know Jesus is inside and call “Lord, lord” outside. It is because they do not know He is in there. But we always do ‘three-times-Lord chant’ even though Jesus is here. Jesus said whoever cries “Lord, lord” cannot enter. Right? The offering, the word already pierced through and entered inside as a new heart, as the Holy Spirit. So you do not need to call out “Lord, lord” like that. You just trust that Jesus. That is the life of faith. Lastly, I will read a part of Isaiah 1 as a conclusion and finish the interpretation of the commandments. Please look at Isaiah 1:10-13 and 18.
Isaiah 1:10-13 & 18
Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching[a] of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
“Come now, let us reason[a] together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
It says not to bring a wrong offering. Why? “I told you I will make it white as snow and like wool even if your sins are like scarlet and red like crimson but why do you keep killing and bringing offerings? Do not kill anymore. Do not slaughter!” This is the sixth commandment. I will give you homework. Please try interpreting the next commandment of “Do not commit adultery and do not divorce” as I explained to you today. Give it a try interpreting. You must try for you to get better at it. You won’t if you only listen to me. “He will explain it for me next week.” Until when do you think I will be around to do this for you? You know the homework, right? Go and try to find out as you listen to the sermon a few times. Let’s pray.