Introduction

If we listen carefully to the exposition of the sixth commandment given by the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, we find ourselves somewhat ambivalent because of the pressure to understand the depth of this particular law and many related things at the same time. On one hand, it is challenging to understand some of the rhetoric (let us call this the question of a progression of sin and punishment within the context of human courts ascending to the ultimate divine court). On the other hand, a flood of implications confronts us in rapid succession related to many topics (the 6^th law of the Ten Commandments, murder, the Law in general, the authority of Christ, hell, sin, mercy, hypocrisy, worship, anger, and self-control).

In my last sermon, I concentrated on the particulars of the exposition of the sixth commandment given by the Lord. We saw those particulars in strong contrast to the rabbinic tradition passed down to the time of Christ and taught by the religious leaders. Today, I will concentrate on the flood of implications that arise from this exposition of the sixth commandment.

What we have is a kind of collage of topics that are diverse but inter-related. We can discover an outline by reflecting on this diversity and inter-relatedness. Though separate, the topics link together into a single chain. What title can we give to this chain as a whole? In doing that, can we put some links closer together and other links farther apart? Are there larger and smaller links? The answers to these questions will give us our title, the main outline, and some sub-points.

It seems that we need a broad and general title to cover the range of topics. We can call this message and this chain of ideas implications from the sixth commandment. The easiest way to outline is to cover the implications regarding the Law, sin, and mercy. Everything else attaches to these three things.

1A. The Law

Obeying the Law of the OT is a matter of submission to the authority of Christ. Jesus gives us insight into the Law and the summary of the Law in the Ten Commandments. He not only tells us what they mean but He shows us how to interpret and apply them as new covenant saints. We should do at least four things in our approach to the Law to find its true spirit and intent as disciples of Christ.

1B. First, look beyond the surface to the depth of God’s commands

We can study each commandment looking for matters of the heart. Anger is a heart sin that lies beneath the surface of murder (Mat. 5.21-22, "you shall not murder…I say to you everyone who is angry…will be liable to judgment"). This example directs us to consider other heart sins such as envy, greed, and lust that may fuel the fire of anger that will consume others with its rage.

This commandment and all the commandments give us guiding principles for godly living. They reach deep into the heart. They are principles worth reflecting on, pondering, applying, and then reflecting on again.

2B. Second, pursue the relational dimension of the Ten Commandments

If God’s precepts are binding on you, they are binding on others as well. If they are for your good, they are for the good of others also. This boils down to the principle that you are to promote your own health and well-being and the health and well-being of others. That is, we should look at all the commandments in this way for what they tell us about our good, how we can promote it, and how we can promote the good of our neighbors (seek to curb your anger toward others and seek to curb the anger of others toward you).

A subordinate implication here, a smaller link in the chain, is that anger is harmful. It destroys life, our own life and the lives of others. For clarity, we should emphasize that it is not just our anger toward others that threatens their lives. The anger they have toward us is harmful to them and that should be a concern that we have in love for them to promote their good (to promote life). In this light, think of how inconsistent it is to be marching against abortion and for life with angry faces and quarreling tongues. Then our anger then incites their anger!

3B. Third, consider the positives in the negatives (infer to the opposite)

That is, most of the Ten Commandments, for example, are "thou shalt nots." Every "shall not" implies a "shall." It is not sufficient to avoid doing harm or to avoid this sin or that sin. It is not sufficient if we are going to strive after the spirit and intent of the Law in the way that Jesus outlines for us. We must consider the positives and work at applying them concretely and specifically. This is how we live under the authority of Christ. This way is rich, full, and godly.

4B. Fourth, stay in touch with the wholeness of God’s Law

This is just saying that we are to season our thoughts about the Law and our lives by staying in touch with the letter and spirit, the external and internal, the height and the depth, the negative and the positive in a comprehensive way. This pertains to all the summary laws and to the will of God in general. We have to line up many lights on the runway for a safe landing; they need to be properly lined up and we need all of them. Another way to make this point is to say that we are to season our consciences with all the Law, all Ten Commandments, in their fullness. Suggestion: make use of the Westminster Standards on the Ten (cf. the web site links).

The commandments are like vitamins. Taking one commandment, then another, and still another is like getting a balance of minerals for good physical health. The laws of Christ are vitamins for spiritual health. Consider the imbalance again of Christian conduct that is pro-life in angry tones, that is insensitive to the hardships of young women who are seeking abortions, and that contradicts the peacemaking spirit of the new covenant saint! Doing this, a professing Christian tramples on much more than the letter of the sixth commandment. In his rage over the violation of the letter of the law, he breaks the law in its depth.

Strikingly, the commandments apply; we are to apply them in all their depth, in broad scope to those who persecute us, to the enemy, to the bad, to the unthankful, and to those who are indifferent. There are no excuses and no exceptions in scope. Our Lord calls us to comprehensiveness in our use of the Law.

2A. Sin

It is obvious that our Lord’s exposition of the depth of the Law places the sinfulness of all sin squarely before our eyes. He not only defines what is right over against what is wrong but He does so in a way that exposes thought and motivations and brings them before the bar of divine judgment leading to punishment in hell.

We get the doctrine of hell mostly from the lips of Christ. If that were not the case, this difficult doctrine would be even more difficult. What does He tell us about this unbearable truth of eternal punishment? Squarely and plainly, He tells us that hell is the just punishment for all sins, for heart sins as well as overt heinous acts like murder. In any court and before God, murdering someone in your heart merits "the hell of fire" (Mat. 5.22). The punishment of hell is profound; its seems extreme that eternal punishment awaits those who commit temporal sins, even the sin of murder, but Jesus says that those who harbor anger toward others are murderers and have their place in the hell of fire. The case is similar for those who harbor hatred, malice, murderous thoughts, and for those who express these attitudes in vindictive abusive speech.

There is a true, remarkable, and profound sinfulness to all sin. We have God’s perspective on the matter. That is all we need to know. The stifling truth is that our sins incur the just punishment that is so terrible that it reaches beyond physical death to suffering that is like the pain inflicted by fire, even eternal fire (Mat. 18.8; 25.41; Jude 7). The language of final judgment speaks for itself. It is eternal punishment (Mat. 25.46), eternal destruction (2 Thess. 1.9), eternal judgment (Mk. 3.12), and unquenchable fire (Mat.3.12) that involves torment "for ever and ever" (Rev. 20.10).

It seems to me that the thought of eternal punishment in all its truthfulness is unbearable to the human spirit. It is even unacceptable to the Christian governed by a loving heart and seeking the good of others according to the Law of God. It is unacceptable, that is, if cut off from two fundamental things: a) the sinfulness of sin, and b) the suffering of Christ. This brings us to the marvelous link in the chain, mercy.

3A. Mercy

We need to set the subject of mercy in the context of our Lord’s promise of a good life that runs through His exposition of the sixth commandment. One way to see this is to notice the promise that He gives of acceptable worship. Look at Matthew 5.24 again, "leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." Clearly, worship is unacceptable if we come to the altar in a context of bad relationships and it is acceptable if we take the necessary steps to improve those relationships. "Then come and offer you gift" must mean come and enjoy worship that is acceptable to the Lord of heaven and earth.

Now there must be something more than our obedience to the depth of the sixth commandment that yields this acceptance. Why is that so? It is so because acceptable worship must mean that we have acceptance with God. However, our sins merit eternal punishment. That is a hard truth from the lips of Christ.

Therefore, our obedience cannot ground our acceptance with God because it can never pay that infinite debt that we have incurred by our sins. Day in and day out each sin in thought, word or deed accumulates a debt that would take us an eternity to pay off. Our debt compounds exponentially. Any pay back by obedience is like trying to balance the earth on one side of a scale with a grain of sand on the other. It is even worse than that because our sins outweigh the earth in this analogy.

Nevertheless, God promises acceptance (implication of unacceptable worship). Therefore, real acceptance that is true and just must be a gift based on payment of the debt by someone other than us. That someone other is Jesus Christ the Lord of glory. Christ paid the debt; He is the only one who could do so. He is truly God and truly man, one person with two natures and we must neither divide the person nor confound the natures.

Remember, there is mercy to the merciful that are unworthy sinners, who admit it with a great sense of utter spiritual poverty (cf. the Beatitudes, Mat. 5.3-4). There is no other way to acceptable worship, mercy, peace before the just anger of God than through Christ.

So, where is atonement by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount? Where does He tell us of His death in the place of sinners? It is nowhere explicit but it is powerfully implicit. The work of Christ is present by implication in the law of sacrifice cited in this very exposition of the sixth commandment. The gift on the altar (Mat.5.23-24) is a sacrifice for sin. Therefore, the implication is loud and clear. Jesus came to fulfill the Law so that there will be no more sacrifices on an earthly altar. He plainly tells us that He will be the sacrifice of all sacrifices. He will be the sacrifice par excellence offered on the altar in the heavenly tabernacle.

In context, therefore, we know that the cross of Christ reaches the pains of hell beyond the grave. It reaches from heaven to hell because Jesus suffered for our sins. He endured what we have merited ("mine was the transgression, thine the awful pain"). He endured our hell in our place on the altar. That is why there is acceptable worship at the true altar. He has secured access for us into the holy place beyond the veil where no man could go. We now have access into this grace wherein we stand. Jesus suffered the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. As our high priest and ultimate sacrifice, Jesus died, was raised from the dead, and passed through the heavens. He is our great high priest, Jesus the Son of God (Heb. 4.14). We have a high priest that sits at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven fulfilling all the promises of the copies and shadows of the ceremonial law (Heb. 8.1-6). When He appeared as a high priest, He entered once for all into the holiest of holies "not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Heb. 9.12). He bore our sins in His body on the tree that by His death we might have eternal life instead of eternal punishment.

What can we say in light of this profound exposition of the sixth commandment? We must say, finally and ultimately, "may Jesus Christ be praised" (Original Trinity Hymnal, 131):

When morning gilds the skies,
My heart awaking cries
May Jesus Christ be praised:
Alike at work and prayer
To Jesus I repair;
May Jesus Christ be praised.

In heav'n's eternal bliss
The loveliest strain is this,
May Jesus Christ be praised:
The powers of darkness fear,
When this sweet chant they hear,
May Jesus Christ be praised.

Be this, while life is mine,
My canticle divine,
May Jesus Christ be praised:
Be this th'eternal song,
Through all the ages on,
May Jesus Christ be praised.