Law, Lust, and Life – 4/28/24

Robert Keegan and Lisa Lahey started their journey towards writing a book they called Immunity to Change. They started the journey towards this book with a question: why is it that six out of seven people who have a heart attack and then are given steps that will significantly improve their health, their life expectancy— why is it that six out of seven go right back to living the same way they were before?

What was puzzling to them is that it doesn’t seem to be a motivation problem. What could be more motivating than sitting in front of somebody and saying, you may not get to walk your daughter down the aisle at her wedding, or you may not get to see your grandkids grow up? It also doesn’t seem to be an information problem. The doctors give the statistics, they give the steps, the tools, and obviously we know this is not in our hands. Life and death, heart attacks are in the Lord’s hands. But the question is still puzzling. Why would only one of seven—when all seven of them would say, yes, I want those things. Yes, I understand the information—why would only one out of seven walk away and actually, in their daily lives, take them up on that?

Another way to word this question is, why do we do things that we know will harm us? Why do we do things that we know are going to kill us? What Keegan and Lahey found is that underneath all the “should” and “should nots”—like, I should do this. I shouldn’t do this—all of us (not just heart attack patients), all of us have what they call deep commitments. They also referred to it as our “one big thing.” This thing keeps us from doing the things that we think we should do.

They give the example of Peter, who started a business, was very successful and growing the business, making a lot of money. But all the while, he is being told by people he loves who work with him, “You need to delegate more. You need to listen to people more. You need to talk less in meetings.” And he agreed with them. He wasn’t stiff-arming the feedback. He wanted to change, but all his efforts proved useless in the actual working out of his life. While Keegan and Lahey worked with Peter, they discovered and covered a deep commitment in him to control.

I think one of the most fascinating things about the way they talk about these deep commitments, these “one big things,” is that they point out that this actually does something helpful for Peter. It actually helps him be a good leader in many ways. This commitment to control allowed him, in many ways, to build a big business. It provided safety (often thriving in some ways) in a chaotic and complex business world. They kept Peter from what Keegan and Lahey call his own individual “world of dread” or “brand of terror.”

What is each of our—what is your, what is my—one big thing? Our deep commitment. Why do we do things that we know will harm us and not do things that we know we should do? Underneath all the “should” and “should nots,” we believe that there is something that—if I give that thing up—it will be like dying. If I let this happen, or if I don’t do this, it will be like financial social suicide.

Enter Jesus, who says,

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” (Matt 16:24-25 NLT).

Jesus invites each one of us to open up those deep beliefs, deep commitments to him. Those things that keep us safe, help us survive— open them up to him. Those things that give us partially what Jesus wants to give us fully. We see Jesus doing this in the Sermon on the Mount. We saw him do it last week with anger, but this week in a very particular way with lust.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Jesus is in the middle of a big teaching on the Kingdom of God. He came into his ministry saying, “The Kingdom of God is here. Repent and believe.” And now we’re in a huge section on the Kingdom of God. What does this look like? What is this new reality that Jesus is bringing about?

There are three realities that we see in this passage that Jesus is bringing about: law-filling, lust-killing, and life-giving. He is the Law-Filler, Lust-Killer, Life-Giver. We want to ask two questions under each one of these. We’re going to go through each one and ask two questions: what does this mean that Jesus is doing this? And why is this good news?

Here’s a summary: the law-filling, lust-killing, and life-giving realities that Jesus brings about are good news even in the midst of a hard message because Jesus gets the glory, and we get wholeness, freedom, and eternal fullness of joy.

First, Jesus is the law-filler. What does this mean? Jesus extends the law to our hearts. Why is this good news? Because following Jesus’ law brings wholeness. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery—” It’s a bit of an understatement. The Jews that he’s talking to would have heard this. This is one of the Ten Commandments, the seventh, a direct quote from Exodus 20:14. They would have not just heard this, they would have had it memorized. They would have heard it regularly. Many of the people he’s speaking to would have had the first five books of the Bible memorized, so they know this.

Committing adultery meant having sexual relations with another person’s spouse. The Jews that were listening to what he’s saying would have also known that the punishment for adultery was death. Deuteronomy 22:22 says,

“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.”

If that isn’t serious enough, Jesus says, “But I say to you—” You can imagine the Jews being like, what is he about to say? He just said one of the Ten Commandments. What is he about to say? He’s not about to abolish it. He’s about to fulfill it. “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” So, if adultery being wrong sounds crazy, this sounds like Jesus is just totally out of touch with reality, totally out of touch with humanity, with the world that we live in.

What does “lustful intent” mean? Let’s be really clear. Jesus is not condemning noticing an attractive person. He is not condemning a general desire for sex within the context of marriage. Sex is good. God made it. It’s pre-fall. It’s before sin entered into the world. It is good. Lustful intent refers to desiring to have or imagining having sexual interactions with someone who you are not married to. R.T. France, a theologian and a commentator, translates this phrase

“so as to want her.”

Lustful intent, “so as to want her,” or “to want to have sex with her.” We’ll just pause and say Jesus is using certain pronouns here, like his and her. You could easily put different pronouns in here. This is not just a male problem or a male struggle. It is a universal struggle.

Just really practically: lustful intent— you see a commercial or a music video or something on YouTube, and it seems innocent enough. But as you’re watching it, the person, the way they dress, the way they’re acting, you start to notice your heart being drawn to it. To look, to desire, to imagine. That is what Jesus is referring to. That second look, the desiring, the imagining, your heart being drawn to imagining or desiring to have sexual interactions with someone you are not married to.

What Jesus says, the way he fills up this law, he says, in my kingdom, adultery is not just a physical act. It is, but it’s more than that. In my kingdom, we don’t just conform externally. We are transformed internally. This is where the good news comes in because following Jesus’s law brings wholeness. He is interested in the whole person. This is the way of the Kingdom of God, and it is both terrifying and wonderful.

Terrifying because you could come to church every week, multiple times a week. You could wait to have sex before marriage. You could live in a heterosexual, monogamous, lifelong marriage and still have no part in the kingdom of God. Jesus is the king over hearts and thoughts and not just our actions.

But this is also really good news because Jesus is in the business of actually setting us free. His salvation is not just a ticket to heaven. It is healing. It is restoring. It is making all things new. It’s doing the whole job. Jesus brings us to God and to others from the inside out. He makes us whole. And isn’t this what we long for? We long for something that’s not just external. Like, if I can just do this, don’t do this. We long for our insides to be in sync with our outsides. This is what Jesus does. As Charles Spurgeon says,

“What a King is ours, who stretches His scepter over the realm of our inward lusts!”

Jesus extends the law to our hearts. He’s the Law-Filler. This is good news because following Jesus’ law brings wholeness.

Secondly, Jesus is the lust-killer. He brings a lust-killing reality. What does this mean? Jesus commands us to do whatever it takes in the fight against lust. I don’t know about you, but after this hard message Jesus has given— like, “as hard as not committing adultery is, I’m going to make it even harder.” I’m hoping for something easier after that. Like, I need you to come in and make it a little easier. And then he says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away…. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” Jesus commands us to do whatever it takes in the fight against lust, and this is good news because fighting sin by Jesus’ grace brings freedom. Jesus said in John 8,

“Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin…if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

These if-then statements— The word “then” is not there, but it’s an if-then statement. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away…” Two parts. The “if this, then this.” What is the “this” that causes you to sin? Jesus uses the same language here that he uses in Matthew 16 when he tells Peter,

“Get behind me, Satan.”

You are a hindrance to me, a stumbling block. Same wording. He also uses this phrase when he says in Matthew 18,

“Whoever causes one of these little ones to sin, it is better that a millstone is hung around their neck and they be thrown into the sea.”

France again summarizes, tries to get at what this phrase means for Matthew.

“A stumbling which deflects a person from the path of God’s will and salvation… A stumbling block is a person or thing which gets in the way of God’s saving purpose…the theme is impediments to ultimate salvation.”

Jesus is not just talking about an unhelpful thing or tips. This is life or death, both now and eternally. If these causes of sin are not dealt with, you will not see the Lord. As Hebrews says,

“Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

This is something that separates you from God currently and eternally. You will, I will, we will not enter finally, ultimately, eternally, that which we are not experiencing in some measure currently. You will not be with God eternally if you are not killing your sin currently.

Jesus is not talking about sinless perfection. He is talking about a measure of spirit-empowered victory. Where do we get the power? To do what Jesus is saying, we are going to jump closer to the end of the Bible and get some power and go back to Matthew 5.

1 Peter 2:24, Peter says,

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

Listen. Hear this. He bore your sins. Forgiven. The sin of this past week. Last night. This morning. He, right now, he bore your sins. There are two parts. Forgiven, he bore your sins, “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

Peter does this again in the chapter before—and there are lots of other places in Scripture that we could go to show this—but he does this again, showing more specifically this purchase of new ways. Jesus purchased your pardon, and he purchased power. He purchased a new life. He purchased holiness for his people.

This is 1 Peter 1:14-19,

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing”

This is the key phrase,

“that you were ransomed from”

Guilt? No. He could have said that. That’s true.

“from futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

He bought new ways, a new life for you and me. The Christian life is not lived the same way as the rest of the world, except forgiven. That is a truncated gospel. We must know his forgiveness and the power to live holy lives. What Jesus did as he was nailed to the tree was purchased pardon for every sin and power for purity in our lives. Jesus brings a lust-killing reality. Do whatever it takes in the fight against sin because fighting sin not in our own strength but by Jesus’ grace that forgives and empowers brings freedom.

Thirdly, Jesus brings a life-giving reality. He is the life-giver. What does this mean? Jesus points us to something better. This is good news because Jesus—in his kingdom, with his laws—doesn’t just say, “Do this because I said so. Don’t do this.” He points us to something better. Why is this good news? Because feeling Jesus’ presence now and forever brings fullness of joy.

Each of those phrases we just looked at—where it said, “if this, then do this”—comes with a ground afterward: “for it is better.” “For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” In a parallel passage in Matthew 18 (we’ll eventually get to this), Jesus uses similar language, like cutting off your hand, similar language. In that section, he says it is better to enter life maimed. Jesus brings a life-giving reality.

There is nothing greater, nothing more worth every ounce of our spirit-empowered strength than life and communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is what you and I were made for, to live in communion with him. This is the life-giving reality Jesus brings about, and there is no thing that the world can offer for temporary, partial satisfaction that is worth sacrificing communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

C.S. Lewis says in The Weight of Glory,

“I believe, to be sure, that any man who reaches Heaven will find that what he abandoned (even in plucking out his right eye) has not been lost, that the kernel of what he was really seeking even in his most depraved wishes will be there, beyond expectation, waiting for him in ‘the High Countries.’”

Lewis is getting at more explicitly something Keegan and Lahey were hinting at: the “deep commitments,” the “one big thing” we have does something helpful for us. It may keep us alive and may help us feel safe. Like, if I just maintain control or if I just do this. If I long for a sense of intimacy or to be known and loved. Jesus says if we do not give up our own way of getting those things, we will end up losing it all (even the partial things those give us. And everything that we give up now (cutting off our hand, plucking out our eye— things that may feel like social or financial suicide, feels like dying if I give this thing up) will be returned beyond expectation now and forever.

I think this illustration has been used before here, but it’s so good I wanted to use it again. Lewis depicts this in story form so powerfully in his character in the Narnia series, Eustace, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace happens upon a dragon’s treasure. He goes into the cave, he sleeps on the treasure, and Lewis writes,

“Meanwhile Eustace slept and slept and slept. What woke him was a pain in his arm. The moon was shining at the mouth of the cave, and the bed of treasures seemed to have grown much more comfortable. In fact, he could hardly feel it at all. He was puzzled by the pain in his arm at first, but presently, it occurred to him that the bracelet which he had shoved up above his elbow had become unbearable.”

This was a bracelet that was in Dragon’s Treasure. Lewis writes,

“He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep, sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragon-ish thoughts in his heart. He had become a dragon himself.”

And as Eustace thinks about the rest in his group—Caspian and Lucy and Edmund—Lewis writes,

“He wanted to be friends with them. He wanted to get back among humans and talk and laugh and share things. He realized that he was a monster cut off from the whole human race. An appalling loneliness came over him. Eustace lifted up his voice and wept.”

He’s turned into a dragon, he’s got this dragon skin over him, and he tries many times to get it off himself. He can’t. He meets Aslan, who says,

“You will have to let me undress you.”

That is, of the dragon skin.

“I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back and let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The cure had begun.”

Jesus brings up life-giving reality. Sometimes that comes through something that feels like death.

Jesus is the Law-Filler, Lust-Killer, and Life-Giver. This is good news because he gets glory, and we get true wholeness, freedom, and fullness of joy in his presence.

Three takeaways for us. What do we do with this? There is so, so much that could be said. This is a big topic. There’s so much that could be said. I just want to try to give us three things.

Number one, see something better. Imagine a world with no lust. I’ve been doing this this week as I’ve been praying, “Imagine a world with no lust.” Think about all the things in this world that run on lust. 27 million people at any given moment are being trafficked. Done. If you add in last week, imagine a world with no anger and no lust. Would this world even exist? There is so much that runs on those things. Jesus invites us not just to imagine that, but he tells us this is a reality that we actually get to step into. Right at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount,

“Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

Your kingdom come. Let us, Lord, let us at North Hills Church, let each of us (and as a community) step into a reality that seems really hard to believe. May your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. This must be the ground for our fight. If I don’t see something better, I’m going to have very little energy in this fight.

Kill something lesser. What are the deep commitments that we have? What do we need to open up to Jesus? Garrett Kell plays off of John Owen’s famous phrase,

“Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

And he writes,

“Love for God and sin cannot coexist. Kill your love for sin, or sin will kill your love for God.”

One of the best ways that we can kill our love for sin is point one, be seeing something better, inflaming our love for God, imagining the world that he invites us into, and praying for it to be reality in us and among us.

Thirdly, know the forgiveness and power of grace. Forgiveness AND power. Both of these. Jesus bore your sins. You are forgiven, and he purchased power. All of heaven’s resources are at your disposal in this fight. Some of the old hymns get at this dual work of the cross. One of my favorites,

“Would you be free from the burden of sin? / There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood; / Would you o’er evil a victory win? / There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.”

Come to Jesus. A couple ways to respond to this. We have a Conquer series that’s coming up in June. This is for men. You get to walk alongside men and fight this fight with them and experience victory alongside others. The counseling ministry here would love for you to reach out to them. Our prayer team here up front would love nothing more than to pray with you. This is not like perfect people. These are people who are with you to pray with you, to come together before the Lord. This is not to manipulate or anything like that, but maybe, maybe one of your deep commitments or your “one big thing” that we talked about, maybe that thing would make coming up front for prayer or going to somebody to ask for help feel like dying.

Come to Jesus. His mercy is great. His forgiveness is unending. In AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), the first step to recovery is an acknowledgment that you are helpless. That sounds like Jesus.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

So, the band is going to come up. They’re going to play a song that probably a lot of us don’t know. They’re going to sing it, and while they’re singing, we’re just going to stay seated and pray and ask the Lord, what are you saying to me? And what do I need to do? What do I need to do today?

Father, would you do the rare work in us of making us know the seriousness of sin, and also the glorious hope and forgiveness and freedom in Jesus? Would we be able to know both of those realities today? In Jesus name, Amen.