Breaking Covenant

Marriage is a covenant commitment between two individuals making them one. In responding to the Pharisees’ question on divorce (Matthew 19:1), Jesus turned their attention to the Creator’s original design, which is that a man should leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and, in this joining, the two are made one. The oneness is a covenant work of God and, thus, what “God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4–6). Divorce is simply the outcome of sinful man’s defiance of God, often to justify sexual urges.

Note that the immediate response to Jesus’ strong statement was a negative reaction, protesting that there must be legitimate bases for acceptable divorces (Matthew 19:7). Even the disciples had difficulty with their Lord’s inflexible position (vv. 10–12).

What is really at the heart of this issue? It is freedom to commit adultery without legal obstruction. This desired freedom is more deeply rooted in selfish need. Sexual urges are not in themselves sinful because they were designed by the Creator. However, because of sin and sin’s corruption of the mind and body, they must be governed by God as stated in the sixth commandment.

Sin is very deceitful. Often the urge to sin is very strong, but due to the shame of having to face guilt if caught violating the law, a way is sought to satisfy that urge without actually violating the law. Merely looking with lustful intent is one way to avoid shame. What Jesus wants His followers to understand by His instruction (Matthew 5:27–32) is that covenant oneness is first of all a heart issue. Murder is the taking of another’s life and is generally motivated by selfish anger in the heart. Adultery is the taking of another’s covenant oneness motivated by selfish lust in the adulterer’s heart.  

One might argue that having sex with someone who is not one’s spouse is not a covenant issue. Paul answers that objection: “Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh’” (1 Corinthians 6:16). One might also argue that it takes two to commit adultery. Yes, but (and this is politically incorrect) the blame lies with the man. “Everyone [a nominative masculine singular adjective] who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).

The word translated lustful intent is often translated “to covet.” It is a compound of the preposition upon or against and a term signifying a violent movement of air or fire—a boiling up. Lust is seemingly uncontrollable. Giving into it, however, is sin. In 1 Corinthians 6:12–20, Paul warns of the sin of sexual immorality. He argues that the body is meant to honor the Lord, who has raised us up and made us members of Christ. Then he asks, “Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of a prostitute?” (v. 15). Clearly a covenantal connection is here, not just with a wife, but also with the Lord, Himself.

Sexual Lust and Idolatry

The Sermon on the Mount corrects the wrong views of the Jews about the kingdom of heaven and covenant responsibility. People tend to view rules as oppressive, limiting one’s freedom to find happiness and fulfilment in personal desires. Eve was tempted when Satan framed God’s prohibition in a negative way—that God was preventing her from what would truly fulfill her. The truth God wanted for Eve was to understand that trusting Him in obedience would lead her to experience real joy and fullness she otherwise could never imagine.

Whenever Scripture addresses the matter of obedience, the underlying assumption is that God not only wisely establishes the rules which, if obeyed, lead to personal contentment, but also provides the grace necessary to make that obedience possible (Philippians 2:12, 13). Sin is the violation of this principle; and sin begins first in the mind. Murder, for example (Matthew 5:21–26), is not simply the act of taking another’s life, but the result of a hateful thought process preceding it. Thus, when God says that we should not murder, He is actually telling us that loving and seeking the welfare of an enemy rather than hate will bring the obedient soul true joy and pleasure. Murder, however, leads to separation from God and others, guilt, greater anger, and, eventually, judgment.

Sexual lust is a strong natural desire, a God-given drive to enable reproduction for enlargement of the race. This was the original divine mandate to Adam (Genesis 1:28). Marriage was established in the Garden of Eden as the proper venue for satisfying sexual drive (Matthew 19:4–6). Satan, however, tempts individuals that one can truly be happy and fulfilled only when they can satisfy those desires, even outside of marriage.

The heathen nations actually harnessed sexual drive as a means to promote greater devotion to their gods. This worship became a powerful lure to the people of Israel. The incident at Mount Sinai with the golden calf demonstrates how the people of Israel were influenced in Egypt to pursue this means to worship Yahweh. In the wilderness when the people camped at Shittim, the people began to “whore” (Hebrew: zanah, a verb, whose primitive root means to be well-fed and therefore wanton) with the daughters of Moab. This transgression was motivated by the Moabites’ tempting the people to sacrifice to Baal of Peor (Numbers 25). This link to idolatry is very important to understand the sins of adultery and fornication.

On the other hand, Celibacy and sexual abstinence have long played a religious role under the mistaken notion that sexual satisfaction was, in itself, sinful, even within marital bonds. That notion, no doubt, came from the Greek term for adultery (moicheuo) which had clear idolatry overtones. The Hebrew term used in the seventh commandment is naʾaph (the LXX has moicheuo) and is often used to describe Israel’s infidelity to God (Jeremiah 3:9).

As we examine Matthew 5:27–30, we will see how adultery and lustful intent are rooted in human desire to be as gods, knowing good and evil.”     

Pursuing Peace

Isaiah promised that when the Spirit was poured upon His people, justice would dwell in the wilderness and righteousness would abide in the fruitful field. “And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever” (Isaiah 32:15–17).

In the wilderness Israel fell to the temptation of the Midianites to practice sexual immorality, which, according to Revelation 2:14, was due to Balaam’s teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. The priest Phineas acted quickly to stop God’s judgment on the nation by a plague. Phineas “was jealous with [the Lord’s] jealousy among them” (Numbers 25:10); thus, God said, “Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace” (v. 12).

The psalmist wrote, “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (34:14). This charge is echoed in the New Testament: “Strengthen your weak knees [spiritual strength] . . . make straight paths for your feet [practical righteousness] . . .. Strive for [pursue] peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:12–14). When believers are exercised by Divine discipline, they share His holiness (Hebrews 12:10).

The performance of mere outward service to God displeases Him. In Malachi the Lord rebuked the priests for failing Levi’s covenant of life and peace (2:4, 5). It was also a covenant of fear—the fear of the Lord. Levi, “walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity” (v. 6). The priests of Malachi’s day, however, turned aside from the Lord’s way, causing many to stumble, not being careful to pursue righteousness.

This is the heart of what Jesus said to correct the supposed righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:17–20). When a Jew went to the altar to offer his gift—his freewill offering of worship—and there became aware of something that disrupted the peace of the body due to some unrighteous deed (whether real or supposed), the offeror was obligated to restore peace through reconciliation with the offended brother. This worshiper was to be like selfless Phineas who acted with the Lord’s jealousy for righteousness in the body. When he did so, he evidenced the Lord’s covenant of peace. When this occurs in the present day, the Lord is pleased and blessing settles upon the church.

The peace of reconciliation with God and with others is so important that it comes before formal worship. However, lest some think that Jesus disregarded worship, He says, “First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (v. 24).

We live in a day when both worship and peace are despised. The only gauge of one’s spiritual state seems to be the self-evaluation of what makes one comfortable and at ease with himself. Thus, the Lord closes this section with what at first seems out of place, but it is rather a warning. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Reconciliation and Worship

A great deal of confusion in the reading of the Sermon on the Mount, as well as many other passages, is due to one’s failure to understand the nature of one’s relationship to God. He is God, and we are not. As God, He has established the rules governing our acceptable conduct. If we are to have a proper relationship to Him, we must conform to His expectations of us.

The grace of salvation must not be confused here. No one is saved by keeping the rules. The problem is that we have already failed in rule-keeping. Due to His great mercy, God has chosen to save a host of rule-breakers by grace through faith. Jesus Christ stood in the stead of these violators and suffered their just punishment. However, the redeemed, while free of judgment due to past offenses, are not free of the obligation to keep rules. God is holy, and those who would seek His favor must also be holy. Grace does not give one a pass to continue in the lifestyle that originally condemned him. Grace, rather, provides the enabling work of the Spirit of God to pursue obedience to His will.

In Matthew 5:21–26 Jesus reveals that anger leading to hatred of one’s brother makes the guilty party liable to judgment. The Jews were content to condemn only the external acts, such as murder and adultery, as specifically pronounced in the commandments as worthy of the judgment. What occurred in a person’s heart was not condemned. Jesus corrects the record. It is what is the heart that is the problem. “How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:34–37). It is the evil of the heart to leads to hatred and murder.

Matthew 5:23 begins with “so,” meaning subsequently or then, and gives the reader the Lord’s practical solution to the anger issues of the heart. The first is a matter of worship. If you are making an offering in the worship of God and, in the process, remember that your brother has something against you, you are to fix the problem first, then worship. The root issue here is peacemaking. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). The assumption is that the worshiper has in anger offended another in word or deed. The offender is obligated to humble himself and pursue reconciliation. Why is this important? God will not accept worship from a worshiper with a bad heart. His Spirit in grace has brought the matter to the worshiper’s memory for the purpose of repentance and confession. However, forgiveness demands that peace be restored between the offender and the offended. “First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:24).

Could our lack of revival and demonstration of divine power be due to our prideful refusal to examine our hearts before the Lord as to our guilt in offending others, even as we act as judge and rule that our offenses are innocent and justifiable? Has the Lord truly accepted our worship?

Righteousness and Anger

   After declaring that the righteousness necessary to gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven must exceed that of Judah’s then current teachers of the law (Matthew 5:20), Jesus proceeded to give several examples (vv. 21–48). The first two were taken from the sixth and seventh commandments: “you shall not murder” (vv. 21–26) and “you shall not commit adultery” (vv. 27–30).

Six sections comprise this passage, each of which begins with some variation of “You have heard that it was said to those of old.” In each section, Jesus was not commenting on the moral law but rather demonstrating the shortcomings of the righteousness practiced by the scribes.

The section before us opens with “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” Murder is forbidden and punishable in judgment. However, lest anyone reading the law might suppose that murder was far more serious than merely expressing anger, Jesus added “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” The judgment referred to might be thought to refer only to the state’s responsibility to punish the guilty. Indeed, Jesus referenced “the court” and “Sanhedrin” in verse 22. However, imagine how overwhelmed the courts would be if every outburst of anger were treated as murder.

Jesus was not expanding murder to include anger, even though most murders occur when someone is driven by anger and rage (v. 22). Rather, the Lord argued that anger is sufficient to make one as guilty before God as one who broke the sixth commandment. They should not worry about the court; they should fear “the hell of fire.”

Some manuscripts add “without a cause,” which was probably added as an interpretive note, reminding the reader that there is also righteous anger. While this is true, it is unlikely that Jesus uttered these words because most anger, even that which is often justified, is a carnal response to provocation. Most aggravations provoke in the flesh an angry response more often than a righteous reaction of spirit. Jesus is merely comparing anger and murder because both are sinful. 2 Enoch 44:3 reads, “He who expresses anger to any person without provocation will reap anger in the great judgment. He who spits on any person’s face, insultingly, will reap the same at the Lord’s judgment.” This is exactly what Jesus was saying,

Verse 22 poses a real interpretive problem. Most commentators see a progression in the seriousness of angry responses. However, the terms used here (Aramaic: raca and Greek: fool, moros) are both very mild, often used in family and friendly situations, such as calling someone feather brained or silly headed. Jesus used hyperbole to emphasize the seriousness of the matter. What some might shrug off as inconsequential and unworthy of addressing in human courts was far more serious than imagined. Jesus simply stated that as murder is sin, so is anger. The guilt of any sin subjects the sinner to God’s judgment. We must not treat anger lightly. We must not treat any sin lightly.
  Lest anyone suppose that salvation depends on such superior righteousness, be informed that, due to one's own sinfulness and guilt, no personal righteousness will ever satisfy God in the judgment. Salvation is only possible if Jesus saves the sinner by applying the fruits of His sacrificial death and imputing His perfect righteousness. This alone assures acceptance with God. However, no one would recognize his need for Christ without his first being brought to see that his own sinfulness and guilt puts him in jeopardy to God's Judgment (Acts 4:12). 

Justifying Righteousness

Jesus began His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1–7:29) with an emphasis on blessing, the fruit of grace. Yet, He also emphasized that grace does not excuse one from the righteous standards of the law. The blessed man is privileged to obtain citizenship in the kingdom of heaven; on the other hand, privilege must not make him pridefully independent. Rather, he is to be characterized by the true recognition of his condition as a Spirit-enlightened sinner. He will express true sorrow for his sin as revealed by the law and genuine humility in submission to God’s gracious covenant promises. This work of the Spirit will also result in the desire to be righteous (v. 6; 1 John 3:7). The evidence of such an alignment will be opposition and persecution from the unregenerate (vv. 10–12).

Persecution results from the greater purpose of God, which is set forth in verse 13, “You are the salt of the earth.” The declaration is given with a warning that when salt loses its effectiveness when corrupted, it is good for nothing. What keeps it pure? The answer is the law: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law” (v. 17). Paul argues that the gracious work of God in saving His people required establishing a gracious covenant, beginning with Abraham. Abraham was justified, not by the law, but by faith in God’s promise (Galatians 3:6, 7). There is no way that Abraham or his spiritual descendants could be justified by keeping the law because it demanded perfect obedience, which no one can do. Neither is law-keeping of faith (Galatians 3:11, 12).

The error of many is to think that Jesus was contrasting law and grace in the Sermon on the Mount. However, A. W. Pink rightly observes that such a view “pits the Son against the Father.” Rather, Jesus argued that the righteousness of His followers must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees who thought their self righteousness satisfied the law. Only the imputed righteousness of Christ satisfies perfectly. Again, Paul reveals that those justified by faith alone through the promised work of Christ stand with faith-justified Abraham (Galatians 3:13, 14). The law was added to the promise given 400 years earlier (Galatians 3:19). It was added because of transgressions “until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.”

Although no one is saved through law-keeping, the law is necessary to reveal the moral standard of the kingdom as based on God’s character and to support His government. The authority of His law was made clear in His preface to the commandments: “And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord (Yahweh, His covenant name) your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me,’” etc. (Exodus 20:1–3). Thus, Jesus made it clear that He came, not to annul the law, but to fulfill it. It should also be noted that in illustrating the need for His peoples’ righteousness to exceed that of scribes and Pharisees, it is the errors of the latter that are the focus of His teaching.

Holiness, Righteousness, and the Kingdom

Jesus declared, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). As already observed, the Pharisees assumed the secondary duty of the Levites due to the rise of synagogue worship—to teach the people the Word of God so that they might know God and how to relate to Him in submission and obedience of love (2 Chronicles 17:9). In Matthew 23 Jesus supported this observation by the declaration, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do” (vv. 2, 3). 

Sadly, while the Pharisees’ goal was to maintain the purity and holiness of Israel, their practice degenerated into legalism and prideful self-promotion. They became overlords demanding exact observance of their directives while failing to exemplify their teaching by their own obedience, making them hypocrites. “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others” (Matthew 23:4, 5). In short, the Pharisees were externalists, “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). Nevertheless, they were convinced that their righteousness exceeded that of others. They were those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9). This is what provoked Jesus to argue that His followers’ righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees if they were to enter the king of heaven.

Righteousness describes the character and behavior of one who lives in the presence of God. To judge what is righteous is not the privilege of the follower of God, but of God. God is holy, that is, wholly separate from all He has made. Indeed, God is infinitely separated from His creation. There is no standard of righteousness to which God submits, for He is that standard. If any of His sentient creatures is to dwell with Him, they, too, must be holy (1 Peter 1:16). The divine requirement to be holy is perfect righteousness.

Only Jesus was able to satisfy that requirement. Hebrews recounts, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence [fear of God]. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect [in His obedience], he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:7–10).

Being the second Adam, Jesus, through adoption, is transforming a host of sinners, redeemed and saved by Him to be like Him and, thus, able to live forever in the presence of God, “holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). Although salvation is the sole work of Christ, the result of this work is evidenced in the obedience of His people to Him resulting in practical righteousness and the pursuit of holiness (Hebrews 12:11, 14). In this way, Christian righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.