Jesus speaks to you all today saying,
“But I say to you that
everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment;”
What is the 5th Commandment?
You shall not murder.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm
our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every physical need.
What is really being taught in this command that our Lord
gives us? Jesus reveals to us at least 4 levels of breaking the 5th
Commandment: the act, the thought, our words, and other’s anger against us.
All of these have to do with the body. Murder is the triumph
of self-love over God’s command to love Him and our neighbor. In order to kill,
a conclusion must be reached, in our hearts, that the victim is not human or
less than human. Also true of abortion, euthanasia, and suicide, the body we
see is the body we know God made and therefore treat it as such.
Made in the image of God. That is what we say about people,
because God gives us our bodies and souls. There is no doubt that these things
are good gifts from above. In light of this, there is no way to tell whether
someone is not human or is less thn human, because all have the same gift from
God. How do you know you are dealing with a human? They have a body.
More than this, Scripture tells us that it is by Eve’s body
that Adam recognized her as his wife saying, “This is now bone of my bone and
flesh of my flesh.”
Repent. You do not understand the importance that Jesus
places upon the body. You do not understand what the body was made for nor what
having a body entails. You are not a soul with a body. You are not a body
trying to become a soul. You have a body. You have a soul and they can not be
separated.
Not only did God make the body, but He made it as the
crowning point of all of Creation. The final act of God was to create a body
and give a soul, uniting them as one. Your bodies are testaments to this
creative act and are therefore divine property.
You need to be helping and supporting your neighbor in every
bodily need. EVERY neighbor. Jesus says that if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him to drink. If he asks for your cloak, give him your
shirt as well. Everything you own is up for grabs, for your neighbor.
You need to be merciful, kind, and forgiving towards your
neighbor. This also includes your enemies. Be humble to those who disagree with
you. Be passive to those who threaten you. Pray for those who persecute you and
do this 70 times 7 times.
You also need to avoid harmful substances and assist your
neighbor in doing the same. The abuse of drugs and alcohol is destructive to
the body and the mind. Allowing these things to happen results in a breaking of
the 5th Commandment.
Adding one more level of transgression: neglect. If you
allow someone to be murdered; if you allow someone else to be angry; if you
allow evil thoughts to occupy your brain; this is all sin and sin destroys
faith.
Jesus has a body. HAS. Not only did the Lord create, but He
redeemed. Jesus took a body. God was born with a body and a soul. Next time
someone says their body is not important, tell them God has one.
Jesus went through every developmental stage of the body. He
did not appear fully grown. He subjected Himself to the full gamut. He was a
fetus. He was a zygote. He was a gestational sac. He went through infancy. He
experienced adolescence. He ate, He drank, He slept, He cried.
Jesus is a man. He became obedient to God’s Law in a human
body, not just to show us what a human can do, but to show that He really was a
man, able to suffer and die for our guilt, because we failed to not murder.
The Body of Jesus is different from our bodies, because
Jesus is also God. His fulfilling the Law, His life, suffering, and death was a
sufficient ransom for all people.
Which brings us to why everyone won’t be in heaven and why
everyone being made in the image of God isn’t enough.
All people means all people, right? With His holy, precious
Blood and with His innocent suffering and death, Christ has redeemed all
people. “ The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 Jn. 1:7)
God reconciled the entire world (all people, all time) to Himself, in Christ,
not counting men’s sins against them (2 Cor. 5:19).
The real question is not “who is going to heaven”, but
“Where is the Blood of Jesus that gives this righteousness?” Dear Christians,
why bother yourselves with the hidden will of God when He has revealed His
promise of forgiveness and salvation to you and all people?
Do you not know? Have you not heard? All who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death and His
resurrection. All who have thusly been brought through the water and the Word
have put on Christ. Upon the lintels and doorposts of your bodies and souls,
the blood of Christ has been spread and death passes over, in Baptism.
The Promise of Jesus is the promise of sacrifice; of Blood.
Real Blood. Not fake, movie set blood and not just the idea of Blood. The Blood
of the God-man, Jesus Christ, is shed for you and today is given to you.
Washing in the Blood of the Lamb is baptism, which now saves
you from your murdering sinful self. Communing in the Blood of the Lamb is the
Lord’s Supper where you ingest the Blood and so become and show yourself to be
a part of the Body of Christ.
For your murdering, you deserve death. Yet God brought the
charges against you and Jesus took the blame, suffering in humility upon the
cross.
Our eyes do not see into hearts. We can not distinguish who
is redeemed and who is not.
“The anger of man does
not produce the righteousness of God.” (Jas. 1:20).
Do not focus on the flesh, asking, “How can I put away my
anger today?”
Instead, hear that Jesus’ righteousness exceeds that of all
people. That Jesus does not murder, does not become sinfully angry, and does
not insult.
Jesus left His offering, His entire being, upon the cross
for your sake, in order to reconcile with you. In order that, all your anger
against God would be placated by His innocent suffering and death.
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