Matthew 5:27–30 The Law Explained Part II Adultery

It would be helpful to be reminded of a little context as we begin. It is important that we read the Sermon on the Mount as a whole and not lose sight of the forest for the trees. For instance, we should never forget that Matthew makes a point of showing us that Jesus directs his teaching to his disciples. In Matthew 5:1, you will see that this sermon is not for the world or a guide on how to become a Christian; rather, Jesus’ sermon on the mount is for those who are already followers of Christ.

We should also remember the first of the Beatitudes in particular as we read this sermon. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The true Christian knows that they will morally fall short of what Jesus is talking about; yet that is precisely what leads to a blessed, broken spirit—a repentant heart dependent upon God’s grace.

Then we come to Jesus’ shocking statement that the believer’s view of the law and pursuit of righteousness as Christians must surpass that of even the Jews, scribes, and Pharisees. If you look at Matthew 5:20, you will see that we must avoid the superficiality that the religious leaders in Jesus’ day had towards the commands of God. Instead, we are to follow God’s commands beyond the mere letter to the spirit of the law.

When you write a message to someone, perhaps on a piece of paper or on Facebook Messenger, and you purposely leave out some information, you end the sentence with an ellipsis—three dots—showing that the reader must imply the further meaning that was not communicated. Jesus is showing us here that the law of God is to be understood a little like that. His commands have a dot, dot, dot on the end of them.

For example, when He says, “You shall not murder,” as we looked at last time, Jesus condemns even the root cause of murder. It was a dot, dot, dot—He takes it to the heart, the cause of murder, which is hatred for others and disdain for other people in our hearts.

Jesus is making a call to radical holiness. The Christian life is not merely about externalism; it is about new life unto God in Christ.

With that orientation, let us come now to our text in Matthew 5:27. Jesus begins a second example of how Christians, as citizens of the kingdom, are to relate themselves to His commandments. He addresses the subject of adultery.

To place the lesson of this morning’s passage in propositional form: Jesus calls believers to pursue a life of radical holiness with respect to sexual purity and marital fidelity in mind, heart, and action.

It goes without saying that the topic this morning is something the world finds little shame in. We live in a culture that profits from adultery; it sells adultery, entertains with adultery, and celebrates adultery. The most obvious pervasive example is, of course, pornography.

One author writes: "The global porn industry is worth between ninety-seven and one hundred billion dollars each year, matching the revenues of some of the world’s largest entertainment companies." By internet traffic statistics, the most popular pornographic website today averages around 5.25 billion monthly visits, which equates to around two thousand visits every single second on a single website.

One recent New Zealand study found that the average age New Zealand children are exposed to pornography is around fourteen years old, with many becoming regular viewers from that age. The shocking pervasiveness of online pornography has also taken hold among professing Christians. One American publication says that pornography has invaded churches; in many cases, the statistics show that Christians, and even church pastors, engage in viewing porn at almost the same rates as the secular population. That should shock us.

But not only is pornography pervasive, so it would seem is physical, literal adultery itself. Within a couple of minutes of looking up statistics, I found one New Zealand company offering private investigative services for people suspicious of their spouse cheating on them. The advertisement said, “According to research, more than twenty-five per cent of adults in New Zealand have cheated on their partners. And approximately fifteen per cent have had long-term adulterous affairs.”

So there could hardly be a more relevant topic that Jesus could touch on, and from which we could learn this morning. The kind of life Jesus is calling us to is immensely counter-cultural and against the grain of our flesh and of the world. As new creations in Christ, we must pursue holiness and fight for sexual purity and marital fidelity in mind, heart, and action to the glory of God.

The Interpretation

Let us now look at the interpretation of the passage. First, notice that Jesus cites in verse 27 the Ten Commandments, as He has in the previous verses. He is quoting here from Exodus 20:14, which simply reads, “You shall not commit adultery.”

The strict literal meaning of the law here concerns sexual unfaithfulness within the marital union. If a man or a woman leaves their spouse and marries another, or if a man or a woman leaves their spouse and has a sexual encounter with someone else who is not their husband or wife, this is, in the strict literal sense, to commit adultery.

So serious was the sin of adultery and so protected the marriage union that in theocratic Israel it was punishable by death, even at times by stoning. But as Jesus explains, there is far more to adultery than this strict literal sense alone. Adultery can take place spiritually long before it takes place physically. It could be becoming involved sexually with another man or woman, or it could even be becoming emotionally involved with someone who is not your spouse, which is very common. That too, by how Jesus teaches us to view the law, is adultery.

As with murder, Jesus is correcting the prevailing false view of the law concerning adultery. The scribes and Pharisees only taught the literal sense. They thought that so long as they did not leave their marriage spouse or have sex with anyone apart from their wife, they had kept the seventh commandment.

It became for them another notch on the belt of self-righteousness and more merit for themselves. Yet what Jesus reveals is that they had never read the law correctly, even once. The entire purpose of the law was to drive man to the salvation that is in the promise of Christ—to reveal our moral bankruptcy. But they had completely nullified this purpose by treating the law as a mechanical set of instructions.

Various modern forms of Judaism remain blind to this spiritual reality. The well-known Jewish educator Dennis Prager, popular online, was exposed last year during a panel discussion hosted by Jordan Peterson. Prager claimed that Judaism, which still holds to the Old Testament but rejects the New Testament and Jesus as the Messiah, has no law-based prohibition on lust. He said pornography, in its proper place, can actually be useful. Can you believe it? This is a Jewish spokesman for modern Judaism.

He described Judaism as behaviour-based, not really concerned about the heart. As far as he was concerned, sexual morality is more about concrete deeds than invisible desires. By his own words, he makes himself essentially no different from the Pharisees and scribes whom Jesus confronts throughout His ministry.

But for people who love God, they take God’s commandments to heart. If God’s law forbids adultery, the believer wants to see the spiritual reality as well as the literal sense. This means I need to flee from committing adultery in my mind, to reject, squash, cut off, and kill lust in my heart, which wants me to seek out false satisfaction and a gross distortion of something God made good.

Jesus does not want us to lose the seriousness of this. Notice the strikingly graphic language in verse 29: “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than your whole body be thrown into hell. And again, if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

How do we understand this language? First, Jesus sets up two realities of adultery in parallel in verses 29 and 30. His whole point is that the commandment forbidding adultery is to be understood not only as adultery committed in the act but also from its root—the sinful desires of our heart.

In verse 29 He addresses the spiritual reality by referring to the eye, which should be taken as the window into the heart and mind. This represents adultery on the spiritual front. Then in verse 30 He refers to the hand, which represents the body or the physical committing of adultery. In these verses He covers all the bases of adultery in mind and body.

It is so serious and so rotten before God that the unrepentant adulterer will face the punishment of hell. We must take Jesus’ words of tearing out an eye or cutting off a hand in verses 29 and 30 as figures of speech. The meaning is not that you must mutilate yourself to avoid sin; rather, He is grabbing us by the collar and shaking us awake to the seriousness of sin.

Christian, you must redirect your eyes; you must purify your mind; you must sanctify yourself for godliness in Christ Jesus. Burn those books of a pornographic nature that entertain the lusts of the flesh. Those websites you might look at when the family goes to bed to gratify fleshly cravings, they must be no more. That inappropriate relationship that has been slowly growing between you and someone who is not your married spouse—an emotional attachment you have been developing—it must be ended. Deal with it.

Don Carson comments on Jesus’ strong language, saying we are to deal drastically with sin. May we have the spirit and attitude of Job, who said, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a woman.” The reverse is true for a woman as well.

There's Forgiveness At the Cross

Let me make a few applications to drive home what Jesus is saying. First, know that there is forgiveness at the cross. By Jesus’ application here, we have all committed adultery over and over again. By our own actions, we have merited being thrown into hell—cast away from our holy, pure, and undefiled God.

But remember the glorious good news of the gospel. By Jesus’ perfect substitutionary death and life in Him, we have His righteousness imputed to us through faith. We do not stand before God on our own merit but Christ’s merit. That is what saves us from the judgment we deserve. There is forgiveness for you at the cross of Jesus. Every sin was laid on Him.

For you, Christians, He atoned even for the sins of your heart and mind, which can so easily drift to lustful thoughts. For the Christian at war with a pornography addiction, know that the cross has atoned for your sin. But do not harden your heart to Christ, who calls you to flee from it. Run from it as fast as you can—and run to Him.

Even for those who have been unfaithful in marriage, repent and flee to Christ. There is forgiveness at the cross; renounce your sin. Remember Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” In this context, blessed are those who confess their lustful hearts to God; blessed are those who pray to be washed clean as David prayed in Psalm 51.

Pray that God would instill in you the mind of Christ, that you would love God more than sin. Think of what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:9–11: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

Friends, God saves sinners—and that is what we are. There is forgiveness at the cross for adulterers through the grace of God.

The Law's Intent

A second application: we need to understand the law’s intent. Many perceive God’s law as restricting, immobilising, constraining, or oppressive. As believers, we want to frame the law positively by seeing it as protecting something good.

You need to understand that God and His word are not anti-sex. In fact, sex comes from God. He created it; it is His gift to humanity for the marriage union and is designed for so much more than simply procreation. There is even a book in the Bible dedicated to it—The Song of Solomon.

Christians are to oppose and reject the perversion of what God made good. This includes pornography, sex outside marriage, cheating on spouses, and solo sexual experiences. Anything that removes natural sexual inclinations and sexuality from the context of marriage—one man and one woman—is a perversion of what God made good and must be rejected.

The law protects that something God gave us as a gift. This runs against much of our culture, which wants freedom to make choices about their own bodies. Many friends I grew up with had multiple sexual partners before graduating high school. This is against the grain of our culture.

God wants us to think of His law like bumper rails on a tenpin bowling alley. When you are not very good at bowling and put the ball straight in the gutter, you might put the rails out. Think of God’s law a little like those rails—protecting us and providing a means to discover how we can live, not only keeping His commandments but experiencing genuine delight and joy in the goodness of God.

Have a positive outlook on Christ’s commands, especially regarding sexual purity and marital fidelity. Parents, teach your teenagers to love Christ and hate sin; teach them that natural sexual desire is to be expressed only within the confines of God’s design—within future marriage. Explain that everything else is a cheap parlor trick of the real thing. Save sex for marriage. Do not leave them with a negative view of God’s law; instead, show them how God’s law keeps sacred something inherently good.

How To Fight Lust

Finally, how to fight lust. I have two pieces of advice.

First, know the theology of your identity. To fight adultery—spiritual or physical—you need to know who you are daily and remind yourself of it.

Scripture wise, a good place to start is 1 Corinthians 6:15–20. Paul says, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The Two Shall Become One Flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

Paul is talking about the believer’s union with Christ. That union through new birth and faith is so intimate he describes it as if we were part of Christ’s own body. Since we have been joined to Christ, he asks, “Will I go and make myself a member of a prostitute?” No! To join myself to something that is not of Christ is inconsistent with my identity.

In Christ we are a temple of God, a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. It is not for us to gratify sinful flesh; it is inconsistent with our identity and not worthy of the gospel. This is who you are. You have been joined to Christ. Every time you gratify fleshly desires, it is inconsistent with your identity.

If we understand the theology of who we are in Christ, this is the starting point for pursuing radical holiness in the way Jesus calls us to in view of the law. Fight lust by reminding yourself daily of who you are—that you have been purchased with a price and set free from the dominion of darkness. You do not have to obey its desires; you are a new person in Christ.

Second, and finally, a point adapted from John Piper: I believe this is the most effective way to kill sin in your life is less about trying not to do something and more about learning to love and follow a person—that is, Jesus Christ.

Often pastors will have young men come to them struggling with pornography addictions. They help by setting up programmes on phones and computers to block websites. That is helpful, but it is like putting a sticky plaster on a mortal wound that requires surgery.

I believe the most effective way to kill sin in your life is less about trying not to do something and more about learning to love and follow a person: Jesus Christ. You see, if we think so little of Christ during the day; if we do not meditate on the goodness of God, His sovereignty, His glory, His power, and His goodness to us; if we are not thinking about those things, there is too much space inside us for sin. If you do not think about the life you have with Christ through the gospel, if you are not constantly rejoicing in God, then that supreme good God has given us to dwell on—namely Himself—will be absent. In its place, sin will come and try to make its home.

When our eyes are not on Jesus as they ought to be, our flesh will seek something else to focus on. You will not be strong enough on your own to resist the flesh. You need spiritual armour and spiritual warfare for that battle.

Let the word of Christ dwell richly in your heart so you might put to death the deeds of the flesh. The goal is not simply to try not to do what the flesh wants but to fill yourself with Christ so there is no room for the flesh.

Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Fill your heart with love for God. Look again and again at who you are in Christ because of the gospel, and you will find in time that there is so little room in your heart for sin that the flesh suffocates.

That is how you beat sin.