Rob Rufus on Matthew 18:9

It's long been irritating to me that many so-called New Covenant teachers and men of grace have been known to use Matthew 18:8-9 in application for Christians today (I have even heard Terry Virgo make reference to it). Just as a reminder, the verse says;

"If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell".

I used to believe this was true - that we seriously had to be so radical in fighting sin that we should be prepared to chop our limbs off if they caused us to sin. But I'm listening to Rob Rufus speak at a conference in East London in South Africa and he makes such a plainly obvious point - it's laughable (if it wasn't so tragic). Speaking on Christians using this verse, he said;

"Even if you can't see and you can't grab - you can still imagine!".

And of course the law makes it absolutely clear (as applied by Jesus Christ) - if you lust after someone in your heart or if you hate someone then you have committed the sin. So we MUST re-evaluate the use of this verse and re-question the context. What is Jesus saying here? And of course - what makes perfect sense is that as Rob says, Jesus is preaching the law "on steroids" to make it so obvious that the law simply CANNOT be met.

That is why we need the gospel so desperately!