#009 You Don't Know the Half of Me

Matthew 5:17-26

Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. What law am I talking about? God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and more than six hundred precepts that make up the law of God. You find them mostly in the first five books of the Bible.


The people were required to fulfill all the commandments, but soon they realized that some are not possible. Even if you do not kill, steal or commit adultery, there is a commandment that says: "You shalt not covet."

We all know that greed happens in the mind, in the heart, even before you do it. And that's what Jesus is talking about here. The law said "You shalt not kill," but Jesus says that being angry with someone is enough to be considered to God as a homicide. The law said "Do not commit adultery," but Jesus says that lusting after a woman is enough for you to be guilty of adultery.

Well, if you are one of those who read the Sermon on the Mount and think everything is beautiful there, you probably did not understand what it says. You are reading your death sentence. Unless you think you never felt angry at someone, never had an adulterous fantasy, never manipulated the truth....

So everyone is lost? Yes, exactly. And that is what the apostle Paul explains in his letter to the Romans. God gave the law to silence every excuse, as a way to show that all are sinners, all are offenders, all are guilty defendants waiting to be sentenced, waiting for the penalty.

But there's a problem. The penalty for sin is death. No lawyer can save you from this, but Jesus can. Follow my reasoning.

In the Old Testament, when an Israeli transgressed the law, when he sinned, he had to sacrifice an innocent animal in his place, for example, a lamb. Detail: the lamb had to be without blemish.

Jesus, being sinless, was the only one able to satisfy the law, the only one who did not have impure thoughts as we have. Though human, he didn't inherit the sinful nature we inherited from Adam.

Why do you think Jesus was called the "Lamb of God" by John the Baptist? He was called that exactly because he came to be sacrificed in place of the sinner, to fulfill the law. When you see a thief being tried and convicted, you say that the law was fulfilled. The reasoning is the same.

Do you remember Adam? Well, by the disobedience of one person many were made sinners. God wanted to do the opposite. By the obedience of one man, Jesus, and by his death, many can be saved.

Believing in Jesus as your substitute the only way you can be saved. Or do you think you will get there by accomplishing the law? Impossible. In God's eyes you are an adulterer, a thief and a liar. And, since you probably are already hating me for saying this, add murderer to the list.

But if you really recognize yourself a sinner completely dependant upon the grace of God to be saved, after listening to me putting you down, you will probably say, "Mario, you don't know the half of me."