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21 You have heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment." 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, "Raca!" shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, "You fool!" shall be in danger of hell fire. ~ Matthew 5:21-22
Today, we continue our study of the most famous sermon ever. It is the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. In this sermon, the Lord Jesus Christ explained how one enters into a relationship with God, and how as a result, God inculcates His culture into us who believe in Him. Beginning in today's passage, God provides a series of six comparative statements beginning with the words, "You have heard it said." Through these comparative statements the Lord Jesus reinforced the fact that no one gets into heaven through their good behavior. The emphasis here is firmly placed upon the condition of the heart. Here, the Lord Jesus peeled back the layers to show us what the heart of one being changed by Him looks like.
In v.21 of today's passage we read, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.'"
The words "You have heard that it was said to those of old," reveals the fact that religion is life-less. This statement points us to the oral traditions of the rabbis of Israel, not the written Word of God. The Jewish religious leaders had somewhere along the way lost touch with the Lord and they emphasized their interpretation of God's Word over His Word. This led to cold religion which placed emphasis on the behavior of man rather than the person of God. When the Lord Jesus came, He never quoted a rabbi which literally shocked His hearers because every rabbi quoted some other human authority.
In this verse the Lord Jesus isolated the sixth of the ten commandments. The sixth is the first commandment of the second half of the Ten Commandments. The first four deal with our relationship with God and the final six deal with our relationships with people. The Hebrew word translated "murder" is often mistranslated as "kill." The last half of this verse, "whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment," was not a part of the original passage in Exodus 20:13. These words were the Jewish religious leaders commentary on Exodus 20:13. The commentary that was given by the ancient rabbis was heartless and lacked life. But, this is what the law does, it makes us hopeless. It is this hopelessness that prepared us for the One who came to ransom us. If we have not been crushed by the law and thus are not prepared for the gift, we go the way of the rabbis.
In Romans 4:5-8 we read, "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 7 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.'"
To impute is to assign. The law demanded the imputation or the assigning of sin, yet, the Scriptures speak of the non-imputation or the non-assigning of sin. There has always been something beyond the law that brought man to this blessed state of broken preparedness. This is what God has taught us all throughout the Scriptures, that something from the foundation of the world has rescued us from the condemnation of the law. And, that something is the Lord Jesus Himself. Once the Lord Jesus died on the cross in fulfillment of the Law of Moses, God could then pour out His grace upon the broken. This non-imputation of sin came through the assignment of the Lord Jesus who came to shed His blood on our behalf. This is what makes us holy before God, our brokenness leading us to faith in the Lord Jesus and His shed blood.
In v.22 of today's passage we read, "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire."
The state of anger that leads to the act of murder makes one liable to the judgment of God. In Ephesians 4:26 we are told "to be angry and do not sin." Here, the Lord Jesus was not telling His hearers they could not be angry. He was telling them that the state of anger towards a brother that could lead to murder is essentially murder, just as the act of coveting that leads to theft. As He always has, God looks at the state of our heart. The actions that follow do not necessarily have to occur for there to be the imputation of sin. This is exactly the reason for the tenth commandment, coveting. We are not to allow our hearts to come to the state where we have the desire to do what may then be acted out. Understanding this, the Lord Jesus next said, "And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council."
The word translated "raca" is found only here in the Bible and it signifies proclaiming a person as foolish. Here, the Lord Jesus, once again, pointed to the state of the heart. If someone calls his brother "raca," it is because he has murderous intent in his heart. And, if he acted out that intent, he would be liable to condemnation for having committed murder. The one harboring a safe haven in his heart for hatred is always in danger of Hell. That is unless he has been covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
As always, God is most interested in the heart. We can appear righteous on the outside yet wretched and wicked on the inside. Even though my sin has been forgiven, I am still wicked on the inside. Paul reminds us that it is the letter that kills. And, it is the Spirit that gives life. God doesn't look at the externals. He looks for broken hearts. The scribes and Pharisees thought that because they didn’t murder, they were all right, but they had hatred in their hearts and they did not even know it. The cause of their problem was that they were religious which made them phony, plastic and legalistic. They failed to teach that conformity to God’s law is a matter of the heart, not simply a matter of the outside. They were concerned with what they didn’t do. God was concerned with what they were on the inside.
We miss God when we see the law as not an end in itself. Those trapped in religion do not understand that the law was given by God to break us. Many do not understand that the goal of the law is to bring our hearts to the place where we see the Lord for who He is. Our problem is that due to our fallen condition we cannot totally live up to the law. This is why the Lord Jesus came. He came to substantiate the law on the behalf of all those who are honest and humble enough to not only recognize and admit our need for the Savior but also to cry out to Him for His help because He is the only Savior!
