From Matthew 18:7-9 / Enticing Others To Sin

This is now the third section dealing with the issue of seeking standing in the Kingdom of Heaven in comparison to others. We must not lose the train of thought Jesus is about, and does not complete until vs. 14. He has not started a new subject. And His words grow more dire.

Note first: How seriously we must take all sin, but especially the sin of seeking self aggrandizement.

If you work toward that end (if your hand causes you to sin); or if you walk in that direction (if your foot causes you to sin) – take drastic measures in dealing with this most pernicious and damnable desire. Better to lose anything else, no matter how dear or seemingly advantageous or necessary rather than lose your eternal soul to Hell for pursuing self.

Can Jesus be any more emphatic regarding our battle with sinful tendencies? I think not.

Note second: The only thing worse than giving into self-promotion and high standing in the eyes of others and before the Lord, is to pass on to others – to model or teach others – to seek the same!

Temptations come to everyone. But when we become the source of tempting others to sin – woe unto us!

The current trend to convince people that we are somehow worthy of grace, worthy to be saved, worthy of Christ’s blood, instead of leading people to understand that salvation and all that comes with it is by pure grace alone – fosters this notion and celebration of self.

So desperate are we to justify ourselves in some manner, no matter how paltry, that it can hardly be overstated. We constantly, incessantly compare ourselves to others so as to imagine ourselves not so bad, at least not as bad a X.

We comfort ourselves in our sins that they are not as dastardly, not as deserving of Hell as this one or that one. All because we do not truly know the depths of the sins we DO have, and because we do not recognize that outward sins are simply symptoms of the very same corruption. But how we love to note that other’s symptoms are worse than ours, imagining then that we are somehow inherently less sinful, less lost, and more easily salvable.

The truth is, if you or I were the only person alive, it would still take nothing less than the blood of the sin-less Son of God to reconcile us to the Father. Nothing less than Calvary and all its horrors. Nothing less than the incarnation, the resurrection and the sending of the Spirit.

Sin, no matter how little its manifestations, is nothing less than cosmic rebellion and deserving of eternal damnation.

Who will be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?

Christ!

And Christ alone!

Note third: The denial of the flesh in resisting temptation is not a light thing.

It is:

a. Inevitable for all those who would follow Christ.

b. Powerful.

c. Personally costly to refuse.

d. Something which must be dealt with drastically.

e. It may leave us temporarily impaired of bereft of even something legitimate in our war against it.

f. Worth it.

Note fourth: How great then is our salvation. Indeed, how great is this Savior who delivers us from all the guilt and shame this sin brings with it, and then bestows upon poor Believers the eternal riches of glory that He Himself deserves and has won.

Worship Him today. For He is all our righteousness. He is all our holiness. He is all our reward.