JANUARY 18, 2024
“And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off….” (Mark 9:43)
Man’s right hand is emblematic of his work. His salvation is not the product of his own hand, but rather, it is the work of God, and therefore it is by grace that he is saved, and not of works. But, what is salvation? Salvation is, in short, deliverance from sin, deliverance from the guilt of it; from the punishment of it, and from the power of it. If then any man is saved, he is delivered from the reigning power of sin. It is not possible, therefore, that one should have salvation, and yet continue to indulge any known sin. Jesus does not heal sin-sick souls so that they might remain sick in the hospital. He came not to take men to heaven with their old sins about them, but rather to purge them from their sins, and so make them fit for heaven. We do not at all, therefore, come into conflict with the Doctrine of Grace while we declare to you the strongest claims of Christ upon our hearts and lives through His Word. The Gospel of Jesus Christ urges upon you the most strenuous giving up of sin, and the things which lead to sin; but this, not as a means of salvation, but as a result of saving faith, and as certain evidence that one has salvation truly in possession.
Our text most powerfully expresses the absolute intolerance of the Holy Spirit-renewed soul toward any sin. All sin is offensive to God, and everything that offends God ought to offend us. You’ll notice the text says, “If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off.” We might read it, “If thy right hand offend God, cut it off.” These two expressions ought in our experience to mean the same thing, because everything that offends God does offend every truly gracious heart. By this, we can know if we are truly reconciled to God or not. If we truly love God, then it follows that whatever He finds hateful, we also, because of our relationship to Him, find it to be hateful. It was for this very reason that David could say, “Do not I hate them that hate thee?” Where two hearts are bound together in the bonds of love, each is desirous to remove everything that would cause pain to the other. On a purely human level, I cannot love you if I side with your enemies against you. You cannot have affection for me if you delight in that which vexes and grieves my spirit. Surely then, if one loves God, he will gladly put away such things as He expressly hates; and, for His sake, form a like hatred for those things also. We can no longer allow our members to be employed in unrighteousness (Rom. 6:13). Rather, it were better to cut off even the right hand, than to allow it to do that which offends God and us.
If that which offends God offends us, then the blessed truth of the matter is that there is some degree of conformity between our soul and God. If we, even now, in our souls are warring against sin, which God hates; and if we are striving after that which God loves, then there is seen a restored likeness to our Creator. This means that there is some communion between God and us. This means that there is a precious and wonderful relationship between us redeemed sinners and God Who made us. There is greater joy in knowing by this proof that the thrice holy God is in sweet fellowship with us than there is in any carnal excitement that comes as the fruit of sin. By the solid proof of holiness, we can know that the love of God is in us and that the peace of God is keeping our hearts and minds. If we are in sweet oneness with God then it follows that what God loves, we love.
It is our duty to “Keep yourselves (ourselves) in the love of God…” (Jude 21) By this command, Jude is not requiring that we keep ourselves saved, as he immediately makes clear: “Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling…” (Vs. 24) He is, however, requiring that we keep ourselves in the fellowship of God’s love by following holiness. Every saved soul will find that there are many sins that offend God which must be summarily dealt with. These are all to be vigorously dealt with as the offense that they are. No measure is too drastic in guarding against offending God. “If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off.” In other words, repent of the sin, and burn any bridge by which you might return to it.
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