Mark 9:42-48 (NIV): “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where “‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ Everyone will be salted with fire.”
Look at how far Jesus went to try to communicate how bad sin is! If anyone leads a little one (not just a child, but any believer who is still learning the basics of the faith) into sin, it would be better for them to have a hundred pound weight tied around their neck and then be dropped into the deepest part of the ocean than to have to stand before God on the day of judgment with that kind of guilt on their soul. If your hand, or your foot, or even you eye causes you to sin, it would be better to cut it off or gouge it out than to end up suffering in hell for all eternity.
Of course Jesus understood very well that it is not a person’s hand that causes them to take sinful action. It is not their feet that cause them to walk into sinful situations. It is not their eye that causes them to look against their will at sinful things. He knew and taught that sin originates in the heart of a person (see Mark 7:14-23). But here He is pointing out, as clearly as human language can say it, that sin is such a drastic and heinous thing, and its consequences are so horrendous (condemnation at the judgment seat of God and eternal suffering in hell) that it must never be ignored, never be excused, and never be tolerated in our lives. Like cancer in a person’s body, the presence of sin in our lives must be dealt with strongly and gotten rid of before it causes our death.
Since the real source of sin in our lives is our hearts (the spiritual dimension of our lives), the solution is a spiritual heart transplant – removing our heart of stone that has been warped and twisted by sin, and replacing it with a heart of flesh, soft and responsive to God’s leading. Instead of responding to the urgings of our own spirit, we must receive God’s Holy Spirit to guide and direct us into the right paths. (For both of these, see Ezekiel 36:26-27.) We must allow our hearts and minds to be completely transformed through the renewal of the Holy Spirit. (cf. Romans 12:1-2) We must be made into a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
All of these seem very radical to many people. It actually feels like death to who we know ourselves to be. This kind of “replacing” and transformation feels as drastic as – well, as drastic as cutting off a hand or foot, or gouging out an eye! But, as two thousand years of Christian experience have proved, this kind of death to self, this kind of radical transformation, this complete excision of the true source of sin in our lives, is the ONLY effective method of making it possible for us, as God’s people, to live genuinely holy lives.
Father, You are absolutely right! We so want to live holy lives, and we try to do it in our own strength. But we ultimately discover that we just can’t pull it off. The disease runs so much deeper than just our surface actions. But we shy away from the drastic surgery that is necessary to remove the true source of our sin. Instead, we try again; we develop rationalizations for our sinfulness; we even convince ourselves that it’s not a big deal to You. But then Jesus’ words come to us, and show us that sin is a VERY big deal – something that must be dealt with drastically, or it will have drastic consequences. Thank You for not only showing us how serious this situation is, but for also providing all that is necessary for us to receive a completely new heart, for us to be completely transformed into a new creation, for us to be able to live a life completely pleasing to You, in YOUR strength, and by YOUR grace. Amen.