"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. And He said to them,You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery. (vs13-18)
Our Lord Jesus is the King, the true glory of God, and the issue of chief concern of man. Rather than argue and debate, enter in. He alone can save you, and He demands full surrender. He only speaks by His word, and when the word roots itself in us, it produces love and forgiveness as fruit.
First, Christ is the issue between God and man, the number One thing (vs14-18). He alone can pay the sin debt, and you can't have Him until you're delivered from the law. You can't stand in your strength and grace, so only when Christ is all, when He alone puts away sin, then you can be saved from God's wrath. He says, to illustrate that we must be delivered from the law justly, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery with her”. Paul teaches us in Romans 7:1-4, “So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, through she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another – to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God”.
He paid the penalty, and we've done nothing. Let's be straight. We deserve damnation, except He paid for us, and now, we have fullness of Christ's grace. We are welcomed, loved, and blessed continually because of Christ and His obedience.
Secondly, if we don't believe the word, we won't be saved (vs19-31). He said, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead”. He speaks in the heavens, speaks in conscience, and He speaks everywhere saying that He is God, and yet He will not speak to men who refuse His word. He won't give some other proof. The word shows the Savior's need, the Savior's work prophesied, the Savior finishing the work, and the Savior in glory, sat down at God's right hand, producing Christians. Don't say you have no proof. You have logic, the word of God revealed, and the revelation of truth after truth. If you refuse to see, then you'll be blind, not because more is needed, but because you've rejected the only hope that you have.
Thirdly, if we've seen Christ truthfully and savingly, then we love the Son of God by loving sinners (Luke 17:1-4). He says, “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, I repent, you shall forgive him”. People sin against us, but we see Christ, obedient forever. They may hate and mock us, but we see ourselves plucking out His beard, sinning daily, and blaspheming God by our inconsistencies. Therefore, we say, “I will forgive, even as I’m forgiven”.
One thing about repentance and trials is that it delivers us from self-importance into humility with God and man. We've seen our failures, so we aren't so quick to condemn the failures in others.
Don't drive Christ away. Forgive.
Finally, the gospel is Christ exalting, according to the word, and unto good works.
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