Latest / Reformed Thinking / Heart Adultery and Radical Holiness: Christ’s Call to Kill Lust (Matthew 5:27–30)

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Heart Adultery and Radical Holiness: Christ’s Call to Kill Lust (Matthew 5:27–30) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking and to another deep
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dive. Today we are getting right into,
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well, some of the most challenging words ever spoken.
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We're looking at Matthew chapter 5, specifically verses 27
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through 30, and this really lands us at the center of what
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you might call the spiritual battleground of the Christian
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life. We're talking about heart
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adultery and the call for a radical absolute internal
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holiness. I mean, you just look around
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today and you can see that our culture has pretty much
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separated morality from your inner life.
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Sexual permissiveness is just, it's in the air.
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Lust gets treated as, you know, private entertainment, or just a
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biological thing, or even a form of self-expression.
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The cultural standard is really clear.
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As long as nobody gets visibly hurt, as long as the
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transgression isn't external, you're basically fine.
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Morality is about what people can see.
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So our mission in this deep dive is to get into the sources that
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analyze these verses. Matthew 5 and really uncover the
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true and honestly the astounding scope of the 7th commandment.
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We need to figure out why Christ's teaching here is so
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shattering to our self righteousness and how He shows
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that the heart itself, your imagination, your inner world of
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desire is the real battlefield. That tension you just laid out,
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the one between the visible standards of man and the
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internal standard of God, that is precisely what Christ is
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getting at in the Sermon on the Mount.
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It's the core conflict. He's saying right from the start
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that the standards of the Kingdom are radically different,
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not just from the world, but even from the standards of the
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religious insiders of his day. And to feel the full weight of
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what he says about heart adultery, you first have to
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grasp the staggering authority he speaks with.
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He frames his teaching with that repeated pattern.
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You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.
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And that phrase is just electric, isn't it, Especially
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for that audience. He's not just giving a
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commentary. Or, you know, another rabbinic
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opinion on tradition. Oh, absolutely not.
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The sources are clear on this. This isn't the language of a
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scholar suggesting a new take. This is the language of divine
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authority. It's spoken by someone who is
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the source of the law. I mean, think about the
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contrast, the scribes, the Pharisees, when they taught they
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had to appeal to this long chain of external authority, you know,
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Rabbi so and so said this or this is the tradition handed
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down from they were always leaning on someone else.
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Right, They were constantly citing their sources, saying it
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has been said by people who came before they were interpreters,
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completely dependent on the past.
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Correct. But Christ appeals only to
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himself. He just stands there and claims
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to be on the same level as the Lawgiver.
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Our sources describe him as the greater Moses, the Lawgiver in
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the flesh. He is the Son who was there when
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the Law was given from Sinai. And now he's on a hillside in
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Galilee explaining the true original intent of his own law
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that claim to inherent personal authorities.
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What gives all the weight to what comes next?
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And crucially, he uses this authority not to get rid of the
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10 commandments, but to fulfill them.
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When he says he's come to fulfill a law, part of that
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means uncovering its spiritual depth, peeling back all the
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layers of superficial interpretation that it built.
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Up So what had happened to the 7th Commandment?
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You shall not commit adultery under that human centered way of
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looking. At it.
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It had been shrunk yeah, tragically the popular
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misreading, which was really driven by human self-interest,
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just reduced the commandment down to something manageable,
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something external. Just the.
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Physical act itself. Just the single physical outward
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act. And if you managed to avoid that
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one thing, you could, as the source material points out,
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congratulate yourself. You could see yourself as a law
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keeper. You could maintain this self
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satisfied position even while your inner world, your
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fantasies, your desires were running wild.
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So the religious system had kind of created a loophole.
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It protected the appearance of righteousness on the outside
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while totally ignoring the moral decay happening on the inside.
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It let the you know the respectable man in the Pew keep
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his mask on. And Christ's teaching just rips
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that mask, mask away. He sets up the true standard for
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the Kingdom be pure in heart. He Yanks the commandment out of
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the narrow courtroom of external behavior and shoves it into the
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searching, inescapable light of the human heart.
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Which sets the stage for that earth shattering statement in
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verse 28. It just completely demolishes
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any superficial claim to purity. Everyone who looks at a woman to
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lust after her has already committed adultery with her in
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his heart. I mean, with that one line, the
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dividing wall between the so-called good person and the
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person whose life is visibly broken by sin, it just crumbles.
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And we really have to pause here because understanding how Christ
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defines hard adultery is central to this whole deep dive.
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We have to be crystal clear on what Jesus is condemning when he
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says looks to lust. Right, because a lot of people
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get this confused. They mix up temptation with
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actual sin. They think that just noticing
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someone is attractive or that first involuntary glance, that's
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the sin he's talking about. And the sources are very clear
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that this distinction is crucial.
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That first involuntary impulse. That's temptation.
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It's not yet sin, because your will hasn't cooperated with it.
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Sin begins the moment the will engages.
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What Jesus is targeting is the intentional gaze.
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The Greek here is really important.
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It carries the sense of a purposeful, sustained look at
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directing of the eyes in order to desire.
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It's the difference between, say, seeing something and then
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choosing to turn your head back to look again.
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So it's not a passive thing. It's an active choice.
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The person isn't just a victim of their biology or their
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surroundings, They're an active participant.
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They're using their eyes as tools to fuel their imagination.
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It's a conscious choice to look again, to linger, to fantasize.
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You're indulging the thought and getting some kind of illicit
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pleasure from it. Yes, in that deliberate,
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sustained look, the heart consciously says yes to what God
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has forbidden. The internal act of
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appropriation happens even if your body never moves and even
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if no one else on earth knows the intent to mentally possess
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is there. And that leads to the second
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staggering detail in that verse, the full status of the sin.
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He says they have already committed adultery.
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That word already just carries so much weight.
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Jesus is saying that this internal act of lust is not a
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lesser crime. It's not an almost sin that only
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gets serious if it leads to something physical.
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No, before the eyes of the God who tests the minds and hearts,
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it is already a full transgression.
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This is just a radical redefinition of morality.
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Adultery, which the world sees as a behavioral problem, Jesus
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traces back to its root disorder desire.
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The law isn't satisfied if you just manage the branches while
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you leave the root untouched. And that root is what
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theologians call concupiscence, right?
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That inward pull towards sin. Exactly.
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Heart adultery is just a symptom of that deeper, persistent
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disease of the human heart. OK, but this directly challenges
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the most common defense you hear today.
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It's only in my head or I'm not hurting anyone.
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It's private. If the sin is purely internal,
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where's the harm? How is the person being lusted
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after actually being injured? That's an excellent question.
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The sources speak directly to it.
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That defense fails because heart adultery is a direct violation
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of the second great commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself.
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When a person looks in order to lust, he is fundamentally
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misusing another human being. He's treating his neighbor, the
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person he's looking at, as an object for his own consumption
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rather than as a sacred image bearer of God who should be
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honored. He's reducing them.
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He's taking a whole person with a soul, a history, a mind,
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relationships and boiling them down to a collection of body
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parts arranged for his own private gratification.
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That's the core of the assault. Lust involves a profound
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contempt for that person's inherent dignity.
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They belong to God. They're valuable in themselves,
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but the one who lusts is just using them as fuel, even if the
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other person has no idea it's happening.
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The moral action, the lustful gaze, involves an act of
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imaginative theft and degradation.
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You're consuming them in your mind.
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And beyond the person being objectified, the act of heart
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adultery also damages the covenant structure that God is
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set up. Absolutely.
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The sources point out that it doesn't matter if the person
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lusting is married or single, they are violating covenant.
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If they're married, well, their affections and desires are
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wandering. Their heart has gone where their
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vows forbid them to go. Marriage requires an exclusivity
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of affection, not just a body. So they're spending their
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emotional and imaginative energy on someone they have no right
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to. And.
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If they're single. If they're single, they're
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sinning against a future spouse by eroding their own purity.
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They're practicing self gratification instead of
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cultivating chastity as a noble calling.
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The heart is being trained in betrayal.
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The take away here is that heart adultery is always a betrayal of
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relationship, a degradation of your neighbor, and a direct
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offense against God's holy design.
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The diagnosis is well, it's sobering.
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Under Christ's standard, anyone who's honest has to admit
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they're guilty. We've all committed adultery in
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our inner life, but Christ doesn't just leave us crushed
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under the law. He moves straight from diagnosis
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to spiritual surgery. Which brings us to the most
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shocking instruction in verses 29 and 30.
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The imagery he uses is designed to be impossible to ignore.
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It forces you into a severe reckoning.
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If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it
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away. If your right hand causes you to
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sin, cut it off and throw it away.
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We should probably unpack the symbolism there.
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Why the right eye and the right hand?
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Well, the right eye and right hand symbolize what is most
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precious to you, what is strongest, most useful.
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The eye is often the main gate through which lust enters.
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It's the instrument of that intentional gaze we just talked
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about. And the hand is often the
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instrument of acting out sin, even in private.
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So by naming the right eye and hand, Jesus is targeting the
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things we rely on most. The hyperbole is saying that
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even if sin is tied to something essential, something you think
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you can't live without, you still have to be willing to give
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it up. It's clearly hyperbole though.
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I mean he's not commanding A literal self mutilation.
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We know the problem is the sinful nature in the heart, not
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the eyeball itself. That's correct.
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But, and this is a big but, the fact that the language is
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figurative doesn't make the demand any less intense.
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If anything, it heightens it. This shocking imagery gets at a
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spiritual truth. Sin must be dealt with
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decisively, ruthlessly, without any bargaining or compromise or
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half measures. This is what the sources call
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radical mortification. Spiritual amputation.
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Spiritual amputation. It means tearing out any part of
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your life, a habit, a device, a relationship, a form of
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entertainment. If it's acting as a snare or an
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occasion for lust, the cost of obedience must be met with
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absolute resolve. OK, but this sounds almost
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impossibly harsh unless we understand the reason Jesus
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gives for it, and that reason is in that repeated phrase for it
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is better. He's demanding that we stop and
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make a sober, eternal calculation.
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It is a profound piece of cost benefit analysis framed against
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eternity. On one side of the Ledger,
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you've got temporal loss, the pain of obedience in this life,
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losing the eye or hand. Practically, that could mean
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giving up your smartphone at certain times, walking away from
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a toxic friendship, quitting a job that requires you to
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compromise, or just breaking a deeply ingrained habit.
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That loss, however painful, is temporary.
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And on the other side of the Ledger, the stakes are
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terrifying. On the other side is eternal
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ruin. The phrase is blunt.
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Your whole body be thrown into hell.
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The sources confirm that Christ is declaring that unrepentant,
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indulged heart adultery is truly damnable.
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OK, Unchecked sin, whether it's internal or external, leads to
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eternal ruin. And it's interesting that he
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includes the body in that destination, signaling that the
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body, which was used as an instrument for sin, will be part
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of the final judgement. So the comparison Jesus forces
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on us is inescapable. Any temporal loss, any pain is
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self denial, no matter how severe, is infinitely better
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than facing eternal ruin. So Jesus is essentially flipping
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our common understanding of what's rational.
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We tend to think that self denial, like deleting an app you
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love or turning off the screen, is the mad decision, the
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restrictive, painful choice. He reverses that completely.
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The real madness, as the sources put it, isn't radical self
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denial. The real madness is coddling sin
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in a world where hell is real. The person who refuses the
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knife, who protects their comfort or their habit more than
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they protect their soul, that's the person behaving irrationally
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from an eternal point of view. So the cost of obedience, which
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feels like amputation. Is actually the highest form of
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mercy. God is urging us to choose
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temporary loss to gain eternal life.
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That's the urgency in the Redeemer's voice here.
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OK, so now we hit the central theological question for anyone
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who's a believer, if Christ's law is so pure that it condemns
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us for our thoughts, how can we who are already guilty even
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start to attempt this kind of radical obedience?
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This brings us right to the heart of Reformed thought, the
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distinction between our status and our struggle, or
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justification and sanctification.
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We have to start with the good news, which is the foundation
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for any struggle that follows, and that is justification.
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Justification is God's legal declaration that a Sinner is
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righteous in his sight, and this new status is based completely
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and solely on Christ's perfect life and his death on the cross.
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And it's received by faith alone.
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So when a person is justified. When a person is justified all
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their past, present and future sins, and that includes all this
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shameful sins of the mind and imagination, every single heart
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adultery we just discussed are fully forgiven.
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And even more, Christ's perfect obedience to the Law, His
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absolute purity and thought and deed is credited to their
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account. It's called imputed
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righteousness. And this status is achieved with
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0 contribution from our own efforts at moral improvement.
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Absolutely 0 The believer is clothed in the spotless purity
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of Christ. They are, as one source says, no
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longer viewed as an adulterer in God's courtroom.
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Your legal standing is secure forever.
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The sources really stress this point.
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Without that imputed righteousness, the call to
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radical mortification would be crushing law, not fatherly
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discipline. It would just be a hopeless
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demand. Exactly.
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It would be a demand to try and earn acceptance, which is
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impossible. We fight thin from a position of
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acceptance, not for it. Justification saves us from the
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penalty of hard adultery because it gives us Christ's perfect
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record. We're accepted, we're loved,
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we're fully forgiven before we even lift a finger to fight our
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sinful nature. And that truth is what
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stabilizes your heart when you fail.
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And that security is what then makes the struggle, which is
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sanctification, possible. Right.
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Sanctification is the gracious lifelong work of the Holy Spirit
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that makes the justified believer increasingly holy in
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their actual life and the putting to death of sin.
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Mortification is the active side of this process.
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It's the picture of the believers necessary cooperation
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with the Spirit. So mortification is the fruit of
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being accepted, not the root of our acceptance.
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Perfectly put. We don't cut off our bad habits
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in order to get forgiven. We do it because we are forgiven
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and we've come to hate what grieves the God who saved us.
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Now the Holy Spirit renews our desires, but the sources are
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clear that this inward inclination towards sin still
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lives in believers. This is that idea of
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concupiscence, that deep, persistent pull toward
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disordered desire. That's why the struggle is
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lifelong. Justification removes the guilt
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of concupiscence, but it doesn't remove its presence.
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Sanctification is what addresses the power of that inward
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impurity. The Spirit gives us the ability
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to fight this inclination, but the fight is real and it's
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ongoing. So an ongoing spirit empowered
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conflict with sin that active, sometimes painful mortification
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is actually the primary sign of spiritual life.
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That's correct. And conversely, A stubborn,
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unbroken indulgence of heart, adultery, a casual, friendly
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relationship with the very sin Christ condemned, is not
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compatible with genuine faith. The person who refuses the knife
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shows they've never really submitted to Christ as Lord, no
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matter what they say. Let's use that analogy from the
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sources because it's so helpful for understanding the
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relationship between our status and our struggle.
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OK, so think of the Christian life like a patient battling a
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terminal infection. Justification is the radical
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life saving surgery. The diseased route is totally
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removed and the patient is immediately covered with a clean
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garment. Christ's righteousness.
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They are declared healthy. Their status is secure.
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But the body still has to learn to function in this new, healthy
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way. Exactly.
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Sanctification is the lifelong rehab program that follows the
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patient who is now healed and declared clean, actively commits
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to physical therapy that's radical mortification and makes
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major lifestyle changes to make sure the infection never takes
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root again. So justification makes the fight
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possible. And sanctification makes the
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fight necessary. We fight sin not to earn
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Christ's love, but as the grateful response of someone who
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has been loved at the cost of the Savior's blood.
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OK, now that we have the demanding standard and the
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theological framework for the fight, we have to bring this
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into today. Christ's standard of holiness
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just collides head on with contemporary life.
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Our sources identify some major counterfeits to holiness that
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are actively undermining Christ's called purity.
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The first one, and probably the most common, is secular
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permissiveness. As you said at the start, this
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view treats sexual desire as a right, not a responsibility.
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It only measures morality by visible outcomes.
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Right, the standard cultural line is that private fantasies,
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looking at porn or whatever you do online are harmless outlets.
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They help you manage desire without actually hurting anyone.
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You can see it's the whole I'm not cheating, I'm just looking
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idea. In Christ's teaching is a
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blazing contradiction to that. Jesus says unseen lust is not a
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harmless outlet. It's a real sin, a real
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violation of God's law, and a real offense against the dignity
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of the person being objectified. Permissiveness tries to shrink
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the law back down to just external behavior.
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But Christ won't let us. He reminds us that the primary
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audience for our thoughts is God Himself.
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The second counterfeit is liberal theology.
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This is where biblical words for sin or soften sin becomes
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brokenness or a mistake and the severe language of guilt, wrath,
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and hell is avoided. This often creates what you
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could call a domesticated Christ.
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If Jesus is just a nice therapist and not the divine law
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giver, then he's not really seen as speaking severely about
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sexual desire. Passages like this one, where
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Jesus warns about hell are often just explained away as
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metaphors. They're not meant to be taken
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seriously, right? But the sources warn us, any
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theology that softens Jesus's teaching here isn't being kinder
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than Christ. It's actually being crueler
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because it removes the urgency of repentance and lulls people
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into a false sense of security right on the edge of a Cliff.
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The third counterfeit is 1. You see a lot inside evangelical
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churches. Pragmatism and therapeutic
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reductionism. This view agrees that lust is a
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struggle, but it treats it mostly as a bad habit to be
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managed with techniques and self help strategies.
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Yes, you see this with all the purely behavioral systems.
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Install this software. All these five steps.
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Join this accountability group. The danger is that it frames the
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problem as just addictive behavior or an unhealthy coping
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mechanism. It forgets that lust is
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fundamentally A rebellion against God's authority.
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It's a chosen act of contempt for His Holiness and a
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disordering of the soul's loves. So the techniques aren't bad in
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themselves. Not at all, but when they're
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detached from real spirit LED repentance, confession of guilt,
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and faith in Christ's righteousness, they just become
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a form of self-reliance. It's trying to trim the branches
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without touching the root of heart idolatry.
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And finally, there's the reaction against all that
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permissiveness, which is the counterfeit of legalism and a
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shame based religion. This often starts from a correct
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place, taking sin seriously, but it twists the gospel.
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It singles out sexual sin as the one unforgivable failure, and it
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sets up an impossible standard of performance.
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And the result is that people who struggle just learn to hide.
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They're convinced that if anyone found out, they'd be rejected,
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not helped. The focus is all on the horror
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of sin, but it fails to apply the healing of the gospel to the
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repentant heart. So people either become
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hypocrites or they just collapse in despair.
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The gospel shaped response refuses to downplay the sin.
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It calls heartless what it is, adultery, but it also refuses to
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downplay the power of the cross. The cross provides full
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cleansing for heart adulterers. The goal is to pursue purity
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from the secure ground of acceptance.
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And that gospel shaped fight is what allows us to actually do
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the practical amputation Jesus commands.
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Mortification requires concrete, costly action.
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We have to be willing to part with whatever feeds, ignites, or
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keeps the sin alive. So let's get practical.
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Where does this start? It has to start in the mind if
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we're going to live chastely. The war is first fought in your
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head. We have to actively reject the
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world's idea. The thoughts are harmless.
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Mortification means you let Scripture fundamentally retrain
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how you see the world. This means intentionally filling
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your mind with God's Word passages that describe His
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Holiness, His pure love, the satisfying reality of who Christ
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is. When your mind is saturated with
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truth, there's just less space and less appetite for fantasy.
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And we have to consciously learn to view people not as objects
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for gratification, but as God's sacred image bearers.
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This takes discipline. When that intentional gaze
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starts, you have to immediately switch your internal monologue.
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Instead of objectifying, you have to mentally acknowledge
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that person's dignity, their humanity, their ownership.
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By God, you actively refuse to reduce them.
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That mental recategorization is a key act of self denial.
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Then we move from the mind inward to the heart itself.
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Because purity isn't just an intellectual exercise.
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Sins power is in our disordered loves, loving the pleasure of
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lust more than the purity of God.
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So we have to reorder our desires.
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This means cultivating a deep delight in the Lord.
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We have to teach our hearts that His presence, His acceptance,
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His glory are so much more satisfying than the fleeting
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fake pleasure of a forbidden look or fantasy.
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Your soul has to be convinced that the real treasure is in
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Christ, not in sins. Momentary escape.
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And we have to cultivate the fear of the Lord.
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Not a cringing fear, but the holy reverence of a love child,
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a reverence that breeds a deep seated hatred for evil.
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It makes us tremble at the thought of grieving the God who
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saved us. That holy fear acts like a
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guardrail for the imagination. And the battle isn't just about
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what we shouldn't do, but proactively doing what we should
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do. Absolutely.
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The DO part involves drawing near to God, meditating on His
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goodness, feasting on His promises, and crucially, honest
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and regular confession of sin. We have to bring our failures,
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even our temptations, into the light before God and when it's
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appropriate to a trusted friend. When you trust in Christ's blood
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for forgiveness, the destructive power of shame loses its grip,
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and you can get up and fight again with renewed assurance.
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And finally, we get to external behavior and our environment.
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This is the physical cutting off of the hand or tearing out of
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the eye. This is where the most
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practical, ruthless action is required.
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This is where we apply that eternal calculus.
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What comfort is worth eternal ruin?
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You have to ask the tough, non negotiable questions.
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What in my daily life consistently gives me the
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opportunity, opportunity to fall into this sin?
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Whatever functions as a snare and an occasion for lust has to
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be treated like a mortal enemy. It has to be removed.
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For most of us today, that means taking a hard look at our
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personal technology and entertainment.
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Precisely. Mortification often means
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tightly controlling your Internet access, especially at
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vulnerable times, late at night, when you're stressed, or when
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you're alone. It might mean giving up certain
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kinds of entertainment, even if they're popular, because you've
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identified them as personal triggers.
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We have to be willing to limit, restrict, or just get rid of
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content that feeds that intentional gaze.
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It might also demand changing daily rhythms, maybe changing
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your sleep habits to avoid vulnerable hours, or choosing
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not to be alone in certain places where the temptation is
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stronger. We have to be wise strategists,
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not just wishful thinkers. We also have to get at the root
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drivers that come before the temptation.
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Sin is so often a form of illicit comfort.
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That's right, we need to identify the deep heart needs
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we're trying to meet with lust. Is it boredom, stress, self
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pity, loneliness? We have to attack those
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underlying drivers and replace that illicit comfort with
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healthy God, honoring alternatives, real community,
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physical exercise, discipline, rest, instead of turning to sin
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for an emotional release. And accountability is the
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external tool that helps enforce all of this.
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It's essential. Pursuing accountability with
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mature believers of the same sex isn't a sign of weakness, it's a
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sign of wisdom. And these relationships need to
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be structured to ask real tough questions and then point us
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straight back to Christ in his grace when we fall so we don't
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stay hidden in shame. These steps aren't legalism when
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they're done out of love for God.
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They're just what obedience and self preservation look like.
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And for those who are married, purity means actively nurturing
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that relationship. Yes, the marriage covenant is
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God's appointed place for sexual intimacy.
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So nurturing that relationship spiritually, emotionally,
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physically is a vital protection against wandering eyes and
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hearts. It helps satisfy the desire for
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closeness in the right context. And for those who are single,
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the sources affirm that maintaining chastity is a noble
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honoring calling that respects both Christ and any potential
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future spouse. This warfare is, as we've said,
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bruising and lifelong, but it's fought under the banner of a
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finished work on the cross and in the arms of a faithful
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Savior. We are fighting from victory,
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not for it. That is the ultimate comfort.
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The battle against our own sinful desires is essential for
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the Christian, but our standing with God is never at risk
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because of our failures, only by our refusal to repent and get
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back in the fight. As we wrap up this deep dive
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into Matthew 5, we have to hold on to both the weight and the
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wonder of Christ's message. The weight of the law exposes
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our guilt. Jesus calls lust what it is,
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adultery of the heart, and He refuses to let us hide behind a
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respectable front. The law crushes anyone who
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thought they had morality figured out.
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But the wonder of the gospel shines brightest right where the
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law presses hardest. The very one who speaks these
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demanding, terrifying words is the same Savior who kept them
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perfectly. He never once had a lustful
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thought, and He went to the cross bearing the full filth of
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our unclean hearts and imaginations.
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He exposes our sin not to destroy us, but to cleanse us
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and restore us. In Christ, adulterers and heart
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can be fully justified, fully washed, and fully renewed.
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We are called to cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work fighting
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sin not to earn God's love, but it's a grateful response to
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being loved at the ultimate cost of the Savior's blood.
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Jesus's command for radical mortification is the urgent
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counsel of a Redeemer who values our souls more than our comfort.
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And the final choice is deeply personal for every one of us.
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Will we believe Him and take up the hard path of holiness,
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applying the knife of mortification?
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Or will we cling to the very sins He came to set us free
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from? So consider this eternal
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calculus for yourself. If Christ insists that the true
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madness is coddling sin, what comfort, what attachment, what
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device or what habit are you currently protecting more
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fiercely than your soul's purity?