Living Water of Washington DC. A Christian Outreach Ministry.

Overcoming Evil With Good (Matthew 5:38-42)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’”

Christ was talking about a particular part of the law of God given to Israel through Moses hundreds of years before He was born. Soon after God gave Israel the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), He instructed Israel how to punish certain acts of violence (Exodus 21). In a way, these were ancient “sentencing guidelines” given to Israel to guide its administration of justice to people who committed acts of violence against others. The guidelines essentially said that if a man harms another man’s eye then his punishment would be to have the same harm done to his own eye. If a man knocks out another man’s tooth, then his punishment will be to have his own tooth knocked out. If a man murders another, then his punishment will be to have his own life taken from him. As the Scripture says,“Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” (Exodus 21:23-25)

In these sentencing guidelines, we see a picture of perfect justice. No deed goes unpunished and the punishment is no more or less harmful than the offense. The principle is that people get exactly what they deserve. Who can argue that this is wrong? Justice is perfectly reflected in the law of God.

Not only were the sentencing guidelines given to Israel just; they were orderly. No one in Israel was permitted to punish someone else without first gathering two or three witnesses and taking the case to a judge. In other words, individuals were not permitted by God’s law to “take the law into their own hands.” Only the judges and leaders of Israel could sentence an offender to a certain punishment, whether it be an eye for an eye or a life for a life (Deuteronomy 19:15-21). If you were living in Israel in the days of Moses and someone punched you and gave you a black eye, you would need to gather one or more people who witnessed the offense, take the offender to a judge and then, and only then, could punishment be administered.

Now, if you are like me, there is something deep inside of me that does not like these sentencing guidelines. What is it? Well, the problem is that, deep down, I know I’m not innocent. I know that the minute I cry out for perfect justice to be done to someone else, it will not be long before I will be in peril, because I’m an offender too! I know that I have broken God’s law in my thoughts and my deeds. I may not have given anyone a black eye in my life, but I know that I have hated my fellow man in my heart and, as Christ taught, that is equivalent to murder and subject to punishment under God’s law (Matthew 5:22). As the Bible says, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10-11). The Bible is clear that all transgressors of God’s law deserve death (Ezekiel 18:4b; Romans 1:3; 6:23). This means all people deserve death at the hands of God, for all have broken God’s law (Romans 3:9b-18, 23). This is the difficult truth with a system of perfect justice.

This was the lesson that Christ taught when He confronted the people in Israel who were about to apply perfect justice to an adulteress and stone her. The sentencing guideline in the law of God for an adulteress was stoning to death. Because the Bible is clear that death is the penalty for all sin as discussed above, the professing Christian should not therefore deem this punishment unjust. The law given to Israel was just much more efficient at punishing sin with death than is our contemporary system of law because God was uniquely concerned with the holiness of Israel. The religious rulers brought the adulteress to Jesus and asked Him what He thought they should do, stone her or not. Many of us know Christ’s response, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7). At that point, the people left the scene one by one. Why did they leave and decide not to kill the woman? These people knew the law of God and they knew that while they might not have been adulterers like the woman they were about to stone, they had broken God’s law in other ways and were equally deserving of death! They knew they were not innocent. They realized that their cry for perfect justice for the adulteress, if applied to themselves, would have dire consequences for their own well-being. We are all guilty. As the Bible says, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10).

As an aside, I want to point out that Christ’s response to the adulteress and the people wanting to stone her was about condemnation, not confrontation. How many times have we heard in the church, “Well, I don’t want to cast stones, but Mr. So-and-so is cheating on his wife and sinning.” This is a misapplication of Christ’s teaching here. Christ did not challenge the people for confronting the adulteress about her adultery. Neither did He avoid confronting her with her sin and calling it what it was. His last words to the woman were, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:11). There is a huge difference between recognizing and confronting sin, and condemning someone for sin. You can confront someone about their sin without condemning them. Christians are supposed to do this and in fact, there are times when Christians are to discipline sinners in the church by refusing to fellowship with them if they are unrepentant (1 Corinthians 5:11-12; 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15). This is not condemnation. Condemnation is centered on death, eternal death, which is ultimate punishment for sin. The story of Christ and the adulteress is meant to teach us that we are all guilty before God of breaking God’s law and that we all are deserving of condemnation. This is why we should not ask “how could God do such a thing as cause Hurricane Katrina”, for we know that we all deserve to die and the only reason we are living today is because God has chosen to spare us in His undeserved kindness and mercy.

Now, please remember that Christ never characterized the law of God as wrong or unholy or unjust. God’s law is never wrong or unholy or unjust. It’s just, perfectly just. The law is “holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). The difficulty that people have with the law of God that is highlighted in the story of the adulteress, in the Sermon on the Mount, and in many other places in the Bible is not that it is wrong or cruel, but that people are universally disobedient! The law of God is good, holy and just, but people are unholy, bad and unjust. A man will never understand the true Gospel of Jesus Christ until he understands this fact. A man will never be a true Christian until he knows himself to be deserving of the penalties of the law of God for his own lawbreaking. A man cannot fully appreciate the Good News unless he understands the bad news.

“By the law is knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). The Bible makes clear this is the core purpose of the law of God. This is why no society of human beings will ever be saved from the human condition by perfect justice. It did not work for Israel, it won’t work for Islam, and it won’t work for any other society that attempts to enforce perfect justice. The ultimate result of perfect justice would be all people perishing. In reality, when a society tries to enforce perfect justice, the strongest and smartest, though equally deserving of death, will destroy the weaker members of society through tyrannical government.

Then what is the hope for all of us as sinners, if perfect justice isn’t? In a word, grace.

Grace is undeserved kindness. While perfect justice means getting the punishment we deserve, grace means not getting the punishment that we deserve. Christians have been given a gospel of grace found in none other than Jesus Christ. Even though all people are justly condemned to die under God’s law, God has made a way for all people to receive unearned forgiveness for their sins through Jesus Christ. How does this grace work? Does God just overlook all of our offenses? No, that would be unjust and no unjust judge is to be respected, let alone worshipped. God had to punish our offenses. However, He did this by condemning His own Son in our place (Isaiah 53:4-6; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21). This is what happened on the cross at Calvary. God did this so that He could forgive you and me of our sins and give you and me the gift of salvation, a gift no one ever deserved. In giving all who put their trust in Jesus Christ the gift of forgiveness of sins when they deserve condemnation, we see the greatest instance of grace ever.

All of this should give us a better understanding of Christ’s teaching not to retaliate against an evil person. Yes, perfect justice would call for retaliation. However, Christ taught believers to be like Himself. Christ was full of the grace of God that transcended mere perfect justice. Christ said that He did not come to judge the world but, far greater, to save the world (John 12:47). Christ came into the world to give all who trust in Him the gift of salvation that no one deserves. That is grace. This is the one and only Gospel of grace.

And so Christ taught His disciples to, rather than retaliate and strike a person who strikes you, turn the other cheek and let him strike you again. When someone sues you for your tunic, let him take your cloak too. When someone persecutes you, don’t fight back. Don’t take him to court. Don’t give the offender the punishment or retaliation that his deeds deserve. Instead, show him kindness even though he does not deserve it. If you do this, you will be like Christ, who, though He would have been perfectly justified in judging everyone in the world when He came, chose to save all who trust in Him. Even as He was beaten and cursed and crucified, Christ did not defend Himself (1 Peter 2:21-23).

Let me ask you a question. Consider the adulteress who was saved from being stoned to death by Jesus. Do you think after she was saved, that she was prone to retaliate when someone wronged her? Do you think she would have had difficulty with turning the other cheek, having witnessed God essentially turn His cheek and show her kindness when she deserved death? No, of course not. The Bible says that she who has been forgiven much, loves much (Luke 7:47). I have no doubt that that adulteress would understand Christ’s instructions to His disciples to show grace, having received so much grace herself.

Have you admitted to God that your thoughts and deeds render you guilty before Him? It’s true. If you have, you know you are in need of grace, undeserved kindness from God. Well, have you received the grace of God that is found in Jesus Christ? Have you trusted Him to be saved from condemnation? God has appointed a day of justice. We are all heading towards it, either protected by our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or naked and facing eternal death.

For those who are disciples of Jesus Christ, I have a question for you. Are you practicing grace in your life and reflecting the grace of your Savior? Have you forgotten how much grace you have received, and your obligation to make Christ known in your words and deeds? Christ understands that it would be perfectly just for you to retaliate and return evil for evil to those who hurt you or steal from you, but do you understand that God has not retaliated against you for your many evils? Shouldn’t we reflect the grace of God in our own lives, so that unbelievers can have a taste of the grace of God?

Let’s praise God for the gospel of grace that is found in none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ryan George

Originally published in The Living Water Letter, November 2005
by Living Water of Washington DC.

Last revised: November 10, 2005.