No one in his right mind will knowingly harm his body. Yet there comes a time
when a person will consent to allowing a doctor to remove part of his body. If
a diseased member endangers the life of the rest of the body, he recognizes
the principle of sacrificing the lesser good for the sake of the greater good.
Jesus appeals to that principle in Mark 9. He contrasts the higher good—
entrance into life—with the lower good of keeping both hands, both feet, and
both eyes in this present life.
This is deliberate overstatement. Jesus is not commanding self-mutilation; a
hand, foot, or eye cannot be the source of a heart’s sin (Mark 7:20–23). His
shocking language emphasizes the truth being taught: whatever leads us into
sin must be dealt with decisively, however useful, familiar, or painful to lose
it may be.
There are three lessons to learn from Jesus’ teaching.
I. There Is Both a Heaven and a Hell
The reality of each is denied. Atheists deny both. Robert Ingersoll described
the doctrine of hell as born of revenge, brutality, and cowardice, and said
that he hated and defied it. His strong feelings, however, could not settle
whether Jesus’ warning is true.
Several religious groups teach that there is everlasting life but no place of
eternal punishment. Jehovah’s Witness literature, for example, calls eternal
conscious punishment a God-dishonoring doctrine. Here again, the decisive
question is not what we prefer to believe, but what Jesus revealed.
In Mark 9, Jesus reveals that both heaven and hell exist. Romans 2 reflects the
same two outcomes: eternal life for those who persist in doing good, and wrath,
tribulation, and anguish for those who obey unrighteousness.
Romans 2:5-10 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
6 who “will render to each one according to his deeds”:
7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath,
9 tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;
10 but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Matthew 25:46 not only speaks of the reality of both destinies; it describes
their duration with the same word: everlasting punishment and eternal life.
II. Nothing in This Life Is Worth the Loss of Salvation
Sin, by its nature, separates the sinner from God and brings death as its
wages.
Isaiah 59:1-2
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus’ point is plain: anything that separates us from God and our hope of
salvation is not worth what it costs. This is hard for many people to learn
because we think too much of this world and forget how temporary its pleasures
are.
Whatever enjoyment sin can give, at best it lasts only a short time. The world
is passing away, but the one who does God’s will abides forever.
1 John 2:15-17 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Seeing that the price of sin is so exceedingly high, we must ask ourselves:
Am I willing to spend an eternity in indescribable pain for the small amount
of pleasure sin can give?
What in this life could give enough satisfaction to make an eternity in hell
worthwhile?
What am I treating as more valuable than fellowship with God?
III. Sin Is Horrible
The text shows how horrible sin really is. Jesus says it would be better to
lose part of one’s body than to hold onto something that causes sin. We often
reverse that judgment: we call radical obedience extreme while treating sin as
small, private, or manageable.
Every sin endangers the soul. Therefore, we must view sin the way heaven does
and do all we can to avoid becoming guilty of it. The command to “cut it off”
means removing access, opportunity, and excuse. It may require changing a
habit, ending an influence, confessing to another Christian, installing a
boundary, or fleeing the setting in which temptation repeatedly wins.
The hand pictures what we do, the foot where we go, and the eye what we desire
or allow to hold our attention. Jesus’ language reaches the whole pattern of a
life. Repentance is concrete: it changes our actions, our paths, and our focus.
Conclusion
Recognizing these things as true, how should we live? Without question, we
must consider the higher good more important than the lower good. Our eternal
salvation must take precedence over everything else in this life.
The removal may pain us in this life, but keeping the cause of sin costs far
more. Jesus calls us to trust His judgment, take sin seriously, and choose life.