Jesus adding to the law

JohnClay said:

About the rich young man/ruler and Jesus in Matthew 19:16–30, Mark 10:17–31 and 18:18–30.
Jesus and the rich young man - Wikipedia

"a rich young man asks Jesus what actions bring eternal life. First, Jesus advises the man to obey the commandments. When the man responds that he already observes them, and asks what else he can do, Jesus adds"

If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me​

Is it necessary for the man to do that in order to have eternal life? Or just to be "perfect"?

Matthew 5:21-22:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.​

Matthew 5:27-28:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 5:31-32:
“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.​

Some people are able to keep the original commandments, like the rich young man... then Jesus makes the commandments harder to follow. Also there already was forgiveness of sins using offerings... I thought the old system was good enough. Though I guess now it is possible for people to have a far closer connection with God.

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Well, the Jews thought that the way into Heaven was being "perfect", and it's possible that Jesus might have been trying to show them the impossibility of that, and to bring (draw) them to Himself as the one and only real true way into Heaven, and it maybe wasn't so much about being as perfect (as Himself or God), but was more about fully embracing Him as one and only true way to God the Father, or into Heaven, etc, and fully committing to following or walking in that way, etc... Which may eventually lead to perfection, but might not be main priority number one point, etc... Might actually be missing the point if you think that is the main point, etc...

It's possible anyway...

God Bless!

JohnClay said:

If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me
Is it necessary for the man to do that in order to have eternal life? Or just to be "perfect"?

Click to expand...

It's likely that Jesus was offering this man some kind of apostleship since the come follow me is a pattern found with similar encounters with other apostles. Call it a job interview to find out if this man had the right stuff for a very important role to play in Jesus' ministry.

JohnClay said:

About the rich young man/ruler and Jesus in Matthew 19:16–30, Mark 10:17–31 and 18:18–30.
Jesus and the rich young man - Wikipedia

"a rich young man asks Jesus what actions bring eternal life. First, Jesus advises the man to obey the commandments. When the man responds that he already observes them, and asks what else he can do, Jesus adds"

If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me​

Is it necessary for the man to do that in order to have eternal life? Or just to be "perfect"?

Matthew 5:21-22:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.​

Matthew 5:27-28:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 5:31-32:
“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.​

Some people are able to keep the original commandments, like the rich young man... then Jesus makes the commandments harder to follow. Also there already was forgiveness of sins using offerings... I thought the old system was good enough. Though I guess now it is possible for people to have a far closer connection with God.

Click to expand...

Jesus wasn't adding anything..

The Bible makes claims on where sin comes from - it comes from the heart and mind.

Genesis 8:21
"And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done."

Isaiah 55:7
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

The first commandment is to love the Lord our God with all your heart, soul and strength.

The rich young ruler said he did this - what Jesus shows is that the truth reveals that there IS something he loved more, and therefore failed at actually fulfilling that commandment in its truest sense.

We all fail, not just the ruler, we all fall short of the Glory of God, and the truth of our heart reveals this failure.

The hope we see, was the entire point of the exercise, as Jesus said "With man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible."

What is impossible for us God will overcome. It's impossible for us to follow the law - because sin is more than action, it's your hearts intent and desire.

We can follow a set of rules, but are we following them when our daydreams are evil continually? It is from man's heart that sin lives, and just washing hands can't cleanse that heart.

It requires direct intervention by God...

So Jesus wasn't adding stuff on, He was showing us what truly following the law means, and what it requires to successfully fulfill it.

Legalism can't cut it, the only way to fix man, is to fix his heart.

Psalm 51:10 "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."

JohnClay said:

Originally to murder or commit adultery you had to murder or commit adultery - Jesus made it far easier to break those commandments.

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No.. Jesus tells you what Scripture means when it commands you not to commit murder or adultery.

JohnClay said:

In those passages it says "...but I tell you...". BTW when Jesus was talking to the rich young man he said nothing about never having lust or anger - i.e. that isn't part of the original commandments.

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Hopefully someone else can help you, somehow I seen unable to explain the difference between a new law and an explanation of an existing one..