What does Jesus meant when He said
Matthew 5:29, "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitablr for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell."
Is Jesus advocating dismembering of our bodies? Quite the contrary.
If not, what is this verse communicate to us. If we read the preceding verses and following verses we can see that Jesus is teaching the disciples about the impossibility of receiving eternal life through human efforts. It is impossible for man to achieve the eternal life by his own self efforts or performance. The eternal life is something what we receive as a gift from God, and is not a reward on our achievement.
Many people believe that they can achieve eternal life by their good performance. Here Jesus is trying to strip religious people from their self efforts [Law] and fall in to the hands of Grace or Jesus. Pharisees and Sadducees believe that their performance rating is very high, so God is obligated to give them eternal life based on their performance. They paid tithe for everything they earned, they fasted, they sacrificed, and they were following all the laws. They were in the wrong notion that they could achieve the God’s standard of holiness by their efforts. Here we can see that Jesus is raising the standard of holiness to such a level that no body will even take an attempt to go to heaven by their performance.
Jesus was raising the bar of God’s standard of Holiness by introducing Grace. God’s standard of Holiness is so high that no man reaches that level by human efforts. The only way we can reach that level of Holiness is by receiving the abundance of Grace.
The only work that Father God is pleased with us believes in His son Jesus. When Jesus was asked by the religious crowd “What shall we do, that we might work the work of God?, He answered” Believe Him” [John 6:28-29]. This is the answer to the humanity forever “Believe Jesus”
As we believe Him based on His perfect work on the cross, His life through us, good work will be the fruit.