Cut it Off

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. Mark 9:43 

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me. John 16:8-9

When Jesus said to cut off the hand that causes you to offend, what exactly did He mean? Whatsoever that causes you to reject Christ is what is in view here; it cannot be reference to an act of wrongdoing, because we know that the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of the sin of rejection of Jesus Christ, not for individual sins that they commit. It will be better to do away with anything that can cause one of reject Christ. In the opinion of Jesus, it is better to be without a hand than to end up in hell with two hands. This is what Jesus meant by "cut it off." Whatever offends is what estranges you from Christ.

And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. Mark 9:42 

The context of Mark 9:42 is regarding causing those who believe in Jesus Christ to stumble from the faith, therefore, when Jesus began to speak about cutting off our members that offend, it should be understood in the same context as the warning about making those who believe in Him to stumble from the faith. This will be the only interpretation that allow other passages of scripture that speak about salvation by grace alone to make sense. Some have interpreted this passage to mean that Jesus was saying, for example, that if your right eye causes you to steal, it will be better to pluck it off, so that you can 'make' heaven with one eye. If this is true, then, it will no longer be by grace alone that we get into heaven, but also by our good works, but we know that this is not true. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9; Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20.

On and on, in the New Covenant, this truth is restated, therefore, it is inconceivable to think that Jesus would have taught a doctrine that would contradict anything that the Spirit would reveal to the apostles and prophets in the church age. Any interpretation of scripture that makes it appear as though escaping the wrath of God is dependent on something that we do or fail to do, apart from simple faith in Jesus Christ, must be rejected as unscriptural.