Matthew 5:29
Matthew 5:27-30 (see also Matthew 16:26)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You Shall Not Commit Adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”
Matthew 18:8-10
“If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.”
Question: How would this apply to either Calvinism’s elect or non-elect?
Answer: It can’t refer to anyone, since Calvinism’s elect are in no danger of being “thrown into Hell” since their sins are atoned for, absent of any autonomous, libertarian freewill choice to receive it. Meanwhile, Calvinism’s non-elect will not escape from being thrown into Hell because they have no Savior who died for them, having been excluded from a Limited Atonement. So according to Calvinism, who would Jesus be referring to?
Jesus is saying that decisions determine destiny, but Calvinism says that secret election determines the decisions that determines destiny, which is logical until you consider who this passage may then have relevance toward, since Calvinism’s elect cannot end up in a worse situation, whether dismembered or whole, since they will be unilaterally preserved to the end, while the alleged non-elect cannot be in a better situation, whether dismembered or whole, because regardless, they have no Savior who died for them (i.e. Limited Atonement).
The meaning of the passage is that there is a real hell, and you don’t want to do the things that will get you there. Ultimately, there is forgiveness for sins, true enough, and you can come to God for that forgiveness, but the warning is to be vigilant against that which imperils the soul.
