What did Jesus teach about even thinking about breaking the law?
Jesus taught that the law goes beyond outward actions to the inward thought, leaving no room to evade it. He said that even if a person merely thinks about breaking the law, that person has already broken it, so no one can wiggle out from under its guilt.
Les explains that Jesus took the law even further, to the place where nobody can wiggle out from under it. He said that even if you think it, you have broken it. Under the law, all it could do was condemn; man could not keep it except by the ritual and sacrifices to get back into a good relationship with God, but the law itself could not do it. But now Christ has died, paid the sin debt, been buried, raised, and ascended to the Father's right hand, interceding for us. Now the righteousness of God is without the law, which puts legalism out in the cold. The Old Testament and New Testament dovetail together.