Have you ever considered the training and rigor that an heir to royalty must go through while being groomed for the throne. He endures constant schooling and discipline while being groomed to reign as king. This man has a major destiny in life and his training will help determine his effectiveness in his rule.
As Christians, were in the same boat because the Lord is grooming each of us to reign with Him for all eternity. The Lord's School is not for the slothful and apathetic. It's for those who truly love God and desire for Him to prepare them for a glorious reign with Him. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins by giving us the Beatitudes which are known as the 8 Blessed. (These are given not as a way for a lost person to earn his salvation, but as a way of life for true children of the Kingdom. Salvation is a free gift of God for those who repent and put their trust in Christ and His Grace and Mercy offered at the Cross). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sets the course that we are to follow while being groomed into His likeness. The 8 beatitudes show us the attitudes that we should have toward God and our fellow man in our daily walk. Let's examine them.
by John Rosser
1. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Matthew 5:3
What does Jesus mean when He says "poor in spirit" ? Does He mean that we should all quite our jobs so that we can be poor and as a result be blessed? Of course not! Jesus is not talking about financial poverty here, but poverty of personal righteousness. We are all sinners by nature and have rebelled against a Holy God.(Romans 3:23, 6:23) When we catch a glimpse of God's Holiness and compare that to our own holiness, we understand that we are morally bankrupt and in desperate need of a Saviour. It brings us to a point of brokeness and deep humility before God. When a person is poor in spirit and turns to Christ, he is blessed because he knows that he has been accepted by God into His Family and will spend eternity in His Kingdom. He comes into a love relationship with God and finds the true peace that only God can give. No matter what happens to him on the outside, he has an inner peace because he has Christ on the inside.
2. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4
Jesus refers to those who are sorrowful because they recognize their own spiritual poverty. This Christian is in contrast to the spiritually proud and self-sufficient. He looks to the Lord for His Grace and Mercy and knows that only Christ can give Him strength. He also mourns over the injustices that man does to his fellow man. It pains him to see others suffer at the hand of evil. The good news is that when we mourn over our own spiritual poverty and man's injustice to others, the Lord tells us that we shall be comforted. When we pour out our hearts to God, He then comes to us fill us with His Spirit and lovingly embraces us. Then we are truly comforted by the Holy Spirit.
3. "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5
To be meek is to be gentle, humble and submissive to God. To humbly acknowledge our dependence on the goodness and the grace of God and to show no arrogance toward our fellowman. But meekness is not weakness. To be meek is not to be a coward, indecisive or a nonassertive doormat: it is just the opposite. Meekness is strength under control. A wild stallion is strong and powerful, but it is of no use to man and his purposes. But when it is trained and broken, it becomes of tremendous use to it's owner as that great power is channeled to obey at his command. Jesus most likely would have appeared to have been rugged on the outside since He grew up working as a carpenter. However, on the inside He was meek and gentle. He lived His entire life submitting Himself to the Father's will. While on the cross, Jesus could have called down fire to consume His enemies, but instead He chose to take the abuse so that we could be redeemed from our sins and to fulfill the will of the Father. Because His strength was under control, we have the opportunity for salvation today. God's promise is that the meek will inherit the earth. To inherit refers to the day when Christ returns to set up His kingdom and to rule over all the earth. Just think, every believer will be given a position in His Kingdom. The meeker we are here, the higher the position or rank we will have there. So it really pays in eternity to be humble, gentle and submissive to God's will. Any worldly gains or riches a person may gain in his life will pale in comparison to the everlasting rewards and riches that Jesus gives us there.
4. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6
To hunger and thirst means to crave and desire. To fix your eyes on and to passionately pursue righteousness with a hunger and desire to be more like Him. In Matthew 6:33, the Lord tells us "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you". But when we look at II Corinthians 5:21, we see that believers are already the "righteousness of God in Him". So why should we seek something that we already have as believers? The answer is that there are 3 different stages of righteousness.
1. Justification
2. Sanctification
3. Glorification
Let us look at each of these:
1. Justification or sometimes referred to as "instantaneous righteousness" is what takes place the moment we are saved. At this point, the Lord claims us as His own as He gives us a righteousness that is not our own-the righteousness of Christ. This is a perfect righteousness with no blemishes and we become as Holy as God. Jesus wraps us in a perfect Robe of Righteousness and even though we still fall short of the mark, God doesn't condemn us for our sins because we are covered by the righteousness of Christ. This is what makes it possible for us to enter the presence of a Holy God. His robe covers our sins. The word "atonement" means covering.
2. Sanctification or sometimes called "progressive righteousness" is the growth process of the Christian. When we receive the gift of salvation, we are born again and receive a new nature. This new nature is the result of receiving Christ's righteousness and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are then born into God's family and are brand new babies in Christ. Like any baby we need to grow up and mature. This growth process or sanctification is not always easy because the flesh wars against the spirit or the new man (Galatians 5:17). The Lord calls us to be overcomers and to resist evil and to walk in righteousness. The good news is that we don't have to do this in our own strength but we can lean on and depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. As we yield our lives daily to the Lord and trust in His ability in us, we find ourselves changing and conforming into His likeness. In I Corinthians 15:10, the Apostle Paul said, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me". As we overcome the world, the devil and the flesh, the new man grows stronger and more and more like Jesus. The more that we hunger and thirst for righteousness, the greater victory that we will have over sin-by the grace of God. During this time of growth, the believer is certain to sin, but because He is wrapped in Christ's Robe of Righteousness, He knows that "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"(Romans 8:1)
3. Glorification-is also referred to as "future righteousness" This is the final stage when the flesh has died off, we enter heaven, and we stand before God. Since the flesh is now gone, all that remains is the new man. At this point, the robe is removed and what is revealed is the degree that the Christian grew in righteousness during his lifetime. (In heaven this robe will no longer be needed as 1 John 3:9 shows us that the new man cannot sin) We will then stand before the judgment seat of Christ where the Lord judges our lives to determine our rewards. One of the factors that He will look at in making this determination is the degree to which we grew in righteousness.
The promise of God to us is that if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, then we will be filled. Our desire will be satisfied to the degree that we hunger and thirst for it. If a person lacks this desire for righteousness, he only has to ask God to give him a greater hunger and thirst for it. God loves to answer any prayer where a believer longs to be more like Christ and to know Him more intimately.
5. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." Matthew 5:7
To show mercy is to reach out to help someone in a desperate situation. To show compassion and to help bring relief to a person's misery and suffering. In a busy and self-absorbed world where people are climbing on top of each other just to get ahead, mercifulness goes completely against the flow. Mercy and compassion are true characteristics of a regenerated person. It is easy to show compassion and mercy when we realize that God reached down to us with His merciful Hand when we we were sinking in despair and drowning in sin. Though we deserve hell, He showed us compassion and crowned us with His righteousness. When we show mercy to others, we bring glory to God and show a lost world that we have been transformed by His marvelous grace.
6. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Matthew 5:8
When left to ourselves this would be an impossible task. Jeremiah 17:9 states that "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked". Confirming this statement Romans 3:10,12 says "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one".
So how can a man change his own heart? The answer is that man cannot change his own heart, but what man cannot do, God can! It is God who gives us a new heart. In Ezekiel 36:26, God declared that He would bring about the change; "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh". When a person embraces Jesus as Lord and Savior, God's Spirit takes up residence in His life and changes him from the inside out. But what does the Bible speak of when it speaks of the heart? It is not the organ that pumps blood through the human body. The heart is what moves and directs a person's life. It directs his thoughts, his mind and desires. You've probably heard the phrase before that "the thought is the father of the deed". A person's outward deeds and actions are a result of the meditations of the heart. Living in a fallen world and in these mortal bodies, it can often be a struggle to keep evil out of our thought life. That's why Romans 12:2 says "Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind". Our minds are renewed as we meditate on God's Word. As the Psalmist said, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path"(Psalm 119:105). We can look to the Lord to help direct our thought life as we allow Him to take control of our lives and to live His life through us.
The promise for the pure in heart is that they will see God. The pure in heart Christian will be blessed because He spent his life developing an intimate relationship with Jesus. By meditating on God's Word and living his life for Jesus, this Christian will have seen tremendous Christ like changes in his heart and character. He will be blessed because he won't be ashamed when meeting Christ. He will be eager to meet him as he has already established a close relationship with Him. The pure in heart will see God in a way that the degenerate soul will not see Him. The lost person that rejected Christ will only see God as his judge at the Great White Throne Judgment. This is the awesome and terrifying judgment in which he must appear just before he is to be thrown into the Lake of Fire(Rev. 20:11). But the pure in heart Christian will see Him as his Great Love and rejoice in His embrace. He will bask and bathe in His presence for all eternity
7. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." Matthew 5:9
Peace is something that that this world does not know. Because of the fall of man, and the resulting sin nature of man, true peace is something that escapes every person. It is only when a person comes to Christ that peace enters the heart of man. Romans 5:1,2 states "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand." Man cannot find peace apart from God. One result of the new birth experience is a desire to help bring peace to others. The role that the Christian plays in proclaiming the Gospel is that of a peacemaker. He leads men and women to Christ who came to restore the broken relationship between man and God. When one turns to Christ as His personal Lord and Savior, He then experiences the true peace that only God can give.
The great reward for the peacemaker is that he shall be called a son of God. God's children are going to exhibit the character of their Heavenly Father since the Prince of Peace rules in their hearts.
8. "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:10
A believer growing in Christ likeness will reflect the light of Christ. However, the world loves darkness instead of light. John 3:19-21 states "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God".
The more we become like Jesus in our walk, the more the world will hate us. Jesus said "If they persecuted me, they'll persecute you also(John 15:20). The presence of Jesus has an effect of bringing conviction on the sinner and condemnation on the self-righteous. The Pharisees could not bear to have Jesus around because He exposed their deeds as evil.
As this world grows darker, it will increase in it's hatred for God and His people. Many today are being martyred for their faith in Christ. As the end of this age draws near, we can expect greater and more frequent persecutions worldwide. But even in the midst of suffering, a believer can rejoice because he knows that the Kingdom of God has been given to him. A glorious reward will be waiting for those who stand firm to the end. We may end up losing everything in this life, but there is nothing that can compare with what we will receive in eternity.
So as we walk through this life may our eyes be focused on the Jesus who transforms us daily into His image. Let us seek to know Him more intimately, to love Him more dearly, and to lovingly obey Him. As we abide in Him, we will find ourselves bearing fruit for His Kingdom and walking in the Christ like character that brings glory to God.
