What stood out to me was that the rejoicing at the end of
the Beatitudes was the result of the transformation that comes through the
eight expressions of blessing Jesus had already presented. While each of the
Beatitudes is a stand-alone expression of the blessing of God’s grace, the
sequence of the blessings leaves me wondering about the way God brings his
children to joy.
Let me clarify that I do not believe the Beatitudes are
something we do, as though they are the Eight Commandments of the new covenant.
Rather, I see them as Jesus’ description of the qualities we will see in his
brothers,[4] in those who receive the adoption as sons that
comes through the grace of the gospel.[5] Another way of putting this is that those who are blessed
by God with the gift of grace can expect to experience all eight of the
transforming qualities Jesus mentions in his blessing, resulting in the joy
that characterizes God’s beloved children.[6]
I see that this journey to joy looks something like this:
the journey begins by God’s grace blessing sinners with the consciousness of
their spiritual poverty.[7] This consciousness of sin causes them to mourn[8]
their spiritually bankrupt condition. Mourning the extent of their sin brings
them into the meekness[9] that
acknowledges they are not able to fix what is wrong with them no matter how
many laws they try to keep. And, this meek coming to the end of themselves
stirs up the blessing of hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of God[10]
as they see it graciously revealed in Jesus Christ through the gospel.
As
God brings these sinners into the righteousness of faith they long for in Jesus
Christ,[11]
they are transformed into the merciful people[12] who express the mercy that they themselves
have experienced from God. Their experience of the grace of God as their sole
means of salvation causes them to have pure hearts[13]
that now beat for God, with no more dependence on self-effort. This
pure-hearted experience of Jesus Christ overwhelms them so that they can think
of nothing else except bringing people to have the peace with God they
themselves have experienced, and so they go into the world as peacemakers[14]
who will not stop speaking of their Lord and Savior no matter what they face in
life. Because these merciful people express their pure-hearted devotion to
Christ by proclaiming the Prince of Peace as the only means of experiencing
peace with God, they find themselves facing persecution for righteousness' sake[15] because
they are now hated by the world that is still under the domain of the evil one.[16]
However,
and this is where the joy comes in, they are so pure-heartedly devoted to Jesus
Christ that they begin to feel the joy of being like their Savior,[17]
of knowing that they are sharing in the sufferings of Christ,[18]
and feeling the rejoicing that comes when other sinners feel the poverty of
their spirits, mourn their sin in repentance, meekly acknowledge their
inability to save themselves and so hunger and thirst for the righteousness of
God that is through faith in Jesus Christ.[19]
In
other words, as we are transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, we come to
experience joy in our trials.[20] In
fact, James tells us to “Count it all joy” when we “meet trials of
various kinds,”[21] because of the way these trials make us “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”[22]
That
is actually the message of the Beatitudes, that God blesses us with everything
we need to repent and have faith in Jesus Christ, so that we can experience his
work of making us just like his Son. Which, incidentally, was his plan from
before the beginning of time.[23]
From
my heart,
Monte
©
2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless
otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy
Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1] As listed in Matthew
5:1-12
[2] Matthew 5:12
[3] Vs 11
[4] “For those
whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,
in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29)
[5] “he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…”
(Ephesians 1:5)
[6] “For
the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)
[7] Vs 3
[8] Vs 4
[9] Vs 5
[10] Vs 6
[11] Through repentance and
faith.
[12] Vs 7
[13]Vs 8
[14] Vs 9
[15] Vs 10
[16] Cf Ephesians 2:1-3
[17] “And
we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this
comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:18)
[18] Philippians 3:10
[19] “I tell you,
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7); “I tell you,
there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke
15:10); “It was fitting to celebrate and
be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is
found” (Luke 15:32).
[20] “3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces
character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given
to us.” (Romans 5)
[21] James 2:1
[22] James 1:4
[23] “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he
chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
blameless before him.” (Ephesians 1)
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