Sober
for Christ
S piritually O bedient B eatitude E ucharist R econciliation
OUR VOCATION TO BEATITUDE CCC 1716 - 1729
I. The Beatitudes
1716 The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. the Beatitudes fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven:
Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be
satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of
evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is
great in heaven.12
1717 The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.
II. The Desire for Happiness
1718 The
Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of
divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the
One who alone can fulfill it:
We all want to live happily; in the whole human race
there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is
fully articulated.13
How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking
you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for
my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.14
God alone satisfies.15
1719 The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to his own beatitude. This vocation is addressed to each individual personally, but also to the Church as a whole, the new people made up of those who have accepted the promise and live from it in faith.
13
15 St. Thomas Aquinas, Expos. in symb. apost. I.
III. Christian Beatitude
1720 The New
Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God
calls man:
- the coming of the Kingdom of God;16
- the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God"17
- entering into the joy of the Lord;18
- entering into God's rest:19
There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise. Behold what will be at the end without end. For what other end do we have, if not to reach the kingdom which has no end?20
1721 God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life.21 With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ22 and into the joy of the Trinitarian life.
1722 Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural, as is the grace that disposes man to enter into the divine joy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God."
It is true, because of the greatness and inexpressible glory of God, that "man shall not see me and live," for the Father cannot be grasped. But because of God's love and goodness toward us, and because he can do all things, he goes so far as to grant those who love him the privilege of seeing him.... For "what is impossible for men is possible for God."23
1723 The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love:
All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the multitude of men pay an instinctive homage. They measure happiness by wealth; and by wealth they measure respectability.... It is a homage resulting from a profound faith ... that with wealth he may do all things. Wealth is one idol of the day and notoriety is a second.... Notoriety, or the making of a noise in the world - it may be called "newspaper fame" - has come to be considered a great good in itself, and a ground of veneration.24
1724 The Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and the apostolic catechesis describe for us the paths that lead to the Kingdom of heaven. Sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we tread them, step by step, by everyday acts. By the working of the Word of Christ, we slowly bear fruit in the Church to the glory of God.25
16 Cf. ? Mt 4:17 17 ? Mt 5:8; cf. ? 1 Jn 2; ? 1 Cor 13:12.18 ? Mt 25:21-23.19 Cf. ? Heb 4:7-11.
20
23 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 4,20,5: PG 7/1, 1034-1035.24 John Henry Cardinal Newman, "Saintliness the
Standard of Christian Principle," in Discourses to Mixed Congregations
(London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1906) V, 89-90. 25 Cf. the parable of the sower: ? Mt 13:3-23.
IN BRIEF
1725 The
Beatitudes take up and fulfill God's promises from Abraham on by ordering them
to the Kingdom of heaven. They respond to the desire for happiness that God has
placed in the human heart.
1726 The
Beatitudes teach us the final end to which God calls us: the Kingdom, the
vision of God, participation in the divine nature, eternal life, filiation,
rest in God.
1727 The
beatitude of eternal life is a gratuitous gift of God. It is supernatural, as
is the grace that leads us there.
1728 The
Beatitudes confront us with decisive choices concerning earthly goods; they
purify our hearts in order to teach us to love God above all things.
1729 The beatitude of heaven sets the standards for discernment in the use of earthly goods in keeping with the law of God.
REFLECTIONS ON THE BEATITUDES
The beatitudes are statements taught by Jesus. They are
concerned with virtue and how a believer in Jesus Christ can achieve that
virtue. The Beatitudes are a map of life, a series of directives helping us on
our journey to be with God. They also designate the actual condition of people
who follow God's guidelines.
Beatitudes--Their Significance and Meaning
They are simply stated, but are profound in meaning. They
guide. They point. They teach. They show us the values that Christ cares about.
These values if followed can not only bring a believer into a state of peace
and happiness, but also right into the
As you
read about each of the beatitudes you might look into your own heart and
examine your feelings towards them. Are you trying to follow each one of them?
I think you will find that you need a rather humble, almost a childlike
attitude towards each one of them if you are to be successful in following
them.
In fact Our Lord mentioned many times
about how we needed to become more like children in our attitude and in our
thinking towards many of the things in this life. Two verses in the eighteenth chapter of
Matthew are good examples. Matthew 18:3
"Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become as little children, you
will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:4 "Therefore whoever humbles
himself as this little child, will be the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven."
The First Beatitude
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
The
meaning of the word "poor" in Greek means one who has nothing and is
completely empty. Was Jesus saying the economically poor are blessed? No, for
there is no spirituality in poverty. Poverty in itself is not blessed, because
the poor can be as arrogant and as ungodly and as lost as the rich. So what
does it mean to be poor in spirit? It means that the poor are those who realize
that they can never achieve salvation on their own and instead put their
complete faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
The poor
in spirit are those who are not self-assertive, self-reliant, self-confident,
self-centered, or self-sufficient. The poor in spirit are not baptized in the
waters of self-esteem. They do not boast in their God given characteristics
such as their birth, their family, their nationality, their education, their
physical looks, their race, their wealth, or their culture. None of that matters.
The poor
in spirit are those who are conscious of their sins and know in their hearts
that they are completely unworthy of the grace that a most holy and loving God
pours down upon them. They realize that all their righteousness is, as Isaiah
said, like filthy rags before a holy God.
So poor
in spirit means that we come to God, conscious of our sins and our utter lack
of righteousness. It means that we profess that we are totally unqualified to
commune with, and have fellowship with God, and that we do not deserve any of
the gifts that God is trying to bestow upon us. The poor in spirit realize that
all our assets are actually liabilities before God, and that we should view
these assets as Paul viewed them--as loss, as garbage, as rubbish.
It means
that we have absolutely no hope of salvation without Jesus Christ. It means to
realize that we are full of sin and in desperate need of God's grace and
righteousness, and the poor in spirit realize that these can only be obtained
by faith in Jesus Christ.
In Luke
15 we see how the prodigal son became poor in spirit. In his pride and
arrogance he left his father's house, wasted his inheritance and fell into
great need in some far away country. During a severe famine, this son had no
job and nothing to eat. At that point, the text says, he came to himself. He
went back to his father and said, "I have sinned against heaven and
against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son" (Luke
We also
see an example of being poor in spirit illustrated again in Luke 18 in the
account of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It is the story of a man who was
confident of his own righteousness and who looked down on everybody else. Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to
the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee
stood up and prayed this about himself: God, I thank you that I am not like
other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I
fast twice a week and give a tenth of what I get. The tax collector stood at a distance. He
felt he wasn't even worthy to look up to heaven, so keeping his eyes on the
floor he said, "God, please have mercy on me, for I am nothing but a lowly
sinner." (Luke 18:9-14).
That is
being poor in spirit. What was the result of the prayers of these men? The
Pharisee went home condemned, while the tax collector went home justified. Only the poor in spirit will enter into the
The Second Beatitude
Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
The
person that mourns is the one who recognizes that he is a sinner before
God. Such a person mourns over his
various sins because he recognizes that not only do his sins greatly hurt our
heavenly Father, he also realizes that he is empty of righteousness, and does
not even begin to deserve salvation and the joys of heaven. This miserable, but
repentant sinner realizes that only through the grace of God does he have
forgiveness and salvation. Jesus says such a person is blessed, and there is no
greater blessing than to receive such divine approval. Those who are blessed in
this way by God will see God and dwell with him forever.
Do you
mourn for the many sins you have committed? No one mourns unless the Holy
Spirit convicts him of sin and reveals to him that he is a violator of the laws
of God. We must also realize that as believers we all have violated God's law
but only true Christians, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, will
realistically declare that not only are they spiritually bankrupt, but they are
completely lost without Jesus Christ living in their lives. And only Christians
will declare that they are by nature enemies of God, acknowledging that to sin
means to set oneself against a holy God.
The
unbeliever on the other hand feels that this is nothing but foolishness, and he
has no time for any of it. For the wicked refuse to take down such barriers to
God as pride and arrogance. Psalm 10:4 "The wicked are to proud to seek
God; God is in none of their thoughts." Thus, the mourning of Christians
referred to in this beatitude is not because of financial loss, terminal
sickness, the death of loved ones, loneliness, a divorce, or some rejection
being experienced. Christians mourn because they realize that they have sinned
against a holy God and have brought dishonor to his name. And this dishonor of
God's very name brings great mourning to the true believer. The true believer
mourns when he sins because he knows that the sin just committed brings great
pain and sorrow to God. And this mourning by the true Christian is the kind of
mourning recorded by Paul in Romans 7:24, where he says, "What a wretched
man I am!"
It is also
the kind of mourning that brings unbelievable joy and hope to the believer.
Paul wrote about this in 2 Corinthians
What is
the promise to those who mourn? They will be comforted. Who will be comforted?
Only those who mourn, meaning only those who repent. Only those who grieve over
their sins under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and cry out to God, saying,
"Woe is me! I am a sinner. I am unclean. I have sinned against heaven and
against you. I have sinned grievously. My sin is so great". They will be
the ones who will be comforted. Why will only such people be comforted? Because they alone know that Jesus Christ
came to seek and save that which is lost. They alone look to the cross of Jesus
Christ and realize that Christ died for their sins.
Using
the prodigal son once again as an example, it tells us in Luke 15 of this young
man who became very dissatisfied at home, and looked to the world for answers.
This man left his father's house to go to a far country to experiment and find
pleasure with sin, but soon the fun was over. He became famished, lonely,
brokenhearted, and rejected by all. But by God's grace this young man came to
himself, became sober and began to think clearly and Godly.
In verse
20 of Luke 15 we see this young man going back home. He was now a poor,
wretched, miserable, naked specimen of humanity, but he was going home to his
father. He mourned and wept as he walked, and when he reached his father, he
said, "Father, I have sinned against God and against you. I am not worthy
to be called your son. Just make me a servant of yours at the lowest rank, for
I need to be comforted. Save me, for I am lost." How did the father react to his son? He cried
out in joy and then comforted him.
The father hugged and kissed him and gave him a fine
garment to wear. He told the servants to put a ring on his finger and shoes on
his feet. He ordered a great celebration with music and feasting. And when the
other son questioned why the father was doing these things, the father said he
had the greatest of all reasons: "This son of mine was dead but is now
alive; he was lost but now is found" (Luke
The Third Beatitude
Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.
The
Greek word for meek, praus, was used to refer to domesticated animals. The word
does not refer to a wild, unruly animal; it refers to a strong and powerful
horse or an ox that was trained and disciplined so that it could be controlled
by a human. The word meek used in Matthew 5:5 refers to a strong person who is
under control--a God controlled person. A meek person is a man or woman of God
whose strength is controlled by God. He or she is controlled by God in thought,
word, will, emotion, and action. The meek man is one who submits, not to his
own will or to the will of the world, but to the great and gracious will of
God.
A meek
man is not a weak man. He is not wishy-washy, effeminate or timid. He is not
someone who you can walk all over. A meek man is not passive and spineless. In
fact the meek man is just the opposite. The one who has put their faith and
their trust in Jesus Christ will be meek before God, but mighty and bold before
the world and before Satan. To the sinful world and to Satan the meek person
will be far stronger than they are.
What
makes a person meek? They see God. And they see God in everything. No one
becomes meek unless they can see this infinite, personal, almighty, all-wise,
all-holy God, and when they see God they are immediately humbled. When we are
able to see God by faith, then that is the time when the Holy Spirit allows us
to become meek. Thus the meek person does not rely on himself, saying, I can do
all things. I have confidence in myself. After all, I am strong and able. No,
the meek person says, I see God, and he is able and willing to help me. I can
do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.
A meek
person is the one who by faith sees God as great and himself as nothing. And
because of that, he submits to the righteous will of this great God. A meek
person is the one who proclaims, "Not my will but Thine will be
done." He submits to the will of his heavenly Father and does not argue
with the Holy Scriptures where God's will is clearly revealed. Therefore, the
meek believer that is being led by God is having this quality of meekness
constantly being produced within him.
In Psalm
37:3 it says, ""Trust in the Lord and do good." Faith is trust.
The meek person trusts the Lord, meaning he rests in God by entrusting his
whole life to him. His whole being is resting upon the sure foundation of the
almighty God. The meek man knows that his past, present and future rests in
God. He has heard the gospel proclamation which says, "Come unto me, all
who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." The meek person who
comes to Christ and trusts in him for his salvation is always at rest in God.
Jesus Christ is his rest, no matter what circumstances he is facing.
A meek
man is patient. He has a long view of life, knowing in the end it is not the
wicked who win, but the meek. How can he be sure of this? The meek person knows
that in the end God wins, and if God wins then the meek win. God himself tells
us that the meek, not the wicked, will inherit the earth. The wicked may indeed
possess the earth for a short time today, but the Lord tells us that when he
comes back, the meek shall possess this earth. Psalms 76:9 "Then God arose
to judgment, to save all the humble of the earth".
The Fourth Beatitude
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for Righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
To help
us understand this beatitude we first have to ask ourselves, what is meant by
righteousness? And righteousness means being in complete accordance with what
is just, honorable, and Godly. Righteousness are those things that are upright,
virtuous, noble, morally right, and ethical. You could say that righteousness
is a life style that is in complete conformity to the will of God. It is a
lifestyle that Jesus not only finds pleasing, but one that he approves of.
Jesus
Christ is the one leading the righteous person through life. It is Jesus who is
making the decisions that the righteous person will follow. For the righteous
believer, all his daily actions, everything that he thinks about, every
decision that he makes, everything that he reads and looks at, will be done the
same way that Our Lord would have done them. The true believer will know
immediately whether something is right or wrong, just or unjust, godly or
ungodly. How could the true believer not know that something is wrong when the
Son of God is living within him?
Jesus
Christ who is dwelling within the righteous person is communicating constantly
with the person's heart, conscience, soul, and spirit. The Lord is not going to
let the believer just wander into sin? Jesus Christ will be talking to the
believer long before the sin is even thought about. And while this is going on
the Holy Spirit will be hard at work doing his guiding and his warning. This is
why when a righteous believer sins, it winds up being extremely painful, usually
leaving the sinner with great sorrow. Sin
for the righteous believer is never worth the pain and dishonor he knows that
he has brought upon the Lord. For the
true believer, righteousness saturates every single aspect of his life. And
every Godly believer knows that he has Jesus Christ living on the inside of him
leading and guiding him. Psalms 11:7 "For the Lord is righteous; He loves
righteousness; and the upright will behold His face".
Hunger
and thirst are appetites that return frequently and they require that they be
met often during the day. Similarly the true believer calls for constant meals
of righteousness to do his daily Godly work, just as the living body calls for
its daily food. When a believer hungers and thirsts after righteousness he
becomes a new man and this new man now bears the image of God. This new man
greatly desires to do the will of God for he now has great interest in Christ
and all that Christ said and promised.
To
hunger and thirst after righteousness can only be perceived by persons
spiritually enlightened, and who have our Lord Jesus Christ living and dwelling
within them. This child of God not only has an earnest desire to fervently seek
righteousness and thus lead a Godly life on a second to second basis, but he
wants to be possessed by righteousness, he wants to constantly live in it, to
be totally absorbed into it, to be completely saturated in righteousness, for
he knows that this way of life is the Godly way of life. And a righteous life
is what also fills the true believer with peace and joy. And because of their
spiritual enlightenment they realize that nothing can be more perfect, more
pure, and more pleasing to Our Heavenly Father then living a life that he
totally approves of.
The Fifth Beatitude
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Mercy is
love toward those that are miserable, those that are wretched, and those that
need some type of help or assistance.
The merciful are those that are tender hearted and who truly feel in the
deepest parts of their beings the pain and the suffering of those who need
mercy. But most importantly is the fact that the merciful are those special
individuals who go out of their way and make the effort to help. Having
compassion on those that are in any way hurting is only the first part of
having mercy. Doing something about it, is the all important second part. We as believers must show mercy to all men
and we are to do this by both sympathizing with them and by taking care and
tending to their needs. And we must do this with readiness and gladness, with
affection and tenderness, always ready to give and to forgive. Our Lord
instructs us to show the same type of mercy to others that he shows to each of
us. He talked much about showing mercy and a good example is found at 2 Cor.
1:3-4 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that
we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble.
Therefore,
to be merciful as a Christian does not mean to perform isolated, occasional
acts of charity. A Christian is to be habitually merciful, and all acts of
mercy should be done in a thankful and cheerful manner. Just imagine how
absolutely wonderful God would feel if in the act of being merciful he heard
you say, "Praise be to you God for this opportunity that you have given me
to help someone else in need. Thank you Father for letting me be of some
assistance to another human being." So doing an act of mercy in a thankful
and loving manner has to make God our Father just beam with joy.
The
merciful are indeed those special people who love all men as themselves: The
merciful truly believe that whatever mercy they desire from God, they in turn
will show to all men everywhere. The merciful are the ones who realize that our
Heavenly Father demands that we be merciful, and they also realize that our
acts of mercy will be repaid a thousand fold. Mercy is extremely important to
Jesus Christ and much of the Bible either directly or indirectly deals in some
way with mercy and kindness shown to others.
This
beatitude is also very concerned with mercy through the act of daily
forgiveness. Of forgiving offenses that have been inflicted upon you, and in
which you show mercy towards everyone who wrongs you regardless of the reasons
and regardless of the circumstances. Our Lord demands that we forgive one
another just as he is constantly forgiving you. Matthew 6: 14-15 points this
out so very clearly. "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses".
Many ask
why should Christians be merciful? Well for one thing, God shows us mercy, not
when we are good, but when we are miserable, helpless, wicked, ungodly, and
powerless. He shows us mercy when we are his enemies and we are disobedient,
unrighteous, dead in trespasses and sins, foolish, ignorant, suffering, and
miserable due to the consequences of our sin. Yet God looks upon our misery and
wretchedness and truly feels our pain and is very happy to extend his mercy to
each of us. So instead of pouring out his just wrath upon us, he is
compassionate toward us. He freely justifies us, forgives our sins, extends his
mercy upon us, and fills us with his own righteousness. And that is one reason
why we ought to be merciful every day to the miserable, the helpless, the
wretched, and the needy. Secondly,
each one of us needs the mercy of God each and every day. We need to be aware
that we are still miserable sinners, and because of that, we are still in need
of God's mercy every single day. If we are honest and examine ourselves in the
light of God's Word, then we will realize that indeed we do sin daily. And because we sin daily, we need God's
forgiveness and mercy daily, and if God is willing to give us his mercy every
day then we in turn should be happy to extend mercy to others also on a daily
basis. Another reason for having
continuous mercy is that being merciful is a test of our Christianity. If you
are not constantly being merciful then there is only one explanation. You have
not understood the grace and the mercy of God and you are outside of Jesus
Christ. We who have received God's rich mercy are merciful because the grace of
God makes us that way.
The Sixth Beatitude
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.
Psalms
119:9 "How can a believer keep his heart pure? By keeping it according to
the Word of God". Out of the hearts
of men come all kinds of evil things. Everything from evil thoughts and greed,
to slander and arrogance. All these evil things come from the inside of man,
from his heart, and this evil from the heart is what makes man unclean. Two
very good examples of verses that show the evil of the heart are below.
Mark 7:20-23 "That which proceeds out of the man,
that is what defiles the man for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed
the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, and adulteries, deeds of
coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride
and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within the man, and they
defile the man."
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all
things, And desperately wicked". Therefore, one of the most important
questions that we can ask is how can we be truly pure in our hearts and clean
of filth and sin? How can we be pure in our imaginations, in our thoughts, in
our words, in our decision making, and in our desires? How can we think what
God thinks, will what God wills, desire what God desires, hate what God hates,
and love what God loves? In other words how can our hearts be pure hearts, free
from sins like pride and envy, free from evil
thoughts and evil deeds?
The
truth is we can't do any of these things on our own. We can't reform ourselves.
We can't self clean ourselves. Many people have tried to clean themselves. Some
have tried to do this through asceticism or leading a life of complete self
denial, or by other methods such as by going away from the world and living in
solitude, or permanent silence, or by beating their bodies with whips and
clubs, even by inflicting upon themselves all forms of degrading and unpleasant
acts, even going so far as castrating themselves. They have tried to cleanse
themselves through celibacy, fasting, and prayers. But such asceticism is not
biblical and it will not result in purity of heart.
So the
first point we must be aware of is this.
The path to a pure heart begins with the realization that we have impure
hearts. The entire Bible revolves around
the central theme that the Lord looks at the heart of the person and not at
their external appearance, their behavior, or their achievements. The Lord does
not acclaim education, intellect, business success, or social position, as the
world does.
And the
second point we must be aware of is this. God must clean us. God alone is able
to make rotten people pure in their imaginations, thoughts, words, deeds, and
desires. The pure in heart are those who are free from evil desires and evil
purposes. So if God is the only one who can cleanse us, then how does he do it?
Well the Bible tells us that God has a plan to deal with the problem of sin
infected hearts. God has a plan to save us and make us holy in thought, word
and deed. And the plan is found in many places such as in Romans 8:29. Here God
tells us that he wants "to conform us to the image and likeness of His
Son". Thus God's plan is to make us like his own Son, like Jesus Christ.
His purpose is nothing less than that we be pure in heart just like Jesus
Christ is.
How does
God clean and purify us? First of all, when we become born again and we
completely surrender ourselves to Jesus Christ and put our entire faith and
trust in him, God will supernaturally regenerate us and give us a brand new
nature, a new self. We become a brand new creation. He tells us what he is
going to do to us at Ezekiel 36:26-27. "Moreover, I will give you a new
heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within
you".
This all
happens the very moment when you are saved, because when you are born again you
indeed become a brand new person. A brand new person who is walking arm and arm
with Jesus Christ on a road to spiritual purity, spiritual growth, spiritual
maturity, and spiritual strength. The
Bible tells us that once we are saved and become born again then we are no
longer living our lives by ourselves. Galatians 2:20 tells us, "It is no
longer I that live, but it is Christ that is living in union with me". Now
both you and Jesus are living your life together, and it is at this point that
a number of very marvelous things occur. First of all you have a brand new spotless
heart, one that is no longer saturated with sin. You also have Jesus Christ
dwelling within you and you are united with Jesus Christ. You now believe fully
and completely in our Lord Jesus Christ. You have also pledged your love,
trust, and obedience to the Lord. And something else extremely important has
occurred and that is the Holy Spirit has decided to move in and take up
residence within you. The Holy Spirit is
the one who's going to guide you and teach you and show you exactly what to do
and how to do it, in order for you to become pure in heart.
All the
believer needs to do is constantly and continuously keep their focus on Jesus
Christ. This beatitude tells us if we are pure in heart then we will see God.
The reward for this beatitude is truly marvelous because when the believer
becomes pure in heart, not only will they see God as they pass into heaven
immediately upon their death, but they will see God right now, not with their
natural eye, but through their spiritual vision, through their faith in Jesus
Christ. For the pure in heart will see God in all his glory in every single
thing that they see. To the pure in
heart, God will become extremely visible.
The Seventh Beatitude
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called
sons of God.
The peacemakers
are those children of God who not only have great love for God, but also have
love for all of mankind and they attempt to do everything possible for the
advancement of peace everywhere. The term "peacemakers" includes all
who make peace between men, whether as individuals or as communities. It
includes even those who endeavor to make peace even though they fail.
The
peacemakers are those who have a peaceful disposition because to make peace is
to have a strong and hearty affection for peace. It is to love, desire, and
delight in peace. The peacemakers also want to preserve the peace and when the
peace is broken, then the peacemakers have a great desire to recover it as
quickly as possible. The peace that God bestows upon his believers is in turn shared
by the believers with the rest of mankind, so that the peace-receivers are
transformed into peace-givers. Romans
One
would imagine a person of this amiable temper and behavior and who strives for
peace would be the darling of mankind. But our Lord well knew it would not be
so, as long as Satan was the prince of this world. We must realize that not
only is Satan a troublemaker, but all those who follow him are troublemakers.
They all are enemies of God, opposing God in their thoughts, their wills, and
their actions. The devil and his followers can be considered the true enemies
of peace.
Many
will tell you that the world's greatest need is for peace. But it appears that
much of what man does today ends up in discord, dissension, and factions.
Neighbors kill neighbors, complete strangers kill each other, brothers murder
brothers, religious factions try to wipe each other out, tribes exterminate neighboring
tribes, whole nations try to eradicate other nations, and on and on it goes.
These horrible examples of hate all begin with the absence of love and having
no desire for peace. And thus it seems as if hate in some form or another is
the world's pastime and that peace is the last thing many people want.
The
children of this world love to fish in troubled waters, but the children of God
are the peacemakers, they are the quiet in the land. However peacemaking does not mean seeking
peace at any cost, for the peacemaker realizes that peace at any price will
usually end up in complete and total destruction. So a peacemaker is not an
appeaser. He's not one who smiles a lot and doesn't take a position on
anything. He is not one who has an easygoing personality and who is nice and
flabby and can easily be shoved around. He's not a doormat. A peacemaker is one
who through strength and Godly knowledge endeavors to establish a right
relationship between estranged parties based on truth and righteousness.
The
peacemakers realize that there is only one way that this world can have peace,
and that is by trusting in Jesus Christ. What Jesus did on the cross was bring
peace between not only God and man, but also between man and man. Christ's
death tore the barrier of the veil at the entrance of the Holy of Holies from
top to bottom and opened a way for us to have access to God, so that we can now
come into the very presence of God and have peace with our Father. And when we
are at peace with God, we will be at peace with all men.
By his
death Jesus also destroyed another barrier, that dividing wall of hostility
between man and his fellow man. Ephesians 2:14 "For He Himself is our
peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the
dividing wall". The reason we can
love other people and have peace with them, including our enemies, is because
Christ destroyed the hostility between man and man when he died on the cross.
Colossians1:20 "And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having
made peace through the blood of His cross".
The Eighth Beatitude
Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
In this
beatitude Christ pronounces a blessing on those who are being persecuted. But
the persecution that they are suffering is not for misdeeds or an evil act,
their persecution is for doing righteousness.
No, not for any crimes they have done, and not for being unrighteous and
committing the acts of those who practice evil such as murderers, thieves, and
all other acts of wickedness, but on account of their righteous and Godly
conversation and Godly actions which in turn brings upon them the hatred and
enmity of the men of the world.
For by
living righteously the believers separate themselves from the world and profess
themselves not to belong to the world. The Godly life of true believers places
a brand upon them that distinguishes them from the rest of the world. There is much evidence that proves that more
Christians around the world have been martyred for their faith in this century
alone, than in the combined previous nineteen centuries of the church's
history.
In many
countries today it is a crime to be a Christian. If you live in the United
States, you may think that the idea of persecution of Christians is not very
relevant today. We are not experiencing any real persecution here in this
country. But as you look around in this country, you can't help but see many
great evil inroads that have been made into destroying anything having to do
with Jesus Christ, the Bible, or the laws of God. The greatest assaults against
Christianity have been the many laws that have been passed recently, all with
the idea of suppressing Christianity in all areas of society.
Persecution
in the United States at this time, frequently comes verbally, via the tongue,
usually in the form of cruel mocking and reproachful language, or by deeds such
as confiscation of goods, banishment from a group, or even in the workplace
where one may be fired, demoted, or spoken against because of one's Christian
faith. In today's society to tell others that you are a born again Christian
who has put his entire faith and trust in Jesus Christ, is to bring on smirks
and laughs, rude and disgusting comments, and alienation and retaliation. If
you doubt this then tell a group of your friends what the Word of God says
about the homosexual lifestyle, and that God says that it is horribly wrong,
and then tell them what the Bible says is going to happen to those who engage
in it. Or tell a few of your fellow workers what the Bible says about murdering
unborn children and that God considers it nothing less than an abomination.
Then observe the response from these friends and fellow workers. I think you
will see most of the time the seeds of verbal persecution beginning to form.
But why
is their such persecution in the world, and why is God so offensive to so many?
Because the Word of God is a stumbling block to ungodly people. The unbelievers
that don't know Jesus enjoy sinning, in fact they revel in it. They enjoy
partaking in as many sins as possible. Sinning is what gives them pleasure. To
sin is to enjoy life. The reason why ungodly men persecute Godly men, is
because of the spirit that the creator has placed within each one of us.
When the
unbeliever sins, the Holy Spirit is convicting the spirit of that sinner and
this causes the sinner to know that he is doing wrong and that his actions are
against the laws of God. Of course this is all foolishness to the non-believing
unrepentant sinner, but still the unbelieving sinner feels guilty and doesn't
like that feeling, so it is rather easy for him to lash out at the believers of
God, blaming them for making him feel bad. That is why the things of God and
the beliefs of God are constantly being ridiculed and made fun of. The
unbelievers are constantly attempting to destroy anything that has to do with
God in a desperate attempt to do away with the source of their feeling bad.
Throughout
human history blaming someone else for their troubles has always been a very
easy way out for a great many groups. So the sinner is an enemy of God and he
is trying to fight back against God. And since the sinner can't get at God, he
does the next best thing - he goes after those that follow God. Jesus told us
in John 3:20 that, "Everyone who does evil hates the light," and in
John 7:7 he declared, "The world hates me because I testify that what it
does is evil." This can all be summed up by another verse in the Book of
John. John 15:20 "If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute
you."
The
world hates Jesus because he is light, righteousness, and truth. They hate him
because he reveals the wickedness of the people of the world, and they hate him
because he exposes their evil. Jesus also told his disciples that they were his
servants, and he told them just as he is telling us, that if the master is
hated, then the servants of the master will also be hated. It's like someone
who hates someone of a different race. Usually that person will also hate all
others in that entire race. Or if a man hates his neighbor, he will usually
also hate the man's wife and children. In fact it is sad to say but he will
many times even hate those who come and visit that neighbor. If you are not
being persecuted, you should ask, "Why?" And the answer just may be
that you are not living a Godly life. It is our Godly life that causes the
other person to get heated up, upset, and unhappy. The truth is, everyone who
lives a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. If no one is persecuting
you, it is because you are not living the Christian life and shining as lights
in the world.
In Luke
6:26 Jesus said, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is
how their fathers treated the false prophets.” When the world applauds,
appreciates, and commends you instead of persecuting you, you can pretty well
figure that you are no longer a true prophet of the Lord. When the world
chuckles right along with you and pats you on your back, you can pretty well
deduce that you are, in fact, a false prophet who always speaks smooth things
created from your own subjectivity without hearing from the Spirit of the
living God.
Sadly,
if you have no persecution in your life then that is probably just another way
of saying that you have been absorbed into the world. It is very true that persecution is the cost
of being a Christian, because the believer must reckon upon hardships and
troubles much more than other men. At first glance persecution looks to be a
truly horrible experience. But even though persecution usually isn't pleasant,
it does have a great many rewarding advantages, for when persecution comes into
our lives then we must conclude the following:
That we have put our complete faith and trust in Jesus
Christ.
That we can truly call ourselves Christians.
That we belong to the kingdom of God.
That we are righteous.
That we have been chosen by the Father and the Son.
That ours is the kingdom of God now and in the future.
That Jesus is truly our Lord and that is why we are being
persecuted.
That our salvation is sure and certain.
That we are not false prophets.
That we are not worldly for the people of the world are
not persecuted.
That we are in the very good company with many other
saved Christians.
That we can know that we are truly born again.
That eternal life is ours.