|
Life In The
Kingdom Of Heaven – Part 2
Matthew 5:7-9
by Paul George
In the first three
Beatitudes there is a sense of need, a realization of
nothingness and emptiness. There is the judging of self,
a consciousness of guilt and sorrowing over a lost
condition. There is an end of seeking to justify self
before God, an end to all pretence to personal merit,
and a bowing in the dust before God. In the fourth
Beatitude there is a longing after that which the poor
in spirit, those who mourn, and the meek know they don’t
have but need.
Fourth: There are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness.
There have been many questions asked about the word
“righteousness.” In many of the Old Testament passages
“righteousness” is synonymous with “salvation.” Jesus
refers to one who “hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
To hunger and thirst means to yearn after God’s favor,
image, and mercy. The righteousness for which the
awakened sinner longs for is an inward and sanctifying
righteousness. It is an intense desire of the soul. Just
as in bodily hunger and thirst there are sharp pangs and
an intense longing to be satisfied, so it is with the
soul. The Holy Spirit has brought to the conscience the
holy and uncompromising requirements of God for life in
the kingdom of heaven. He reveals our lost condition and
guilt, so that we realize our spiritual poverty and lost
condition and see there is no hope in and from our good
works. This creates a deep hunger and thirst which
causes us to look to and seek relief from Jesus.
The question has been asked, is it possible for those
who have been brought into a vital union with Jesus who
is the Bread of Life and in whom all fullness dwells be
found hungering and thirsting? It is. Listen very
closely to what Jesus said, “Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst.” He didn’t say blessed are those who
have hunger and thirst. When we were made aware of our
need to be delivered from our lost condition, bondage in
the kingdom of Satan, we were drawn by the Holy Spirit
and led to embrace the Redeemer of our soul, Jesus
Christ. When we repented of our sins the Holy Spirit
filled our heart with the love and peace of God. He
filled us with a Divine blessing to which no sorrow can
be added. He filled us with praise and thanksgiving to
Him who has delivered us from the bondage of sin and
death. He fills us with goodness and mercy of God. We
are filled with a foretaste of what God has prepared for
those who love Him.
This fourth Beatitude has been a storehouse of comfort
to many a tried and troubled believer. There are many
who sincerely long to please God and live pleasing lives
in the sight of God. There are times when they have not
trusted Him. They have questioned their position before
Him. They have doubt His love and mercy. If they really
and truly hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus has
promised, they will be satisfied.
Fifth: Blessed are the merciful
In verse 6 the soul is seen hungering and thirsting
after righteousness and than filled by the Holy Spirit.
In verse 7 we are shown the first effect and evidence of
this. Having received mercy from the Lord, the saved
sinner now offers mercy to others. It is not that God
requires us to be merciful in order to obtain His mercy
that would overthrow the whole purpose of His grace, but
having received mercy the disciples of Jesus act
graciously toward others.
The mercy Jesus refers to is compassion of the soul that
is moved to pity and go to the relief of another in
misery, a gracious disposition toward our fellowman and
fellow Christians. It is a spirit of kindness and
benevolence which sympathizes with the sufferings of the
afflicted, so that we weep with those that weep. It
ennobles its possessor so that he tempers justice with
mercy, and scorns the taking of revenge. It is a holy
disposition in contrast with that foolish sentimentality
which ignores the requirements of justice, and is
inclined to sympathize with those in deserved misery.
That is a false and unholy mercy which petitions the
courts to cancel or modify a just and fully merited
sentence which has been passed upon some flagrant
offender. It is also a holy compassion as opposed to
that partiality which is generous to some and harsh to
others.
The roots of this mercy do not have in them anything in
the natural man. True, there are some who make no
profession of being Christians in whom we often find
sympathy for the suffering, and a readiness to forgive
those who have wronged them, yet is it merely
instinctive, and though admirable there is nothing
spiritual in it. Instead of being subject to God’s
authority it is often opposed to God’s law. The mercy
Jesus refers to is different from and superior to
natural graciousness, it is a graciousness approved by
God in which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and commended
in His Word. It is the result of Jesus living in our
heart. He was moved with compassion. He wept with the
mourner. If He is living in us the same disposition in
Him, however imperfectly manifested, must be reproduced.
This mercy is something more than a feeling it is an
active principle. It not only stirs the heart, but it
moves the hand to render help to those in need, for the
one cannot be severed from the other. Jesus makes it
very clear that no work of mercy is shown to those in
misery except that it proceeds from inward compassion.
The "mercy" Jesus refers to in this Beatitude exerts
itself in doing good, being a fruit of the love of God
shed abroad in the heart. It is an unmistakable trait of
the new man. It is like the "mercy" in Abraham, after he
had been wronged by his nephew, which caused him to go
after and secure his deliverance from the hands of his
enemies. It was the "mercy" on the part of Joseph, after
his brothers had so grievously mistreated him, which
moved him to freely forgive them. It was the "mercy" in
Moses, after Miriam had rebelled against him and the
Lord had smitten her with leprosy, which moved him to
cry, "Heal her now, O God, I beseech You” (Numbers
12:13). It was the "mercy" in David which caused him to
spare the life of his arch-enemy when the wicked Saul
was in his hands.
There is a reward for those who are merciful. The one
who shows mercy to others gains mercy, "the merciful man
does good to his own soul" (Proverbs 11:17). There is a
personal satisfaction in the exercise of pity and
benevolence, which the fullest gratification of the
selfish man can not be compared. He receives mercy from
God. Mercy will be shown to the merciful in the Day to
come (2 Timothy 1:16, 18; Jude 21).
Sixth: Blessed are the pure in heart
This sixth Beatitude has been grossly perverted by the
enemies of the Lord: those who have, like their
predecessors the Pharisees, posed as the champions of
the yruth and boasted of a superior sanctity to that
confessed by the true people of God. All through this
Christian era there have been those who have claimed an
entire purification of the old man, or have insisted
that God has so completely renewed them that the carnal
nature has been eradicated, and as a result they not
only commit no sins, but have no sinful desires or
thoughts. But John tells us, "If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"
(1 John 1:8). Of course, such people appeal to the
Scriptures in support of their vain delusion, using
verses which describe the legal benefits of the
Atonement, or one as that has nothing to do with the
sixth Beatitude.
The purity of heart in this Beatitude does not mean
sinlessness of life is clear from the inspired record of
the history of all God’s saints. Noah got drunk, Abraham
lied. Moses disobeyed God, Job cursed the day of his
birth, Elijah fled in terror from Jezebel, and Peter
denied Christ. While it is true these occurred before
Christianity was established, it has also been the same
since then. Where shall we go to find a Christian who is
superior to those of the apostle Paul? And what was his
confession? Read Romans 7 and see. When he would do
good, evil was present with him (v. 21); there was a law
in his members warring against the law of his mind, and
bringing him into captivity to the law of sin (v. 23).
He did, with the mind, serve the Law of God nevertheless
with the flesh he served the law of sin (v. 25). The
truth is we do possess a pure heart that is to be
conscious of and burdened with the impurity which still
indwells us.
In the Beatitudes Jesus exposes the thoughts of the
natural man, who errs greatly in his ideas of what
constitutes real blessedness. He refutes the Pharisees,
who contented themselves with a species of external
ceremonialism or mere outward holiness, failing to
realize that God requires "truth in the inward parts"
(Psalm 51:6). In this sixth Beatitude, it equally
condemns most of that which now passes for genuine
religion in Christendom. How many today rest satisfied
with a head religion, supposing that all is well if
their creed be sound; and how many more have nothing
better than a hand religion, busily engaged in what they
term "Christian service." "But the Lord looks on the
heart" (1 Samuel 16:7), which includes the mind,
conscience, affections and will.
By nature the heart of fallen man is totally depraved
and corrupt, deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). How can it be otherwise when
each of us must make the humiliating confession,
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did
my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5)? This purity of
heart is by no means to be restricted to inward chastity
or simplicity, without guile and deceit but has a far
more comprehensive meaning and scope. The heart of the
Christian is made pure by a fourfold operation of the
Holy Spirit. The imparting a holy nature at the new
birth, bestowing a saving faith which unites its
possessor to a holy God, by sprinkling him with the
precious blood of Christ, which purges his conscience
and a protracted process of sanctification so that we,
through His aid, mortify the flesh and live unto God. In
consequence thereof, the believer has a sincere desire
and resolution not to sin against God in thought, word
or deed, but to please Him in all things.
What is this purity of heart? Spiritual purity may be
defined as undivided affections, sincerity and
genuineness, godly simplicity. It is the opposite of
subtlety and duplicity, for genuine piety lays aside not
only hatred and malice, but guile and hypocrisy. It is
not sufficient to be pure in words and outward behavior,
purity of desires, motives, intents, is what should, and
in the main does, characterize the child of God. Here,
then, is a most important test for each professing
Christian to apply to himself, Have I been freed from
the dominion of hypocrisy? Are my motives pure and
intentions genuine? Are my affections set upon things
above? Do I meet with the Lord’s people to commune with
Him or to be seen of men?
A "pure heart" is one which has a pure Object before it,
being attracted by "the beauty of holiness." It is one
in which the fear of the Lord has been implanted and the
love of God shed abroad, and therefore it hates what He
hates and loves what He loves. The purer the heart, the
more conscious it becomes of, and the more it grieves
over, indwelling filth. A pure heart is one which makes
conscience of foul thoughts, vile imaginations, and evil
desires. It is one that mourns over pride and
discontent, unbelief and coldness of affection, and
weeps in secret over unrighteousness. It is sad how
little is this inward purity esteemed today: the great
majority of professors content themselves with a mere
form of godliness, a shadow of the reality.
The blessing promised the pure in heart is, “they shall
see God.” The promise of this Beatitude has both a
present and a future fulfillment. The Christian’s purity
of heart is only in part in this life, but perfected in
the life to come. Now we see through a darkened glass,
but then face to face; now we know in part; but then
shall we know even as also we are known" (1 Corinthians
13:12). To "see God" is to be brought nigh to Him, to be
introduced into intimate intercourse with Him, which is
the consequence of having the thick cloud of our
transgressions blotted out, for it was our iniquities
which separated us from Him (Isaiah 59:2).
The pure in heart possess spiritual discernment and with
the eyes of their understanding they obtain clear views
of the Divine character and perceive the Excellency of
His attributes. That which pollutes the heart and clouds
the vision of a Christian any sin that has not been
confessed. Any sin that is not confessed communion with
God is broken, and can only be restored by genuine
repentance and confession. Since, the privilege of
seeing God is dependent upon heart purity, how essential
it is that we give earnest heed to the exhortations of
Isaiah 1:16; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Peter 3:15.
Read Life in the Kingdom
Part 3
To top of
page |
