February 10 - Distinctiveness of the Beatitudes - Evangelical Caucus/Devotional

Gracetoyou.org ^ | 2008 | John McArthur, Grace Community Church

[metmom]

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

The series of conditional blessings Jesus promises, beginning with this verse and continuing through verse 12, are known as the Beatitudes. This name refers to a state of happiness or bliss. The blessedness promised in each is a divine characteristic, one that men and women can realize only as they share in God’s nature (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). When believers are truly blessed, they don’t experience merely an external, circumstantial feeling of happiness, but a deep sense of spiritual contentedness and well-being based on the objective spiritual reality that they belong to God.

We must understand that Christ’s beatitudes are distinctive and firm pronouncements, not merely ambiguous probabilities. Our Lord does not say that if we have the qualities the Beatitudes set forth, we are only likely to be happy; nor is this simply His wish for us. Adherence to these attitudes and practices will result in blessedness, just as surely as judgmental woes await those who are the subject of His pronouncements in Matthew 23.

The blessed life is the opposite of the cursed life. Blessedness is possessed by those who truly have the inner characteristics of the Beatitudes. Conversely, cursedness represents those who don’t know the Beatitudes, such as the Jewish religionists of Jesus’ time.

The Beatitudes are also distinctively progressive, each leading to the next in logical succession. Poverty of spirit demonstrates a right attitude about ourselves. That leads to mourning, gentleness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, showing mercy, purity of heart, and peacemaking. If we have these traits we will rebuke the world so that it persecutes us and allows us to be lights in its midst.

Ask Yourself

We have often stated—rightly so—that God is more interested in making us holy than making us happy. So does it surprise you to see that happiness is a gift Jesus offers to those who take His Word to heart? What’s wrong with a theology that looks suspiciously at happiness?

From Daily Readings from the Life of Christ, Vol. 1, John MacArthur. Copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL 60610, www.moodypublishers.com.

[metmom]

Studying God’s Word ping

[TNoldman]

Ping

[Migraine]

What’s wrong with a theology that looks suspiciously at happiness?

It occurs to me that the Beatitudes, indeed, the Sermon on the Mount, are far more difficult to keep than the law of Moses. Jesus' words here require adjustments within the soul -- not mere perfunctory duties.

A theology that looks askance at happiness overlooks what I consider to be the main import of Christ's words: He is adjuring us to cultivate the Fruit of the Spirit, as Paul (by the Spirit) delineated in Galatians 5.

These qualities, engendered by the Holy Spirit, enable us, along with Paul, to say, "I know both how to abound and to be abased", and, "I have learned whatsoever state I'm in, therewith to be content."

I have seen this condition of blessedness in the faces of well-off American Christians as well as in those of hard-pressed Christian North Koreans, Iranian women and Colombian IDPs. The only explanation for that is the influence of the Holy Spirit.

[OneVike]

Thanks for posting. Good read.

[metmom]

Yes, the Beatitudes sets the bar really, really high.