The Best Day to Become More Like Jesus
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Matt. 5:7.
Our Lord chose the sequence of the Beatitudes carefully to represent the order of salvation. Each beatitude follows logically from the previous one. Thus when I realize that I have no righteousness of my own and am truly poor in spirit, I mourn over my utter helplessness. I cry out for deliverance, and my understanding of my true state makes me genuinely meek rather than high and mighty. Having seen my desperate condition, I naturally hunger and thirst after God's forgiving and empowering righteousness.
At that point the God of all mercies jumps in and accepts my repentance, declares me forgiven, and implants a new heart within me. I have been redeemed, saved by His mercy toward me. That is the promise of the first four beatitudes.
The question then arises: How shall I respond? That is the topic of the "second table" of the Beatitudes. I will be merciful, pure in heart, a maker of peace, and patient when treated unjustly. In short, through God's power I will become more and more like Jesus.
The fifth beatitude illustrates the shift from the Godward to the human-ward side of the Beatitudes nicely. I have just received the mercy of grace in the fourth one. And as I rise from my knees God sends me out to share that same mercy with my neighbor, my wife, my workmate. God wants me by His empowering grace to treat others as He has treated me. He desires that I will also be merciful when others fall short or have a need.
And here we need to remember that being merciful is more than an attitude. It is also an action.
A story tells of Jacob Bright coming home from town and finding a poor neighbor in great trouble. His horse had met with an accident and had to be killed. People were crowding around the man, saying how sorry they were. To one who kept on repeating this most loudly, Jacob said, "I am sorry $50. How much are you sorry?" He then passed around the hat to buy the man another horse.
Mercy is outgoing love. But before love can be outgoing it must be out-looking. It implies a change of heart. As William Barclay puts is, "Mercy is the reverse of self-centeredness....It is the antithesis of selfishness."
Today is the best day to begin being merciful in a fuller way. Why put it off? Why not do an unexpected kindness to your husband, wife, neighbor. Today, is the time to pass on God's mercy.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Matt. 5:7.
Our Lord chose the sequence of the Beatitudes carefully to represent the order of salvation. Each beatitude follows logically from the previous one. Thus when I realize that I have no righteousness of my own and am truly poor in spirit, I mourn over my utter helplessness. I cry out for deliverance, and my understanding of my true state makes me genuinely meek rather than high and mighty. Having seen my desperate condition, I naturally hunger and thirst after God's forgiving and empowering righteousness.
At that point the God of all mercies jumps in and accepts my repentance, declares me forgiven, and implants a new heart within me. I have been redeemed, saved by His mercy toward me. That is the promise of the first four beatitudes.
The question then arises: How shall I respond? That is the topic of the "second table" of the Beatitudes. I will be merciful, pure in heart, a maker of peace, and patient when treated unjustly. In short, through God's power I will become more and more like Jesus.
The fifth beatitude illustrates the shift from the Godward to the human-ward side of the Beatitudes nicely. I have just received the mercy of grace in the fourth one. And as I rise from my knees God sends me out to share that same mercy with my neighbor, my wife, my workmate. God wants me by His empowering grace to treat others as He has treated me. He desires that I will also be merciful when others fall short or have a need.
And here we need to remember that being merciful is more than an attitude. It is also an action.
A story tells of Jacob Bright coming home from town and finding a poor neighbor in great trouble. His horse had met with an accident and had to be killed. People were crowding around the man, saying how sorry they were. To one who kept on repeating this most loudly, Jacob said, "I am sorry $50. How much are you sorry?" He then passed around the hat to buy the man another horse.
Mercy is outgoing love. But before love can be outgoing it must be out-looking. It implies a change of heart. As William Barclay puts is, "Mercy is the reverse of self-centeredness....It is the antithesis of selfishness."
Today is the best day to begin being merciful in a fuller way. Why put it off? Why not do an unexpected kindness to your husband, wife, neighbor. Today, is the time to pass on God's mercy.
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