Sunday, December 31, 2006

"Blessed is the man who hears Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors" (Proverbs 8:34).

Oh, how true. Anyone who truly hears the gospel is so blessed. It’s funny but, used to, when I would read a bible passage that says ‘blessed is,’ I thought it meant IF we do such ‘n such (whatever the specific verse is referring to), we WILL be blessed or rewarded somehow. So I thought the ‘blessed’ verses were telling us something we need to go do in order to be blessed. Now I see that they are saying we are blessed already, if we are able to do whatever the verse is referring to. If we are able to hear the gospel, we have been blessed already.

I love this verse:

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Matt 16:17

The Lord Jesus had just asked, ‘Whom do men say that I, the son of man, am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.’ That’s when Jesus replied by saying, ’Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.’ The Lord Jesus was telling Simon Peter that he is truly blessed already because he is able to SEE Christ and know he is the son of the living God. The blessing is that he can see Christ, because on his own, he would not be able to.

The beatitudes in Matthew 5 use the word blessed many times. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn, blessed the meek, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers….. Are these verses telling us we need to muster up these qualities, and when we do we will be blessed or rewarded in some way? ---If so, I am surely in trouble. I can’t seem to muster up anything good within myself, much less these qualities. There is no way I can be blessed then.

I no longer believe we are to DO to be blessed. I believe we already ARE blessed if we are able to do any of these virtuous things ever, (and probably won't even know when we do them) because the only way we CAN is if Christ is working in us. And oh, what a blessing that is! It means that Christ has saved us and is working in us. What greater blessing or reward could there be? ---Praise his wonderful name.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure " (PHIL. 4:13).

“Concerning the nature and the power of fallen man's will, the greatest confusion prevails today and the most erroneous views are held, even by many of God's children. The popular idea now prevailing, and which is taught from the great majority of pulpits, is that man has a "free will," and that salvation comes to the sinner through his will co-operating with the Holy Spirit. To deny the "free will" of man, i.e. his power to choose that which is good, his native ability to accept Christ, is to bring one into disfavour at once, even before most of the those who profess to be orthodox. And yet Scripture emphatically says, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. but of God that showeth mercy " (Rom. 9:16). Again the Word expressly declares, "There is none that seeketh after God " (Rom. 3:11). Did not Christ say to the men of His day, "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life " (John 5:40)? Yes, but some did "come" to Him, some did receive Him. True and who were they? John 1:12,13 tells us: " But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God"! But does not Scripture say, " Whosoever will may come"? It does, but does this signify that everybody has the will to come? What of those who won't come? "Whosoever will may come" no more implies that fallen man has the power in himself to come, than "Stretch forth thine hand " implied that the man with the withered arm had ability in himself to comply. In and of himself the natural man has power to reject Christ; but in and of himself he has not the power to receive Christ. And why? Because he has a mind that is "enmity against " Him (Rom. 8:7); because he has a heart that hates Him John 15:18). Man chooses that which is according to his nature, and therefore before he will ever choose or prefer that which is divine and spiritual, a new nature must be imparted to him; in other words, he must be born again.”
John 6 vs. 37 thru 40 completes the above thoughts. Who will choose? Those who are given to Christ by the Father. Who will believe? Those whom Christ will not loose but He will raise up at the last day.
It is Gods work, and as You say, our blessing. I would never rec. the blessing if it was up to my wretched, pitiful, selfish, prideful, sinful work.
Bo

Anonymous said...

Had trouble posting the comment. I Switched to the google acct. but didnt take first time.
Your post reminded me of an A.W. Pink article on our website. That is where the Quote on the other comment is from.

eileen~ said...

Oh how I remember, I remember that I struggled so in trying to 'do' until the Lord delivered me and the Gospel came to me in the power of God unto salvation.I believe that is when I was truly converted. I would read the Beautitudes and know that I was none of those things and I mourned. Now I too know that we are all of those things in Christ Jesus our Lord, we are poor in Spirit and clothed in His righteousness, we are peacemakers because He has peace with us and we are meek in Him as He is meek. Indeed, Praise His wonderful name.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ"-Eph 1:3

Carol said...

Eileen, you said: Now I too know that we are all of those things in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You are so right. My statement below needs to be corrected:

I believe we already ARE blessed if we are able to do any of these virtuous things ever, (and probably won't even know when we do them) because the only way we CAN is if Christ is working in us.

It's not about US doing, it's about Christ doing and since he did it all (kept the law and paid for our sins), and we (believers) are IN HIM, we are seen by God as being as righteous as Christ. He is our substitute. He did it all.

What a wonderful gospel. We have been set free. I too, believe I was truly converted when I learned this. O Happy Day!