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Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. ~ Matthew 5:7
Today, we return to our study of the Beatitudes which is a description of the process involved in the changing of the sinful human heart in reference to God. As we have seen when we get to poverty of spirit, we recognize our need for mourning over our sin. This, in turn, leads to our willingness to give up control to God over our lives because we know that we are helpless and hopeless. This understanding of this life renders a desire within us to hunger and thirst for God for He truly is our sustenance. Today, we come to the next step in this process which renders a desire within us to be merciful.
God always works in our lives from the inside out. Throughout the three year earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus through His teaching and healing ministry, He went right for the heart of the people. In doing so, He identified for us the fact that salvation is something that happens to us at the very center of our being. The Lord Jesus was never interested in external religion, He was not interested in superficial works with wrong motives. He is always interested in sincere, transformed hearts that are honest and humble. This is what brings Him pleasure.
In today's verse the Lord Jesus, essentially, said to His hearers, "Blessed are the compassionate." The word translated "merciful" is best translated compassionate. It can also be translated as "being full of pity." This word is only used one other time in the New Testament. It is found in Hebrews 2:17 which reads, "For this reason Jesus had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way so he could be their merciful and faithful high priest in service to God. Then Jesus could die in their place to take away their sins."
The Lord Jesus Christ was motivated to go to the cross and die a gruesome death on the behalf of sinful man so that we could enter into a personal relationship with Him. In that context then, the Lord Jesus gradually grants His heart for sinners to the believer. As we give our hearts to God, He grants to us His heart for the lost. This must never be the basis upon which we find our hope for eternal life but it is a clear sign that we have been made alive to God. As a result of experiencing God's heart for ourselves, we extent it to others. God says, "Happy with a deep seated joy are those who have experienced the compassion of God for themselves for they will be compassionated."
Mercy and grace are throughout the Bible inseparable but they differ from one another. While God's mercy rescues us from God's judgement, His grace grants us an intimate and personal relationship with Him. Similarly, God's mercy and His justice goes together. They have to because God could not be merciful if in some way His justice were violated. God's mercy is not some shallow sentimentality which disregards sin and ignores justice. That’s a false and unholy mercy which wants to conceal justice and undermine the truth.
A great example of God's mercy is found in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18 where the point was for the Apostle Peter to forgive others up to seventy times seven. This type of forgiveness is directly connected to our experience with God's merciful compassion. If we have experienced His mercy, we will extend it to others in an unlimited way. By the way, this doesn't means God's justice is ignored, it just means we continue loving those who have violated us in some way. Henri Nouwen once aptly said, "Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken."
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we, like all humans, stood at odds with God. We stood in a state of eternal condemnation as a result. Our rebellion against God forever separated us from Him. Hell was our sure destination until the Lord Jesus decided to pay our penalty and uphold the justice of God. The fact is, God, in order to be merciful and to show us mercy, had to express His justice, so He poured out His justice on Christ while on the cross, satisfying the requirement of a just and holy law. So mercy fits together with forgiveness, though it’s different. It fits together with grace, though it’s different. It fits together with justice perfectly, though it is also distinct.
God took the first step, a step that did not need to be taken but He took it by sending His only begotten Son to rescue us from our sure damnation. Our understanding of this truth should create in us a heart for others, especially the least. The late theologian, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, once said, "We are not meant to control our Christianity but, rather, our Christianity is meant to control us." This is why it is so essential that we daily walk with the Lord, making it our habit of giving our heart to Him. And the whole point of the Beatitudes is that He gives His heart to us.
