8/12/2019 1990 Issue 10 - The Beautiful Beatitudes, Part 5 - Counsel of Chalcedon

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1tbt Jiltautiful

1ittatit t.S

Todd

W.

llen

Practically simultaneously with the sense

of

the

poverty

of

spirit that Isaiah felt was his moti.rning for

his sins, which is he second beatitude, Blessed are

they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And

Isaiah knew the comfortofGod when his repentance .

~ = = = = = : ; ~ ~ ~ = = ~ = : ; ; ; : : = = : ; ; ; : = ~ = = =

was seen by God and the forgiveness

of

God was .

.

ministered by a coal from the altar. The altar is

. .

.

We have been thinking together about the beatitudes

and how they depict the Christian as a person quite

unlike the natural man. The first four beatitudes

describe the initial exercises

of

the heart

in

one who

has been awakened by the Spirit ofGod. First there

is that realization that one is utterly poverty stricken

when it comes to personal righteousness. The Spirit

of God quickens the true seeker after God to his

uncleanness in

th

sight

of

a holy God. Like Isaiah

when he saw the Lord high and lifted up and

confessed Woe is Me, for I am a man

of

n c l ~ a n

.lipsand I dwell

in

the midst

of

a people

of

unclean

lips. . . . .

It is interesting to note that Isaiah was convicted

of

his unclean speech. He had sinned. And

he

recognized that the whole nation was just as guilty as

he was

of

profanity, blasphemy, filthy conversation,

lying, and that when he carne into the presence

of

the

Thrice-Holy

Godhe

was aghast

at

his depravity, his

u n c l e a n n ~ s s

Christ said that a

p ~ r s o n

was blessed

to come to that realization. Blessed are the poor in

s_p Ot, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

(Matthew 5:3) . . .

Isaiah also believed that

he

was ruined, that his

condition would bring down on his head the

judgment

of Go

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never something that is merited or deserved If that

were so, then salvation could be an earned reward

for some sort

of

Christian conduct, some activity on

my part. But the quality of mercy is that it

is

never

bestowed because

of

something good or deserving

in the recipient of mercy. The dictionary defines

mercy as

compassionate or kindly forbearancf

shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other

person m on s power.

Some people misinterpret this fifth beatitude.

T} ey

believe it means, If I am merciful toward others,

God will be merciful towards me; if I forgive, I shall

be forgiven. The condition ofmy being forgiven is

that I forgive. The Lord's Prayer says, Forgive us

our debts,

as

we forgive our debtors. And there is

the teaching of Christ in the parableof the debtors in

Matthew 18. In that parable a cruel servant was in

debt to his master for an enormous sum and he was

told to pay up by his master. But he had nothing

with which to pay and he asked his master to have

patience with him and he would repay him. But the

master had compassion and released him from his

debt, forgiving him what he owed. Then the servant

goes out and finds someone who owed him a small

sum, about a day's wage. And he seized the man

and demanded payment. When the man entreated

him to be patient and give him more time he was

unwilling to grant the request and threw him into

prison. So the fellow slaves of the master went and

told their master what had happened and he put the

cruel servant back under arrest and told him that he

was rescinding his mercy and ordered him handed

over to the torturers until he should repay all that

was owed him. And the parable concludes, So

shall my heavenly Father also do to you,

if each of

you does not forgive his brother from your heart

(Matthew 18:35).

What is being taught here is not tit-for-tat

forgiveness, you forgive someone and then God will

forgive you. If that were so the whole concept of

the grace of God would be set aside. All the

scriptures which teach that while

we

were yet

sinners Christ died for us, that heaven is a gift of

God, not

of

works lest any man should boast. Why

if

mercy was obtained by simply going out and

being compassionate, then I could claim credit for

my salvation. This

is

the very opposite of the

meaning of the grace ofGod

No. What this parable is teaching is that mercy

without repentance is unavailing, unreceived. The

man who was forgiven his enormous debt by God

had no repentance and his faith was therefore

defective.

This man still did not understand the mercy of God.

He indicated as much when he said to the master,

Give me time and I will repay all. He thought he

could earn his way, buy his way, work his way out

of his debt. He had no sense of appreciation for the

mercy ofGod in simply wiping the slate clean purely

out of mercy. Therefore he was incapable of

manifesting a corresponding mercy to his fellow

man. The tip-off to his unrepentant, unthankful,

confidence-game attitude was demonstrated by his

unchanged heart when he did not forgive a fellow

man the debt he owed him.

But even repentance is

induced by the grace

of

God.

2. The truly forgiven soul can comprehend the true

meaning ofmercy for he has experienced it. He has

had a thorough-going repentance. His heart has

been melted and changed by God in the knowledge

and the experience of mercy. The man who has

never felt the need for forgiveness, who has never

known what

t

means to feel the burden of his guilt

rolled away because a compassionate Creator has

bestowed mercy without any regard to good works

done by himself, is not capable of showing that God

like attribute of mercy to others. What Christ is

teaching here,

as

in all the beatitudes,

is

that

if

you

are truly a child of God, truly yourself forgiven and

indwelt by the Holy Spirit, then God's image will

begin to manifest itself in the soul. Mercy toward

others

is

a concomitant

of

mercy received and

understood from the hand of a compassionate

Creator/Savior God.

A preacher tells the story of a man who carne to him

and told him that he could not say the Lord's Prayer

in the Sunday service.

He

said, Preacher, I can't

pray that prayer because there is somebody I don't

want to forgive. As the minister listened to the man,

he found out that this man had been holding a

grudge against this other man for thirty years. The

man told him, I will not be able to pray that prayer

until I first get even with this man who hurt me thirty

years ago. The preacher replied, Why this is old

business, and he may die anytime. What if he dies

before you get even?

He

said, Then I'll take it out

on his son.

Jesus manifested a forgiving spirit during his public

ministry. When four men brought a paralyzed man

to Jesus and had to let him down through the roof of

the house, Jesus healed him.

He

said, Thy sins are

forgiven thee. When a certain woman came in to

where he was eating and anointed his feet with

perfume and wet his feet with her tears and dried

them with her hair, Simon wondered in his heart

how Jesus, if he were a prophet, could allow such a

woman as she was to touch him, but Jesus used that

as a teaching tool to show that she understood better

than he did the meaning ofmercy, for her sins which

were many, being forgiven caused her to love much,

but he who has been forgiven little will love little.

The

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life the more I will love Jesus Christ for having

bestowed mercy

on

me, and the greater will

be my

capacity to forgive others.

Are We Merciful

1

The Christian man

will

manifest a merciful, a

forgiving attitude toward others.

ut we

should

be

careful

not

to misconstrue mercy to mean simply

easy-going toleration toward law-breakers. The

mercy

of

God

is never extended at the expense

of

righteousness and justice. n Jesus Christ, mercy

and truth kiss each other.

God

is holy. God is just.

God

is merciful. God did

not

set aside his holiness

and righteousness in order to be merciful.

He

is

perfectly just in bestowing his mercy. Jesus Christ

paid the full penalty

for my

sins in order to

be

just in

forgiving

me

my sins. The Christian is not called.on

to compromise justice

in

manifesting mercy. We are

not to smile

at

transgression, wink

at

sin, use mercy

as a pretext for condoning any sort

of

wrong-doing.

The

mercy

of

God forgives sins but that sin is laid

on

another, Jesus Christ the Righteous.

When

sin is

against ine then I can apply the guilt

of

that person

on

Christ and forgive that person, but

i

he owes a

debt

to

society,

i

he law has been broken, I .cmwot

set aside the

law

or expect that my mercy will

overlook the wrongdoing which

may

have to

be

dealt with in a courtroom.

2.

My

ability to

be

merciful is limited by my power

to

be

merciful. Take the case of the cruel servant

who

went out

of his master s presence and seized a

man

who owed him

a day s wage. n that case he

had power to extend

or

withhold mercy.

It

would

not have been mine

or

your P.efOgative to be

merciful, unless I could have pat.d the man s debt.

Some people

want

to

be

merciful only with someone

elses

power

. They

can

tell

you how

compassionate

they would

be i

hey were in the sea t

of

power.

ut

mercy can only

be

mercy when there is the power

to

be merciful in a jus t and righteous way.

We

have that

power

when someone has wronged us

and we choose to be forgiving . But

my

forgiving

someone who has wronged

you

does

not

mean

much. I might try to advise you

but it

is not

my

privilege

to do what

you alone can do, forgive that

:person from

your

heart and minister the help that is

m

my

power to bestow.

Mercy

is

feeling pity and then doing something

about it.

The

good samaritan

saw

a man in distress

and took pity

on

him and then did something about

it.

He

bound

up

his wounds and took

him

to a place

where

he

could be cared

for a ild

offered to pay the

expense

of

it.

That

was sheer mercy ort his part.

He

could have done like the

tWo

men who passed

him

by.

The Counsel of Chillcedon December 1990 Page 18

There is much we can

do

to show J?ity and mercy on

fellow human beings. Opportunities come to all of

us. That Christ-like compassion which moved

Christ

to

come to earth and suffer the cruel rejection

and shame

of

the cross is the supreme example

of

mercy. Goo did not have to do that. God could

have left this world alone and simply judged

it

for its

sin, and

he

still would have been perfectly

just

But

he

satisfied his own justice by dying in my place and

your

place for sins and then bestowing mercy on

whom he would show mercy.

My

only proper

response is to be thankful .and love him for it and

then show mercy to others. Blessed are the

merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

The best way to show mercy that I know

of

is

by

sharing the mercy

of

od

with those yet

without

God is willing to use

you

and me to tell the Gospel

to others so that they can receive the mercy

of

God

in

Christ

Evangelism is an act

of

mercy.

Sometimes the ones doing the evangelizing are

rejected

as

God the Son felt rejection. But more

often

th n

not the person

will

receive the message

and thank you for it.

t

is a message that was paid

for by God the Son. We can take

no

credit for the

message. But we can be declarers

of it nd

proclaimers

of

it. This is a splendid way to show

forth the fruits

of

the mercy we have ourselves

received.

n

What others arc saying about

The

oun.

ef

ofChalcedon.