by As we enter a New Year, we have been studying the Beatitudes to help us set the right attitude in representing the Kingdom of God in 2024. We’re given clear instructions by Jesus in Matthew 5-7 in what is called The Sermon on the Mount. This sermon, by Jesus, caught the average Jew off guard. They were doing their utmost to be obey the guidance of the priests who they saw as sent from God to lead them: they followed the letter of Law, they memorized the scriptures, they tithed and gave to the poor, they prayed daily in the Temple, etc. When Jesus preached this sermon, though, He showed these Jews just how unfit they were to for the Kingdom of God. In the silent years between the Old Testament and the New Testament arose several sects in religious Judaism that focused on the outward appearance and neglected the inward spiritual necessity. Scribes and Pharisees put God’s people under the bondage of the Law towards a righteousness that never had the power to save and never was intended to save. Jesus preached:
“Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 5:20)
God set the strictest standard for entrance into His kingdom, through His own righteousness which is absolute perfection. Pharisees despised this notion, and in turn, they turned God’s people against Him. Yet, as Paul preached to the Corinthians, no other righteousness is acceptable. Paul gave a list in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 of those who are unfit for God’s kingdom. Here, we’re all unfit by God’s standard. This was daunting to the Jew who listened to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Their possibility of entering the Kingdom of God was hopelessly lost as they considered all they had done to follow the letter of a Law that could not save. Many do the same today as they miss the purpose of the Law. So Paul went on to give them hope in verse 11. Only by faith in what Christ did on the cross could they be cleansed and forgiven, as they were “washed … sanctified … justified,” all through His precious blood and not any Jewish sacrifice (1 Peter 1:18-19).
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”
(1 Peter 1:18-19)
It did not end at the cross. For us today, the purpose of the beatitudes is still the same, setting God’s spiritual standard for entrance into His Kingdom. What we are to do with these spiritual attributes given to us at salvation is to work them from the inside out to become effective ministers for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? The world is watching our outside, and what they see is either the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisees or a written epistle of Christ that reveals our hearts, as Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3.
“Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”
(2 Corinthians 3:2-3)
