The Beatitudes (...the Be-attitudes... get it?) Part 1: Verses 1 & 2

Matthew 5:1-2
“Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:”

This is the introduction to the 9 “blessed are” statements. And not just that; it’s the introduction to the entire “sermon on the mount” which goes through Matthew 7:29 and includes much more than I’ll be covering in this blog. It’s interesting to note who Jesus is talking to. We see three key people / groups: Jesus, crowds, Jesus’ disciples. According to my study bible, the crowds were those who “were curious and often astounded by his teaching and ministry yet for the most part remained neutral and uncommitted.” The disciples were “those who had made a commitment to Jesus as the Messiah.”
So what we have is this: lots of non-disciples are following Jesus, but there are disciples following him as well. Jesus sees these crowds and goes up on a mountain. When he sits down to teach, the ones that come to him are the disciples (which means “learners); we can assume the crowds stayed at a relatively safe distance away (which, by the way, is never a good idea when it comes to Jesus).
Then we read that “he opened his mouth and taught them, saying…” He taught them. While the crowds at a distance were more than likely within earshot of this teaching, the teaching seems meant for those who “came to him” – Jesus’ disciples.
Context is an amazing thing I’m still learning about. It’s how we can tell, among other things, who someone is talking to. In this case, the context shows that Jesus intends to teach the disciples who came to him. Context shows us more as well: Jesus is about to say something important. He sees the crowds, goes up on the mountain, sits down, the disciples come to him, and he opens his mouth and teaches them.
Join me again soon as we start to dig into the meat and potatoes of the Beatitudes (…the Be-attitudes… get it?).

The Beatitudes (...the Be-attitudes... get it?) Introduction

I remember exactly the reason I started looking closer at the Beatitudes. It was because I wanted to do a consistent study – something that I could look at fully and actually finish, since I’m really lousy at finishing studies for the most part. I remember thinking something along the lines of, “it’s only 12 verses…” which, while true, underestimates what God can do when he gets you really involved in something to the point where you can’t believe how much information is packed into “only 12 verses”. This blog doesn’t include all the info you can dig out of the Beatitudes, but I wanted to post it anyway (please forgive me) because it’s something I want to be able to explore even more, but I feel like if I don’t let people know some of what I’ve learned, I’ll bust. And that would be a mess.

So… the Beatitudes. I don’t know that I ever really had a good grasp on what the point of these “blessed are” verses meant. I think some of my preconceived notions about them were:

1. The Beatitudes described certain people (think, “look! There’s a peacemaker!”).
2. Jesus was teaching this for the benefit of the crowds that had followed him.
3. All of these things were pretty much physical (poor, sad, meek, etc…).

HOWEVER! Yeah, “however” seems to be my thing whenever I decide to “really” dig in to Scripture. Sometimes, preconceived notions are correct; the majority of the time, they’re not (at least mine aren’t). I will be starting shortly and going through the first 12 verses of Matthew 5 and pointing out some of the interesting (and mind-blowing) thoughts that I have had while taking the time to actually read through and seek to understand them. I hope you’ll join me!

The Beatitudes

I'm finishing up my personal study of the Beatitudes from Matthew 5. I've started posting on Facebook some of the stuff that I discovered, but I'm going to go into a bit more detail on this blog.

It may be next week before I get the first one up because I'm trying to figure out how to put my notes into words:-)

Grace #2

I noticed something similar with my last post and the one I'm
about to post - my two thoughts during vacation both have to do
with total depravity.

What is total depravity, you (may) ask? Total Depravity is
basically the belief that we are not spiritually "sick", as many
Christians believe, but that we are spiritually "dead". The
analogy that is often given that we are drowning, and when God
extends his hand, we have only to grab it in order to be saved.
I'm not entirely sure this is true. I believe the better analogy -
and the one I believe Scripture lays down for me - is that we are
dead in the water. We are lifeless. There is not even enough
"umph" in us to reach up and grab God's hand. That is what
Scripture talks about when it says we are "dead" in sins
(Ephesians 2) - it's not that we were surrounded and longing to
get out... No more than a dead man hates the fact that he's
surrounded by dirt. The dead man goes along with it, just as we
go along with sin. From the womb, we are depraved creatures
who, while we still bear a semblance of God's image, hate going
along with what that implies - that we should be loving God with
all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Now, total depravity does not mean we are all as evil as we
could be - even with someone spiritually dead, there's loads of
potential to be even more evil than they are. Hitler, for example,
probably loved his mother to a certain extent.

As far as the second thought goes, then, I can only say that the
fact that we are spiritually dead does mean that straight from
birth, we are on our way to hell, and nothing but divine
intervention can change that. We have a heart that is anti-God,
and we are powerless (remember, we're dead spiritually - not
just sick) to change that. The reason that God speaks of a new
birth, a new mind, a new spirit, etc... is because we need to be
new in order to truly love God.

This grace of this new birth is called "regeneration", and I'll look into that more in another post:-)

Grace #1

Regarding the #1 thought yesterday...

Due to original sin, God would have been perfectly justified sending all of us humans to hell the moment we were conceived. We are all stained by sin to the point that we are disgusting even from the womb.

Here's a look of me, pre-Christ. Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV):

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Emphasis mine)

This Scripture actually says some pretty scary stuff! I (James) was by nature a child of wrath, like the rest of mankind. There was absolutely no difference between Hitler and I - we were both headed toward the same place. There was no difference between the pilots that caused the death of thousands in America on 9/11/2001 - we were all heading toward the same place.

It's not a very comforting thought to me that before God made me a live, I was dead. Spiritually, I was a rotting corpse. And if Ephesians isn't bad enough, check out what Romans says. Paul, making the distinction between Jews and Greeks regarding the law:

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Romans 3:9-12

How scary is that picture? If the Jews - God's chosen people - are not heads and tails above the Gentiles regarding God's law, where does that put me? I'd wager somewhere at the bottom.

So I know this much. Before God made me alive (I'm so thankful that he did), I was his enemy. I was not a friend of God's. From the womb, I was "by nature" a child of wrath. Quite simply, that's what I was. It's not that I somehow decided before I was born that I'd be God's enemy; that decision was already made for me (gee, thanks Adam). Thankfully, God did not wait until I decided to warm up to him to act. At the end of the nasty part (Ephesians 2:1-3), we hear the comforting part: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he love us, even when we were dead in out trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

So, it looks like this: We're dead in trespasses and sins, following Satan... BUT GOD. To quote one of my favorite authors (Mark Driscoll), "Indeed, the reconciliation of any sinner to God the Father through God the Son by the power of God the Holy Spirit occurs not when a sinner turns to God offering a hand of friendship but, rather, when he or she is still an enemy at war with God." (Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions, pg. 78)

How vile are we? Immeasurably.

How amazing is God's grace to those he chooses to love thought they are his enemies? Pretty darn.

Not under the Law, but under Grace... why me?

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about Grace. Not the person, though I'm sure she's nice - but the type of Grace that only God can give away. I believe this has to do some with a section about Grace in Mark Driscoll's book "Religion Saves: and Nine Other Misconceptions", but mostly to do with God allowing me to focus on such a deep issue and to be overwhelmed (finally) with how little I actually know about it... Not to mention how sinfully little I have cared to think about it.

Two thoughts I have had recently, and I'll expound more on them once I get my thoughts together.

1. Due to original sin, God would have been perfectly justified sending all of us humans to hell the moment we were conceived. We are all stained by sin to the point that we are disgusting even from the womb.

2. God never mentions giving sinful people a "new heart" or "new mind" so they can keep on sinning. Instead, he "hardens" their heart - he gives them up to their "old person". This means that all God has to do is let these people go deeper and deeper into their own already sinful desires. God, in order to save people, gives them a "new heart" or the like (new birth, new spirit, etc...), meaning they no longer have the same desires, but new ones - the kind of desires that lead to loving God, which the people with hardened hearts (Ephesians 4:18) do not have and cannot obtain alone (ie. without God giving them a "new" heart, a "new" birth, etc...). The sinful person has a hardened heart, which does not love God, which prevents them from believing they need God for salvation, and thus they never ask Him.

Again, more on this later, but those two thoughts have been on the forefront of my mind as of late.

Humble Pie

Yeah, I had this big, deep theological thing going on the subject of why good things happen to bad people. No, that's not what this post is about. Why the change? I had some humble pie. And I wanted to share with you how good it is...

I am relatively hard-headed. Just ask... Well, most of the people that know me:-) I never thought much of it. I figured it was "just the way I am." However, after talking to my best friend in the world, I am starting to think (er - I am way past "starting" to think...) that that hardheadedness - while it can be useful sometimes - is a veiled form of pride.

When I talk about myself being hardheaded, I mean this:

Many times, I have a hard time figuring out how what you say is more important than what I am saying. Many times, I feel that what I am saying has been thought out, and is therefore more valid than something that you may say, even if it has been thought out just as much by you. I talk a lot - and if I'm in a group setting, I tend to find it much easier to point out my own views than to accept yours, and honestly, I may leave the group having not learned a thing from anyone else but me.

I have been reading through the book "The Exemplary Husband" by Stuart Scott. In his book, he lists 30 different manifestations of pride. The numbers are changed so they fit more with what I'm describing right now, but the descriptions are directly from his book. Looking at my own life, three stand out more than the others (though I have miniature manifestations of lots of the others):

1. Anger. A proud person is often an angry person. One's anger can include outbursts of anger, withdrawing, pouting, or frustration. A person most often becomes angry because his "rights" or expectations are not being met (Matthew 20:1-16).

2. Being defensive or blame-shifting. You will often hear a proud person say, "Are you saying it's my fault?" or "Well, what about you?" (Genesis 3:12-13; Proverbs 12:1).

3. Voicing preferences or opinions when not asked. A proud person might not be able to keep his preferences or opinions to himself. He will offer it when it is not asked for. These preferences are usually voiced without consideration of others (Philippians 2:1-4).

After pondering the list, those three describe me pretty much to the core. Which is a bad thing. Most people who know me will definitely fit me with #3 right away. I am definitely a very opinionated person - sometimes good, sometimes bad.

If you know me a little better, you'll probably fit me with #2 as well. When you start questioning why I do what I do (for example, why do I voice my preferences or opinions when not asked?), I will probably give a short, non-answer, then start questioning you or point out how - in different ways - you do the same sort of thing.

But if you're really close to me, you'll also fit me with #1. It takes a lot to get me angry, depending on who you are, but the fact is, my being angry is usually because - like the description says - my "rights" or expectations aren't met. I have a very limited idea of what things should happen and how (exactly) they should happen. If they don't happen a certain way, I get angry. I usually either do the withdrawing thing, though growing up, I definitely had the outbursts of anger. I used to hit my brother and sister (I'd love to say, "who doesn't?" but somehow I feel that it would belittle my confession...). Needless to say (hopefully), I don't hit anyone anymore, due to God's working in my life and my father spanking the anger out of me some:-)

That's a lot to read through, so if you made it this far, you either are very interested in my life or didn't have much else to do. Either way, the thing I hope you take away from this post is this: You may not see pride in your life. Most people don't. I was blind up until just recently. And I'm sure I'm still blind to a number of areas in my life where pride lives, waiting to catch me off guard. I pray that you will seriously look into your life and examine one of the hardest vices to catch: Pride. It is the one sin that leads to so many (if not all) others. It is an enabler. To quote the Puritan Thomas Watson, pride is "a spiritual drunkenness; it flies up like wine into the brain and intoxicates it. It is idolatry; a proud man is a self-worshiper."

The answer? Seek to be humble instead of prideful. Seek out pride and kill it. Don't be drunk with it. "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8) Don't let the "someone" be you.