Psalm
1:1-3 “Blessed is the
man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of
sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in
the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its
fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does
shall prosper.”
I
started a new Bible Study on the “Be Attitudes” lately and have been blessed by
the teachings from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount about this subject of the Christian
life. Early on in my Christian walk, I discovered these attitudes in Matthew
5:3-12, of the Believer’s new nature, manner and outlook on life. The
1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word “attitude” as: a disposition of the
parts as serves to express the action and sentiments of the person represented.
Basically, attitude is who we are at the heart, that leads to what we think,
say and do.
Deuteronomy
33:29 “Happy are you, O
Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the
shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph!”
Professor
Brandon Crowe points out that we can throw around and use lightly the words bless,
blessed and blessing in everyday conversation. So, when we read about the “blessed”
ones in the Lord’s Beatitudes, the impact of the concept of blessing may get
lost in translations. The entire Sermon on the Mount presents an ethical
blueprint for disciples (Followers of Jesus Christ) who make up the Judeo/Christian
community, providing great principles that are to guide Believers to
righteousness in practice. But, we must always remember that we are foundationally
not received by Jesus into a school of ethics but into a kingdom of redemption.
A kingdom has a King and the subjects meditate on the importance of the law of
God for life. To know and to do God’s law is to be blessed to the redeemed
citizen of Heaven.
Matthew
1:21 “She will bear a
son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people
from their sins.”
The
1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word “blessed” as: Happy; prosperous in worldly affairs; enjoying spiritual happiness and
the favor of God; enjoying heavenly felicity. God’s saving work provides
the proper context for understanding what it means to be covenantally blessed
and shows that being blessed with salvation also entails the responsibility to
live according to God’s law. Happiness is rooted in godly holiness. Redemption
precedes living according to Ephesians 2:1-10 and the Beatitudes.
You have to have life” before you can “live”. It is thus in light of the gift
of redemption that we are to hunger and thirst after righteousness, be pure in
heart or any of the other Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are at once the blessings
of the redeemed and the call for what the lives of the redeemed should look
like and ways that the blessings of the redeemed reflect the character of their
Savior. They speak of those spiritual characteristics into which we ought to
strive, by God’s grace, to grow and mature in our Christian walk. The inductive
– what we are – grounds the imperative – what God calls us to be.
Romans
6:10-12 “For the death he
died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So
you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ
Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you
obey its passions.”
Blessings
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