1990 Issue 10 - The Beautiful Beatitudes, Part 5 - Counsel of Chalcedon
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Transcript of 1990 Issue 10 - The Beautiful Beatitudes, Part 5 - Counsel of Chalcedon
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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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8/12/2019 1990 Issue 10 - The Beautiful Beatitudes, Part 5 - Counsel of Chalcedon
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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
Counsel of Chalcedon December 1990 Page 17
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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.