Matthew 5:7

Matthew 5:7

Blessed Mercy 

1. Receiving God’s mercy in Christ means expressing God’s mercy for blessing in life, so we must continually live out through our lives that which we’ve received from God in Christ (v. 7a)

1. Having identified humanities desperate neediness and His righteousness which alone meets our needs, now Jesus tells us what we must do as a result of receiving what we need in Him, and the blessings which result. He proclaims that those whose lives are “blessed”, or approved and affirmed by God, are those who are merciful. Mercy is an emotional and active response to the needs of others. It is “others” focused, and thus isn’t characteristic of human nature, nor obtainable or executable by self-centered and self-seeking humanity. God alone is perfect in His whole nature, and thus completely holy, righteous, just, merciful, gracious, and loving. Therefore, true mercy is a characteristic of God’s nature, only comes from Him, and is fully expressed in Christ. Humanity’s deepest need, from which all other needs come, is to be freed from the penalty of our sin, and restored in relationship to our Creator. All of God’s attributes and blessings come together at the cross in Christ where God satisfies His own holy, righteous, and just nature through the exercise of His self-sacrificing love for us by mercifully acting on and meeting our desperate need, not executing on us the judgement we deserve, and graciously giving us the salvation and reconciliation, which we don’t deserve, in Christ. So God’s characteristic of mercy must necessarily be the source and definition of all true mercy, and we must have experienced God’s mercy in order to be merciful ourselves. Thus, Jesus proclaims that a life that is blessed is one which is merciful, or behaves towards the needs of others in the same way in which God has behaved towards us. That is to say that those who have come to recognize their own desperate need, thrown themselves on God’s mercy, and received His mercy, must recognize, feel, and act on the needs of others in the same manner in which God has done for them. Thus the primary objective and “default” setting for our lives must be to be continually moved in our hearts to be feeling, forgiving, and active to meet any need we can, physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually with any resource which God has given us. But just as God doesn’t overlook human sin in the expression of His mercy, we aren’t to condone sin, wickedness, laziness, or selfishness in the expression of His mercy through our lives, but must be faithful to use each expression of mercy as an opportunity to point to God’s perfect just righteousness, and grace in Christ. The world apart from Christ must either shun mercy and forgiveness altogether, or ultimately remove all accountability for sin in order to try in vain to receive, give, and maintain their false mercy. Truly showing genuine mercy in life requires tremendous effort and investment on our behalf, but the cost of the mercy we show is only a tiny fraction of the heartbreak, effort, and suffering Jesus has invested in us, and Jesus guarantees our lives will be blessed as a result! (v. 7a; Exod. 34:6-7; Deut. 4:31; Neh. 9:31; Ps. 18:25; 62:12; 85:10; 86:5; 145:9; Lam. 3:20-24; Dan. 9:18; Micah 6:8; 7:18-19; Matt. 7:1-5; 9:9-13, 35-36; 14:14-21; 15:32-38; 20:29-34; Mark 1:40-42; Luke 7:11-15; 10:25-37; 23:32-43; John 8:1-11; Rom. 9:14-16; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Eph. 2:1-10; Phil. 2:1-8; Jas. 5:11)

2. Receiving God’s mercy in Christ means expressing God’s mercy for blessing in life, so our lives must channels of mercy which beget mercy, grace, and blessing (v. 7b)

1. Jesus isn’t saying that our own efforts and strengths to show mercy to others somehow merit His mercy for us. He’s saying that as we receive God’s mercy in Him, and are faithful to be channels through which that mercy flows to others, that we’ll continue and increase in the blessing of His mercy in our lives. Each time we pass on God’s mercy in Christ to someone else, we’re blessed immeasurably by being reminded, comforted, encouraged, and grown in Christ as we experience a fresh encounter of His amazing mercy and grace in our lives. He uses His blessing of mercy to open windows of grace in our lives through the opportunity to continually serve Him, and He faithfully makes His grace, righteousness, and blessing available to others through us. Those who are faithful to pass on His mercy, receive blessings of greater mercy, hope, contentment, peace, joy, purpose, and satisfaction in life regardless of its circumstances, and see His righteousness and glory grow in their lives and the world. The world apart from Christ has no hope in receiving His blessing of mercy. To “beget” is to produce something of the exact same kind and nature. Truly merciful lives in Christ beget mercy, grace, and blessings of hope, peace, joy, and satisfaction. Worldly attempts at mercy beget their nature, and produce only selfishness, mercilessness, no blessing, and ultimately only grow the world increasingly more bitter, frustrated, discouraged, weary, hopeless, and angry. The true blessing of receiving God’s mercy in Christ is being channels of His mercy which beget mercy, grace, and blessing into the lives of others for His glory, and have mercy multiplied in our own lives. (v. 7b; Deut. 15:7-11; Ps. 37:25-26; 41:1-2; Prov. 11:16-17, 25; 14:21; 19:17; Matt. 6:9-15; 18:21-35; Luke 6:27-38; Rom. 11:33-12:2;  Eph. 4:25-32; Col. 3:12-13; Jas. 2:12-13)