Eight heavenly blessings
(Matthew 5: 1-12)
You should be familiar with
Blessed. The law (the law of wrath) tells all humans that they are sinners. If
people do not find Christ in the law, they are still sinners. Blessed are those
who find Christ in the law. The source of blessing is Jesus Christ. The Bible
says in Romans (3: 19-20).
『Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 』
Those who realize
that they are sinners are poor in spirit. What the law tells us is that your
souls are poor. In Israel, “poor” refers to a state in which there is no land to eat and live. When
the Israelites came out of Egypt and entered Canaan, God divided the land by
tribe. However, over time, changes occurred. The land is sold for a variety of
reasons, leaving no land for cultivation. Thus, God set up a jubilee system to
get it back.
However, the jubilee
system was not well maintained because the people did not keep the law. The
poor who have no land are deprived of it. Poor spirit means that the spirit has
been taken away from home. Unless someone gives home to the Spirit, he can
never escape poverty. But those who realize the meaning of the spirit in
poverty can be blessed, because those who realize can repent to God and put on
the body of the spirit.
The Bible says in
Leviticus (25:23).『The land shall
not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners
with me. 』The Hebrew
word for resident is the word ger. Moses' name is Gershom. It means being a
foreigner. Precisely speaking, a foreigner comes to live in another country.
Israel received land as an inheritance, which is a promise. The promise means
giving God's kingdom as an inheritance. That is, in this land (material world),
humans are strangers. It is a stranger from God's kingdom. Residents are the
same as permanent residence, while those living in a dwelling are temporary
residence. Residents represent Israel, and dwellers symbolize Gentiles.
In Hebrews 11:13『These all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and
were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 』 So, the place where people go back is the kingdom of
God. We cannot go back on our own. So we plead with Jesus. Jesus allows those
who died together on the cross to return to the kingdom of God. So we must
repent of our departure from God and cry out.『Blessed are they that
mourn: for they shall be comforted. 』 To mourn means to feel
overwhelmed. The spirit in men was with God in the kingdom of God. By the way,
when he realized that the spirit was deceived by Satan and robbed the
tabernacle of God and was trapped in the dust of the material world, he was so
cylindrical.
The Bible says in Luke (18: 7).『And shall
not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? 』 Those who
have been brought to the temptations of Satan to cry out for the night and day
to restore the body of spirit that has been taken away. The chosen must pray
like this. The way they can be comforted by God is to return to the Father as
dead, like the parable of the prodigal son.
In Psalm 135: 14『For the LORD
will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants. 』 Here, the word
comfort is expressed in Exodus 32:14 as the word “repent”.『And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do
unto his people. 』 In the
case of the golden calf of the Israelites, it is God's turning to hear Moses'
earnest prayer.
The Greek word for "turn
around" means "call back", a compound word for "para"
(towards) and "careo" (call back).『Blessed are the meek:
for they shall inherit the earth. 』 The word
meek is the same word ana in Hebrew as the word poor in spirit. The word ana in
Hebrew means a poor state without the ability to save oneself from the economic
exploitation and social oppression of the rich and powerful. They can't do
anything, so they become humble. The Bible says in Numbers (in 12: 3).『(Now the man Moses was very meek,
above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) 』 Moses was proud when
he was the prince of Egypt, but after 40 years of fled to Midian, he became
insignificant. God promises to those who do not have a stranger on earth and
are ready to leave. The land is the land of Canaan. The inheritance is the word
of God's promise.
To receive the land
as an inheritance is a promise to inherit the kingdom of God in the future.
When people realize that they are deceived by Satan in God's kingdom and are
driven to live on this earth, they are meek by the humility of nothing on
earth. Thus, the meek repent and enter into Christ. The kingdom of God is
promised.
『Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 』 Blessing
becomes full. In the which which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
righteousness is the righteousness that God requires. People can enter the
kingdom of God only when they receive the righteousness that God acknowledges.
No one can attain God's righteousness by his own efforts. The way to get right
from God is to deny self. When we die on the cross with Jesus, God gives
righteousness. The meaning of “hunger” is
what Joseph said when he became prime minister in Genesis, when the people of
Egypt had no food for famine.
Thirsty, the Israelites blamed
Moses for lack of water in Meriva. The Bible says in Exodus (17: 3).『And the people thirsted there for water; and the people
murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this
that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us
and our children and our cattle with thirst? 』 God commanded Moses to water him out of the rock,
which Moses struck twice with his staff. The rock represents Jesus Christ.
God gave the law to the
Israelites. Thus, the people would keep the law and do right. But God gave the
law to realize that it was a sinner who could not achieve righteousness, and
the people did not understand it. The meaning of “do hunger and
thirst”, which Jesus speaks of, refers to a time when
the people keep trying to do righteousness by keeping the law and realize that
they can hardly achieve it.
『Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 』(5:7) Mercy means God's mercy. The object of mercy we
can think of is man. To love a brother is to save the brother's dead spirit. A
merciful person is merciful from God. The Bible says in Leviticus (19:18).『Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the
children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the
LORD. 』 Love means
saving the spirit. Brother's spirit is in death, and we must give the light of
life.
The Bible
says in 1 John (3: 14-15).『We know that we have passed from
death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that
no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 』
The Bible
says the same thing in 1 John (4:20).『If a man
say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 』
『Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 』(5:8) The meaning of cleanliness of the heart can be
seen in Psalm 24: 4. 『He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who
hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 』
The purity of
the heart means "one who does not put his will in vain and does not swear
falsely." In Psalm 19: 8『The
statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the
LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. 』
He who is pure in heart brightens his eyes and sees
God. The law is pure.
Thus, when
they try to keep the law, they realize that they cannot keep it, and they
discover the Christ of salvation. To discover Christ is to look to God. For
Christ is God. In John 14: 9『Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you,
and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the
Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? 』 Today, those who keeps the law are not pure in
heart.
『Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the
children of God. 』(5:9) Jesus is the reconciler between God and
sinners. Sinners cannot come to God. But because of Christ, sinners can reach
out to God. When sinners repent and die with Jesus, who died on the cross, all
sinners' sins vanish, enter into Christ, and be at peace with God.
Thus, those
who are in Christ make other sinners at peace with God. By preaching the word
of God, we let other sinners repent and return to God.『Blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
』(5:10)
Many church
people think that this is "persecuted by the world as they go to
church." For in Roman times Christians were persecuted for believing in
Jesus.
In "For
Righteousness" you should know well that "righteousness". Jesus
is telling the Jews who want to realize the meaning of God through the law. The
Jews did not even understand the meaning of John the Baptist or Jesus'
repentance toward the Jews.
To repent
means to find Christ in the law, but not. So Jesus is persecuted by the Jews.
Today we are to be freed from the law of the church and to enter into Christ.
Nevertheless,
there are many who practice law. Many church people still think that they can
only be saved by paying tithing, that the church building is a temple, and that
they can only meet God there, and that they can only be saved by repenting
their sins every day. All of this comes from legal thinking.
Jesus died on
the cross because God is just. Jesus died on behalf of all sinners. But unless
sinners repent, God does not forgive sin. Those who repent of their sins that
have left God can receive righteousness from God. Repentance is united with the
death of Jesus and dying on the cross with Jesus.
There must be
judgment in sin. For sin that leaves God, the result is death. Sinners must die
with Jesus to be forgiven. The dead with Jesus are forgiven not only of the
original sin (the original sin of heaven, the original sin of the earth), but
of all the past, present, and future sins of this world. But those who think
legally in the Church condemn and persecute these words. What they think is the
way to righteousness. They say that they are saved only by faith, but they are
not free from legal thought.
『Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 』(5:11)
There will be many of these things in the
church. As to what happens between the gospel and the law in the church, Jesus
spoke in the parable of the ten virgins. The wise five virgins prepared another
oil jar, but the foolish five virgins could not prepare another. Another oil
barrel means the Holy Spirit.
By dying on
the cross with Jesus Christ, we are born again into the body of the Spirit by
the power of the Holy Spirit, receiving the filling of the Holy Spirit. But the
one who did not prepare for the other oil canisters thought of Jesus as the
bridegroom, but still considered the law, saying that there was no holy spirit.
Jesus told
the Jews about the eight blessings on the Sermon on the Mount. God gave the
people the Law and told them to keep righteousness. The fundamental reason is
that you realize that you are sinners who cannot keep the law and are sinners
who have left the kingdom of God, and that you cannot be saved unless you find
Christ.
So Jesus told
the Jews to repent. Blessing is finding Christ in the law, realizing that they
are sinners. But the people did not find Christ, and Jesus was crucified.
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