Reflections from November 6th: “Blessedness”

We have a nasty habit of turning things upside down. This is true when it comes to the concept of “blessedness.” How do we arrive to this state? Point blank and to get to the two main ways of answering the question: 1) We achieve blessedness; or 2) God bestows blessedness. We know our preference and we prove our choice at the popular level whenever we speak about saints. The common idea is that saints earn their status; they qualify for sainthood. The implication is that if you do “x, y, z” sacrificial and “above and beyond the call of duty” – works, then brace yourself: you will be rewarded and have bestowed upon you the title “saint.” This is utterly contrary to the teaching of God’s Word. God disagrees with the popular idea. While St. Paul wrote to the Christian in Ephesus (Christians with all kinds of problems and sins which confronted their lives; a lot like you and me), the apostle to the Gentiles began his letter: “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:1).” These living breathing sinners were also living breathing saints. God made them so. 1st Corinthians 1:30 teaches us how. In this Scripture God identifies Jesus Christ as not only our righteousness (therefore our justification, our forgiveness), but Jesus is also our sanctification (the basis for our holiness). To put it simply: Jesus makes us saints by virtue of our connection to Him! Interestingly enough, when St. Peter confessed who Jesus was — the Christ, the Son of the Living God — Jesus told Peter that flesh and blood had not revealed this to him (so much for our achieving blessedness), but the Father in heaven did (Matthew 16:17). All of this is necessary background for the vastly popular beautitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). These nine (9) blessed statements are not — I repeat not — requirements (new laws) for achieving blessedness. They are not presciptive, but descriptive. When God makes saints by grace through faith in Jesus Christ apart from the works of the law, those saints (holy ones) show (by God’s grace and by the Holy Spirit) holy lives. For example, moved by the Spirit, saints are the blessed ones who mourn and who thirst for righteousness. They mourn over their own sin, confessing it to God, but they also thirst for the righteousness that is Christ’s (in both the passive and active sense). All of this, however, is God’s work. He is in the saint-making business. We aren’t! Thank God! Otherwise we would botch it up! Let us therefore rest in His work for us: that in Jesus Christ — having been incorporated into Him — we are now holy; that is, His holiness is imparted to us. Blessed are you! In Christ, Dr. Espinosa

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