The first four beatitudes dealt with the characteristics that are revealed in the regenerate sinner’s conversion journey from regeneration to saving faith in Christ Jesus. The regenerate sinner comes to faith in Jesus Christ with an impoverished spirit and with godly sorrow for his or her trespasses against God. He or she also comes with a humble spirit and with an essential hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ. Once the regenerate sinner believes in Christ by faith, these four characteristics that facilitated his or her conversion remain characteristics of the new Christian. And the blessings of the gospel bestowed upon the converted Christian by God, namely citizenship in the kingdom of heaven, divine comfort, eternal inheritance, and a filled and satisfied spirit, also remain after God justifies and adopts the new believer and all these continue throughout the Christian’s sanctification.
Now in the next three beatitudes, Jesus looks at the Christian characteristics that are at the forefront during the Christian’s sanctifying walk with God. There certainly seems to be a logical correlation between the first four beatitudes and these next three. The common thread is the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of sinners from regeneration to saving faith producing the characteristics of Christians that are stated in the next three beatitudes.
EXPOSITION
“Blessed are.” As stated in previous articles, the Christians being blessed by God in this beatitude enjoy a state of spiritual well-being and approval from God.
“the merciful.” Perhaps most people understand “merciful” as looking upon and compassionately treating others who are experiencing distress of some sort and are in unfortunate circumstances. But the mercy spoken of here that Christians exercise toward others is patterned specially from God’s divine mercy toward believers which believers have already experienced.
Considering the communicable attributes of God, one facet to consider is His moral attributes. Included among His moral attributes under the heading of the goodness of God is the attribute of mercy. God’s mercy is closely affiliated with the goodness and love of God and God always employs his mercy in accordance with his perfect justice. This attribute called mercy has been referred to as tender compassion.
God in his divine and perfect mercy sees human beings as guilty of sin and deserving of condemnation for their transgressions against Him. He recognizes their distressful condition from which they have no means of extricating themselves, and He knows that only He can grant relief for their condemnation. God’s mercy as Berkhof states “may be defined as the goodness or love of God shown to those who are in misery or distress, irrespective of their deserts [i.e., deserved punishment].”[1]
The children of God are the greatest beneficiaries of God’s divine mercy and because of their experience with God’s mercy, they then are merciful to others as God was merciful to them. The apostle Paul taught regarding Christian mercy when he wrote “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). The merciful characteristic possessed by Christians is a kind, patient, gentle and long-suffering mercy. This Christlike mercy though abundantly applied to fellow Christians is also used when dealing with unbelievers just as God exercised His divine mercy for the benefit of unbelievers (Matt. 5:44-48; Luke 6:35, 36;).
“for they shall receive mercy.” We find this same notion in the Psalms where, speaking of God, we are told that “With the merciful you show yourself merciful” (Ps. 18:25).
This second phrase following the first has resulted in many misinterpreting the teaching of this beatitude. Some interpret Jesus as saying here that God will be merciful to us only if and to the extent we have been merciful to others. In other words, God will be merciful to us on the condition that we have been merciful to others; that God will forgive us only if we forgive others; that God will be kind and patient, and long-suffering to us if we have been kind and patient and long-suffering to others. If this is the correct understanding of this beatitude, then it is inconsistent with and contradictory to the rest of Scripture.
This incorrect interpretation that states “if I am merciful to others, then God will show mercy to me” is often based on two points. First, proponents of this unsound interpretation use the verse in the Lord’s Prayer that states “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12). They say that this teaches that the sinner must forgive others first and only then will God forgive the sinner. This, of course, is an unacceptable understanding of this verse.
Second, some of these same proponents cite the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:22-35) as teaching that forgiveness on the part of the sinner is required for the sinner to receive forgiveness from God. If this parable is interpreted in this legalistic manner, it is quite possible that no one could ever be forgiven. So this understanding of this parable is unsatisfactory.
Scripture must be interpreted by Scripture and we can hold no interpretation of Scripture that contradicts other Scripture. So to believe that sinners must show mercy to others and forgive others as a condition of God showing mercy to the sinners and forgiving them contradicts other Scripture as well as the very doctrine of grace.
Jesus is describing characteristics that Christians possess out of their love of God. A true Christian walks with God with an impoverished spirit, sorry for his or her transgressions against God, with a humble spirit and with a hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of Christ. And here in verse 7 we are told that Christians are also merciful to others during their walk with God. This is just the way true Christians are.
God is merciful to those Christians even before they possess these characteristics. There is no quid pro quo[2] here. God shows mercy to Christians as well as non-Christians (Rom. 9:15) and He exercises His mercy according to His will which does not depend “on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16). He certainly doesn’t require anyone to be merciful before he shows that mercy. And He surely doesn’t condition His mercy on anyone showing mercy first.
The mercy Christians extend to others is modeled after the mercy they all experienced from God. They are merciful because they love God and want to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). They imitate His mercy shown to them because they love Him―not because He might show mercy to them. He’s already done that in the most glorious and magnanimous way.
[1] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 554.
[2] Quid pro quo is a Latin term meaning “something for something” or “this for that.”
