This is the final article under the beatitude series, which delves into the eighth beatitude recorded in Matthew 5:10, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”
As highlighted in the earlier articles of this series, these beatitudes present a sequential process in a believer’s life. They effectively summarize the steps and experiences that believers will face as they journey through both their physical and spiritual life. Below is a summary of the beatitudes which culminate into the final one.
1. Summary Of The Beatitudes
1.1 Matthew 5:3
- Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- We have determined that the initial step in a believer’s spiritual journey involves recognizing our spiritual poverty without God. Following this realization, we embark on a quest to seek Him, with the assurance that we will find Him since He is always close. This journey guarantees that we will receive the spiritual Kingdom of God. Finding Jesus is tantamount to receiving the kingdom of God.
1.2 Matthew 5:4
- Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
- When we encounter God through His Son, Jesus, we undergo a phase of mourning. This period is marked by profound feelings of shame, guilt, and regret as His magnificent light reveals the depth of our sins. In response, Jesus offers us comfort by forgiving our transgressions and inviting us to repent, calling us to accept the divine purpose he has designed for our lives.
1.3 Matthew 5:5
- Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
- Repentance leads to subduing and aligning our will to the will of God. It also ushers a new way of life that is willingly dependent on the wisdom and power of God, this is referred to as being humble. Humbleness also involves a complete surrender that allows one’s power, will, wisdom and more to diminish so that God’s can work through one’s life for His glory.
1.4 Matthew 5:6
- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
- Since we have willingly surrendered our will, power and more to Jesus by being humble, what remains is a deep desire to do his righteous will. We aspire for the righteousness of God to be established in every circumstance of our lives because and God uses us to to fulfill His will on earth.
1.5 Matthew 5:7
- Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
- Doing the will of God include showing mercy to others. God by nature is merciful, and part of desiring to bring the righteous order of God is showing mercy to others. God assures that we will be shown mercy.
1.6 Matthew 5:8
- Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
- As the believers journey advances to maturity, our hearts is continually purified to be clean so that the presence of the Holy Spirit may continue to dwell. This results in having more spiritual encounters and revelations attributed to the power of God.
1.7 Matthew 5:9
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
- The indwelling and full presence of the Holy Spirit in our pure hearts mark us as children of God. His presence produces an internal state of peace. Believers who have attained this internal reality of peace propagate it outwardly to their external environment.
1.8 Matthew 5:10
- Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
- And finally, as children of God in a dark world continue to manifest His Glory on earth, we expect to be persecuted, opposed, and more. Whichever the degree of persecution we experience, the Spiritual Kingdom of God that we received in the first beatitude becomes a reality when we die.
2. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake’
The final beatitude deals with persecution. Ultimately as believers advance in their life and journey with God, the world will persecute them for doing good and honoring God. Jesus was persecuted to death for God’s righteousness sake’, eventually he became honored above everyone in God’s Kingdom.
Stephen as he was being persecuted for his speech that acclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God saw the Jesus at the right hand of God in Acts 7:55.
These scenarios give us hope hope that we will indeed inherit the kingdom of God both now, in its spiritual form, and after we die in its physical form. What this means is that have have received Jesus, yet we have never seen him, but we believe in him, at this point he is merely a spiritual reality. When we die, he will become a physical reality, we shall see him as he is, Just as Stephen saw him at the right hand of the Father when he was about to die. Therefore no longer live in fear of death because we have the surety of eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
3. Bringing It All Together
The beatitudes begin and end with receiving Kingdom of God. The first beatitude assures that being poor in spirit assures the Kingdom of God as ours, and thus we receive the Kingdom of God in its spiritual to make rich in spirit. The process continues to the final beatitude which also assures that when we are persecuted for Christ’s sake, the Kingdom of God is ours. This process is sustained by faith in Jesus Christ from start to finish (Romans 1:17).
We look unto Jesus who begins with our faith in him, and perfects it to full maturity (Hebrews 12:2). He is the model by which we can follow in our spiritual journey, as he too was poor in spirit and went to be baptized and received the spiritual kingdom of God in the form of the Holy Spirit. This culminated in this spiritual Kingdom becoming a physical reality, as he came to full maturity and was exalted to sit at the right hand of the Father.
To attain the reality of the Kingdom of God, Jesus surrendered his will to God during his earthly life; he was humble to God’s power; he had a deep desire to do the will of God and to glorify Him. This surrender led him to be persecuted for doing what is right – healing the sick, preaching the Good News, raising the dead and more. Eventually, he inherited the Kingdom of God.
We too can model after Jesus, who by faith, believed that his Father would raise him up from the dead, and endure all persecutions for God’s righteous will to save humanity from the power of sin. We have been empowered through the Holy Spirit to endure by having faith in Jesus until the day he returns back.
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