The Beatitudes and the Order of Salvation
21978 words long.
Published on 2025-01-02. Updated on 2025-01-17.
Synopsis
When Jesus saves a person, how does he do it? What are all the steps? How are they ordered? Each Christian denomination has their own idea, assembled from scattered Bible verses, with the steps identified, interpreted, connected and ordered according to their preferred systematic theology. This ordering of steps is called in Latin the Ordo Salutis, or in English the Order of Salvation. Disagreements over how this process should be defined led to wars that claimed the lives of millions. Could this have been avoided? What would Jesus say? Or better yet, what did Jesus say? Did he number the steps for us and tell us their order, but we weren't paying attention?
This article will show how two short and complementary passages of the Bible each define the full Ordo Salutis. We can set aside our competing systems and learn from the Good Teacher. The first passage is Psalm 19, where King David prays for redemption. The second passage is the Beatitudes of Matthew 5, where Jesus answers David's prayer, point for point.
This discovery shows that the Beatitudes are more than scattered promises of divine help for people with different needs and more than a summary of character qualities that are essential in a disciple of Christ. This article will:
- Present the Beatitudes as the answer to King David's prayer for salvation in Psalm 19
- Demonstrate that the Beatitudes follow the Harvest Pattern, showing the path from unbelief to peace with God
- Line the Beatitudes up with the Ten Commandments, point for point, in order
- Define the Ordo Salutis (Order of salvation) as nine steps from God's initial call to a saint's glorification
- Conclude that while the Reformed Ordo Salutis comes closest to matching Jesus' order, even it needs correction
- Observe that the Beatitudes are a table of contents into the rest of the Sermon on the Mount - in reverse!
- Reveal God's prophetic plan to unveil each doctrine in the Ordo Salutis with power, in Chronological order, thereby shaking the world and carrying the Church toward maturity
The big takeaway is that Jesus turned the Law that enslaves and brings death into a powerful force for liberty, protection and life. He has wielded this Law of Christ on behalf of individuals but also shaped the whole history of the church according to its principles. In each successive era, by the mediation of the Holy Spirit, Jesus has delivered to the church his nine blessings, in order. One last blessing remains: the glorification of the saints that will occur at the time of our Lord's blessed, long awaited return.
See Celestial Clocks - The Order of Salvation Clock for a concise presentation of just the prophetic content of the Beatitudes.
Admitting that You Need Help
Decades ago I was sitting in a seminar related to my job. It had something to do with self-improvement and was based on ideas taken from psychology. The goal may have been to foster stronger teams in the workplace but the focus was on individual effort and advancement. Minutes before, the facilitator put up a slide on the projector with the neat and tidy steps that would get you to the goal. I had no background in this area, had taken no classes in psychology and human development and do not recall having read books related to the subject. All I had was an analytical mind and no sense of boundaries or the following of social norms, courtesy of my as yet undiagnosed Asperger's. Give me a list and I will do four things. First, I will count it. Second, I will decide if any of the items are wrong or do not belong. Third, I will decide if any of them are out of sequence. Fourth and most difficult, I will search for holes. Are any steps in the process missing?
Before the lecturer had a chance to finish summarizing these ideas which were the outline of the entire seminar, ideas which I had never seen before, I raised my hand and said, “You're missing a step.” The man was a bit dumb-founded but humored me by asking what that step might be. I said, “The first step is that you have to want to change.”
Isn't that what repentance is? It is recognizing that you need to go in a new direction and to do that you need to change. Going beyond psychology, that recognition must be coupled with an admission that you cannot make those changes by yourself. You need God. No human program of self-improvement will succeed. You must admit you are poor and turn in faith to the God who is rich in forgiveness and grace. The lecturer in my seminar (and the authors of the course who stood behind him) missed that crucial first step. In Matthew 5-7 we get to listen in on a different seminar, taught by someone who did not miss. And yes, Jesus put that first step first. We call that first step of realizing that you have needs that only God can meet the Beatitudes.
These are the first seven Beatitudes:
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.
- Matthew 5:3-9, ESV
It is curious that in the first four Beatitudes, the one to be blessed is described as deficient in something desirable which the Lord promises they will one day receive. They are poor, mournful, meek, hungry and thirsty. In the last three, the blessed one possesses an admirable character quality but is promised something even greater. This indicates that the person is on a quest and they are making progress toward maturity.
That quest is to reap a spiritual harvest and the crop is named in the sixth blessing. The goal of that harvest is the impossible desire that drove Moses on: to see the face of God and live.
Each blessing matches its corresponding phase in the Harvest Pattern. Collectively, these seven constitute the heart that a determined harvester must have if they are to fulfill Jesus' command to make disciples of all nations. Before we see how this all fits together, there is a longer process of salvation at work: the path to glory.
The Ordo Salutis: Nine steps from Dishonor to Glory
Every denomination has its own way to describe the process of salvation, with much overlap. The order presented here is closest to that taught by Reformed churches; in my list two Reformed steps are omitted (Predestination and Election) and one step (Adoption) is shifted by one position. The sequences presented by all denominations are the product of complex theological systems. To my knowledge, none of these systems offer up a single Bible passage in which this order may be observed. Instead, they have composed it by drawing upon passages scattered throughout the Bible, applying logic and also factoring in key insights from their denominational system. In this article, an Ordo Salutis will be described and defended from two passages: Psalm 19 and Matthew 5:3-11. It will also be buttressed by reference to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.
Why is this significant? You don't need a fancy system based on human logic and many assumptions to derive the plan of salvation. You only need the words of Jesus. Also, these are not just any words. Before delivering the Beatitudes, Jesus in Matthew has only uttered six sentences. One was to insist that John baptize him. Three were addressed to the devil during his temptation. One was to call people to repent. The sixth one was to call Simon and Andrew to be his disciples. Thus these Beatitudes are Jesus' first major teaching. Isn't it fitting that they tell people, step by step, the way to be saved?
Both Psalm 19 and Matthew 5 list all nine steps. The only difference between these two passages is that Adoption falls between Perseverance and Glorification in Psalm 19 and between Sanctification and Perseverance in Matthew 5. Since the reference to Adoption in Psalm 19 is subtle and appears in the same verse as the references to perseverance and glory, the clear and unambiguous listing of Matthew will be considered definitive. Here is that order:
- Calling
- Regeneration
- Faith
- Repentance
- Justification
- Sanctification
- Adoption
- Perseverance
- Glorification
By combining Psalm 19 and Matthew 5, we will see that the Bible tells a simple story. King David prayed in Psalm 19 for the Lord to save him. Then Jesus answered in the Beatitudes by telling us the way of salvation.
The Bible also tells a more complicated story. The world as nations and peoples and a suffering church has also cried out for someone to show them the way of salvation on a larger scale than just individuals. Jesus has told us how he will save that part of the world that turns to him in faith. The Beatitudes prophesy ten eras in the history of the church. Each Beatitude shouts the cry for help of one era in church history. The blessing in that Beatitude names the relief that the Lord promised to send in the following era. The ninth and final beatitude prophesies a blessed tenth time when there will be no more suffering, and that will be when Jesus returns.
As for David, his very prayer was a prophecy that can be used to identify the one who would answer it. Before we get to that, though, let's perform some accounting.
Numbering the Beatitudes
To emphasize the cooperation yet distinct roles of the persons of the Trinity, many Bible passages are phrased so as to highlight the numbers that correspond to each person, or the Law, or some other concept. The Beatitudes of Matthew 5 are so structured.
The Son. First, each beatitude names a class of suffering person and then pronounces a blessing upon them. The alternation of suffering, blessing, suffering, blessing shouts the number two. Two stands for Jesus, who has two natures (divine and human), as the divine Logos is divided into two Testaments, Old and New, will come to earth twice, and whose suffering on the cross is the cause of all blessings that accrue to believers.
The Spirit. Second, the first seven Beatitudes form a Harvest Pattern, as first noted in the chapter "A Minute Look at Matthew" in Peace, like Solomon Never Knew. The number seven stands for the Holy Spirit. Acquiring and believing the blessing of the seventh Beatitude, becoming adopted into God's family as a son of God, is a most critical step. This blessing is specially associated by Paul with action of the Holy Spirit:
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery
to fall back into fear, but you have received
the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,
“Abba! Father!”
- Romans 8:15
The Father. Third, there are nine beatitudes, which is three times three, with three being the number for the Father. When we consider how the Beatitudes reveal the Order of Salvation, it will be apparent that there are three phases, describing our relationship to the Father in each state.
- Seeker. The first three Beatitudes are about a seeker hearing the call to faith.
- Servant. The second three Beatitudes are about living as a servant under discipline in God's house, repentant, forgiven, and on the road to sanctification.
- Son. The third three Beatitudes are about living in glorious freedom as a son (or daughter) of God.
Each triplet of Beatitudes and their corresponding step toward salvation has one devoted to each member of the Trinity:
- The Son calls, the Spirit regenerates, and the Father grants faith (in the Son)
- The Son teaches the prayer of repentance, the Father justifies, and the Spirit sanctifies
- The Spirit adopts, the Son models perseverance, and the Father glorifies
In truth, all three persons participate in all phases, but one dominates each. For example, the sixth statement by Jesus and the last before the Beatitudes was Jesus calling his first disciples. So Jesus is the one who calls, but the choice of whom to call was made by the Father, who gave them to him (John 10:29,17:9). Likewise, we are saved by faith in Jesus as our savior, but it is the Father who gives us that faith, for it is said:
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
- James 1:17
The last three steps of Salvation gave me the most trouble. In my first version of this article, I had the Father adopting, the Spirit persevering, and the Son glorifying. It felt right, but I had not bothered to check Scripture. Jesus speaks of his own glorification in John at least five times, and each time he says that it is the Father who glorifies him, such as here:
Jesus answered,
"If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say,
'He is our God.'"
- John 8:54
As for adoption, that one was trickier. In Ephesians 1:5 we learn that the Father is the one who predestines a person for adoption,
but it is done through the Son. Romans 8:15,23 speaks of "the Spirit of Adoption" and calls our adoption the "firstfruits of the Spirit".
Galatians is clearer, saying,
to redeem those who were under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent the
Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying,
“Abba! Father!”
- Galatians 4:5-6
Adoption is not something that is done, it is something that is received, and what is received is the Holy Spirit.
The Law. Fourth, though there are nine Beatitudes, the last one is extra long. Each Beatitude corresponds to one of the Ten Commandments, but the last one matches two (against lying and covetousness). This begins the transformation of a law that brings death into one that brings eternal life.
From the preceding, we can conclude that it is specifically the Trinitarian God that saves people, with all three persons cooperating seamlessly in the process.
Now that we have introduced two key structures in the Beatitudes, the Harvest Pattern and the Ordo Salutis, it is time for a deep dive. The rest of this article will show, verse by verse, how these ideas connect to the passage and what that means for Christians. So back we go to the Harvest Pattern.
The Harvest Pattern of the Beatitudes
The Bible is filled with patterns and it is important to keep them straight.
- The Growth Pattern of Solomon is a strategic pattern that covers your entire life. You live through it twice: once materially (life "under the sun") and once spiritually (as salvation followed by sanctification).
- The Harvest Pattern of Jesus is a tactical pattern. You reap many harvests in your life, and often they overlap. An individual harvest may last weeks, months, years or even decades. To successfully complete each step or phase of the Growth Pattern requires working through a separate harvest.
- The Ordo Salutis is a hybrid pattern. The first seven steps form a Harvest Pattern and are strategic. They carry you through salvation up to the first steps of sanctification. The final two steps of perseverance and glorification represent the completion of your sanctification across the majority of your faith life. Thus this pattern bridges both scales, tactical and strategic.
As a refresher, the Harvest Pattern has these steps:
- Preparation (of faith in the Lord, respect for the Law, and deciding on what crop to grow this season)
- Plowing (of Suffering)
- Planting Seeds (of Gospel truth by the Son)
- Pouring Water (of emotional help and counsel by the Holy Spirit)
- Plucking Weeds (as discipline from the Father)
- Producing a Harvest
- Peace
This pattern is defined by Jesus in Matthew. It is employed structurally at least seventeen times in Matthew, from the overall outline of the whole book to the structure of short passages. The pattern's most complete realization is the overall structure of the Book of Job.
Preparation: The Poor in Spirit
The poor in spirit have set aside their pride. They have been called upon to repent of their sins so that they may enter the kingdom of heaven and they now recognize the sovereignty of their new king. How do we know that this is the preparation for the harvest? We know this first because of what Matthew says about John the Baptist:
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.'”
- Matthew 3:1-3, ESV
We know this second because when Jesus began his ministry, his first words in the Gospel of Mark were, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
So to prepare for the harvest, you must consider all that you have to be worthless and seek from God a place in His kingdom. You must listen to the first of the Seven Spirits of God, the Spirit of Lordship, and take the first steps towards crowning him as the king of your life.
Plowing: The Mournful
The second Spirit of God from Isaiah 11:2 is the Spirit of Wisdom; it is the spirit that guides us during the plowing phase. Solomon said, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” (Ecclesiastes 7:4, ESV) Wisdom flows from mourning – if you receive that suffering in faith and patience and do not deny your Lord. Apart from Jesus, no one better exemplifies the miracles that mourning in faith can yield than Job.
Why do we mourn? We mourn because we have lost something. Job learned of his first loss when he received word from a messenger that his cattle had been stolen by raiders while “the oxen were plowing” (Job 1:14) Ever since then, plowing has been used as an analogy for suffering or judgment, as in Psalm 129:3 (“Plowmen have plowed my back and made their furrows long”), Jeremiah 26:18, Hosea 12:11, Micah 3:12, Isaiah 28:22-29 and Ezekiel 36:9. Ezekiel's usage is powerful and on point, because it shows that even God's judgment is intended to produce a blessing in the end. Ezekiel includes five of the seven phases of the Harvest and collapses the other two into one:
“ 'But you, mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit
for my people Israel, for they will soon come home.
I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor;
you will be plowed and sown, and I will cause
many people to live on you—yes, all of Israel.
The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.
I will increase the number of people and animals
living on you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous.
I will settle people on you as in the past
and will make you prosper more than before.
Then you will know that I am the LORD.
I will cause people, my people Israel, to live on you.
They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance;
you will never again deprive them of their children.
- Ezekiel 36:8-12, NIV
The words “for they will soon come home” mean more that a return from exile, they mean repenting and returning to faith in God, the preparation for all that would follow, the first phase. Next we see that the land would be “plowed” which matches the second phase of plowing perfectly. After that it will be “sown”, matching the third phase of sowing seed. Then Ezekiel combines the pouring and plucking phases in the phrase “ruins rebuilt”. The sixth phase of producing a harvest is captured by words like “increase” and “fruitful”. Finally, the perpetual blessing of peace upon the generations to follow is captured by the promise “you will never again deprive them of their children”. Of all the calamities that struck Job, the loss of his children was the hardest to bear, so this is the greatest of promises.
Isaiah's word to the mournful focuses on the despairing attitude that the torment of plowing will never end.
Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier;
the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has told me
of the destruction decreed against the whole land.
Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention and hear what I say.
When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?
Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?
When he has leveled the surface,
does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?
Does he not plant wheat in its place,
barley in its plot, and spelt in its field?
His God instructs him and teaches him the right way.
Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,
and cumin with a stick.
Grain must be ground to make bread;
so one does not go on threshing it forever.
The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it,
but one does not use horses to grind grain.
All this also comes from the LORD Almighty,
whose plan is wonderful,
whose wisdom is magnificent.
- Isaiah 28:22-29, NIV
Isaiah speaks of plowing, sowing, threshing and producing bread. He speaks of the magnificence of God's wisdom and how he instructs us in the right way. The plowing does not last forever. As Jesus promised, the one who mourns will be comforted.
Planting: The Meek
In the planting phase, what is planted is the seed of the gospel. How does that tie in with “Blessed are the meek”? How does that connect to inheriting the earth? Let's start with the second. Among the people of this world, who conquers nations and extends their influence? It is the arrogant and greedy, the charismatic liars who gather multitudes to their cause, wage endless wars and build empires. How does Jesus stack up? In the desert, Satan tempted Jesus by offering him all the kingdoms of the earth in exchange for his worship. (Matthew 4:8-10) Jesus said no. He would go by what was written. He would only worship the Lord God. That was meekness. One day Jesus will return to conquer, but on the Father's timetable, not his own or Satan's. Thus an essential part of following the Beatitudes is to submit to God's timing. This is emphasized in the psalm to which Jesus was referring when he pronounced his blessing:
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
- Psalm 37:7-9, ESV
To be still and wait patiently upon the Lord and to turn away from human anger to acquire what we desire is the very definition of what it is to be meek. A more pointed association to meekness is found in the life of Moses:
Now the man Moses was very meek,
more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
- Numbers 12:3, ESV
Moses complained that he was “slow of speech and tongue” (Exodus 4:10). Planting is about taking the words God gives you and speaking them to others so that they may be planted and flourish. Moses was the Lawgiver par excellence. In meekness he planted. Did he inherit the land? God told Moses that he would die before reaching the Promised Land. Instead, his successor Joshua would inherit the land:
Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people
to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.
- Joshua 1:6, ESV
Many of the heroes of faith had to be content to look from afar on the things that they would not inherit until the final resurrection. (Hebrews 11:13-16). However, before we inherit the earth, we inherit something of greater importance:
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up
and knelt before him and asked him,
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him,
“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
- Mark 10:17-18, ESV
Goodness is generosity, and Jesus, our “Good Teacher”, generously gives eternal life to all who come to him in meekness. Not only does he give, but he presents a calm and reassuring demeanor so as not to scare off those who come to him in need (Job 16:19-21; 33:6-7):
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light.
- Matthew 11:28-30, KJV
The meek can go to Jesus in safety because Jesus is not only meek, he is strong enough to protect those who run to him from all enemies in pursuit; he is a king. And if you are too weak to go to him, he will come to you. The doctor makes house calls:
Tell ye the daughter of Sion,
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek,
and sitting upon an ass,
and a colt the foal of an ass.
- Matthew 21:5, KJV
The spirit that attends this third harvest phase is the Spirit of Understanding. To understand is to “stand under”, learning in humility the Word that proceeds from our good teacher. It is to learn through worship the mysteries of God. This was not obvious to me.
This is a good time to speak about the three kinds of insight that sound the same but aren't: wisdom, understanding and knowledge. They are respectively the second, third and sixth Spirits of God.
Wisdom. Wisdom flows from suffering. Out of Job's suffering he discovered all the qualities that he needed in a savior. He needed a healer, a friend and mediator, one who could ransom his soul, follow him into the grave and raise him from the dead. There are many dimensions to wisdom but it tends to encompass principles, not detailed action plans. Key among these principles is grasping the way of salvation.
Knowledge. This species of insight goes beyond wisdom down into the details of how God's universe operates. Of all the subjects of knowledge, one is supreme: the knowledge of the Holy One.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
- Proverbs 9:10
I have not learned wisdom,
nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.
- Proverbs 30:3
The truest and highest knowledge is the knowledge of Jesus Christ. As first reported in Peace, like Solomon Never Knew, seven books of the Bible constitute the seven pillars of wisdom which hold up Lady Wisdom's house in Proverbs 9:1. The sixth of those books, corresponding to the sixth spirit and the sixth phase of the Harvest Pattern, is the Gospel of Matthew. You will find no better source for knowledge of the Holy One than one of the Gospels that chronicles his life.
Understanding. How is understanding connected to worship? The answer came to me in pieces.
- First, it came to me through worship.
- Second, through a nagging question.
- Third, through the discovery of the seven pillars of wisdom and their relationship to the seven Spirits of God.
Worship. From January to June 1988, I spent time every day reading, meditating and praying over the Book of Proverbs. Towards the end, I began to relate to the text in a new way. I began to worship Jesus through Proverbs. I reasoned that the wise principles in that book describe how Jesus thinks and acts. They express his values and his priorities. With each proverb I learned, I was getting to know my savior more. Before that, to worship God I would have turned to the Psalms. This change in me means that I had absorbed with partial awareness the connection between worship and understanding.
A nagging question. I have always loved the story of Joshua meeting the man with the drawn sword.
When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked,
and behold, a man was standing before him with
his drawn sword in his hand.
And Joshua went to him and said to him,
“Are you for us, or for our adversaries?”
And he said,
“No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord.
Now I have come.”
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped
and said to him,
“What does my lord say to his servant?”
And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua,
“Take off your sandals from your feet,
for the place where you are standing is holy.”
And Joshua did so.
- Joshua 5:13-15, ESV
Many Christians believe that the swordsman was the pre-incarnate Christ. The question is, how did Joshua know? What changed his mind in an instant about this total stranger? The man is not described as glowing or special in any way. No miraculous sign was given. When I finally had the sense to investigate this question, the first clue was the word “worship”. A short time later, Jericho would fall as the Israelites blew trumpets and marched about the city, worshiping Yahweh. There is power in worship. Only when I got curious about the use of swords as symbolism in Scripture did I crack this mystery. I reported my discovery in “Swords, Seals & Surviving to Saturday” in my book Peace, like Solomon Never Knew. It turns out that Moses prophesied this event in his final song:
“'See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
For I lift up my hand to heaven
and swear, As I live forever,
if I sharpen my flashing sword
and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and will repay those who hate me.
I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword shall devour flesh—
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the long-haired heads of the enemy.'
- Deuteronomy 32:39-42
This amazing song prophesied a time when the Lord would draw His sword and fight for his people. He is described as one who can bring people back to life. When Moses delivered this prophecy, who heard it, how important did he say that it was, and when did he say that it would take place?
Moses came and recited all the words of this song
in the hearing of the people,
he and Joshua the son of Nun.
And when Moses had finished speaking
all these words to all Israel, he said to them,
“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today,
that you may command them to your children, that they
may be careful to do all the words of this law.
For it is no empty word for you, but your very life,
and by this word you shall live long in the land
that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
- Deuteronomy 32:44-47
Joshua was there! The Bible makes it crystal clear that Joshua not only heard the words, but he helped recite the words for the people to hear. Moses said that the words would be important when they crossed the Jordan and that is when they met the man with the drawn sword.
Those words of Moses were a worship song. Because Joshua was a man who worshiped God, he took his marching orders from a song. The understanding of who that swordsman was came through worship.
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Once I discovered the Seven Pillars of Wisdom and attempted to match each one of the Seven Spirits of God to a pillar book, the riddle of what understanding means became clear. In the ESV, the words understand, understands and understanding appear 43 times in Proverbs, the most of any book in the Bible. The clincher is in Proverbs 9, which tells us of the existence of the Seven Pillars (Proverbs 9:1) in the context of worship:
“Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”
- Proverbs 9:5-6
Does this not remind you of the Christian communion celebration? Therefore to obtain deep understanding of the ways of God, you must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Pouring: The Hungry & Thirsty
What does it mean to hunger and thirst after righteousness? It means to desire holiness in your own life and justice and equity in all your dealings with others. In the economic Trinity:
- The Planting Phase was focused on the work of the Son because he is the Word of God, hence is both sower and seed. His domain is the mind and speech.
- The Plucking Phase will focus on the work of the Father. His domain is the physical realm of action, forming habits, defining priorities and managing time.
- This Pouring Phase is focused on the work of the Holy Spirit which is often symbolized by water, as in baptism. His domain is the heart and its passions, desires and dreams. Naturally, the Holy Spirit is all about holiness. The Spirit is our Counselor (or Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby, Helper, or Companion, as variously rendered by different translations for John 14:16), encouraging, advising, warning and convicting our souls. The prophets are types of the Holy Spirit. They, like the Spirit, do not speak their own words but instead apply and interpret the words of the Son in each given situation.
To manage this special focus on counseling, this phase is governed by the fourth Spirit of God, the Spirit of Counsel. Thus when Jesus says that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied or filled, it is with the Holy Spirit that he intends to fill them. He uses that imagery of drinking because as the Holy Spirit is represented as water, one who drinks deeply is filled, just as Jesus said to the woman at the well, with living water. Jesus uses the imagery of hungering because he later calls himself the bread of life, the bread broken for his disciples. It is disciples of Jesus who will be filled.
The essential truth to be learned here is that it is not willpower, hard work, ingenuity, conscientiousness, discipline, genius, education or any other admirable human quality that will fuel this drive toward holiness. It is hunger and thirst, the humble admission of need. The enemy is junk food, the food of this world that does not nourish your soul. If you feed perpetually on that food your belly will be full but your soul will wither from lack of nutrition.
In the parable of the soils, the Pouring Phase matches the rocky soil that offers no protection form the sun. Only regular irrigation by the Holy Spirit can protect you from the heat of persecution or hardship and soften that rocky heart until it is a heart of flesh. Yet ponder the image of the sun. The trampled soil could not protect the seed from the bird, who is Satan. The sun is not Satan – it is the glory of God. The Old Testament often said that no one can see the face of God and live. We cannot withstand the withering gaze of all that energy pouring from the throne. We need the refreshment of the Holy Spirit to come between us and that glory so that we are not dried out and set ablaze. With that living water in us, we can photosynthesize the light and put it to productive use as we grow toward maturity.
Plucking: The Merciful
The merciful take tangible action to help their neighbor. They move in the material plane, the domain of the Father. Their mercy towards men shall be rewarded with greater mercy from God. Yet I wonder, does this beatitude conceal a riddle?
The fifth spirit of God is the Spirit of Might. God plucks thorns and weeds and prunes dead branches from us to make us fruitful. Those thorns and weeds are the distractions of life, like pleasure, wealth, worry and all the rest. If your time and energy are not wasted on unproductive or sinful pursuits, then you will have more strength to devote to the things that please God and expand His kingdom. You will become mighty. Your life will make an impact. Having not squandered your money on idle pursuits, you will have resources to devote to acts of mercy.
The various translations of this beatitude say that the merciful will receive, be shown, obtain or get mercy, kindness or loving-kindness. I do not believed that such divine kindness is meant to end there. The Father is our teacher. When he shows us kindness He is also showing us how to be kind. He is teaching us the depths of mercy and imparting creative ways to bless our neighbor. How many charities have been started by Christians over the centuries? How many new ways to help have we discovered? We send teachers, we send doctors, we rescue orphans, we advocate for prisoners… God is forever opening our eyes to see what mercy is and how we can change to offer it. Mercy is not obvious or else the world would not have needed the church to teach it to them. That is the riddle.
The righteous care for the needs of their animals,
but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.
- Proverbs 12:10, NIV
The wicked think that the best help for people suffering pain or depression is euthanasia. The wicked think that the best help for a woman with an unwanted pregnancy is to abort the child. The wicked think that the best way to combat the drug trade is to legalize drugs. The wicked think that the best way to serve failing students is to give them passing grades so they don't feel bad. The wicked think that denying African nations loans to build low cost energy infrastructure as a means to save the environment is kind even if it costs the lives of millions dying or being unable to get jobs for lack of access to inexpensive electricity. The wicked think that mining rare metals is so important to their rich lifestyle that it is kind to do it using child or slave labor. The wicked think that dangerous drugs and surgeries can turn women into men and men into women in the hope of reducing suicides among people confused about their gender, when research shows that the opposite occurs, plus life threatening complications. Unwise and uncaring social policies, promulgated in the name of helping people, pass for the world's idea of kindness. That kindness is cruel. We need God to teach us what true mercy is. Those who start down that road by following what is already clear in the Bible will be led down new paths that deliver greater depths of mercy to the poor who are desperate to receive it.
Producing: The Pure in Heart
The sixth spirit of God is the Spirit of Knowledge. It is the knowledge of the Holy One. One who is pure in heart has a holy heart. The blessing that they receive is to see God. Everyone in the audience that day when Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount saw the face of a man. If any of them already had a pure heart, they would know that they were also looking at the face of God. It is not God's absence that prevents us from seeing His face, it is our hearts. One who has pursued the previous blessings with great hunger and thirst and mercy will arrive at this stage with eyes that can perceive that face aright.
For God, who said,
“Let light shine out of darkness,”
has shone in our hearts to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- 2 Corinthians 4:6
As we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in repentance and wash us of all moral filth, our eyes will be cleaned of their filth and we shall see Jesus as he truly is. Just getting to the place where I realized that the pursuit of God's glory is of first importance took me over twenty-five years. May it take you less time than I!
Peace: The Peacemakers
After you bring in a harvest at the end of the season, you can enjoy peace. In the harvest of the Beatitudes, we see the goodness of God at work. The human posture is that at the end of a harvest, you store your surplus away in barns and celebrate. Since the crops are yours, the peace is yours, too. Not so! We are called to be peacemakers. We must share our peace with others. That is evangelism, because our crop is souls. Without sharing the gospel with others, we have no crop! After we do share our peace, we can be called “sons of God”.
The Ordo Salutis according to Jesus
Oh, I was ready to end the chapter here, but there are two more beatitudes and the phrase “be called sons of God” tickled a memory. That means to be adopted into God's family. The doctrine of adoption is one that gave me trouble in my last book. While writing “Psalm 19: The Glory of God's Law” for Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace, I made a discovery. Verse by verse that Psalm gives the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation. That sequence breaks the process of salvation into smaller steps and arranges them in order. Handy, no? Each denomination has its own version of the Ordo Salutis and they differ in the number of steps and their order. Of all the orders I have studied, none come closer to the order found in Psalm 19 than the Reformed order of eleven steps. Comparing Psalm 19 to the Reformed order, one step is missing (Predestination), one is vague (Election) and one is out of place (Adoption).
So noticing a reference to Adoption in the Beatitudes, I had to see how much of the process of salvation was there and whether it matched what I had found when I studied Psalm 19. Surprise! Not only is most of the process also found in the Beatitudes, but it matches Psalm 19! Like the psalm, the first two Reformed steps – Predestination and Election – are missing. Again like Psalm 19, in the Beatitudes the step of Adoption is slightly out of order, coming after Sanctification, not before. The omitted steps happen to be the steps most in contention in the debates between those who hold to the Reformed tradition and the many others who argue against those doctrines. Thus the Beatitudes cannot be used to settle that debate. As for adoption, I am betting that it is the Reformed sequence that needs a tweak, not Jesus! So here is the Ordo Salutis according to Jesus, not a Christian denomination.
Before diving into the order of the steps of salvation, a word of clarification. The Beatitudes may be used to compose the order of the steps but not to precisely define the meaning of each step. For example, each denomination attributes different meanings to justification and sanctification and this analysis alone is insufficient to choose among them.
In what follows, each Step of salvation is followed by a quote from Psalm 19 that corresponds to that step of salvation and a blessing quoted from Matthew 5 with some commentary. Then there is a comment linking that step and blessing to a corresponding word from the Ten Commandments, with the last step assigned to the last two commandments. By combining David's prayer, Jesus' promise, and the Ten Commandments, the association with that step of salvation and its meaning are sharpened.
Step 1: Calling
Before we even get to the Beatitudes, three of Jesus' initial statements in Matthew relate to calling. First, we have his response to John the Baptist, who questioned why Jesus needed to be baptized. His answer was, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) This tells us that we are called to righteousness.
Second, we have the summary given to Jesus' initial preaching:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
- Matthew 4:17
This tells us that Jesus' call is consists of a goal and a requirement. The goal is to enter the kingdom of heaven and the requirement is repentance.
Third, we have Jesus' final statement before the Beatitudes, spoken to Peter and Andrew:
And he said to them,
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
- Matthew 4:19
The final part of the call is to follow Jesus (to learn from him and imitate his way of life) and then become one who can make disciples of others by teaching them the same.
Psalm 19. This psalm is a prayer of David, but it is constructed in a marvelous way. The first eleven verses are not a request, they are a meditation on the good things that God does for him of His own initiative. Not until verses 12-14 does David present his own petition for help.
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
- Psalm 19:2-3
In this Psalm we hear God's call going forth. What does Jesus add to this call?
Beatitude. Jesus identifies who it is that he is calling. Not the rich, the proud or the strong, but the humble and poor.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Matthew 5:3
This is the call that invites the humble sinner to approach the gates of the kingdom of heaven. They are called to repent, but that repentance does not happen yet.
Commandment. You shall have no other Gods before me.
The blessing is to enter a kingdom, and that kingdom has but one king, the God who "spoke all these words" in Exodus 20. Just as He called out from Heaven to the Israelites, He calls us today.
Step 2: Regeneration
What is regeneration? It is the born again transformation spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel:
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees
and be careful to keep my laws.”
- Ezekiel 36:26-27
The spirit of death that was in us is replaced by a new and living spirit. Your deadened conscience is awakened, terrifying you as you become aware of the depth of your sin because the laws of God are now written on your heart. This prepares you for the next step of faith in Jesus Christ.
Psalm 19. David tells us the same thing, but more concisely, calling regeneration the "reviving of the soul":
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul...
- Psalm 19:7a
Beatitude. Whereas David speaks of what God shall do, Jesus speaks of the sinner's response.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
- Matthew 5:4
The revived soul mourns at a life of offending God and harming neighbors. All pretense of being a good person is ripped away and the damage to one's self image is a hard loss to bear. You are told that all you have worked for was in vain and of no value. That is cause to mourn. The comfort that such a soul needs is the regeneration that brings them to a place where the chains of sin are not so strong that they have no possibility of turning to God in faith. The terror of facing God is reduced because of the comforting tone and humble demeanor of the messenger, Jesus Christ.
Commandment. No idols.
The Psalm acknowledges that the Lord revives the soul; He brings life. Throughout Scripture idols are called lifeless.
Step 3: Faith
Psalm 19. Verses 4-9 tell us so much! As part of the call we are told the identity of the Lord (verse 5), then we are regenerated (verse 7a), and finally we turn to Jesus in faith (verse 8-9).
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
- Psalm 19:4-9
How are we told who was sent to deliver that message? First, this passage six times uses the phrase "the Lord", out of the seven times it appears in the body of the Psalm. that is our first clue that we are being told something about the identity of the Lord. Second, we are told that God has sent a strong man called the Bridegroom, a man full of joy. Who is this Bridegroom? Jesus alludes to the bridegroom in his parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25, but owns the title here:
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
And Jesus said to them,
“Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom
is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is
taken away from them, and then they will fast."
- Matthew 9:14-15
Jesus is the Bridegroom who brings salvation! The Beatitudes are subtler. Not until we reach the last Beatitude do we find that the grantor of all these promises is Jesus:
Blessed are you when others revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account.
The key words are "on my account". All this depends on us proving our loyalty to Jesus. All these blessings and promises, this great salvation, this “great reward” in heaven that is our glorification – all are contingent on placing our faith specifically in Jesus Christ as our savior.
How does David describe faith in the Lord? His term for placing your faith in the Lord is to fear the Lord.
And how extensive is this salvation? Is it just for this life? No! We are told that "the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever." This salvation is the offer of eternal life.
Beatitude. We are told two things in this Beatitude: the character of the acceptable believer and the character of the Lord.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
- Matthew 5:5
This blessing of sovereignty over the earth is offered to the meek by the meek. How could Jesus inherit the earth (for it is from he, upon his death, that we inherit it) unless he were also meek?
It is the step of faith that causes us to receive our inheritance. And what is that inheritance? It is more than land. It is the same thing that is offered in the Psalm. It is what the rich young ruler craved when he asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” It is what John so memorably declared:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
- John 3:16
That inheritance is eternal life and that belief is faith.
Commandment. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Faith is all about trusting in the name of Jesus for salvation and no other. Only faith in that name will leave you guiltless, forgiven. In the Psalm, it says the commandment of the Lord is pure, an explicit mention of the commandments.
Step 4: Repentance
Psalm 19. David's faith is shown to be true by what he says next.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can discern his errors?
- Psalm 19:11-12a
The first part of repentance is to be warned of your sin. God tells you exactly what you have done wrong when the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sins.
The second part of repentance is to discern your errors. This is to recognize in yourself and admit what you have done wrong.
It is the third part of repentance that is the sticking point. It is tucked in between the first two. Who but a person of faith believes that by listening to the Lord, learning of your sins and then admitting them, you will receive a great reward? To act on that belief, you must be convinced that God is a loving and forgiving God, otherwise your confession will result only in punishment.
To heed the Lord's warnings, of course, requires that you now keep his commands, showing the fruits of true repentance.
Beatitude. Jesus tells us there is more to repentance than just believing God is loving and forgiving.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
- Matthew 5:6
In some translations, in place of “satisfied” the word is “filled”. True repentance is expressed as a hunger to be that which you are not, namely righteous. It is a gift, thus a person must be filled with a spirit of repentance if they are to sincerely turn around. It is not just your actions that must change, but the things you crave in your soul. You must begin to pray along with Jesus, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Saint Anselm despised the "Ransom Theory" in which it was thought that Jesus paid a ransom to the devil to reclaim our souls from hell. In place of it, he proposed the "Satisfaction Theory". The payment that is due belongs to the Father, not the devil. The glory that God deserves yet failed to receive from sinners who oppose him is a debt that must be satisfied. Jesus, by going beyond what was required in his own glorifying of his Father, made satisfaction for our sins. Yet here, the Lord shows his unselfishness and great love. Though God is the one who deserves to be "satisfied", we who hunger and thirst are the ones who will be satisfied. How amazing is this grace!
Commandment. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy....
The Sabbath is a time to rest in the presence of God. What does repentance have to do with rest?
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it."
- Isaiah 30:15
To rest your weary soul, forsake your sins, which weigh down your heart with guilt and shame.
Step 5: Justification
Psalm 19. To be declared innocent by God; how great is that!
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
- Psalm 19:12b-13b
For a thousand years or more, the church was confused. They conflated Justification and Sanctification. There are two main theories about how justification works, Infused Justification, and Imputed Justification. Here is what Microsoft Copilot has to say about that:
In Christian theology, the concepts of infused and imputed justification are central to understanding different perspectives on how humans are made righteous before God.
Imputed Justification:
- Protestant View: This concept is primarily associated with Protestant theology, especially within Reformed traditions.
- Definition: Imputed justification means that the righteousness of Christ is credited to the believer's account. It is a legal declaration where God declares a sinner to be righteous based on the righteousness of Christ.
- Mechanism: This righteousness is external and is not based on the believer's own merits or actions. It is received by faith alone.
- Key Verse: Romans 4:3, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
Infused Justification:
- Catholic View: This concept is primarily associated with Roman Catholic theology.
- Definition: Infused justification means that God's grace is poured into the believer's soul, transforming them and making them inherently righteous.
- Mechanism: This righteousness is internal and involves a process of sanctification where the believer cooperates with God's grace through faith and good works.
- Key Verse: James 2:24, "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."
In summary, imputed justification is about being declared righteous through faith in Christ's righteousness, while infused justification is about becoming righteous through the transformative power of God's grace. Both views emphasize the importance of God's grace but differ in how that grace is applied and experienced in the believer's life.
One way to describe the difference is that the Reformed version is monergistic, meaning God alone is responsible, whereas the Catholic view is synergistic, a cooperative process where both God and the believer are at work together. The Reformed position came about by splitting one concept into two. If Justification and Sanctification are two separate steps, then the first, Justification, can be monergistic and acquired instantly by faith alone, while the second, Sanctification, can be synergistic and accomplished over a long period.
Which view is correct (and there are others)? The wording of the psalm seems clear. God declares the sinner innocent with no action required of the supplicant. Then, with the powerful joy of an innocent heart set free and the besetting presumptuous sins weakened in their potency, a person may proceed to the next step of sanctification. For so long as sin has dominion over the unforgiven soul, no sanctification is possible.
Beatitude. The undeserving and unearned aspects of justification are stated in a different way by Jesus.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
- Matthew 5:7
We are justified as an act of mercy. However, there is a condition, which tilts the needle back toward the Catholic position. It is the merciful who are shown mercy. It is the people who practice forgiveness of others that are forgiven. This echoes the Lord's Prayer, which says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." It also matches the parable of the unforgiving servant, who was forgiven a large debt but then oppressed another servant who owed him much less. That unforgiving servant had his debt reinstated. The cause and effect relationship is tricky to work out, but it seems to be this:
- God forgives us without condition
- In gratitude, we show forgiveness to others
- God confirms our forgiveness by making it permanent, in recognition of our response
Does this mean that we can lose our salvation? No, rather it separates from the true believers those who seek forgiveness for selfish reasons, to escape punishment, but have no regard for righteousness. The merciful truly hunger and thirst for righteousness, thus begin to act righteously after they are freed from debtor's prison. It is what we do with our new liberty that proves who we are and confirms whether we have saving faith.
It was this doctrine of Justification by faith that triggered the Protestant Reformation and upended the world. It is not a trifling idea.
Commandment. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you..
I cannot find a direct connection between honoring parents and the doctrine of justification. Yet surely one should be merciful to one's parents. They make mistakes which disappoint, alienate, wound and infuriate us. I once went three years without calling or visiting my father, so angry was I because he was rude to my wife. Forgiving him was hard but life changing, even life saving. In his later years, my wife's medical advice saved his and my mom's lives multiple times, and I spent months with him the summer my mom died to console him and help through a nearly fatal illness. Because of those opportunities, I got to see the changes that God worked in him in those final years. It is by forgiveness that we learn how to honor our parents.
Step 6: Sanctification
Psalm 19. The sanctified person is blameless and innocent; they have been made holy.
Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
- Psalm 19:13cd
Beatitude. Jesus promises us that we shall be blameless and innocent not just of great transgression but of all transgression!
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
- Matthew 5:8
Sanctification is the process of being made holy and pure, through and through. In an instant, our position is changed from unsanctified to sanctified. This is "positional sanctification". It is the way God sees us. It is monergistic and accomplished entirely by grace.
Then over a lifetime, our attitudes, words and actions are progressively improved until we are perfect in every way. This is "progressive sanctification". It is synergistic, meaning that we cooperate through our actions to further this work.
This bifurcation of sanctification into an instant event and a process means that the next step, Adoption, is really sandwiched in between the two.
As we become holier over the course of our lives, we are able to see God more clearly, not with our physical eyes, but by faith. His wisdom and ways become ever clearer. His Word makes more sense. Our conviction of His presence and our coming reward and reception into heaven become more certain. This is deeply satisfying. This is the part of our life when the Holy Spirit becomes a real person to us.
Commandment. You shall not murder.
The darkest mark on any soul is murder, as King David knew well:
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me...
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
- Psalm 51:10,14
The Holy Spirit's work in sanctification can clean even the heart of a murderer.
Step 7: Adoption
Psalm 19. As expressed in this psalm, the idea of adoption is weak, in comparison to the other doctrines. God is Lord, rock and redeemer, but not Father. The strongest word is "acceptable". Could anyone in David's time believe that God's full acceptance would extend to adopting us as His children?
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
- Psalm 19:14cd
Beatitude. Psalm and Beatitude could not be farther apart in clarity. This is THE verse where Jesus introduces the idea that God adopts fallen human beings into his family.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.
- Matthew 5:9
This is the most revolutionary statement in the entirety of the Beatitudes! To be so at peace with God and so treasured that He would welcome you into His family - what better outcome could there possibly be for your life! The world casually presumes that we are all children of God, but the Bible does not back that up.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God, who were born,
not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man,
but of God.
- John 1:11-13
Only people people who believe in Jesus' name have the right to become children of God. You have to become a child of God; you don't start out that way. That is why you must be born again. Why is it important to believe that by faith in Jesus you become a child of God? When things get tough, what father will not do everything in his power to rescue one of his children? We will undergo such dangers, so we need to know He will come for us.
Commandment. You shall not commit adultery.
Adultery destroys families. Adoption makes a place in a family for someone who had none.
Step 8: Perseverance
Psalm 19. One part of verse 14 tells us that there is trouble ahead.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
- Psalm 19:14
We only run to hide behind, atop or inside a rock when we face persecution or hardship. David hid from Saul in a cave. Having been perfected by God, may we persist in all subsequent actions that we may remain "acceptable in [God's] sight", hence persevere.
Beatitude. The hint of persecution in Psalm 19 becomes an overt warning when Jesus speaks.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Matthew 5:10
To pursue a righteous life and promote that way of life to others even in the face of persecution is the essence of perseverance. As I pondered this eighth beatitude, I wondered if it applied only to being persecuted for being a Christian or also to any righteous actions taken by people. Bonhoeffer affirms the latter in his chapter on the Beatitudes in The Cost of Discipleship:
It is important that Jesus gives his blessing not merely to
suffering incurred directly for the confession of his name,
but to suffering in any just cause. They receive the
same promise as the poor, for in persecution they are
their equals in poverty.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Commandment. You shall not steal.
Persecution is theft. The persecuted lose security, jobs, reputation, property and sometimes their very lives.
Step 9: Glorification
Psalm 19. On the surface, it would seem that the theme of glory is out of place in our order of salvation, at least as it is spoken of in Psalm 19:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork…
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
- Psalm 19:1,14d
David put glory first, in the first verse of the psalm. However, that is the glory of God as seen in nature by His actions as Creator. This psalm reveals a second glory. That glory is the glory of God as our Redeemer. That glory comes last, in verse 14. There is a mystery and it is the mystery that Paul revealed. There are many ways that God could have accomplished that redemption but he chose a joyous and unexpected one.
Beatitude. What does it mean when Jesus said, "your reward is great in heaven"?
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven,
for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- Matthew 5:11
First, this Beatitude ties all the blessings to Jesus' name. It supplies the essential context for salvation.
Second, while the previous Beatitude was about persecution, this one is not. It is about shame. Yes, it speaks about persecution - and that persecution may be severe - but the devil's goal and the world's goal in that persecution is to heap shame upon Christ and all who follow him. His goal is to rob the Son of God of his glory. Because shame is the devil's goal, God counters it by doing the unthinkable...
The answer to what your reward can be may be found by inverting your suffering.
- If your name is reviled by the world because you call on Jesus, God will praise your name.
- If you endure persecution and suffer pain and loss, God will give you joy and heavenly treasure.
- If evil lies are told of you, God will broadcast affirming truths about your faith.
In short, God will glorify you. Being glorified is the opposite of being reviled. The great reward of the church shall the glorification of the saints in heaven in their new bodies and status. That is the great mystery that the Lord gave to Paul to proclaim:
I became a minister according to the stewardship from God
that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
the mystery hidden for ages and generations but
now revealed to his saints.
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles
are the riches of the glory of this mystery,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
- Colossians 1:25-27
The Psalm begins by extolling the Glory of God. The end result of that Glory is the gracious, undeserved glorification of fallen humanity through the divine act of redemption. Then Jesus calls this our great reward. But how was this possible? Did not God say this?
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.
- Isaiah 48:11
If God will not give his glory to another, how can he give His glory to us? It is because he does not give us His glory, He gives it to Christ. But He gave us Jesus to live inside us, and God's glory shines forth from Jesus. Thus the Spirit of Jesus in our hearts shines forth his glory and because we identify with his name by not rejecting it despite persecution, his glory shines forth from us. There is no better outcome in life or in death than to receive such a gift as this.
Commandments. This final step matches two:
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet ... anything that is your neighbor's.
First, the Beatitude speaks of people being reviled and having evil falsely spoken against them. Such believers are being attacked with lies, contravening the ninth commandment.
Second, the blessing is joy and a great reward. The opposite of coveting your neighbor's goods is to trust in the promise of God that you will receive a righteous reward all your own.
Reflections on the Process of Salvation
In Psalm 19, King David prays to the Lord for salvation. In the Beatitudes, Jesus answers David's prayer, point for point. Later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells the people:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law
or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them
but to fulfill them.
- Matthew 5:17
Jesus' respect for the Law did not begin in verse 17! No, in the Beatitudes he showed that in his hands, the Law would be a powerful force for liberty, justice, protection and restoration. That was unlike any law the people knew and he was unlike any ruler the people had ever met.
By this interpretation, we can see that the Beatitudes define the whole process of salvation and sanctification from the initial call to the final glorification of the saints at the time when Christ returns. Why is this helpful? First, wars have been fought over this process. How many steps should there be? In what order should we arrange them? Is there even an order or is it all simultaneous? The various theories rely on assembling clues scattered throughout the Bible and using human logic to fill in the gaps. Any one of the formulations could be right – or none of them. That means that even if the steps are Biblical the system is merely semi-Biblical.
With the system in this chapter, we have a Bible passage where each verse corresponds to a single step in the Ordo Salutis. This single passage contains the whole of it, with additional details supplied by Psalm 19. That is systematic and Biblical. It also suggests objectively that we have all the steps, at least at this level of granularity, e.g. some people break the calling into two parts, an internal and external call. This makes the order easier to defend and understand. Furthermore, the close correspondence with Psalm 19 means that we have both Old and New Testament support for this order.
There are subtleties that demand further investigation, however. It is commonly accepted that sanctification occurs in two parts: positional and progressive. We are instantly sanctified in God's eyes at the time of salvation, but the changes to our behavior that follow this occur over the course of a lifetime. This bifurcation may also apply to other steps.
The last thing to think about is who is responsible for accomplishing these steps of salvation. The Beatitudes may speak of people showing mercy or being peacemakers, but each step begins and ends with a blessing. Each step begins and ends with the grace of God.
And does that grace only save individuals? No, these Beatitudes prophesy a great, worldwide salvation of the church, of a people called out of the world into a visible kingdom. But before we get to the prophecies, just in case you aren't convinced that the Beatitudes really match the Ordo Salutis (that means you, Josh), there is one more line of evidence, distributed in the remainder of the Sermon on the Mount.
The Sermon on the Mount is a Chiasmus
It was far from obvious to me that the Beatitudes form a table of contents into the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. Such a thing would be logical. For example, the questions asked by Habakkuk in the first few lines of his book are answered in the subsequent sections of the book, in the same order. The challenge here is that it is a reverse table of contents. That is what made it hard to spot. In Biblical literature, we call this a chiasmus. It is named after the Greek letter chi, which looks like an X. In a chiasmus, a series of ideas are presented in one order then revisited in the reverse order. So if you had three topics, the pattern would be A B C C' B' A'. In the case of the Sermon on the Mount, there are nine ideas, the nine steps to salvation. With a chiasmus, the main idea, the central idea, is the middle one, not the first or the last. With the Sermon on the Mount being a chiasmus, this gives us a clue as to what the main idea in Jesus' speech is.
Earlier the Beatitudes were characterized as being grouped by threes. They describe three personas, the Seeker, the Servant, and the Son, So, before doing a deep dive into the structure of the sermon, let's spot the key verses that correspond to these three personas.
For the Seeker, we have the preamble to the Golden Rule, where we are told to ask, seek and knock:
Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives,
and the one who seeks finds,
and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
- Matthew 7:7-8
For the Servant, we have a famous passage about serving two masters:
No one can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money.
- Matthew 6:24
For the Son, we have the command to love your enemy:
You have heard that it was said,
"You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I say to you, Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
- Matthew 5:43-45
Often in the sermon is God called Father, but here we are advised how to become his sons.
These three passages for these three personas are nicely distributed in the three chapters of the sermon: 7, 6, 5, in the reverse of the order that they were found in the Beatitudes, thus suggesting that a chiasmus is present. Here is an outline of the chiastic structure:
- Calling: Poor in spirit... kingdom of heaven (5:3)
- Regeneration: Mourn... comforted (5:4)
- Faith: Meek... inherit the earth (5:5)
- Repentance: Hunger and thirst for righteousness... satisfied (5:6)
- Justification: merciful... shown mercy (5:7)
- Sanctification: pure in heart... see God (5:8)
- Adoption: peacemakers... called sons of God (5:9)
- Perseverance: persecuted... kingdom of heaven (5:10)
- Glorification: reviled... reward is great in heaven (5:11-12)
- Glorification: Salt & light (5:13-16)
- Perseverance: Until heaven & earth pass away, adultery, divorce, turn the other cheek (5:17-42)
- Adoption: Love your enemies... so that you may be sons of your Father (5:43-48)
- Sanctification: Giving to the needy & praying (6:1-11)
- Justification: Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors (6:12-14)
- Repentance: Temptation, Fasting, serving two masters, judge not (6:13-34; 7:1-6)
- Faith: Ask, seek, knock, Golden Rule, narrow gate (7:7-14)
- Regeneration: So, every healthy tree bears good fruit (7:15-20)
- Calling: False disciples "I never knew you", builders on rock & sand (7:21-29)
From this structure, we see that the Glorification of the saints is at the heart of the chiasmus and Jesus' astonishing authority in Matthew 7:28-29 comes last. This shows us the meek and loving heart of Jesus. He puts us first and himself last. Well, not exactly. In 5:11 we find the phrase "on my account". Jesus inserts himself in this verse about our glorification. The great blessing goes to those who walk with Jesus. The blessed and the one who blesses are one.
We can learn something else from the place where Jesus puts himself last. In Matthew 7:28 we have the crowds, which are a mixture of people, good and bad. The last mention of a distinct group of people with a single fate in the sermon is in Matthew 7:26-27. Those are the people who build their house upon the sand and are destroyed. Thus Jesus stands in the middle of the chiasmus with the blessed as their benefactor and at the end of it with the accursed as their judge.
Now let us look at each step in turn, showing how the cited passage illuminates that step toward salvation. In keeping with the order found in Matthew, we take the steps in reverse order.
Glorification
You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste,
how shall its saltiness be restored?
It is no longer good for anything except
to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket,
but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others,
so that they may see your good works and
give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:13-16
The son glorifies us so that we may give that glory to the Father as we serve as lights to guide unbelievers towards the truth and eternal life. This passage mentions the Father's glory explicitly, the word light four times, and the word lamp once. Can you name a Bible passage that speaks more about God's declaration that it is His plan to glorify His saints? In Exodus 33, in the passage where Moses asks God to show him His glory, it says that God caused all his goodness to pass before Moses. This passage speaks about our good works being glorious. In both places, goodness and glory go together. O, this is a glorius promise!
Perseverance
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law
until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of
the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever
does them and teaches them will be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven.
- Matthew 5:17-20
The larger section on perseverance gives examples where perseverance is required in the life of faith:
- Perseverance is needed to defuse anger, reconcile with your brother and not end up like Cain, who slew his (Matthew 5:21-26).
- Perseverance is needed to keep yourself pure from sexual immorality and lust (Matthew 5:27-30).
- Perseverance is needed to preserve a marriage and resist the temptation to divorce (Matthew 5:31-32).
- Perseverance is needed to speak the truth in fraught situations without the gimmick of oaths to deflect from your cowardice and lies (Matthew 5:33-37).
- Perseverance is needed to defuse threats of force through meekness, cooperation and going the extra mile (Matthew 5:38-42).
How does this passage match the Beatitude's emphasis on persecution? Persecution is so ordinary and pervasive that we often don't see it. In the examples of perseverance, who is the persecutor? It is your brother, your husband, or your wife. It is the neighbor who takes you to court or the government official who lays inequitable burdens on you, the proverbial soldier who makes you carry his armour for a mile. It is the overflow from the persecution of the people around you, like the relative twisting your arm for money to bail him out of the trials that he is enduring. Persecution comes from every direction and it can show up any hour of any day. It makes the days long. Persecution and perseverance are about time, so what is the remedy?
It is easy to spot the examples that call for perseverance. It is harder to find the source of strength for doing the persevering. Jesus gives it up front and it is easy to miss. The answer for problems of time are graces that are eternal. The source of power for perseverance is the Word. How long shall that Word endure? It shall last until heaven and earth pass away. That eternal, unbreakable Word has the full power of the kingdom of God (mentioned three times above) backing it up. Our oaths count for nothing. God's oath to uphold His law counts for everything. By that oath we are promised the steadfast love of the Father. Remember it is "Blessed are those who are persecuted..." It is by God's grace that we are able to persevere.
Adoption
You have heard that it was said,
"You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I say to you,
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet only your brothers,
what more are you doing than others?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
- Matthew 5:43-48
If glorification is the icing on the cake, adoption is the cake. To help clarify what he means for someone to be an adopted son, Jesus sets up the most revolutionary standard of righteousness in the Bible, indeed in all of history. Love your enemies! It is impossible to do this, yet Jesus insists on it. Love for enemies is what distinguishes the sons and daughters of God from all others. That is what you must do if you want to be sons of your Father who is in heaven. There are three ways to look at this. The first is to be dismayed and give up in the face of an impossible demand. The second is to try to do it on your own strength, fail and then give up. That was nearly my fate. The third, walking in the spirit and relying on God's grace, turns a command into a delightful blessing. This amazing person so full of love, courage and perseverance that they can love even their enemies is who God has promised to make me into! This is no mere command, it is a promise!
Crucially, this passage is in agreement with John 1. We do not start out as sons and daughters of God. We must become sons of God. When we do, the benefits and privileges of that blessed state are immense!
Sanctification
In Matthew 6:1-11, righteous deeds are compared to hypocritical actions done for selfish reasons like fame and admiration. This is applied to all charitable deeds in general, to gifts for the poor, and to prayer. Then in the Lord's prayer, we are shown the true source of righteous deeds:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
- Matthew 6:9-10
This sanctifying impulse springs from hallowing God's name, not your own rep. It springs from causing your will to conform to God's will. Only good deeds approved by the Father are really good, because only He knows the real impact that they will have.
Justification
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive others their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
but if you do not forgive others their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
- Matthew 6:12-15
The Beatitude blessed the merciful, who will be shown mercy. That cast a wide net, for mercy takes many forms and goes to different extents that may fall short of a full pardon. Mercy implies an undeserved grace, but these verses from the Lord's prayer focus our attention. They reach for the stars. The highest form of mercy is forgiveness and that is what Jesus invites us to call upon the Father to give. The main clue that we are to connect Matthew 5:7 with 6:12 is the parallel form. As a small mercy begets a greater mercy, so a small forgiveness begets a greater forgiveness. Six times is forgiveness named in this passage. Do you think Jesus thought it important?
Verse 12 is a mystery. Jesus instructs us to ask the Father for forgiveness. Can He just give it? Is it so simple as that? No, it was not simple, and yes, we are to ask for it. What is the mystery? The mystery is how that forgiveness was delivered to us. It was delivered to us by the sending of Jesus, God's only begotten Son, to the cross. So, when Jesus calls upon us to pray, "Forgive us our debts", he is calling for us to ask the Father to send him to his death. The next time you recite the Lord's prayer, remember that its words were not cost-free religious pleasantries handed to soothe a sorrowful heart for a few moments. The giving of this verse to the world in a prayer was the most expensive transaction in history.
By this verse, we are bound to Christ. The injustices that we have endured, the persecutions and other crimes committed against us, these we must also forgive. The cost of being forgiven is to become one with the one who forgives and like him in our disposition and actions. To make sure we did not misunderstand or undervalue this, Jesus followed it up with a stern warning in verses 14-15. It is possible through an unforgiving heart to forfeit the forgiveness of God. So, the next time you recite the Lord's prayer, remember that it is a costly prayer to recite.
Verse 13 bids us pray for a benevolent safeguard. If we are forgiven for our past, what of our future? By submitting to the Lord, we allow ourselves to be led around the temptations that would wreck our resolve and destroy us. This shepherding of our lives saves us from having to pay the cost of the many future sins we thereby avoid and the great harm that we may cause to others. Yes, we pay a cost for forgiving others, but we reap a greater reward.
Repentance
With each match of a Beatitude to its follow-up passage, something is learned. The very match teaches us new truths. The harder the match is to understand, the greater the insight. The scope of repentance is as vast as the variety of sins that we commit. To my bewilderment, the lengthy passage that goes with repentance bounces all over the place, to fasting, money, possessions, anxiety and judgementalism.
Repentance means change. It means turning around and going in the right direction after having long walked in the wrong one. This requires more than a change in actions. It requires a change in your core values, the things that matter to you most and which you pursue through all your hoping, planning, and working. Unless those values change, your actions will inevitably revert to the old ways you are trying to forsake.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust destroys
and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
- Matthew 6:19-21
After reflecting on Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship and later memorizing the Sermon on the Mount, the preceding passage seized my attention. By those words, the Lord convinced me that they were of first importance. I then spent twenty years searching for those heavenly treasures. Once I found the list, what was the first thing I did? I fasted once a week for the next three years. Why?
Nobody told me to fast. I can't recall receiving any teaching on fasting that clued me into the usefulness of doing it in that particular situation. I am convinced that the Holy Spirit put it in my heart to do, but had I studied the Sermon on the Mount more carefully, I would have known why. Now the purpose of my weekly fast was expressed in my prayer, which never varied for those three years, "Lord, show me your glory." It was the same prayer that Moses prayed in Exodus. I prayed it because I had discovered that the glory of God is the most precious of all the heavenly treasures, but it was not the most precious treasure to me. I knew that I needed my heart to change. I needed to rearrange my priorities and make God's glory my dearest treasure.
That is what fasting is for. You fast when you need to make a big change. You fast when confronted by an impossible obstacle. You fast when you don't know what else to do. How does that relate to the Sermon on the Mount? Before the call to pursue heavenly treasures, before the call to turn from anxiety, before the call to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33) came instructions on fasting. This should have been obvious from reading the rest of the Bible, but I am obtuse.
- Receiving the Ten Commandments and a new covenant from God on Mount Sinai was a call to an entire nation to change their ways. Therefore Moses fasted for forty days. (Exodus 34:28)
- Daniel fasted and prayed for mercy, understanding and guidance from God, and to know when the Babylonian exile would end. (Daniel 9:3-19)
- When returning to Jerusalem from exile, the Jews were exposed to great danger. Ezra the scribe and his companions fasted for God's protection during their journey. (Ezra 8:21-23)1.
- To save the Jews from genocide, Queen Esther called for a three-day fast among the Jews to seek the favor of God and the king. (Esther 4:16)
- The king and people of Nineveh fasted and repented of their sin after Jonah's warning, to spare their city from destruction. (Jonah 3:5-10)
- King David fasted and prayed and confessed his sins on behalf of his ill child, but the child did not survive. (2 Samuel 12:16-23)
- Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights in the wilderness to prepare for His ministry and resist Satan's temptations. (Matthew 4:1-11)
In the first six examples, common threads included humility, mourning over the current state of affairs and God's threatened or ongoing wrath, admission of sin, and a commitment to repentance. In each case, the supplicants sought a major change in the fortunes of their people. Fasting was a way to jumpstart repentance and declare total reliance on God for the answer.
The seventh example stands apart. Jesus did not need to repent for any sin. Jesus had no personal shortcoming over which to mourn. Jesus had no pride that needed humbling. What Jesus had was a people in sin who needed to repent. What Jesus had was a people in distress for whom he mourned. What Jesus had was a change in his life, from private worker to controversial public figure. His was a repentance not from sin but from a quiet life to a strenuous life of self sacrifice.
After we repent of hypocrisy, of serving money and prizing and pursuing the insignificant, there is one last thing from which we must repent. We must turn from being judgmental. Here is a new hypocrisy, a new self-righteousness that we must reject. Why does Jesus put this last? All people are judgmental, but the worst are the religious and the nearly-wise. A person who has made progress in following what Jesus said in Matthew 6 faces a new level of sin. Once you know some of the heavenly treasures, once you have marched forth to acquire them, once you have set your sights on the kingdom, if you turn and look at your neighbor then you have taken your eyes off of Jesus and are liable to sink below the waves. You think you have treasure to share and are a fit guide for your neighbor, but are you ready for that? Have you cleaned your heart, wiped the dust from your eyes, and unstopped your ears enough to render loving assistance?
When Jesus says, "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew 7:1) he is inverting the admonition in the Lord's prayer. We are to ask that the Father forgive us as we forgive others. Judging others is the opposite of forgiveness. Then in a seeming paradox, Jesus tells us that we must judge, but it is a different kind of judgment:
Do not give dogs what is holy,
and do not throw your pearls before pigs,
lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
- Matthew 7:6
Here the pearls are an analogy to the heavenly treasures of Matthew 6. We are urged to train our our critical faculties upon ourselves. We are to judge whether we should or should not apply the wisdom we have learned to the case of our neighbor. We must judge our own judgment. To get to the place where we can do that in kindness and humility requires a deep repentance. It is the salvation of our neighbor that is at stake. Spend your pearls with care. And if you are at a loss as to what to do, pray and fast, so that your heavenly Father may remove all obstacles to changing your heart's desires and your life's direction.
Faith
The magnitude of these next words hit me in the early 1990's, the first fruit of memorizing the Sermon on the Mount. This knowledge rocked my world. I knew that I had just learned one of the great secrets of the faith. Indeed these words form the core of our faith. They define faith. I was confident that knowing this truth would liberate me so that I would be far more effective and fruitful as a Christian. I thought that this truth was so comprehensive and so powerful that there were no more questions that I needed God to answer. That last thought was optimistic but wrong. Even so, these words from Jesus are powerful. While they do not answer all questions, they promise that every question I ask will be answered. And that assurance is liberating.
Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives,
and the one who seeks finds,
and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread,
will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish,
will give him a serpent?
If you then, who are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven
give good things to those who ask him!
So whatever you wish that others would do to you,
do also to them,
for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Enter by the narrow gate.
For the gate is wide and the way is easy
that leads to destruction,
and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard
that leads to life,
and those who find it are few.
- Matthew 7:7-14
The narrow gate is the path of faith in Jesus, for Jesus is the gate of the sheep (John 10:7). Seems simple enough. The complication is that it is possible to walk a narrow path that does not lead to life. The Golden Rule of verse 12 is impossible to follow. It is impossible because after a few hours or days of "doing unto others", the pump symbol on your soul's dashboard blinks orange. Then your spiritual gas tank hits empty. An atheistic humanist can follow that path, because the energy to serve your neighbor is coming from yourself, not from God. The insight that amazed me was in the first verses. We are to ask, seek and knock on heaven's door for the resources to love our neighbor, then begin our work in faith before all the resources arrive, trusting that the Father will resupply us in due time. Faith is relying on God's love for us when we love our neighbors, as the Apostle John so wonderfully put it:
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God,
and God in them.
- 1 John 4:16, NIV
Believing that God will answer our questions and material needs, show us the path we seek and open the door of fellowship when we are lonely and in need of protection sounds like it is talking about faith, but there is more to faith than that. Faith means listening via the Holy Spirit as Jesus questions us. Faith means relief at knowing that Jesus seeks us when we are lost. Faith means excitement at hearing the knock at the door when Jesus comes for a visit. Jesus is like us. He asks, seeks and knocks, too. Faith is a two-sided affair. Here are the receipts.
ASK / ANSWER.
And they came again to Jerusalem.
And as he was walking in the temple,
the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him,
and they said to him,
“By what authority are you doing these things,
or who gave you this authority to do them?”
Jesus said to them,
“I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you
by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John
from heaven or from man? Answer me.”
And they discussed it with one another, saying,
“If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say,
'Why then did you not believe him?'
But shall we say, 'From man'?” -
they were afraid of the people, for they all held
that John really was a prophet.
- Mark 11:26-32
In Mark, Jesus is asked a question but in return asks a bigger question. It is not he who needs to decide from where his authority derives, it is us. Our answer is not an exercise in logic, the flashing of a government badge, or a miraculous sign. Our answer is a decision, our decision. We decide if Jesus is to hold authority over us, then we obey.
SEEK / FIND.
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always
to pray and not lose heart. He said,
“In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God
nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who
kept coming to him and saying,
'Give me justice against my adversary.'
For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself,
'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because
this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice,
so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'”
And the Lord said,
“Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God
give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?
Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice
to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes,
will he find faith on earth?”
- Luke 18:1-8
When Jesus returns to earth, will he find any faith? By this parable, we know what Jesus is seeking. This is a hard verse to read and a hard question to stomach. Jesus doesn't tell us the answer. It is an honest question and it tells us what we should be seeking. If we seek riches or personal glory, it benefits us little if we find them. If Jesus seeks faith, that is what we should seek. We should seek to be transformed from faithless people into ones who are ready for the day he returns because we have become the ones he is looking for.
KNOCK / OPEN.
He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and
journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him,
“Lord, will those who are saved be few?”
And he said to them,
“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you,
will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the
master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin
to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying,
'Lord, open to us,'
then he will answer you,
'I do not know where you come from.'
Then you will begin to say,
'We ate and drank in your presence,
and you taught in our streets.'
But he will say,
'I tell you, I do not know where you come from.
Depart from me, all you workers of evil!'
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,
when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets
in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from east and west,
and from north and south,
and recline at table in the kingdom of God.
And behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last.”
- Luke 13:22-30
This is the counterpoint to the Sermon on the Mount. The question put to Jesus makes it certain that the topic is faith, how many will be saved. Again we hear of the narrow door but this time meet the people who knock on the door but it is not opened. The answer that Jesus gives is ironic. The curious person thinks in terms of odds. Lots of people in this world are like him and can't be troubled to fight for certainty, to wrestle the angel like Jacob until they win the blessing. These gamblers figure that most people are good enough to get into heaven, so they have a good shot and that is enough to satisfy them. No extreme effort on their part is warranted. What does Jesus' answer tell us? It tells us that playing the odds will not work. It is no way to live. Playing the odds is not faith, despite what Blaise Pascal may have argued with his famous wager. Playing the odds is complacency. Jesus told this man that people from all around the world would find faith and be saved. Awesome! Great odds then, yes? No! Jesus is telling him that many Gentiles will be saved, but many Jews will not! The odds are great for the Gentiles, but not for him! So, as an American Protestant, shall I take comfort from Jesus' answer? No, because to me Jesus would answer that billions of people from around the world will be saved, but not many Americans. No matter where you live, the answer is the same. For people who play the odds, no matter where you live the odds will be terrible. But if you trust in Jesus, the odds are 100%.
Sixty odd years after speaking to that complacent Jew, Jesus in a vision spoke to a complacent church, the church of Laodicea. They thought themselves a prosperous, successful church. He thought otherwise. After a lengthy scold, he made that church an offer:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
- Revelation 3:20
We are invited to ask for help. Jesus asks us who we think that helper is.
We are invited to seek direction. Jesus is seeking to find if that direction proceeds from faith in him and leads towards loving our neighbor.
We are invited to knock on his door. Jesus and a hundred others will come to knock on our door. Among all those clamoring voices, can we tell which voice is his?
Asking, seeking and knocking go both ways. Faith is being certain that when you do these things from your side, the Lord is on the other side saying, "Right back atcha."
Regeneration
Beware of false prophets, who come to you
in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will recognize them by their fruits.
Are grapes gathered from thornbushes,
or figs from thistles?
So, every healthy tree bears good fruit,
but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit,
nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit
is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
- Matthew 7:15-20
What are the good fruits that Jesus is speaking about? They are faith in the Lord, repentance, holiness, and love for God and neighbor. In our normal state, from birth, are any of us capable of bearing these good fruits? No, as Paul told us in Romans, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." If we all start out as diseased trees, what use is this passage? This passage tells us that the Lord expects there to be healthy trees in his orchard and vines in his vineyard. He means to make it so. So, even though no mention of a divine act of transformation is named, it hides behind every word that Jesus speaks. The Lord - via an act of the Holy Spirit - will regenerate diseased trees so that they become healthy and capable of bearing good fruit. Then we are to use his words to spot these regenerated trees. This knowledge shows us who they are. A person who longs to be a healthy tree or a healthy vine, having discerned who these healthy people are will be shown the way to the gardener and vinedresser who accomplished this marvelous result. This wise person who seeks God is one who has peeled back the sermon's truth, layer by layer:
- They see the light of the world shining forth from the Father's true children and walk toward it.
- They grasp for the strength of those children of God who courageously endure all things without losing heart.
- They are jealous of the fellowship of the family of God, the church of adopted sons and daughters.
- They crave the freedom from shame of transformed lives sanctified from sin.
- They weep at seeing a forgiven people, whose joy testifies to their freedom from guilt before God.
- They are staggered to see a people willingly confessing their dark secrets, unafraid of what others will think.
- They - wrestling with doubts - are confounded by people with a faith in things they cannot see or touch.
- They perceive within the deadness of their own soul and without an unconquerable new life and cry out!
All those things that they have glimpsed, bring them face to face with he who calls. How will they answer?
Calling
If any part of the Sermon on the Mount aligns crisply with its place in the Ordo Salutis, it is the conclusion. It is all about the Lord calling people to faith and how they respond.
The Uncalled
“Not everyone who says to me,
'Lord, Lord,'
will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one
who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day many will say to me,
'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and cast out demons in your name,
and do many mighty works in your name?'
And then will I declare to them,
'I never knew you;
depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'
Build Your House on the Rock
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine
and does them will be like a wise man
who built his house on the rock.
And the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat on that house,
but it did not fall, because it had been
founded on the rock.
And everyone who hears these words of mine
and does not do them will be like a foolish man
who built his house on the sand.
And the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat against that house,
and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
The Authority of Jesus
And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds
were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them
as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
- Matthew 7:21-29
In the passage, there are three who call and there are four responses. The three who call are:
- The Prideful, Self-directed (the False prophets)
- The World's Experts (the Scribes)
- The Lord
Religion pays well. False prophets crave fame, fortune and power over others. They may parrot some of Jesus' teachings, but they mean to direct those impulses to get people to follow them, not Jesus. Some may sincerely believe what they teach but being self-deluded is no defense before the Lord. Whether or not they have ever heard Jesus' call, it is not that call that they are following, so all who follow them are similarly mis-called.
The experts, the religious authorities, scribes, pharisees and others like them have a megaphone. They are the cultural forces that have called us since birth. They have laid hold of some of the old truths and use them to lure in followers. The more cautious among them do not invent new truths or speak false prophecies. They lack true allegiance to God, true authority, and true power to implement those truths, thus robbing them of their vitality and discouraging people from believing and following that truth where it leads.
Those two false callers are included here because without them, we cannot recognize our peril. We live in a crowd of competing voices. All are calling out to us, but so is the Lord. Distinguishing his voice above the din is the challenge. Jesus makes the stakes clear: salvation or destruction. These are the ways that people respond:
- The cynic or atheist or ruined soul hears the voices and dismisses all of them. They refuse to build at all.
- The religious person goes along with the call of the False Prophets or the World's Experts and builds their life on their teachings.
- The faithless person hears the call of Jesus, affirms that it makes sense, but does not obey. He builds on something else, but may think he is building it on the rock.
- The faithful person hears the call of Jesus and in faith obeys his teachings, building on the rock.
It all comes down to recognizing the voice of Jesus. The crowds were astonished, but most did not follow his call. What is sadder still is how even inside the church, many do not recognize his call. To address this, Jesus has ridden forth throughout church history to save his church again and again. In a way that resembles on a large scale the actions that he takes in saving a single sinner, Jesus has poured out his blessings, his Beatitudes, upon his beloved church. He means for his church to be built upon the rock, starting with Peter and extending until he returns.
Saving the Church: The Beatitudes as Prophecy
As I was researching my next book (which shall be on discipleship), I discovered that the nine Beatitudes present the same nine steps of salvation as I found from my previous analysis of Psalm 19 for Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace. The connection is simple. David prayed for salvation and Jesus answered that prayer, step by step. With the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 laying out the complete process of salvation for an individual in logical - if not chronological - order, it begs a question. Do the Beatitudes also prophesy a longer process that will mold the history of the Church?
First, why even consider this possibility? It is because when David spoke of the bridegroom, he was prophesying the coming of Jesus, who called himself the Bridegroom. If Psalm 19 prophesied the Christ, then perhaps its matching passage in Matthew is also prophetic?
Second, I have shown how Solomon's times from Ecclesiastes define these structures:
- the materialistic, sociological development of individual humans "under the sun"
- the growth toward spiritual maturity of individual humans "under heaven" in the Growth Pattern
- prophetic timelines for the whole of world history, Israel and the Church as a unit, and modern Israel - with each phase matching a socio-political growth of that entity
So now we have another spiritual structure with many steps in a sequence that is partly chronological and partly logical, the Ordo Salutis. It makes sense that at a macro level, there is an analogy to the history of the church. Has the church undergone a steady process of doctrinal and sociological development that corresponds to these nine steps of salvation?
Yes! So what do they prophecy? The prophetic clock hidden in the Beatitudes predicted the slow process by which the church would wrestle with the doctrines behind each step of salvation. Each problem - poverty, mourning, hunger & thirst - would be followed by a blessing. A problem suffered by the church is found in one era and the blessing that ameliorates that problem comes in the next era. The corresponding doctrine was instrumental in facilitating the change.
Because the ninth problem in the ninth era will be solved by a blessing in the era after it, that means that this clock breaks the time following Jesus' preaching of this sermon into ten eras. The last era is of indeterminate length, because Christ can return at any time. The last era will introduce no new problem, because once Christ returns, the Kingdom of Heaven will be fully realized and all sorrows cease.
Here is a brief analysis of each blessing.
Calling: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Problem: The powerlessness of the church of 30 - 280 AD whose belongings were often confiscated by the Romans.
- Blessing: Came in the next era, 280 - 530 AD. The mechanism of that deliverance was God calling Constantine the Great to faith. The Roman emperor saw a vision of a cross of light in the sky before a battle along with the words, "By this conquer". By the end of the 4th century, Rome would officially be a Christian empire. The kingdoms of Armenia, Georgia and Iberia also converted to Christianity early in that century.
Regeneration: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
- Problem: In the middle of the era 280 - 530 AD, the Fall of Rome in 476 AD triggered the collapse of classical civilization, civil order and prosperity, resulting in the Dark Ages.
- Blessing: Regeneration began in the era 530 - 780 AD. In the east, Justinian I restored a measure of stability with renovatio imperii, his plan to regenerate the empire. His Corpus Juris Civilis simplified Roman law and simultaneously altered it to reflect Christian doctrines. So successful was this effort that his work serves as the basis of many modern legal systems. One change reflects the Christian belief that people are made in the imago Dei. There was also a greater emphasis on human rights and equality, including increased rights and access to emancipation for slaves, more rights for women, and better protections for children. In the west, Pope Gregory the Great reformed and strengthened the church and send missionaries to England.
Faith: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
- Problem: In the middle of the era 530 - 780 AD, the armies of Islam captured a third of Christendom, including the ancient patriarchates of Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch and much of Spain. This crisis in part triggered the Iconoclasm Controversy, a religious civil war over the issue of idolatry in the church.
- Blessing: During the next era of 780 - 1030 AD, the meek began to inherit the earth, with these nations converting to the Christian faith: Saxons, Navarre, Moravia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bohemia, Normans, Denmark, Poland, Kievan Russia, Norway, Hungary, Iceland and Sweden.
Repentance: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
- Problem: In the era 780 - 1030 AD, Church corruption was rampant, such as during the Reign of the Harlots.
- Blessing: In the era 1030 - 1280 AD, many church reforms were implemented. It began with the Cluniac reforms of monasteries late in the previous era. Then Pope Gregory VII made reforms to address sexual immorality among the clergy, simony, and the corrupting influences of civil investiture. The importance of repentance and righteousness also found its way into theology, with Anselm's Satisfaction Theory of Atonement. The Peace of God (989) and Truce of God (1027) movements of this time were the first large scale peace movement the world had ever seen, righteousness writ large. The Code of Chivalry (1170-1220) was a move towards treating women with dignity.
Justification: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
- Problem: In the era 1040 - 1280 AD, the sale of indulgences as part of a complex penitential system arose. 11th century scholastics like Peter Abelard and Peter Lombard worked out the doctrines, partly based on a belief in Purgatory. The idea that your money can pay for your sins was corrupting. The unrepentant rich became complacent in their sins and the poor were left a religion that could not gain them forgiveness for their sins. Thomas Aquinas made improvements to the understanding of Justification, but because the doctrines of justification and sanctification had since Augustine been hopelessly intertwined, he still left a place for human merit in the process. This left people to think that they were responsible for doing the things that will accomplish their justification before God.
- Blessing: Near the end of the era 1280 - 1530 AD, Luther (in 1517) discovered that justification is by grace through faith. God does it all! This started the Protestant Reformation.
Sanctification: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
- Problem: In the era 1280 - 1530 AD (and continuing into the next century), legal, doctrinal and sacramental emphases robbed people of personal direct experience of communion with God.
- Blessing: In the second half of the era 1530 - 1780 AD, a revolutionary emphasis on personal reflection, repentance, holiness, prayer and Bible study arose. On the continent, this took the form of the Pietism Movement. In England it was the Methodist Revival. In America, it was the Great Awakening. Christians had direct, miraculous encounters with God. They believed that at last they could really "see God".
Adoption: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
- Problem: In the era 1530 - 1780 AD, the wars of religion following the Reformation killed tens of millions, the worst civil war ever to ravage Christianity. The church needed peacemakers, but where could they be found? In "The Theological History of Adoption", Tim J. R. Trumper argues that the doctrine of Adoption was the most neglected step in the process of salvation for a millennium. John Calvin mentioned it a little and the Westminster Confession of Faith had a section on it, but the powerful implications of us becoming sons of God and co-heirs with Christ were ignored.
- Blessing: We come to the era 1780 - 2030 AD - our current era, soon to end. If everyone in the household of faith is adopted by God into His family, what does that make us to each other? Brothers and sisters! Does brother have a right to enslave brother? Or brother oppress sister? The abolition, women's rights and anti-racism movements are the result of God DEMANDING that we take Adoption seriously. Also the spread of democracy and civil rights and the peace movement.
Perseverance: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Problem: In the era 1780 - 2030 AD, many Christians were martyred. Many who fought for civil rights, Christian or otherwise, were also persecuted. Dr. Todd M Johnson of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary estimates that 70 million Christians have been martyred since the beginning of the faith. Half that number died in the 20th century, mostly under totalitarian regimes.
- Blessing: The next era is 2030 - 2280 AD. The blessing, related to the kingdom of heaven, has yet to arrive. However, based on the other prophetic clocks, this era includes "a time to hate" and "a time for war". When the fifth seal of Revelation is opened, a great persecution will begin, which leads us into the last Beatitude. Surely if God enables Christians to persevere in this crisis, he must provide extraordinary means.
Glorification: Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- Problem: In the era 2030 - 2280 AD, persecution will worsen. With AI generated deepfakes getting more convincing all the time, the prospect is for wholesale perjury against Christians.
- Blessing: After 2280 AD, Jesus will return (if not sooner). The saints will then be glorified and all suffering for Christians will end.
From this clock we learn that salvation is not solely an individual matter, and it is not a trifling thing. Every step in the path to salvation is governed by a separate doctrine, and each doctrine has the power to shake the world. This clock shows that God's Word is shaping the history of the world according to a regular schedule. His sovereignty is supreme and no power on earth or in the heavens or the depths can slow his plan down. Jesus is coming soon. Maranatha!
A Little Math
Assuming that there are skeptical people out there, how likely is it that the prophetic pattern just described arose from chance or an erroneous interpretation of history? First we shall tackle chance.
Assume for the sake of argument that the church has at some time or another wrestled with how to understand and implement each of the nine doctrines related to the steps of salvation. If that is true, then there must have been some year or era when the church made a significant advance in its understanding of each doctrine. Assuming that none of these advances happened at the same time, that would mean that we have nine historical events or trends to identify in history, one per step. Once we find those, what are the odds that those developments in history by random chance occurred in the order recorded in the Beatitudes? That is a simple question of math. It is one in nine factorial. In math, the factorial operator is a question mark:
9! = 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 = 362,880
That is worse than three in a million odds. But wait! On top of that the events have to be evenly spaced throughout history, falling in consecutive 250 years periods. I am not sure how to factor in that, but it makes the odds many millions to one against a random occurrence. So if the events that I have proposed do in fact match God's most dramatic exhibition of power related to each step, then the prophetic pattern is real.
So have I chosen not a set of convincing events or developments but the most extreme and magnificent and appropriate events in all of church history for each salvation step?
Lets work backwards. The ninth era has not yet begun, so we start with the eighth.
- 8. Perseverance and Persecution. Half of all Christians who were ever martyred died in the 20th century, by far the worst era of all. Check.
- 7. Adoption and Peacemakers. The problem era had the General Crisis, including the Thirty Years War, the worst civil war in Christendom. The outcome was the beginning of religious freedom, starting with the Peace of Westphalia. Then the promised relief in the next generation, the blessing era, being called sons of God (hence adopted), triggered the unprecedented movements to abolish slavery, advance women's rights, and oppose racism. This occurred after the doctrine of adoption had been neglected by theologians for over a millennium. Check.
- 6. Sanctification. In the problem era, theologians worked out the difference between justification and sanctification. The blessing era saw the advent of Pietism, Methodism and the Great Awakening. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit was unparalleled since the time of Pentecost, and it would produce the change of heart that ultimately led to abolition, democracy and other improvements. Check.
- 5. Justification and mercy. The problem era saw movements of people showing mercy to one another, like the Peace of God and Truce of God, and chivalry. The blessing era saw Luther discovering that justification is by faith alone, triggering the Protestant Reformation. Check.
- 4. Repentance. In the problem era, the church was at its most corrupt, in need of repentance. In the blessing era, many church reforms were undertaken by Pope Gregory VII. One figure who called the church to repentance was Saint Francis of Assisi. Check.
- 3. Faith and inheriting the earth. In the problem era, the church's faith was sorely tested by the advance of Islam, which caused the loss by Christendom of Jerusalem, a third of its people, and its breadbasket of Egypt. In the blessing era, the church expanded north and east as many kingdoms embraced the faith. Check.
- 2. Regeneration, Mourning and comfort. In the problem era, the Fall of Rome triggered a civilizational collapse. Mourning for the glory that was Rome was deep and lasted for centuries; no other empire in history lasted so long or had so great an impact on the world. In the blessing era, Justinian I revitalized the east by Christianizing its laws (and fighting lots of wars) and Pope Gregory the Great stabilized the west and sent missionaries to England. Christian monasteries and universities would keep the continent on intellectual life support until Europe was reborn. Check.
- 1. Calling, poverty and kingdom. In the problem era, the faithful were poor and suffered persecution at the hands of the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. In the blessing era, the greatest turnaround in all of history occurred. Constantine was called by God, the strongman was bound, Rome became Christian and Jesus plundered the enemy's kingdom, the fourth beast of Daniel. Check.
Each step is associated with one or two pivotal, exceptional and relevant events drawn from church history. Yes, God is saving the world on schedule. The prophecy is not imaginary, contrived or a random fluke. Even greater persecution, built upon a web of lies, awaits the church in the years ahead as we enter the ninth era. The Lord blessed each era before us. He will deliver us again.
