Salvation Summaries

Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

I have been “working through” the beatitudes to understand what they say about salvation and how a Christian should live. I believe the beatitudes summarize how a person becomes saved and how a saved person becomes mature spiritually. As a result, if you want to know how to witness to an unbeliever or counsel a “young” Christian, look to the beatitudes.

Summary (for those who may not have time to read the entire post)

Mercy is similar to compassion but goes beyond this to forgive the wrongdoings of others with a desire to help them. In most verses with the word mercy or merciful, they are applied to God not us, and of these, most pertain to His love and grace and kindness to forgive our sins.

However, Christians are to be merciful to others because God has been merciful to us, God our Father and Jesus our Lord expect us to, and because Jesus commands us to.

When we show mercy to others who have wronged us in some way or to the afflicted and needy, God will show mercy to us and bless us. Of course, God’s greatest act of mercy is forgiving us of our sins and giving us eternal life. Knowing that, how can we not show mercy to others?

Details

Before I discuss Jesus’ next beatitude about the merciful, I’d like to briefly summarize what we’ve learned thus far, not only as a reminder but also so you can see the progression of steps (building blocks) Jesus lays out in His beatitudes.

Review of the first Four Beatitudes

1. A person who is poor in spirit realizes, through humility, that they are a sinner and unworthy compared to a sinless and holy God; feels brokenhearted over their sin and expresses sorrow to God for having offended Him; and acknowledges they can’t fix their sin problem on their own and must turn to God for Him to fix it. This is the first and hardest step for a non-Christian to take for many believe they are good (or likely good enough to get to heaven) and/or they have all of their needs met and thus see no need for a savior.

2. Mourn means to lament, grieve or express sorrow. The mourning Jesus mentions is not over another person’s poor physical condition or death, but rather your own sinfulness…a sinfulness you became aware of once you became poor in spirit. In short, it is godly sorrow that causes you to repent. One Bible verse that reflects this is 2 Corinthians 7:10, which says: For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. Repentance is required for a person to become a Christian, but faith is too, which takes place in the next step.

3. Meek refers to one’s attitude and heart towards God, with humility the primary trait. Meek refers to a person who, through humility, has become poor in spirit, mourned over their sins, repented and trusted in the Lord for their salvation. They now have security in their relationship with God, want to learn more about Him, and look forward to seeing what God will do in their life as they commit their plans to Him. I believe the hymn, “I Surrender All,” captures the submission, trust and rest in Jesus parts of what it means to be meek.

4. To hunger and thirst after righteousness means that a Christian should earnestly seek to live a holy, blameless and righteous life, and to know Christ. This is something we should do each day.

So, the first two beatitudes – poor in spirit and mourn – show how a person becomes saved. Meek refers to someone who rests securely in their salvation and looks to God for direction on what to do as they commit their life to Him. Hunger and thirst is the next step in a Christian’s walk where that person develops an earnest desire to know Christ and to live a righteous and blameless life in order to please God. As a person grows spiritually, not only does their love for God increase but also their love for others, and this brings us to the next beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful.”

What does it mean to be Merciful?

Dictionary

According to Webster’s, merciful can be defined as benevolence (disposition to do good; to be kind and charitable), tenderness, compassion or gentleness that incline a person to treat an offender, or someone in affliction, better than they deserve in order to promote their happiness. While similar to compassion, merciful goes beyond this to forgive the wrongdoings of another with a desire to help them. 

Bible Verses

I looked up every verse in the Bible with the word mercy or merciful and below is a summary of what I found:

• Mercy is similar to compassion (Rom 9:15), goodness (Ps 23:6), grace and favor (Ps 77:7-9; Heb 4:16).  It can mean slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness (Jon 4:2).

• God, who is merciful (Ps 103:9), can grant mercy to someone who is afflicted, in distress or trouble (Ps 25:16-17, 31:9). He can show mercy by abstaining from causing or allowing harm or punishment to fall upon others (Judges 1:24-55, Nehemiah 9:30-31; Ps 86:13). God can provide mercy by giving people favor in the sight of others (Gen 39:20-22), even if they didn’t deserve it (Ez 9:9-10).

• However, God’s ultimate gift of mercy – His kindness, love and grace – is forgiving the sins and granting of salvation to people who do not deserve it, and there are many examples of this in Scripture (Ex 34:6-7; Nu 14:18-20, Ps 51:1-4, Eph 2:4-9, Titus 3:4-7, 1 Tim 1:12-16; Heb 8:12; 1 Peter 1:3).  Also, Jesus is described as merciful for the same reason (Heb 2:17-18, 1 Tim 1:13-16).

From this we see what mercy is and how God is merciful towards others, with forgiveness of sins being His greatest act of mercy.

However, the first part of Jesus’ beatitude does not pertain to God, but to Christians. So, how are Christians to be merciful? I believe Luke 6:27-38 does a good job of answering this.

²⁷ “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  ²⁹ If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.  ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.  ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.  ³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them.  ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that.  ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full.  ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.  ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  ³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:27-37  

Thus, if you consider yourself to be a merciful Christian, you are expected to:

• Love your enemies, do good to them and pray for them.
• Do to others what you would have them do to you.
• Not judge or condemn others.
• Forgive others (who repent) so that you will be forgiven.

Now that we know how we Christians are to be merciful, the next question we need to answer is why? I found three reasons.

One reason is because God has been merciful to us, especially with regard to our sins (And if God has been merciful to us and saved us from our sins, how can we not be merciful to others?).

• ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14 

• ¹³ And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.  ¹⁴ “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  ¹⁵ “But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:13-15 

A second reason is because God our Father and Jesus the Son expect us to be merciful.

• ⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 
•    “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy (the AMP shows compassion for those in distress) and not (animal) sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. Matthew 12:7

And the third reason, which is reflected in the story of the Good Samaritan, is because Jesus commands us to show mercy to others.

•  ³⁶ “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”  ³⁷ And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:36-37  
•   ¹³ For there will be no mercy for you if you have not been merciful to others. But if you have been merciful, then God’s mercy toward you will win out over his judgment against you. James 2:13 (NLT)

What is the mercy that Christians will be shown?

If we Christians show mercy to others, as God our Father and Jesus want and expect us to, then God will show mercy to us (and who doesn’t want that?!).