The favored ones are...
Matthew 5:3
When you listen to someone preach or when you sit down to read the Bible, what are you expecting? I remember being taught as a child that the Bible was God’s ‘instruction book.’ So when I would read or listen, I would look for commands to obey - what should I do? How should I live? What are the habits I should develop so that life can be better?
Is that how you’re thinking about Jesus’ teaching now? It would be completely normal to expect a to-do list, complete with rewards and penalties. After all, we can clearly observe cause and effect in the universe. And most of us have a developed sense of justice - if I do right, good things should happen to me.
It would have been normal for Jesus’ disciples to expect this as well. Remember, when Jesus went up the mountain, he was sending the message that God was about to relate to people again, just like he did with Moses. And when Moses ascended the mountain to deliver God’s covenant, God began almost immediately with commands about how his people were to live.
Consider the way that Moses introduced God’s covenant: “And now, Israel, listen to the decrees and laws which I am teaching you, so that you’ll live and go in and take possession of the land...”(Deuteronomy 4:1). Listen and obey and you’ll be rewarded.
So the disciples probably expected an obedience/reward system, and to some degree we probably expect it. And we probably want it. We want to be told, at the end of the day, ‘Good job.’ We want to have the pride of getting something we earned. We want to be able to view ourselves, and have others view us, as doing what’s right. And we want to have control over making sure we can immediately get what we think will make us happy.
But we, and the disciples, would’ve been completely ignoring what Jesus had been doing before this sermon. Remember: God’s Kingdom was on the verge of arriving. And how did one enter it? By ‘repenting.’ And repenting includes the admission that I have broken God’s laws and deserve punishment, not reward. And to push it a little further, it includes the admission that, at the heart level, my desires are rebellious, and my inner-most soul needs to be transformed by God.
There’s one other reason that our expectations of an obedience/reward system would indicate we’ve not been paying attention to Jesus. Remember, Jesus started his ministry by giving out some of the gifts of the Kingdom of God - curing sickness and pain. He didn’t demand that people go live a completely good life out of pure devotion to God, and that then He’d pay them back by healing them. He just healed them, while commanding them to turn the course of their lives Godward.
Still, if we’re honest, we’re asking, “What’s the catch?” We still want to earn rewards. We’re still, like Jesus’ disciples, probably expecting to hear what we’ve got to do.
So when Jesus starts his sermon by saying, “The favored ones are...,” or “Blessed are...,” our world and our expectations get turned on their heads.
Jesus wasn’t giving a list of do’s and don’ts with rewards and penalties, which is what we’d expect. He was simply saying that, since God’s Kingdom via Christ was bursting on the scene, he was about to give gifts to certain people. He’s not saying ‘this is how to get rewarded’; rather, He’s declaring that particular people, particular sinners, are already favored by God.
Now, honestly, there is a catch. God doesn’t give favor to everyone; these gifts aren’t for every individual in the world. God is about to give descriptions of those who he has already chosen to favor.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, either. After all, God ended the first covenant by declaring Israel - and only Israel - as favored by God. “You are favored, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD!”(Deuteronomy 33:29). They were favored by God not because they’d done anything good, but simply because God chose to love those who didn’t care about him.
God had favored Israel - they got God’s word, and for a time, would get a homeland. But God’s first declaration of favor did not give them God’s Kingdom. It gave them a temporary picture of it.
Jesus’ declarations here are about something far greater: eternal, happy, relationship with God in his presence. And who are these ‘favored ones’? Jesus is about to describe what their lives will look like; but he’s already told us who they are: those who repent. Perhaps at this point, it would be helpful to define repentance. We’ll look at it from multiple angles to get a good picture of the whole.
Those who repent...
- admit that God exists, and that He determines, and has verbally defined in the Bible, what things are right and wrong. We don’t get to decide what right and wrong is.
- admit that we have broken God’s laws, and experience a sorrow that points us to cry out for the mercy that's only found in Christ.
- admit that our breaking of God’s laws deserves punishment, and that the only way out is God, graciously, not exercising justice against us, but against someone else - namely, Jesus, through the punishment he received.
- admit that not only does our record of sin need to be done away with, but that our hearts are wicked - and that we want God to change our very desires, regardless of how that will change our lives.
- commit themselves to learning what God has commanded us to think, feel, and do - and begin to, though imperfectly, pursue learning and keeping those commands... why because a part of the gift of salvation given to us is a new heart that has this overwhelming desire to love Him.
Now I don't want you to go off thinking that everyone must do exactly what this list says in order to experience true biblical repentance. These are principles based off of Scripture pertaining to those who experience godly sorrow that produces a repentance that leads to salvation... a salvation that's without regret of all that was lost upon receiving it.
Everyone who repents is favored by God, and is receiving His Kingdom - yes they're rewarded for good things done (Rev 19:7-9) - but all as a part of the Gift. He not only grants us the penalty paid for our sins but also grants us righteous deeds that are done through the Holy Spirit in us of which is summed up in the perfect work of Christ. The beauty of this is that we are treated as if we actually did the righteous deeds ourselves (even though we wouldn't and couldn't), and this is all simply based on God’s loving favor and His desire for relationship with us. He loves us, and He favors every sinner who repents. He has already given a particular people favor - it is not something we can earn.
Things you may want to pray about:
- Praise God for loving sinners!
- Praise God for the fact that he gives eternal life.
- If you are ‘repentant,’ praise God for giving repentance to you.
- Praise God for forgiving your sins and putting the judgment you deserve on Christ.
Think about people you know who are not repenting and places in the world where people are not repenting. Those people are not under God’s favor. Ask God to give them the gift of His Kingdom.
Consider things that you need to admit to God in which you’ve not obeyed Him. Ask Him for forgiveness and for help to obey Him. Thank Him that forgiveness and eternal life are gifts.
Consider the ways that you try to earn God’s favor. Or if you don’t try to get happiness in life by religious means, consider the ways that you try to get happiness and hope apart from God (i.e. entertainment, food, sex, friendship). Confess these strivings to earn rewards or joy as sins against God. Thank him for forgiveness. Ask Him to help you enjoy the fact that His Kingdom is truly, completely, an unearned gift that we don’t pay for, because He already did.
Onesimus & James Miles III
