…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
That is a good challenge to all of us: are we living a life that is worthy of persecution in the name of Jesus Christ. I feel persecuted by the messages the world is broadcasting and the discussions/ideas I encounter at work. But I am not being persecuted directly for something I have said or done by those in the world. Well, several of my neighbors have shunned my family for our stance on how one of the neighborhood kids was acting, but that would be the only possible case. Still, I need to find opportunities to talk to those around me about Jesus, come what may.
I have always thought that the moment of justification was the 4th beatitude when a person has their hunger for righteousness satisfied. It is at that moment they have received the righteousness of Christ and declared righteous in the great court of God. The following beatitudes are sanctification, but the first 4 will not cease. They should grow over time as well as a part of sanctification.
I am curious Bionic. How does your study of the beatitudes develop your definition of "beatitudo" at the center of natural law? Looks like there should be a connection, right?
Beatitudo, best understood, at least for me, as other-regarding action, or love.
For sure a connection. Where I left it on my earlier writing was that our telos, or purpose, was to grow ever more Christ-like, that our behavior, or ethics, would mirror His.
My study of the Beatitudes is shaping this - teaching me that as far away as I thought I was from being Christ-like before I began this study, in reality I am much further away....that as much as I needed God's blessings to grow more Christ-like, in fact it is impossible to grow in this way without God's blessing.
That is a good challenge to all of us: are we living a life that is worthy of persecution in the name of Jesus Christ. I feel persecuted by the messages the world is broadcasting and the discussions/ideas I encounter at work. But I am not being persecuted directly for something I have said or done by those in the world. Well, several of my neighbors have shunned my family for our stance on how one of the neighborhood kids was acting, but that would be the only possible case. Still, I need to find opportunities to talk to those around me about Jesus, come what may.
I have always thought that the moment of justification was the 4th beatitude when a person has their hunger for righteousness satisfied. It is at that moment they have received the righteousness of Christ and declared righteous in the great court of God. The following beatitudes are sanctification, but the first 4 will not cease. They should grow over time as well as a part of sanctification.
I am curious Bionic. How does your study of the beatitudes develop your definition of "beatitudo" at the center of natural law? Looks like there should be a connection, right?
https://thecrosssectionrmb.blogspot.com/
Beatitudo, best understood, at least for me, as other-regarding action, or love.
For sure a connection. Where I left it on my earlier writing was that our telos, or purpose, was to grow ever more Christ-like, that our behavior, or ethics, would mirror His.
My study of the Beatitudes is shaping this - teaching me that as far away as I thought I was from being Christ-like before I began this study, in reality I am much further away....that as much as I needed God's blessings to grow more Christ-like, in fact it is impossible to grow in this way without God's blessing.