The Spiros Zodhiates Complete Wordstudy Dictionary
says that Classical Greek tends to use this word to describe the "hereafter," but that Jesus is using it to describe what is happening currently. What blessed actually means here is to be fully satisfied now.So we look at the beatitudes (the first 11 verses in Matthew 5, apart from verse one) to read Jesus telling these people, "Completely and currently satisfied are..." Maybe this is where C.S. Lewis told us that he felt like someone was beating him on the head with a sledge hammer - I mean, how easy is it to be completely satisfied anyways?
The circumstances in which Jesus proclaims those who are completely and currently satisfied now aren't exactly easy in the strictest of senses. However, if we can grasp what he is saying and the context in which he is saying it then the promise is that we can be now and fully satisfied.
For example, He first says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." A little further translation might yield, "How fully and currently satisfied are those who understand the very seat of all their affections to be absolutely destitute for theirs is present and future kingdom of God." The hope for those who believe themselves to be found in Christ is adverse to the very method by which you would win God's favor in any other religion, right? Christ says that to have the kingdom of heaven, you must think of yourself as spiritually destitute.
Of course, this is not what you are probably familiar with when you think of much of the North American Christian Culture - and really, I'm not trying to fight that battle with this post. What I am saying is that our entire frame of mind (regardless of where we are and where we originate culturally) necessitates a transformation by the Spirit of God. That very transformation not only allows but also indefinitely and undeniably causes us the see the impotence of our striving for the sake of seeing the fullness of Christ. I heard Steve Brown say on a local radio station that if we believe the gospel, then we don't have to pretend as if we are good anymore.
The problem in life (at least for me) is that I rarely (if ever) see myself as spiritually impotent. Altogether, it is an indication that I don't believe that God is as holy as He says He is or that I don't believe that I'm was as dead as He said I was.
The joy of the life of the believer in Christ is that hope is found in believing that we are who we really are - completely unable to do anything perfect and so imperfect that our very spirit (the seat of our affections) is found to be dead - and that Christ is the righteousness by which we stand before God.
resources used:
1 comment:
My own personal viewpoint on current and complete satisfaction is simply believing that you're where you're supposed to be in life in the current time. God has you exactly where you're meant to be, and while you might have had different expectations of where you'd be at this point ten years ago...it's okay, because this is what God has for you now. Delight is a simple thing...a beer, a good meal, a woman and friends, a good book...and of course music and creativity accentuated by pipe smoking. I try not to worry, because I don't believe that God wants me to. Somehow I manage to piece together enough money and good times to keep going on. It may not be the amount of money I'd like, or the good times I initially planned for...but I can find reason for satisfaction in just about any situation.
Post a Comment