“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)
This week we will examine the idea of the blessedness of the merciful. If we look at this text on the surface, it does appear that those who show mercy are rewarded with mercy. In previous weeks I hope that I have shown that to be a false interpretation as it becomes either a salvation or a sanctification by works. If we receive mercy because we have shown mercy, it shows that God operates in the blessings for works plan rather than giving grace and then crowning that grace with more grace. Anytime that we think that we have received mercy from God because we have done something, we can know that we have turned the mercy of God into something we can earn. God will show mercy on whom He will show mercy. Mercy comes to humanity based on the character and mercy of God, not based on the goodness or outward actions of man.
Why are those who show mercy blessed? One reason is because only those with salvation show true mercy. The Gospel came as a result of the mercy of God. We can see why God sent the Son from Luke 1:76: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS; 77 To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, 78 Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us.” The Father sent the Son to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by forgiving them their sins. He did this because of His tender mercy. This text shows us that the Gospel is not just a legal transaction with God, but it comes from the tender mercy of God.
The psalmist cries out to God with that in mind: “Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses, For they have been from of old” (25:6). Paul points to this in Ephesians as he looks to the reason why God would have such mercy to raise sinners from the dead: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us” (Eph 2:4). Mercy flows from love. In fact, mercy is the love of God for the helpless. So the Gospel comes to sinners based on the mercy of God alone. Titus also sets this out. Why are people regenerated by the Spirit of God? “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5).
As we can see, then, the plan of salvation was from the tender mercy of God and raising sinners from the spiritual dead and regenerating them is also based on the mercy of God. In this light, we can see the necessity of being poor in spirit in order to receive mercy. If mercy is not based on our works or efforts, then to receive it we must not trust in our works or efforts. The broken in heart are those who are needy and impoverished, even helpless. The broken in heart can receive true mercy, perhaps even without pride. Mercy helps those who cannot help themselves and it is those who are poor in spirit that realize that they cannot help themselves. So God’s mercy comes to those who reach the point of inability. The only thing that separates the believer from the worst of the outward sinners is grace and mercy. This should show whey believers should be merciful to other sinners.
When we see the great mercy that has been demonstrated to us as sinners our self-righteousness crashes down. We have nothing left to trust in but Christ and His grace alone. Our hearts are broken and we are left with nothing of self to lean on. But beware of having pride & self-righteousness in the fact that you have no righteousness. It is possible to appear to be merciful rather than to be merciful. The appearance does not cost much, but to strive for a broken heart from self, self-righteousness and pride so that we can have a merciful heart does hurt and cost. We will only truly be merciful to the degree that we love God, not to the degree that we love self or try to appear merciful to others and perhaps even to self. It is, after all, better to be humbled for sin than to be proud of grace.
One evidence of having the blessedness of having been shown mercy is that of showing mercy, but not because God rewards merciful acts with mercy. If we only show mercy in order to receive mercy, this would ruin the motive of doing all out of love for God and His glory. Instead, we must see outward acts of mercy as the outward manifestation of sharing in the life of God. We only show true mercy when we have received the mercy of God and it is working in and through us. While this seems so backwards to those who work in order to obtain things from God, it is the position that fits with the rest of Scripture.
Mercy is the aspect of true love that is toward the helpless or those that cannot help themselves at all. There is only one location to obtain true love and this is the God who is love. The only people that show mercy, then, are those that have true love and those that truly love have been born of God and know God (I John 4:7-8). This also means that the only people that show true mercy are born of God and know God since true mercy flows from true love. The point of this is to show that those that are born of God and know God are the only ones that have true love and therefore true mercy. A person that displays true mercy, then, is a person that has been regenerated by the mercy of God. That person is blessed. The person that shows true mercy is a person that knows God. According to John 17:3, eternal life is defined by knowing God. So a display of true mercy would be evidence of that person knowing God and therefore of eternal life. That is true blessedness.
To put this in a different way, these are the people that have the love of God in them and they are in the love of God. To share in the love of God as it flows between the Father and the Son is to share in the eternal blessedness of God. Those that show true mercy are the ones that have been shown saving mercy and presently have the mercy of God living in them. That mercy of God in them is expressed in acts of mercy toward others. It is, in biblical language, to share in the life of God (II Peter 1:3-5). The blessedness of the merciful is not in getting something from God; it is to have God Himself and to share in the manifestation of His glory in this world. The only thing that a believer that has been shown mercy and has tasted of the good things of God should want is simply more and more tasting of the glory of God. To have the life of God in the soul is to have the glory of God’s mercy to work its way out into the life of the blessed person and that means that person simply has more and more mercy to look forward to.
Let us look at this again. The blessed person has been saved by the mercy of God. The love of God now dwells in that person which enables the converted person to show true mercy. Each act of true mercy that a believer shows is not a work for righteousness, but is an act of love for God and human beings made in His image. What can reward a person that loves God more than anything at all? Nothing but God Himself will satisfy a heart like that. Sharing in the life of God is the blessed life because God is the ever and all blessed God. He has nothing but Himself and the manifestation of His own glory to delight in. He can give nothing better than Himself. So the person that has the love of the ever blessed God in His soul does not want anything but God. Showing mercy is a way to see the manifested glory of God. Showing mercy is a way to taste of the glory of God. Showing mercy, then, is its own reward as it enables the soul to manifest the glory of God and that is what the soul loves. The blessedness of those that show mercy is not in getting more things, but in receiving more of God’s mercy which is His love to them which is really giving them a love for Himself. This is to share in the life of God and is true blessedness.
The beginning of blessedness means to be saved by a Gospel of mercy. The Gospel itself gives hope of a God who will have mercy. The teaching that God removes His wrath from sinners by the sacrifice of Christ (propitiation) is a term that is taken from the mercy-seat in the Old Testament. Believers are blessed when they show mercy because they have the life of Christ in them and are already recipients of mercy. But even more, believers have the promise of mercy all of their days on earth and then for eternity. Believers have the promise that they have a merciful and faithful High Priest (Heb 2:17). Believers have the promise that God will be merciful and remember their sins no more (Heb 8:12). Believers can look to passages like Leviticus 16:2-14 and know that the blood that was spoken of there spoke of Christ who was to come and that Christ has sprinkled His blood on the mercy seat.
But believers should also know that they have the life of Christ in them (Gal 2:20) and that is their very hope of glory (Col 1:27). Believers are the temple of the living God and they know that the glory that shines through them is the very same glory that was seen in Christ (John 1:14), That is the glory that consists of grace and truth. Believers can know that as they live life they are not working for righteousness or any form of mercy, they are working out of love. God has saved them by His mercy and they no longer have anything to work for other than to glorify His mercy and love. All that a believer does that is out of love for God is truly the mercy of God for that is the mercy of God shining through that person. That is also the blessedness of God shining in and through that person. How blessed are the merciful because they have received the mercy of God and that same mercy will shine in them now and for all eternity.
God Loves... Himself 
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