All Saints Day – 2019
Matthew 5:1-12 “Blessed through faith in Christ who sanctifies”
Grace to you and peace…
Do you ever have moments when you think, “Wow, I’ve really been blessed!”? I hope so. And if you do, what are some of the reasons that you think of? Why are you blessed? In what way?
All Saints day is a day to remember God’s blessings – and not only to us, but to God’s people throughout the ages. They may not have always shared the same exact reasons that you do. But all Saints of every age have been blessed. In fact, that’s what it means to be Saints. They’ve been blessed by being sanctified; justified; washed and redeemed. To have been forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God through the blood of Jesus Christ.
THOSE WHO ARE BLESSED ARE THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN DECLARED HOLY, EVEN SAINTS, ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST.
I. It is in Christ, we are blessed.
Probably the most difficult thing about reading passages like the Beatitudes is that we naturally want to read and understand them as a word of law. We read, “Blessed are the poor” and we think, “Maybe I should do as Jesus says in Matthew 19:27 and give all my treasures away to the poor that I might have treasures in heaven…that way (we think)…”I’ll be blessed”. And we do the same thing with the other Beatitudes. “I will see God if I’m pure (or at least pure enough) in heart”. “I’ll be called a ‘Son of God’ - if dedicate my life to being a ‘peace-maker’” – and so on.
And that’s not to say that you shouldn’t be humble and merciful. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t mourn over the unrighteousness of the world or that you shouldn’t even be glad when you find yourself being persecuted for Jesus’ Name’s sake. But what it does mean is that this is not the reason why you are blessed. How good you are or how bad you are (in terms of reflecting the attitudes and attributes described in the Beatitudes) is not what determines your blessing from God. What determines your blessing is Christ.
II. Christ is all these things and through faith, God counts His righteousness to you.
The Hymn we just sang talks about the Saints in the “past-tense”. They are those who “from their labors rest, who Thee by faith before the world confessed”. Some were persecuted for Jesus’ Name’s sake. Some, like Christ, were meek and lowly of heart. Some might have even been known as “peacemakers”. But none of them were perfect. You can be sure that every single one of them knew the same struggles that you know. Every single one of them were at times, deeply disappointed in themselves – and often for good reason. Every single one of them mourned over their own weaknesses; their failures; the losses that they endured; the disappointments that came their way…and at times, no matter what was said…and no matter how firmly they truly believed…they also found that at times, it was just really hard to be comforted. They weren’t perfect, any more than you.
That’s why we need to point out that this Hymn is really telling only half the story. The “Saints” are not simply those that rest now from the labors that they endured during their past lives. The term “Saints” includes all people who, in a THEOLOGICAL SENSE, rest (even now) from their labors…that is, works by which they try to “be more merciful”….to try and be more pure in heart…to try and be a better peacemaker, and more meek, and even more poor…all to try and appease and please their Heavenly Father by trying to attain what they think are the righteous requirements of God. As Hebrews 4:10 says, “For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His”. The ones who rest in a theological sense NOW - are also Saints because, like the Saints of ages before, they have put their hope – not in attaining a righteousness of their own, but in the free gift of righteousness that has been bestowed upon them through the waters of baptism for the sake of Jesus Christ.
The term “Saints” includes everyone who, in the face of their own failures and imperfections, believes that Christ died for their sins…that God actually counts Christ’s perfect righteousness to them as their own…and that God is actually pleased to do so. God counts their faith in Him as righteousness.
As John writes, this is the “kind of love that the Father has GIVEN to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are”. By Christ taking on Himself the sins of the world, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. This gift was given to you when you were baptized into His death – a baptism by which (before the eyes of God) the blood of Jesus covers all your sins. You are sanctified. Made Holy. Called a Child of God through those waters of regeneration and renewal and, as John says, You are…children…Saints of God.
III. In this we see that there are only two kinds of religion in the world.
There is the religion of the man which tries to appease and please God through various works. This is the religion that hears the Serpent’s temptation in the garden, promising that “if you do this…you will be like God”. It promises that “If you become like this you will be “justified” in all that you do and say. Such a religion never causes people to attain to the promises that it makes – not simply because its goals are too high (you will never attain to the holiness required by the law)…but because there is no holiness apart from the gift of God in Christ Jesus.
As Romans 3:28 tells us, “For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law”. What does that mean? It means that, even if you could perfectly satisfy God’s law…even if you could keep yourself from ever breaking even one of the 10 Commandments…you would STILL NOT be justified in the eyes of God. Why? Because that’s not how your justified in the eyes of God. No one is ever justified because they’re “so awesome”. That’s because being perfect (that is, if you could be perfect) is not what makes things right between you and God. That’s what Paul means when he teaches that “We hold that a man is justified by faith”. Everything apart from faith Him is still marred and corrupted because it is remains estranged from how God who created it all, intended it to be.
Before the fall, God walked with Adam in the garden and Adam was in a state of perfect righteousness, innocence and blessedness. But Adam fell from this state of grace when he doubted who God was. The Devil said, “Did God really say?”…and then he flat-out accused God of being deceptive and a liar. Adam doubted God. His faith was shaken. That’s the fall. Adam was no longer in perfect faith. That’s the true state of sin.
For us, this means that EVEN IF YOU WERE perfect from here on forth, your perfection (in terms of the law) could never restore your walk with God. Unless everything that’s transpired in the past was somehow reconciled and made right again…unless your faith in God were restored…you would remain “not right” or “unrighteous” in the eyes of God. You would remain “unsanctified”…and consequently you would remain estranged from the author and giver of life…even (which you’re not) if you were to somehow live a perfect life according to the requirements of the law. That’s why natural religion, or the religion of works, does nothing to save you from the wages of sin…that is death.
Then there is the religion that comes from God. This is the true religion that restores man’s trust in God by revealing God to man as He really is…through the life, sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the religion that perceives God not only as the all-powerful Creator; as the righteous judge; as the example of godliness and purity; but as the One who, in meekness, seeks His lost sheep as a Shepherd; Who hungers and thirsts to make things between Himself and His Creation…right again; Who mercifully lays down His life for the sheep; Who endures the wrath of God against sin and suffers the just consequence for the rebelliousness of men, that we might believe in Him who would bestow such love upon us - and be saved.
Conclusion: Salvation belongs to God and to the Lamb and it is this that He gives to you freely. Through faith in Him, you are Saints even now. Through faith in Him, you rest from your labors and cast your crowns before Him who has done everything required to make all things new between Him and you. In Him you have been made holy. The past is wiped away, a new conviction of who He is and what He is like is restored. In Him and through all these things, you are blessed, even now as He once again, renews His new covenant with you. In Jesus’ Name +