Blessed are the Merciful, for They Shall Receive Mercy

(Part 5 of a series of 9 articles on the Beatitudes)
by Pastor Paul Wolff​

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Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)

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Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Matthew 5:7

Mercy and grace are related because they are both expressions of love. Because all of us children of Adam and Eve are corrupted by sin, our love is imperfect – and so is our practice of mercy and grace. God’s love is perfect, and His mercy and grace are perfect. An easy way to distinguish mercy from grace is to think of mercy as God not punishing us as our sins deserve, and grace is God giving us good things which we do not deserve because of our sinfulness. However, in the Holy Bible, the meaning and use of the word “mercy” is much broader than this simple definition, and in practice both mercy and grace can often describe the same thing, which is nearly always God expressing His love in how He deals with us.

Jesus proclaims in His Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7) Here Jesus encourages all God-fearing people (and everyone else, if they will listen) to have mercy on their neighbor, and God will have mercy on them, too. God certainly has had mercy on us all by sending Jesus to pay the price of death to redeem us all from our sin and death. Since God has already done this great merciful thing for us to rescue us from the punishment we deserve, we ought to also have mercy on others, even (and especially) when they sin against us. The blessing received by the merciful is that they will also receive mercy from God. God is certainly merciful to all people, though not all receive it because some reject God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ, and so they miss out on what God freely gives them.

God is the loving father who has mercy on his disobedient children and forgives our rebellion and sins.

The concept of mercy is common in the Holy Scriptures. There are between ten and twenty dozen occurrences of the word “mercy” in the Bible. This depends on which translation you read because in the Old Testament there are several different Hebrew words translated as “mercy”, and different translations sometimes translate these words as “love” (especially “steadfast love”) or “grace” or “kindness” (especially “loving kindness”) or “loyalty” (?) or “pity” or “compassion” instead of mercy. Most times it is not immediately defined, and assumes that the reader knows what mercy refers to, as in Psalm 23:6 which says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Though mercy is connected with “goodness” here, it is not otherwise defined. The concept of “mercy” is common in the Psalms, which served as the hymns (and prayers) of the Old Testament times, and still serve as the basis of our hymns today, too.

Psalm 25:6-7 says, “Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!” In this Psalm mercy is connected with God’s “steadfast love” (or “mercy”), and the effect of God’s mercy here is that He would “remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions.” It is verses like this that show us that mercy means that God is withholding from us the punishment which we deserve on account of our sins.

In King David’s great Psalm of repentance after he was confronted with the guilt of his sin by the prophet, Nathan, David immediately begins by asking God for mercy. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” (Psalm 51:1) Again, here God’s mercy and love are connected, and the expected result is that God would “blot out my transgressions.” The idea here is that God wipes away the stain of our transgressions and sins like a writer wipes away spilled ink on the page (or parchment). Later in the history of God’s people, Isaiah gives God’s people this message which calls to mind King David’s psalm of repentance. “I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25) This is great good news for all God’s people because with sin comes death, and if God does not remember our sins, then we will be spared from sin’s punishment.

Jesus had mercy on the crowd who followed Him, and miraculously fed 5,000 people to satisfaction with five loaves of bread and two fish.

The best example in Holy Scripture which describes what God’s mercy (and its opposite) is like is probably Christ’s Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. You can find it in Matthew 18:21-35. In the parable the king forgives his servant a debt so large that he could never repay it. That is how God deals with us in mercy. Our sin condemns us to death, which is a debt that we can not pay without being destroyed. God, Himself, covered our debt by becoming incarnate (Jesus Christ) and taking the punishment of death, Himself, in order to rescue us from the death which would destroy us. In the parable the forgiven servant should have been so appreciative of the king’s mercy that he ought to have had similar mercy on his neighbor who owed him a small debt. However, he was overly harsh with his neighbor, and when the king heard about it he determined that his servant did not appreciate what he had done for him, and withdrew his offer of mercy and put him in prison until he had paid every last penny of the original debt – which was forever, because the debt was so large as to be impossible to repay. This parable shows us that God wants us to be merciful to our neighbors as God has been so much more merciful to us. If we truly understand and appreciate the great cost that our King (Jesus) has paid to cover our debts, then we will find it much easier to also show mercy to our neighbors who owe us much smaller debts. Though our neighbors’ debts may seem large to us, compared to what we are indebted to God, our neighbors’ debts to us are infinitely smaller, and ultimately insignificant in the long run.

In Psalm 103:8-10 David also combines God’s mercy and grace and describes it in this way: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” Here David praises God because of His mercy and grace because He does not punish us for our “sins” and “iniquities”. He goes on to emphasize this in verse 12 where he writes: “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” This is another way of describing God’s forgiveness. If He removes our transgressions (sins) from us, then He will not punish us for them. Also, since God removes our transgressions “as far as the east is from the west,” then they can’t come back to condemn us. They are gone for good. This is the result of God’s mercy and grace, and it is also how we ought to forgive our neighbor.

Since God’s mercy is so closely connected with His forgiveness, we should also see that this Fifth Beatitude is related to the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We certainly should remember that God’s forgiveness is not conditional on how well we forgive our neighbor, but that “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) It can’t start with us, because in our sin, our mercy and forgiveness is either incomplete or lacking in some lesser or greater way. It must start with God because His mercy, love, and forgiveness is perfect in every case. Likewise, in the beatitudes, we receive mercy from God first, then in response to His mercy and forgiveness and grace, we have mercy on our neighbor.

Jesus has mercy on even the weak and powerless, as shown by His gentle rebuke of the disciples who wanted to send the children away.

The Holy Scriptures also give many examples of the mercilessness of sinful men. Solomon observes in Proverbs 12:10 “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” This proverb also shows that if a man is faithful to God, then his mercy also extends to how he treats his livestock. If he is wicked, he also is cruel to his animals. We easily recognize this when we see in the news that some celebrity abuses his animals then he is roundly chastised for his cruelty by everyone. Though sometimes people take this too far when they criticize people more harshly when they abuse their animals than when they abuse their children or spouse. Solomon also observes in Proverbs 21:10 “The soul of the wicked desires evil; his neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.” Such is the terrible nature of sin that those who love their sin more than they love God actually desire to do evil. They cannot even find it in their heart to have mercy on their neighbors. We can take comfort in Christ’s Fifth Beatitude in this for the opposite case. If the merciful receive mercy from God, then the unmerciful wicked person will not receive God’s mercy (until they repent of their sin and find forgiveness in Jesus). We also see this elsewhere where God condemns the unmerciful, such as Proverbs 3:33, “The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous.” This curse certainly can be removed when sinners repent and ask God for forgiveness. Since God is merciful, He is most eager to forgive and save all who repent and look to Him for salvation. “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (Psalm 145:8)

Jesus, Himself, had mercy on His neighbors at all times. Many times those who had desperate desires to be healed of various afflictions pleaded with Jesus to “Have mercy,” and Jesus mercifully granted them healing and forgiveness. In Luke 17:11-19 ten men suffering with leprosy saw Jesus at a distance and called out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Jesus had mercy on them by healing them of their leprosy. In the next chapter, Luke 18:35-43, a blind beggar (likely the same man named Bartimaeus, in Mark 10) called out to Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Although some of the bystanders told him to be quiet, He again asked Jesus for mercy. Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” and he said he wanted to recover his sight, and Jesus gave him his sight back. In Mark 5, Jesus cast out many demons possessing a man, and after the man was cleansed and came into his right mind, Jesus told him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” Here Jesus shows that by rescuing the man from demon possession He had mercy on him. This is also interesting that although Jesus told the demons to go out of the man, He told the man to tell his friends that “the Lord” has had mercy on him. Here Jesus was acknowledging that He is God, or, at the very least, that His healings were done by the power of God, while not denying that He is the one true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus showed mercy to the family of Jairus by raising his daughter from the dead. See Mark 5:21-43

This is the first Beatitude in this series which is not quite so clearly a curse in the worldly sense. Few people would say that those who show mercy are inherently cursed by doing so. Though, it is not too difficult to find people who think that merciful people are fools. It is hard to show forgiveness to people who sin against you. Our sinful flesh would more likely want to “assert our rights” and repay sin with vengeful wrath, rather than withhold punishment and forgive. Showing mercy is a great witness to the Christian faith. You show you trust in Christ’s forgiveness when you forgive others.

Indeed, while it is hard for us sinners to have mercy on our neighbors, it was also difficult for God to have mercy on us and cover the great debt of our sin. When it comes to forgiveness, God can’t just “look away” and ignore sin. God is righteous and just, and must punish sin. Yet Jesus took the punishment for our sin Himself when He died on the cross. That was not an easy thing to do, yet, in mercy and love, Jesus did what was necessary to pay the price for our sin so that God could have mercy on us, while still properly punishing sin and pouring out His anger on the man, Jesus Christ, on the cross.

The Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, foretold what it would cost God’s Messiah to have mercy on us and heal us from sin and all sin’s consequences. He prophesied, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6) Another time, when Jesus healed a deaf man (Mark 7:31-37), He sighed or groaned upon healing the man. As I explain it in this article Jesus groaned because even in healing the sick and raising the dead, it cost Jesus suffering and pain because all illness and afflictions of the body are consequences of our sin. In healing us from all these, Jesus had to suffer for them in order to remove sin’s effects from us. This is what Isaiah meant by saying, “with his wounds we are healed.” This is another reason why Christians have confidence that on the day of resurrection we will be raised glorious and whole – as God intended us to be. Jesus has had mercy on us – at great personal cost – so that we may be healed from sin in body and soul. This also gives us peace of mind so that we may put aside our pride and, in love, have mercy and forgive those who sin against us. Jesus has done so much more to have mercy on you, that such knowledge makes it easier to have mercy on others. May Christ keep you in His mercy and lead you to be merciful.

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Other articles in this series:

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Blessed are Those who Mourn, For They Will be Comforted 

Blessed are the Meek, for They Shall Inherit the Earth 

Blessed are those who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness, for They Shall be Satisfied 

Coming soon:

Blessed are The Pure in Heart, for They Shall See God

Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit

by Pastor Paul Wolff

“It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:44-46)

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Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

As Jesus was dying on the cross He had just proclaimed His victory by the word, “It is Finished.” Yet there was one thing yet to do, and without it we could not have been saved. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) And if Jesus had not died to pay for the sins of the world, we would have had to die for our sin without any hope of salvation. It was proper for Jesus to proclaim His victory before it was done, because after He was dead He would not be able to say anything. Plus, He had come this far, He was not going to back out now. He had suffered God’s wrath over our sins and remained the faithful, obedient Son, still loving and trusting in God the Father, even while enduring the fierce wrath of God over all our wickedness and sins.

Is it any wonder that God twice proclaimed publicly, “This is my beloved Son. With Him I am well pleased.” When any of us sinners face some lesser pain or suffering we are easily tempted to wonder if God has abandoned us. Yet, here is Jesus, tormented and tortured on the cross, suffering the wrath of God over the sins of the world, which He had nothing to do with and did not contribute anything to in the least, and He still trusts in God to save Him from the death which follows directly.

We also see here that both His first and last words on the cross were prayers to His beloved Father. “Father, forgive them” and “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.” These prayers were prayed by a faithful Son who loved His good and gracious Father, even when it seemed like God was His enemy. Jesus lived His life as a man by faith, just as all of us ought to do, but where we often fail, Jesus was steadfast at all times. Here as Jesus faced death, He was still trusting in God to save Him. Jesus knew that He had to die, but He had faith that God is the one who rescues people from death. Even the sinless Son of God, who carried the sins of the world in His body and suffered the wrath of God like no one ever knew – He trusted that God would not abandon Him to the grave forever, but would rescue Him as He had promised to rescue us sinners for the sake of Christ.

Jesus died on the cross to rescue you from the condemnation of your sins.

This also is where Jesus faced His last temptation as a mortal man – who was also God Almighty. Many times Jesus had been tempted to use His almighty, Divine power to save Himself, and this is surely one of those times. Jesus was at one of His weakest points as a man, yet, He could have summoned all power in heaven and earth to save Himself. If there had been the slightest flaw in His love for God or for wicked sinners, He could have stumbled here. If He had secretly desired the damnation of any horrible wicked murdering, lying, godless sinner, then He would not have let Himself die, and we all would get exactly what we deserved. Yet, Christ’s love was perfect. Jesus paid the full price for all sinners, even those who despised Him and rejected the price He paid to win their salvation, and all those who loved their sin more than Jesus, and reject His forgiveness and salvation. Jesus still loved them to the end, and gave His life for them.

Jesus had no proof that God would save Him from death, except what was written in the Holy Scriptures. In His humility, Jesus did not use His Omniscience as God to give Him assurance of God’s Will. He had the Word of God in the Bible, but Jesus had to trust that the Bible was true, and that God always kept His word.

It is humbling to think about it, but among all the things that could have gone wrong and cost us our salvation, we had to depend on Jesus not being a Biblical skeptic who doubted that the Bible was an accurate and dependable record of God’s Word. Jesus fully trusted that the Bible was the Word of God, and He always interpreted it correctly, even when those around Him often misinterpreted the Scriptures, and twisted the meaning to say something different – just as we see people doing it today. Even when the devil tried to twist the Scripture to tempt Jesus to sin, Jesus trusted God’s Word in the Bible was right, even when it caused Him suffering and pain.

Here we also see that these very last words out of the mouth of Jesus before He died were straight from the Bible. Jesus was quoting Psalm 31:5 which says, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” We see that Jesus did not quote the whole verse, but His strength was failing, and He was dying, and we get the idea. Jesus was trusting in God, His Father, to look after His spirit and do with it what was good, right, and proper. Jesus would not try to save Himself, but trusted in God to restore His life, and to accept His sacrifice as the payment for the sins of the world, so that all who believe in Jesus will also be forgiven and rescued from death and given life everlasting in Paradise. Jesus trusted in God to be faithful to His Word, and He was not disappointed.

Jesus died trusting in God to save Him, and He not only saved Jesus from death, but gave Jesus all authority in Heaven and on earth, and rescue from sin and death to all who look to Jesus to save them from their sins. God’s Word is true, and because Jesus trusted in God and gave His life to redeem our sinful lives, we have the full forgiveness of sins and the promise of everlasting life in Paradise. We can live by faith, just as Jesus did His whole life, so that when we find ourselves face to face with death, we can trust in God to rescue us, and say with Jesus: “Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”

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Articles in this series from 2023:

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.
Woman behold your son. Son, behold your mother.
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
I thirst.
It is finished.
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

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Blessed are those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness, for They Shall be Satisfied

(Part 4 of a series of 9 articles on the Beatitudes)

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

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Hunger and Thirst

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (justice), for they shall be satisfied.”

Once again in this fourth Beatitude, Jesus blesses those who seem to be cursed in the world. No one enjoys hunger and thirst. We want to be satisfied, but that is the point. We hunger for those things which nourish and sustain our lives, but we only feel the hunger pangs for that which we lack. When our stomachs are empty we feel pain, but when they are filled, then the pain goes away. When we feel hungry, our bodies remind us that we need to feed on that which gives us energy to work and nourishment to grow and to heal injuries. Food is a good gift from God, and hunger reminds us that we need “daily bread” to sustain and grow and heal our bodies, so, in general, we hunger for the good gifts of God which benefit us.

We should remember that sin has corrupted our desires so that we sometimes hunger for “junk food” which may provide calories to burn, but little to strengthen and heal. There are other ways that sin can corrupt our innate hunger to cause desires for too much or too little nourishment, but for most people hunger is a good natural bodily function which helps us remain healthy.

There is also a spiritual counterpart to physical hunger. This spiritual hunger causes us to seek that which nourishes us spiritually. A healthy spiritual hunger leads us to take in what is beneficial for our spirit. We should be careful about this because sin has corrupted our spirit so that we do not know what is good for us. People often feel some exuberant emotion, and think that they are having a “spiritual” experience, but it is still only a physical experience. True spirituality only comes from God the Holy Spirit, who gives us life-giving gifts. It is the Holy Spirit who is the most good for our spirit because He brings Jesus Christ to us for our forgiveness and salvation. The Psalmist writes, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Psalm 42:1-2) Here the Psalmist makes a comparison between the body’s need of water, and the soul’s need for “the living God.” Physical thirst and spiritual thirst are not the same thing, but they are similar. The difference is that Spiritual thirst seeks after God, rather than physical satisfaction. Jesus also taught, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (John 6:27) This teaches us that there is something more valuable than food. Even the best food cannot sustain us forever. Because our bodies are corrupted by sin, no food can sustain us forever. This is why we hunger for the eternal blessings which only God can give us.

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6) “Righteousness” includes all things which are right, especially those things which God considers good, right, and proper. God is truly righteous and holy in all things, and the things which He desires are also good for us because He loves us as a loving Father loves His dear children. Yet, we are all rebellious sinners, having inherited the guilt of sin from our parents, going back all the way to Adam and Eve. Because we are sinners, we are not the righteous people which we ought to be. This separates us from God and makes us His enemy, and subject to God’s righteous anger and punishment. This is why we hunger for righteousness. We hunger for the good things which we lack. Scripture says, “God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 53:2-3) Since we are not righteous, we hunger for righteousness, and the good things which come along with righteousness and goodness.

Biblical Examples of Hunger for Righteousness

Jesus is the Living Water which springs up within His people to eternal life. (See John 4:7-14)

Once when Jesus was teaching (see Mark 10:17-27), a man came up to Him and said, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus then responded, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Jesus was neither denying that He was good nor that He is God, but he was pointing out the fact that the man wasn’t intending to confess that Jesus was perfectly good and righteous, or that He was God. The man was just trying to flatter Him as people sometimes do. Being truly righteous, Jesus was neither flattered, nor did He think the man sincere, but he used this empty flattery as a way to begin teaching the young man about the proper distinction between Law and Gospel. At the end of this conversation Jesus told him to give away all his possessions which he had turned into idols. The man left sad because he realized that he was not as righteous as he had previously thought, and could not rely on his own righteousness to finally “inherit eternal life.” Jesus then teaches His disciples by giving the famous illustration, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples are astonished and asked, “Who, then, can be saved?” Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.” This shows that God is our righteousness and our savior. We can only be saved if God pays for our sins and makes us righteous. We sinners can no more make ourselves righteous than we can make ourselves inherit someone else’s wealth.

This story (which is also found in Matthew 19 and Luke 18) shows a young man who did hunger and thirst after righteousness, but initially believed that he had achieved this in his life, but, when confronted by Jesus, and God’s Law, realized that true righteousness can not be achieved by works of the law, but is only found in God. If we are to become righteous, we can only receive it as a gift from God, and not our own doing. All our works are tainted by sin. Saint Paul wrote in Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” Here we see that God’s Law shows us our sinful condition so that we cannot attain true righteousness by anything that we do, but must instead rely on Christ to forgive us and make us truly righteous in His own time (that day being Judgment Day, which is also known as the Day of Resurrection).

Saint Paul also has much to say about man’s unrighteousness and the grace of God in Romans 7, where after an honest self examination, he ends up by saying, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25) Read the whole letter to the Romans for more than I can explain here. Saint Paul’s conclusion is that true righteousness must come from God as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ, or else we sinners can never achieve it. We, then, can never be satisfied with our own attempts to attain righteousness because all our works are tainted by sin. Yet, Christ has overcome sin through His life and death, and He will make us righteous as we ought to be in the life to come in His Kingdom.

Job hungered for righteousness. Though his friends mistakenly thought God was punishing Him.

There are many good examples of saints in the Bible who hungered for righteousness. When Job first heard that tragedy had struck and all his flocks and possessions and children had been killed and destroyed, he mourned his loss (see my article on “Blessed are those who mourn”), but then he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) Likewise, when Job was then afflicted with painful sores his wife told him, “Curse God and die.” (Job 2:9) Yet, Job replied, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” Again, Job trusted that God was not evil, even though all these bad things were happening to him. He would not curse God, but trusted in God to save him, even recognizing that God may have sent all the trouble that he was experiencing. In this way Job hungered and thirsted for righteousness because he would rather suffer now at the hands of God than turn away from God and reject God’s righteousness and promise of eternal salvation.

Likewise, there are several times David was also a good example of someone who demonstrated hunger and thirst for righteousness. When Goliath challenged Israel to send their best warrior to fight him in single combat (see 1 Samuel 17), Goliath cursed Israel’s God when all the warriors were too afraid to step up. When David heard the Philistine cursing God he became angry with a righteous anger. Since none of the Israelites (from King Saul to Jonathan to even some of David’s older brothers who were in the army) were going to step up and defend God’s honor, then David was going to do it and show the Philistines that their God is the true God. The proof would be that God would give a teenage boy the courage and strength to defeat and kill the blasphemous giant pagan warrior, Goliath. Now, David was not your ordinary Israelite. God had already sent the prophet Samuel to anoint David as the next king, though it would yet be many years before David was crowned king. Yet God was with David, and David trusted in God so much that He was not afraid to stand against Goliath, even when King Saul and all Israel’s soldiers were afraid to stand up to Goliath. David was also given the courage to fight in God’s name and for God’s honor and glory. David’s hunger and thirst for righteousness was go great that he did not even consider the likelihood of his own defeat and death, but was willing to put his life on the line to show the Philistines (and the Israelites) that God is the true God, and should not be despised, as Goliath despised Him. David’s hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness was satisfied when God gave him the victory over the giant Philistine warrior.

David hungered for God’s righteousness even when it endangered his own life to do so.

David also showed similar hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness when King Saul was trying to kill David out of envy for the victories that God had given him (even though those victories also benefited King Saul and all of Israel). There were two instances where Saul was in reach of David’s sword, and all he had to do was to reach out and kill him, (see 1 Samuel 24 and 26) but David refused to lift his hand against God’s anointed king. In the second incident after David again showed Saul that he could have killed him, but did not, David said, “The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed.” (1 Samuel 26:23) In the world’s eyes, David could have claimed “self-defense” for killing Saul, since the King was intent on killing David, even though David was not his enemy. Yet, for the sake of righteousness, David refused to strike down God’s chosen king, but trusted in God to deal with Saul as He saw fit. The reason David did not kill Saul was not for Saul’s sake alone, but for the sake of the promised Messiah (Christ). Saul was anointed by God and was a kind of a messiah (anointed one). Saul was anointed as King of Israel, but for the sake of God’s promised anointed savior (Jesus), David would not lift his hand against even an unfaithful King Saul (whom God had rejected because of his unfaithfulness) because he had been anointed by God to be king.

Jesus Hungered for Our Righteousness

Jesus did not hunger and thirst for righteousness in the same way that we do. Jesus was, and is, righteous in all things, so He didn’t hunger for righteousness as if He was lacking in any way. Yet, Jesus did hunger and thirst for our righteousness. Once, when Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, some Pharisees warned Him that Herod wanted to kill Him. Jesus already knew that it wasn’t just Herod, but many of the Pharisees also wanted Jesus dead, too. Jesus lamented this, saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34) Jesus still kept on His way toward Jerusalem, trusting that it was God’s will that He should suffer and die to pay for the sins of all people – including those who reject Him. Jesus wanted us all to be cleansed of our sin and made to be righteous as God intended from the start. This is how Jesus hungered and thirsted for our righteousness: He would rather endure suffering and death than to let us all perish in our sins and unrighteousness. Jesus knew that the only way we could be made righteous is if He paid the price (death) for our sins so that we could be washed clean and made righteous through His blood. This is in some ways very different from our experience, but in other ways it is similar. Jesus lived by faith, just as we do. He suffered just as sinners do, even though He remained sinless, yet, He also had to trust in God to save Him from death as we also trust in God to save us because of what Jesus did for all of us.

Misplaced Spiritual Hunger

We hunger for that which we lack. This is why we hunger and thirst for righteousness.

There are also the spiritual equivalent of eating disorders which cause people to hunger for what seems good, but which actually is detrimental to the Spirit. After all, no one ever seeks what they believe is evil. Even the most evil person in the world does what he does because he thinks it is good and profitable in some way. Such people may be tragically wrong, but they still seek what seems good to them. Evil sometimes starts out small and simple, but as a person’s conscience gets more comfortable with sin the wickedness grows. It is important to remember that love desires what is best for your neighbor, while wickedness desires what I feel is best for me. Unrighteous people hunger and thirst for wickedness. They hold parades and celebrate all kinds of wickedness. Prostitutes and whores desire to kill their unborn children, and don’t want to hear how wrong that is, or how their children are a wonderful gift from God instead of someone to be murdered. They celebrate all kinds of sexual perversions from adultery to homosexual relations to all kinds of perverse behavior. There is never any satisfaction for wickedness. There can never be satisfaction for wickedness because God didn’t make us that way. Wickedness and sin always leads to more, and it is never enough. Only true righteousness in Christ can satisfy.

We see this in Genesis 4, God confronts Cain regarding his jealous anger. “The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.’” (Genesis 4:6-7) Here God is encouraging Cain to seek righteousness, but Cain insists on hungering for envy, hatred, and eventually murder. God tells Cain that righteousness isn’t a “zero-sum game” as if Abel’s righteousness precludes Cain from also being righteous. If Cain was faithful, like Abel, then God would be pleased with them both. Cain had nothing to gain from killing his brother as if they were a rival for something that only one of them could possess (God’s favor) at the expense of the other. If they both were faithful to God, then God would be happy to favor them both. Cain, instead hungered for evil, and held on to his envy and sin, rather than repenting and hungering for righteousness. In the end, Cain found disfavor from both God and man, though God had mercy on him and protected him from those who might seek vengeance.

Jesus resisted the temptation in His hunger to turn stones into bread, so that He could be the bread of life for all who trust in Him.

The wise teacher says in Proverbs 4, “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.” (Proverbs 4:14-19) Because of the devil’s temptations to make sin seem desirable (see Genesis 3:1-7), there are some people who see great profit in wickedness, and they take such pleasure in violence and evil that it becomes almost sacred to them, or, if not sacred, then they idolize what is profane. In this teaching, the “bread and wine” remind us of the Lord’s Supper where Jesus gives us His body and blood with bread and wine to forgive our sins and strengthen our faith. Yet the teacher notes that the wicked people “eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.” This “unholy anti-sacrament” results in wickedness and violence. These people are like those who scream and yell and threaten (and commit) violence against those who seek to save the lives of unborn children. The pro-life people care more for the bastard children of the wicked than they do themselves, yet, the wicked get angry and violent when their licentiousness and murderous desires are exposed for what they truly are. This happens because the devil tempts us to sin by making sin seem desirable and profitable in some way. Godly people may be lured by temptation due to weakness, but when they realize what they have done they feel guilty and repent of the sin. When unrighteous people sin they neither admit guilt, nor repent, but take pleasure and “profit” in wickedness and try to curse anyone who would put an end to wickedness and violence.

None of this should surprise us because the Bible is very clear that sin corrupts us all. There is no one who is good, not even one. In Genesis 8, after the great flood, this is how God saw the world: “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’” (Genesis 8:20-22) Now you might think that God sent the great flood to get rid of evil in the world, so that only the good people survived, but Noah and his family were also sinners, having inherited sin from their parents like everyone else. When Scripture says that “Noah was a righteous man” in Genesis 6:9, it doesn’t mean he was without sin, but that he loved God and trusted God and listened to God’s Word which promised rescue and salvation. God does not condone sin and evil, but He provides for rescue in Jesus Christ. Noah trusted in God and God counted Noah’s faith as righteousness just as He did several generations later with Abraham (see Genesis 15:6).

Christians Hunger for the Lord’s Supper

Christians hunger and thirst for the body and blood of Jesus given in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, so that we can share in the benefits of the sacrifice Jesus made for us all.

In the Old Testament times when the prophets spoke about hungering and thirsting for God’s righteousness they were often thinking about eating the roasted lamb of the Passover meal. The Passover was the salvation event of the Old Testament for God’s people Israel. Every year they were to remember it by preparing a male lamb for dinner with unleavened bread. This was to show the Israelites how the Messiah would come and offer His life as the sacrificial lamb to pay for the sins of the whole world. The annual Passover meal reminded the Israelites that God was their savior, and their eating of the sacrificial lamb made them participants in the blessings of the sacrifice. If Moses and the Israelites had refused to eat the lamb then they would have been subjected to the same treatment as the Egyptians. As the remembrance of this event became an annual celebration, the Israelites would have hungered for the meal as the time of celebration approached – hopefully hungering for the Salvation which God promised to provide for them just as He saved their ancestors.

Since, by the time of Jesus, the Israelites had been celebrating the Passover every year for over a thousand years (except for years of apostasy), they should have recognized its fulfillment when Jesus sacrificed His life for the sins of the world. Many did, and they spread the good news of Christ’s salvation throughout the world. Jesus also used the Passover meal as the basis for a new sacrament, since He fulfilled the Passover prophesy. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in which He gives His body and blood in the bread and wine of the sacrament in a miraculous way for the forgiveness of our sins, and the strengthening of our faith. In this way we participate in the sacrifice that was made for our sins (see 1 Corinthians 10:16) in the same way the Old Testament Israelites participated in the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. Christians now hunger for this blessed gift, which is a taste of the eternal life which Jesus promises to all who believe in Him to save them from sin and death.

Jesus says that the blessing which comes to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness is that “they will be filled (or satisfied).” Our hunger for righteousness will be filled when Christ comes back and makes us holy and righteous as he is. Until that happens we hunger and thirst for it because it is unfulfilled, but when Jesus comes we will be satisfied forever in Christ. Until then we live in the assurance of faith in God’s promises. In the Revelation which Jesus gave Saint John, he sees a vision of those redeemed by Jesus, and they are described in this way, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:16) Since the resurrection is a bodily resurrection, God knows our bodily need for food and drink, and will provide us with plenty for all eternity. John also sees this: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:1-2) So we see that the new earth that God prepares for us to live forever has plenty of wonderful food and drink which will sustain us forever without death or decay. This is also something that we hunger for, since all we know is decay and death in this sinful life. Yet we are comforted in this life because God promises that we will receive this, so we trust in God’s promises as we await their fulfillment.

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Other articles in this series:

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Blessed are Those who Mourn, For They Will be Comforted 

Blessed are the Meek, for They Shall Inherit the Earth 

Blessed are the Merciful, for They Shall Receive Mercy 

Coming soon:

Blessed are The Pure in Heart, for They Shall See God

God’s Name is Holy

Advent Devotion on the Lord’s Prayer 

by Pastor Paul Wolff 

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Jesus said, “Pray then like this, … ‘Hallowed be Thy Name’” (Matthew 6:9)

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God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit. The Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son. It is a paradox, but this is how God reveals who He is.

You might sometimes hear people talk about the “names of God”. Hopefully you will never hear a Christian saying such things because the Holy Bible never speaks of the “names of God”. The Scriptures frequently speak of God’s “name” in the singular, but never in the plural. This seems peculiar because, although Scripture is clear that there is only one God, yet Jesus revealed that God is Triune: three distinct persons united in one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Even in the Old Testament, the generic word for the true God is in the plural form, as if it were to say, “gods”, yet when referring to the true God, the pronouns (and accompanying verbs) for this God are all singular – “he”, “him”, and usually “I” (generally not “we”, though Genesis 1:26 does say, “Let us make man in our image…”) which shows that God is singular and masculine.  

In the days of Moses, God told Moses His name by saying, “I am who I am.” (Exodus 3:14) At first glance, we might think this begs the question, “Then, who are you?” Yet, this does tell us a few important things about God. The true God who spoke to Moses is the God who exists (“He is”), as opposed to the false gods, who do not exist except in the perverse imaginations of their followers. This name also shows us that God is eternal and does not change. This is also why we read in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” He is who He is – eternally. This is why the Jews wanted to stone Jesus when He told them, “Before Abraham was, I am!” (John 8:58) They recognized that Jesus was claiming to be the eternal God who was Abraham’s God two thousand years earlier. This would have been blasphemy if it weren’t true, but it is.

The True God is the one who would live and die to redeem you from your sins and rescue you from death. This is why His name is hallowed among us.

When Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Holy Baptism He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20) Notice that the “Name” (singular) of God is “the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. Jesus doesn’t say “names”, but “name”. This isn’t because Jesus did not know grammar. He certainly did, but was teaching us something profound about God. God may be triune, but the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, not three, yet three distinct persons. It is a mystery, but this is how God reveals Himself in the Holy Scriptures.  

You will never hear me speak of the “names of God” except when teaching against it, as I am doing here. Those who speak of the “names of God” are either being imprecise in their language or they are trying to give the false impression that “all religions are alike”, or that ‘all roads lead to heaven”, or some such lies that try to diminish the unique character of God. The different worldly religions cannot all be different aspects of the same religion and god because all the world religions contradict each other. Rationally we can see that they may all be false, but they cannot all be true. At most, only one may be true. Christianity is the only religion of grace where God does all the work to save sinners, and then gives forgiveness for free through faith. All the other world religions (and false teaching in Christian churches) make you save yourself or do something to aid in your salvation. Which religion do you think is true? This is why God’s name is holy, and hallowed among true believers within all Christian denominations. 

It is also easy for people to be confused about God’s Name because the Holy Bible describes God in many different ways. Each distinct “name” that the Scriptures use to describe God shows a different aspect of God’s nature or personality. They are all true descriptions of God, but each one only shows a partial picture of God’s Name. In the Old Testament God is called such things as the Lord, the Ancient of Days, the Eternal God, the Living God, the Eternal Father, and many more such things. In the New Testament God is revealed through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who also has several distinct titles. Yet we still do not say that “God has many names.” Why? Each of these names for God describe a certain aspect of His personality as He has revealed it to us. Each “name” shows us a part of who God is, but does not show us the fullness of God. It has been said that the entirety of the Holy Scriptures are an explanation of the Name of God. This is a good way to look at it. The Bible tells us who God is and what He has done to save us from our sin through the incarnation of God as a man, Jesus, and His lifetime of work to win our salvation, especially His innocent suffering and death on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

“You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

In Matthew 1:20-21 An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph of Nazareth in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The name, “Jesus” means “savior”, and that is His ultimate work. God’s name is truly hallowed among us because of all that God has done to save us from sin and death. God did not have to come down to earth to save us. He could have punished us as our sins deserve, and would have been justified to do so because we deserved punishment for our sins. Yet God preferred to take the hard road and sent His Son to become incarnate to redeem the world from sin through His life, death, and resurrection. 

God is both perfectly just and unfailingly merciful. These characteristics would seem to oppose each other when it comes to God wanting to save us from our sins. God’s holy desire to punish sin with death seems at conflict with His loving desire to rescue us from sin’s necessary consequence of death. Yet, in Jesus, God found a solution. God accepted Jesus as a substitute who would die for sinners and win our salvation. The Second Person of the Godhead became incarnate as a man, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life in obedience to God’s Law, which we failed to do in our sinfulness, then Jesus offered His life as the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world. The life of Jesus is sufficient to pay for sin because His life is God’s life, and His blood is God’s blood, given and shed to redeem us all from our sins. God’s name is truly holy, because He found a way to rescue and redeem you from your sins while being perfectly just in punishing the sin of the world through the death of Jesus. In the life and death of Jesus, God found a way to be perfectly just in punishing sin, and perfectly merciful and loving in redeeming us through the sacrifice of the life of Jesus. This is why we will praise and thank God for all eternity for the Salvation He won for us sinners. 

We call the holy family “holy” not because Mary and Joseph are holy, but because Jesus is holy.

There is nothing in all the world more precious than the love of God. He has redeemed us and calls us His children, though we do not deserve it. Yet, because Jesus paid the price for the sins of the world we are happy to receive His forgiveness and salvation as a most wonderful gift, and praise God forever for His unending love. 

This Petition in the Lord’s Prayer in closely related to the Second Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” The commandment and the petition both deal with God’s name. Because God’s Name is holy, we should use it properly and not misuse it. This is not easy to do. As time went by after God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, the Israelite people of the Old Testament put too much emphasis on God’s Law and, for fear of misusing God’s Name, they stopped using it altogether. Instead of using the Name that God gave them to use, they instead spoke the general term, “lord”, even in their worship and when reading the Bible. If God had not wanted the people to use His name, then he wouldn’t have given it to them, but God gave us His Name so that we might use it. In Psalm 50:15 God says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” It is for Bible verses like this (and many others) that Martin Luther explains this petition by saying that it is our duty to “Call upon God in every trouble, pray, praise, and give Him thanks.” 

In the Advent season we especially remember God’s name because God sent His Son to be our savior, to rescue us from sin, and to bring us back into the household of God as His beloved children – for the sake of Jesus. God’s name truly is holy, as is everything He has done to give us good gifts in this life, and for the salvation that He has prepared for us through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord. 

Our Father in Heaven is Always Near to Us

Advent Devotion on the Lord’s Prayer 

by Pastor Paul Wolff 

Jesus said, “Pray then like this, ‘Our father, who art in heaven …’” (Matthew 6:9)

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The angel Gabriel was in heaven and on earth at the same time showing us that heaven is not far away.

We know from the Holy Bible that God resides in heaven, and that is a place which seems far away from us because it is a place which we have absolutely no way to get to on our own. Yet, God is never far away from us. Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, He told His followers, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) This is not metaphorical (or “spiritual”), but it is real. Jesus is never far away even though He is in heaven. Jesus is with us always as He has promised. Those who say otherwise are calling Jesus a liar. We cannot get to Him in heaven, but He can easily get to us because He is with us always, even when He is in God’s heavenly kingdom. 

If you read Scripture carefully you can see that heaven really is not far from us here on earth, though we cannot access it ourselves. One of the earliest examples of God being near us is found in Genesis 9:16. This happens after the great flood when God gives the rainbow as a sign of His mercy and He promises not to punish us with another great flood, though our sins deserve it and much more. God says, “Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” It is interesting to note that the sign of the rainbow is for God to see and remember His covenant. The sign is not only for us. Though we should note that rainbows are only visible as bows to people standing on earth. I remember sitting in an airplane flying above the clouds during the middle of the day, and looking out the window and seeing on the clouds below the shadow of the plane surrounded by a complete circular prism of light. It wasn’t a half-circle like a bow, but a full circle. For God to see something shaped like a bow, He has to be here on earth with us, not above the clouds. This is a comfort because of the promise of the rainbow – that God will not destroy us because of our disobedience and sin, but will rescue us through Jesus. 

We also see that heaven is not far from us when the angel, Gabriel visited the priest, Zechariah in Luke 1:19. The angel told Zechariah, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.” Now, Gabriel was standing in the temple in Jerusalem talking with Zechariah, but he was also, at the same time, standing in the presence of God (though Zechariah could not see God as the angel did). This is yet another example that heaven is not somewhere far away, but is very near to us, as God, who is in heaven, is very near to us. Our problem is that, as sinners, we do not have access to God, or His heaven, except through those earthly Means of Grace which God gives us to bring us a taste of heaven here on earth. Those Means of Grace are God’s Word, and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Through these earthly gifts, God gives us a little bit of heaven so that we may receive the forgiveness of our sins, and be strengthened in our faith, so that we may at last receive the complete fulfillment of God’s promises in Christ – the resurrection and sanctification of our bodies, and everlasting life in God’s paradise as His Holy children who have been redeemed by Christ Jesus, our crucified savior. 

God’s merciful promise of the rainbow also shows that He is near us always as He also promised.

Those who think heaven is somewhere far away do themselves a disservice by also thinking that Jesus is far away. The world very quickly starts to feel quite threatening and dangerous if we find that we are here alone and Jesus is far away. That is why Jesus reassured His followers at His ascension that He is with us always. (see Matthew 28:20 above) We should believe Jesus even (and especially) when it seems like we are all alone and in danger from worldly and spiritual temptations and dangers. 

We all can understand why Jesus seems so far away from us. We are physical creatures, and we cannot sense God’s heavenly kingdom with our physical senses, so we can feel vulnerable and alone when temptations and dangers are near. It is in those times when we rely on faith in Jesus to give comfort and assurance. Everything in the world may tell us that the situation is hopeless, and that the “great” powers of the world are too powerful to be overcome, yet, when we trust God’s Word, we can be assured that God is in control, and “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to (Jesus)”. (Matthew 28:18) We also have the assurance that, on account of Christ, God will protect us and give us good things so that nothing can steal away our salvation. (See Romans 8:31-39) God indeed is Sovereign and powerful, but He doesn’t use His power to force us to serve Him. God gave us His Son, Jesus, to win our salvation through His life and death, and then God gives us His Word to tell us all He has done to save us so that we might believe. Through this faith (i.e. believing God’s Word) and Holy Baptism, God adopts us as His beloved, redeemed, children. 

Since God now considers us as His children, He will not abandon us to sin, nor to our enemies in this world, nor to our enemies in the spiritual world. We cannot fully access the heavenly realm as sinners in a sinful world, but we don’t have to. We have God’s Word and His assurance that He is near and that He is in control – despite all evidence that we are alone and in danger. Christians need to believe God’s Word and trust in Him to protect us when in danger, and to rescue us from all sin and death as necessary. God keeps His promises and is unfailingly trustworthy.