"BLESSED are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5.
Jesus is our wonderful Saviour. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.” “Behold, a virgin,... and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
No oration ever fell on the ear of mortal man with grander introduction than the nine beatitudes—no essay ever entertained human thought with more sublime beginning. No sermon was ever framed by spoken or written language with more profound and comprehensive declarations in brief than the commencing statements of Jesus' sermon on the mount. They not only shine forth as gems of blessing, of promise, but they contain the deep, almost unfathomable principles or conditions of heavenly grace, and only heaven's light can show all the goodness of God revealed in them. Truly Jesus was the Son of God, and no man ever spoke as he. Among the nine rich blessings here promised, none are richer, more significant, or more comprehensive, or fraught with greater good to man, than the one referred to at the head of this article, “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.”
Here is the promise and the condition. We may learn great lessons from these words. The inheritance of the saints is not only one of the grandest promises of God to man, but it is the grandest, for in this promise is included all. Christ is in it; sanctification, justification, salvation, all is in this promise made to Abraham; for this promise included Christ.
“Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” “To Abraham and his Seed [Christ] were the promises made,” and to none else. See also Isaiah 51:2. The Lord said unto Abraham: “Thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee; and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12: 2-3. “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (See Galatians 3:16, 29.) Therefore, if we receive Jesus, we may be as Abraham was,—sons of God. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” John 1:12. The marginal reading of this text on the word power is “right, or privilege.” Abraham received this right, or privilege, to become a son of God, and truly we may become sons, because we receive Jesus and are born again of the Spirit of God. And being led by the Spirit of God through the revealed word, we receive the “spirit of adoption,” whereby we are enabled rightly to cry, “Abba, Father,” and thus, because of this “spirit of adoption,” we become “heirs of God with Abraham,” our father, and “joint heirs with Christ,” our Saviour, the son of Abraham, and Son of God .
Christ is coming again to “perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he swore to our father Abraham” (see Luke 1:68-75), for Abraham died and did not inherit the promise (see Acts 7:2-5; Hebrews 11:8-16); and so all who have believed in this promise and have received it and hoped in it have laid down their lives, and have not yet inherited it. But the work of Christ will be completed, for the promise of God is made sure by two immutable things, his word and his oath, and will be fully accomplished after the resurrection. (See Hebrews 6: 13-20.)
The prophet Ezekiel was shown the time when the Lord would perform his promise to his heirs: “Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land; then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.” Ezekiel 37:12-14. This is the promise to be made sure to all the seed; and so all the families of the earth shall be blessed in Abraham, for Abraham is the father of us all (see Romans 4:16; Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22: 18), for wherever there is faith, these are the children of Abraham; and the Holy Spirit of God is freely given to as many as are of this faith of Abraham, to whom God now gives the earnest, or surety, that all shall be fulfilled. (See Ephesians 1:13-14; Galatians 3: 14.)
The whole earth is to be redeemed from the curse, melted, moulded over by the mighty power of God. 2 Peter 3:10-13. Mountains will run down, ocean beds will be filled up, a carpet of green shall cover the deserts, and the earth shall blossom as the rose, abounding with Eden groves and sylvan glades. In the center of all this will be the upspringing fountain of the river of life in the glorious city of God. O city of God, greatly to be praised in the mountain of his holiness! “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,” is the prophetic expression of the sweet singer of Israel. Psalms 48: 1-2. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” So Paul could say to the Corinthian brethren: “For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.” 1st Corinthians 3: 21-23.
Oh, that all men would accept of the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, that they might inherit the earth, for this is the blessing, even the blessing of Abraham: “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of his Spirit through faith.” Galatians 3:14. Abraham believed God, and his faith was accounted righteousness. Romans 4:3, 16-24. First he received the blessing of righteousness, righteousness imputed to him because of faith. Obedience is the trial and fruit of faith. By faith the blessing of righteousness may be imputed to us also. Romans 4:24. And the trial and fruit of our faith is obedience also, for the Spirit is given to help us, that we may be sanctified by the word of God. John 17: 17-26; 2nd Thessalonians 2:10-13; 1st Peter 1: 2. “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” 1 John 5:3. And so faith, the faith of Abraham, in us is accounted righteousness for us, for Christ is our righteousness. If we receive him, we receive his Spirit, and he will set us free from the bondage of sin.
And thus the blessings of the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. Titus 2:11. And salvation includes all the blessings, or joys, of the promise, for we are saved by grace. Ephesians 2:8. But the grace, or divine favor, of God was to be multiplied. 2 Peter 1: 2. The first grace of God toward man was manifest in the “Lamb slain from time foundation of the world.” It was manifested when it first appeared unto men, inspiring hope, for by hope are ye saved (Romans 8: 24), and giving freedom from sin from Abel down to Christ. It was multiplied again when Christ came into the world. Ephesians 1: 5-7; Acts 4: 33; Romans 5: 21; Ephesians 2: 5-8. Again it will be multiplied at the second coming of our Lord to the earth, when he shall have his reward with him—of honor, glory, and immortality, and the crown of life. Compare 1 Peter 1:13 with Romans 2: 5-10. Truly all the meek may “hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The fullness of God's grace comes in the inheritance of all things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
God's peace is multiplied also in like manner. There was peace in heaven when Satan and his angels that sinned were cast out. It is multiplied in the soul of the believer when sin is cast out, and the sinner made free by a new creation of Christ in the heart by faith, for Christ can speak peace to the soul as he could to the troubled waves. He says, “My peace I give unto you.” Peace will be multiplied again and forever when the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels shall have destroyed all sin and sinners, and when all things shall have been restored, for evil shall not rise up the second time. See Acts 3:19, 20; Revelation 21:1-5.
And so the meek shall be blessed, and inherit the earth, with all the joys that belong to it, and be “joint heirs” with Christ, the Seed of Abraham, the Son of God. Oh, wonderful mystery and grace of God! "The half has never been told." And if all that he did should be told I suppose the world would not contain the books. John 21:25.
But “blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth,“ and have an eternal life, in which to learn that which has never been told. May we, though wild olive branches, not boast against the branches, but may we be grafted in among them, and with all the meek be partakers of the root and fatness of time olive tree,—the promises of God to our father Abraham and his seed (Christ),—and thus share in all the blessings of Abraham. Compare Romans 11: 17-26; 2nd Corinthians 1:20-21; Galatians 3:14, 16,19. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.“ Even so, Amen.
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