The Beatitude Ladder
The eight beatitudes constitute a spiritual ladder containing the natural and logical steps in spiritual growth and development which take us into the kingdom of God.
The word "beatitude" comes from the Latin beatus, or beati, as it is used in the Latin Vulgate. It means blessed or happy. The beatitude ladder is therefore a blessed ladder, because these steps, or degrees, in spiritual development represent a blessed experience. "Blessed" is synonymous with "consecrated," "hallowed," "happy," "sacred," and "holy." it is defined as "the state of being happy, joyful, and peaceful, as the result of the full enjoyment of the divine favor; unalloyed prosperity and contentment in heart and life." For what more could any one desire or ask?
only consecrated and holy people can enter the kingdom of heaven; and the journey must be made by way of the beatitude ladder. It is a blessed and hallowed pathway. It is "the way of holiness" that leads to Zion. as described in Isaiah 35:8-10. Those who travel it will "obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." It is "the narrow way" which leads to eternal life, and which Jesus said is so strait that it excludes all evil and evildoers. It is "the path of the just" that shines with ever- increasing illumination until those who walk in it reach "the perfect day" of spiritual light and experience.
"Blessed," as used by Jesus in the sermon on the mount, does not refer alone to the joy and happiness that come as the result of outward circumstances, but rather to that higher joy which is the result of divine favor. It is something infinitely better and higher than mere earthly happiness. It is the peace and joy that Jesus promised to all who would come to Him, and in whose hearts He is permitted to dwell and reign. "Shaking itself loose from all thoughts of outward good, 'blessed' becomes the express symbol of a happiness intensified with pure character. Behind it lies the clear recognition of sin as the foundation of all misery, and of holiness as the final and effectual cure for every woe. " - Vincent. Happiness drawn from earthly sources is as changeable and varying as the circumstances themselves. In the beatitudes Jesus made it clear that true happiness is the result of a holy character rather than of outward conditions and circumstances. It was of this happy experience that the prophet wrote: "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." Isaiah 32:17,18.
The Beatitudes by Taylor G. Bunch
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Next week we will start the chapter on the first beatitude- you won't want to miss it, so please come back! :O)
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