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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)
Those who Mourn
There are at least two senses of mourning. The most common would be our mourning over loss. Lives lost, reputations lost, properties lost, jobs lost, and on and on. Such things will find their final comfort in the New Heavens and New Earth where, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." (Revelation 21:4)
The other mourning is akin to regret. Sorrow for past actions that have caused pain to others. Sorrow over a time when we should have been strong, but were not. Sorrow over behavior over which we have no control. In short: sorrow for sin.
So not only do we stand before our God in poverty, our acknowledgement of which brings justification, we actually stand before Him as the judge of our actions. We mourn because we are found wanting.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:21-25)
For they shall be comforted
Unlike our mourning over loss, which must wait for final comfort. Our mourning over our sin can find comfort now as the Holy Spirit works within us to overcome “the evil present in us.”
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did:sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)
Without the Holy Spirit, we are condemned to live lives seeking to avoid sin. With the Holy Spirit we can lives that pursue righteousness. We are transformed into the image of Jesus today-and more tomorrow-and more the next day on.
Here is comfort: None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live. (Ezekiel 33:16) Our practice of righteousness comes from the work of the Holy Spirit.
Poor in spirit leads to justification and the promise of the kingdom
Mourning leads to reconciliation: peace with God and the comfort that comes from that.
Comfort indeed.
“With the Holy Spirit we can lives that pursue righteousness.” Pursuing righteousness is such a good teaching of yours.