John 1:16-18: From His abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

When Jesus was thirty years of age, He began His earthly ministry by preaching the Sermon on the Mount (also known as the Beatitudes). In the above Scripture, John said of Jesus, who was the Word incarnate come to earth, that He came with grace and truth. In His first and longest sermon, Jesus began speaking to all of mankind by declaring that both those who were present hearers of the Word and those who would later hear the Word were blessed. I find this very interesting because the last word that God spoke in the Old Testament was “CURSE.”

Jesus spoke of many things that would be broken off of the hearers lives simply because they heard the voice of God declaring the truth to them. Remember, in Romans 14, faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from the Word of God. The people that day (and those since that day) were hearing the truth with grace and not the Law with condemnation. Truth that is received by faith brings God’s abundant grace. The Law doesn’t produce grace because it is based on man’s works.

While Jesus was continuing to preach on the Mount, He blessed them and then began to declare that those who heard His Words and believed on them were also the light of the world and the salt of the earth. He declared this to the hearers long before many of them even implemented His words into their lives. The Words He declared over them took root in the hearts of those who believed and received what He declared over them. Now let me take you back to a time before man fell from God’s grace and into the bondage of sin.

Genesis 1:28: Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

Very soon after God blessed both the male and the female, He began to declare truths over them, as if they were happening as He spoke. Doesn’t this sound exactly like what Jesus did when He preached that day on the Mount? Before man made the choice to fall into sin, God was speaking over them with truth and grace. He made declarations, but they could choose whether they wanted to fulfill them or not.

If we will choose to walk in truth and in the light, then God’s grace will come upon us and declare that we are blessed. As a result, His grace will proclaim who we are in Christ. Let’s walk by faith, not according to the desires of our hearts, and be blessed.  —submitted by Asa Dockery, US