Christ is our Savior, our intercessor with God. He became man to die for our sins, so we can be reconciled to God. Christ came to repair the brokenness of our relationship with Him. He became the sacrifice required for our forgiveness. This was a pure act of divine love. Yet, God’s love for us extends beyond His one act of sacrifice on the cross. To fully comprehend God’s love for us, it is necessary for us to understand Jesus, God’s beloved son, who left His throne of glory to live among us, to become vulnerable like us. To fathom God’s love for us, it is essential for us to experience His journey through life, what He endured, what He suffered. We can only truly grasp His love for us by walking in His footsteps, by traveling life’s journey as He did. God challenges us to become like Christ, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). By living life as Jesus did, in humility and meekness, with kindness and compassion, being patient and merciful, we can truly begin to know Jesus. We can experience His immeasurable love for us. God becomes real to us.
But how can we become like Christ? That is a tall order. When God created us in His image, He created us with the ability to love others as He loves us. He bestowed upon us the potential to develop the characteristics necessary to follow in His footsteps. The true Christian life requires us to become humble, meek, compassionate, merciful and pure in heart. This kind of life requires us to become a spiritual warrior in the battle against evil. These are the same traits He ascribed to Himself. They are the traits necessary for living a fulfilled Christian life. An in-depth study of the attributes from the Beatitudes reveals that they are also stages of our Christian lives as we experience personal growth. By undertaking this Journey Toward Perfection, God is revealed to us in an unprecedented way, and in the process, we are transformed. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We will learn how to endure and overcome the trials and tribulations of our lives. We will learn how to cultivate an intimate relationship with God, where we are able to communicate with Him in a two-way dialogue, not only speaking to God, but also being attuned to His voice.
Christ gave us a road map to follow through the Beatitudes. By following this path toward Christ, God is revealed to us and becomes a beacon in our lives. Two thousand years ago, Christ ignited a fire, which changed the world. For those who seek God, that fire continues to burn brightly in our hearts today.