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23rd December 2025
TuesdayReflection
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'John Piper'
founder and teacher of Desiring God.org
"Blessed Are the
Peacemakers"
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."
With each beatitude, another nail is driven into a coffin.
Inside the coffin lies the corpse of a false understanding of salvation.
The false understanding says that a person can be saved without being changed.
Or, that a person can inherit eternal life even if his attitudes and actions are like the attitudes and actions of unbelievers.
One after the other, the Beatitudes tell us that the blessings of eternity will be given only to those who have become new creatures.
For example, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. . . .
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. . . .
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."
If we don't obtain mercy, we receive judgment.
If we don't see God, we are not in heaven.
If we aren't called the sons of God, we are outside the family.
These are all descriptions of final salvation, and it is promised only to the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.
Thus, the Beatitudes are like long spikes holding down the lid of the coffin on the false teaching that says if you just believe in Jesus, then you will go to heaven - whether or not you are merciful, or pure in heart, or a peacemaker.
From beginning to end, the Sermon on the Mount cries out, "Get yourself a new heart!
Become a new person! The river of judgment is at the door!"
You recall the words of verse 20:
"Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20).
At the very end of the sermon in Matthew 7:26, the Lord calls out over the crowds,
"And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."
In other words, a life of disobedience to the Beatitudes and to the Sermon on the Mount will not stand in the judgment no matter what we believe.
Obedience Is Not Optional
I was convicted this past week that I have probably not treated this dimension of the Beatitudes with as much earnestness and seriousness as I should, and that the care that I have for your eternal good has not shown itself as genuinely as it must.
My conscience was pricked in reading an old book by Horatius Bonar to pastors in which he said,
Our words are feeble, even when sound and true; our looks are careless, even when our words are weighty; and our tones betray the apathy which both words and looks disguise. (Words to Winners of Souls, 55)
"Jesus cries from beginning to end, 'Get yourself a new heart.'"
I want to impress upon your consciences, with as much earnestness as I can, that Jesus is not making optional suggestions in the Beatitudes, and this sermon is not a series of suggestions on how to make the world better.
On the contrary, Jesus is describing the pathway to heaven, and this sermon is a message from God to urge you to get on that pathway and stay on that pathway so that you can be called sons of God at the last judgment.
If you are on the narrow path, which leads to life, my purpose is to help you stay on it.
And if you are still in the broad way that leads to destruction, my purpose is to direct you to the path of life.
When Jesus says,
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God," he is not telling us how to become a son of God.
Rather, Jesus is simply saying that sons of God are, in fact, peacemakers.
People who are peacemakers will be recognized as the sons of God at the judgment and welcomed into the Father's house.
If we want to see how to become a son of God we can look at John 1:12 and Galatians 3:26.
John 1:12 says, "To all who received him [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."
And Galatians 3:26 says, "For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith."
In other words, we become sons of God by trusting in Christ for our forgiveness and hope.
This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
'John Piper'
is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist
and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy.
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