I posted a quote a few days ago in which Jonathan Edwards, drawing from 2 Corinthians 5, reminds us that we are a "new creation" in Christ. A more modern commentator on the Gospel of Matthew suggests the opening words of The Sermon on the Mount, known as the Beatitudes, are to be "signs of life" in us new creatures. A way of life that, while not yet globally present, should already be found amongst Kingdom people.
"These statements [the Beatitudes], clearly, are not describing 'the way things are.' They are not suggesting that the mourners are already being comforted, despite appearances. They are not trying to teach hidden, timeless truths about a reality which is normally hidden behind a bleak facade. They are announcing a new state of affairs, a new reality which is in the process of bursting into the world. They are declaring that something that wasn't previously the case is now going to be; that the life of heaven, which had seemed so distant and unreal, is in the process of coming true on earth...These qualities - purity of heart, mercy, and so on - are not, so to speak, 'things you have to do' to earn a 'reward,' a 'payment.' Nor are they merely the 'rules of conduct' laid down for the converts to follow - rules that some today might perceive as somewhat arbitrary. They are, in themselves, the signs of life, the language of life, the life of new creation, the life of new covenant, the life which Jesus came to bring."
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