The Beatitudes, Pt 4: Spiritual Progression
The Beatitudes offer some compelling directives for how our lives ought to be structured as Christians. The name itself simply means “Blessedness,” or even, “Supreme Blessedness,” and from Matthew 5:1-12, Jesus outlines several ways that His people can experience the greatest blessings imaginable.
What often strikes us as odd, however, is how the Beatitudes appear to offer an almost paradoxical hope. Take, for example, the first Beatitude in verse 3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, one must first be made poor in spirit—in other words, to be brought high (into Heaven) and made rich (with spiritual treasures unfathomable) one must first be brought low (made humble in spirit) and made to see how poor they are (for we are nothing without Christ).
The second Beatitude, however, makes it clear that we are not dealing with paradoxes as much as we are dealing with spiritual formation, progression, and maturity. Consider, in verse 4, the progression required: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” In order for the Christian to be blessed with comfort, what must first transpire? They must mourn.
Verse 5 is much the same: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Meekness comes first—the steady, quiet, faithful frame of a gentle yet strong spirit in Christ—and then comes the inheritance; in this case, the very earth itself. But the earth is not given to the saint before the saint learns meekness. There is a progression; first comes the holy character, then comes the blessing.
The Beatitudes are not then to be understood simply as promises (though Christ gives several wonderful promises of blessings throughout), nor are they to be neglected as some impossible standards for Christians to meet (though there is a sense in which we will never encapsulate them perfectly this side of eternity), nor are they to be viewed as the characteristics that all Christians possess upon the moment of salvation (though all Christians, by the Holy Spirit, are able to manifest these characteristics). Instead, these are commandments that the Christian must strive towards in order to be blessed by God.
Clearing Up Confusion
I was in my early twenties, serving as an interim pastor at an old country church, when one of the men in the church came up to me at the end of service, and with pointed finger, began to jab me in the chest. “There’re two gospels, you know. One for the Jew and one for the Gentile. You want to know how Gentiles are saved? Read Paul. You want to know how Jews are saved? Read the Sermon on the Mount.”
Flabbergasted is a rather apt summary of how I felt in that moment. I had no idea what he was talking about. On top of that, I had not been preaching from the text of the Sermon on the Mount, exacerbating my confusion even more.
I would find out, over the next few months, that there are various opinions on the Sermon on the Mount, and several of them are extremely unhelpful. Some, like my elderly friend, believed that Jesus’ teachings on things like the Beatitudes were distinctly Jewish teachings with no bearings on us Gentiles. Others look at the Beatitudes as being a sort of teaching for future pietistic practices. This latter group sees no place for the holy practices Jesus described in Matthew 5:1-12 in modernity, but instead view these as blueprints for future life after the Parousia (Christ’s second coming).
Both views are wrong and can cause great and even irreparable damage through their rejection of the relevancy of Christ’s teachings for the present. Rightly understood, the Beatitudes offer not merely a compelling vision for the Christian life, but the very directives we need to grow in grace and holiness as followers of Christ.
The Beatitudes as a Source of Spiritual Formation
The Beatitudes, at their core, are directives for Christians to follow as members of Christ’s Kingdom now. We live in the already/not yet paradigm, wherein the Kingdom of God has come (Mt. 12:28), but it has not yet fully enveloped the earth as it one day will (Hab. 2:14). Nonetheless, as Christ sends us forth as His ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20), He simultaneously sends us forth in holiness. He expects us, as His followers indwelled by the Holy Spirit, to live and walk differently than those who have not come to Him in faith. This means we must strive towards holiness, godliness, and—yes—the Beatitudes.
As we strive to obey the Beatitudes, we find that Christ, through His Word and Spirit, strengthens, establishes, and matures us in the faith. Our union with Christ essentially means we walk the earth as citizens of Heaven (Phil. 3:20), and so we live under a different administration and economy than this world. For us, the Beatitudes are not some mystical, topsy-turvy paradoxes that confuse, but a description of the way things ought to be. Moreover, the blessings described within the Beatitudes encourage us to continue in our pursuit of the holiness that Christ expects of all His people. And, amazingly, the more we mature and live by the Beatitudes, the more we experience blessings in our mere obedience. As John Owen once wrote, “The liberty of sons is in the inward spiritual freedom of their hearts gladly and willingly obeying God in everything.”[1]
[1] John Owen, Communion with God, abridged and made easy to read by R.J.K. Law (Carlisle: Banner of Truth Trust, 2013), 160.
