At the time Jesus’
presented this collection of teaching, the people were very familiar with a
religion that presented the best behaved and most prideful people as the most
exemplary of God’s will for their lives. Everyone thought they had to be like
the religious leaders to have assurance of acceptance from God.
I am sure I
understood things that way in my teens because of a particular verse that made
me feel quite hopeless. It said, “For I
tell you, unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven.”[2]
Because I
thought I had to be good to be accepted by God (along with believing in Jesus,
of course), this verse sounded like a rather impossible situation for me. I
knew that the scribes and Pharisees had very high standards of righteousness. How
could a teenage boy possibly expect to “exceed” their level of good behavior?
I’m not even
sure how old I was when I understood what Jesus meant, that the only way to
exceed the kind of righteousness modeled by the scribes and Pharisees, a
righteousness based on self-dependent good works, was to turn to Jesus Christ
in the righteousness that comes from faith.[3] Instead
of thinking I had to try to be better than the Pharisees, I actually had to see
my poverty, that there was no way I could be good enough at all.[4]
That would cause me to open my heart to what Jesus came to do, and hunger and
thirst for his righteousness,[5] something
that could only be experienced as a gift freely received by sinners.[6]
One of the
most notable examples of someone changing from the insatiable pride of the
Pharisees to the poverty of spirit of a child of God, was the man we know as the
Apostle Paul. He had once been top of his class in every way we could measure
someone’s religious devotion to God.[7]
That was, until he met Jesus.
When Paul met Jesus,
he discovered that he was actually the worst, or foremost, of sinners.[8]While
he was putting Christians in prison because he thought they were some terrible
cult that had corrupted what was true about God,[9] he
discovered that he was actually persecuting the Christ, or the Messiah, the
very person Paul was waiting to show up in the events of history.[10]
When Paul
realized he had been persecuting the Christ, the Messiah, his Savior, he could
not escape his poverty.[11]
He was so sure he was right, and yet so absolutely wrong. While he felt proud of
himself, justifying why he would disrupt people’s lives and families just
because they believed in Jesus, he could not even see the truth about God. But,
when he humbled himself, and felt and owned his poverty, he could then receive
what God was offering him as a free gift.
Paul’s explanation
of the change in his life comes down to this: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”[12] Poverty of spirit is coming to count, or consider, all that we
thought might give us good standing with God, to be nothing, to be as a loss.
There would never be anything to gain by trying to be good enough for God.
However,
the reason that poverty of spirit is not hopeless is because it opens our
hearts to “the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul referred to his previous good achievements
as rubbish.[13] It may have been hard for him to admit that he had saved up
absolutely nothing towards his eternal retirement; but it was a great and
joyful relief to know that Jesus Christ had his eternal life covered,[14] that it was a free gift,[15] and that no one could ever take it away from him.[16]
There was a
time when it terrified me to consider things that were wrong with me. After
all, it could only mean one thing: I wasn’t good enough; not being good enough
meant I was worthless; and being worthless meant no one, including God, could
love me.
When I truly
understood Jesus, I knew that his whole reason for coming into the world to
rescue me from sin was because he loved me. He loved me before he brought dust
together to become the first human being.[17]
He loved me knowing that creating that first man would bring sin into the
world,[18]
would be the ruination of humanity,[19]
and would require him becoming sin,[20]
and becoming a curse,[21]
in order to redeem a people back to himself, who were his very own, eager to be
like him.[22]
Now it is
always a joy when I spend time with God and catch another glimpse of some area
of poverty in my life. It means I am on my way to becoming more like Jesus. It
is also a joy when I hear other people admitting some area of poverty of spirit
they are facing. It always means God is up to something. And the something he
is up to is always good.[23]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Matthew 5:3
[2]
Matthew 5:20 (note that this is also in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount)
[3]
“4 But
when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not
because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us
richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might
become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3)
[4]
“None is righteous, no,
not one;” (Romans 3:10
[5]
Matthew 5:6
[6]
“but God shows his love
for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) “8 For
by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it
is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so
that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2)
[7]
Philippians 3
[8]
“15 The
saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for
this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his
perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal
life.” (I Timothy 1)
[9]
“But Saul was ravaging
the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and
committed them to prison.” (Acts 8:3)
[10]
Acts 9
[11]
“though formerly I was a
blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I
had acted ignorantly in unbelief,” (I
Timothy 1:13)
[12]
Philippians 3:8
[13]
Philippians 3:8
[14]
“29 For
those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he
predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and
those whom he justified he also glorified.”
(Romans 8)
[15]
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans
6:23)
[16]
“38 For
I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” (Romans 8)
[17]
Genesis 2
[18]
Genesis 3
[19]
“Therefore, just as sin came into the
world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—“ (Romans 5:12)
[20]
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
(II Corinthians 5:21)
[21]
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—“ (Galatians 3:13)
[22]
“who gave himself for us
to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his
own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:14)
[23]
“And we know that for
those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called
according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) “Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what
is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
(Romans 12:2)
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