Poverty and Possessions (Matthew 5:3)
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
If someone were to ask, ‘What does a Christian look like?’, we could point to biblical passages that describe him or her. For example, we could mention the passage in Galatians that lists the fruit of the Spirit. Or we could use the Ten Commandments as indicating how a believer in Jesus will behave. Another passage that we could highlight is the Sermon the Mount. Within the Sermon itself, there are the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes describe what a follower of Jesus will be like.
There are eight beatitudes, and they are like segments in an orange. If one is missing, there is something wrong with the professing disciple. No doubt, there will be differences of degree in which each beatitude is found in the lives of believers. Still, one would expect them to part of a balanced Christian character.
Jesus states that the person who is living in accordance with the Beatitudes is blessed. The status of blessedness can be observed from an objective or a subjective viewpoint. Objectively, this is the assessment of Jesus, and since he is always accurate in his assessments it means that from the point of view of heaven we must have these features in order to be classified as blessed. Subjectively, blessedness describes what we think or feel. If we have those characteristics, we can deduce that we are blessed, and we can rejoice in that reality.
What does it mean to be poor in spirit?
‘Poor in spirit’ describes an inner attitude revealed in the person’s character. Therefore it is not assessed by how little the person may have of this world’s riches. He may be a beggar, but that is no guarantee he will be poor in spirit. Yet he is conscious of not having something, and not having that something causes him to recognise that he is poor. What can that something be? I would say he realises that he is not perfect. Realising one is imperfect occurs in different ways and at different times in the Christian life.
The particular blessing for the poor in spirit
Jesus says that everyone who is poor in spirit possesses the kingdom of heaven. I think he means that they have access to the resources of the kingdom of God. We can imagine a person in our country who falls on hard times. There are helps available for such a person. The helps are in line with the wealth of our country and they are designed to meet the needs of those requiring aid.
Poor in spirit at conversion
In thinking about this point, we should remember that Christians differ in experience and this is true at conversion as well as later on in their lives. Yet there are features that are found to some extent in their experiences. So what happens inside a person at his or her conversion?
One detail is that they discover who they are in the sight of God. This takes place when the Holy Spirit, in one way or another, enables them to appreciate their imperfections. There are at least three ways by which this can be done. One method is that a sinner sees the holy character of a believer and is challenged by it. He may see the believer’s joy in the gospel, or he may see the believer’s gentleness, or he may observe that the believer is loving and kind, and then realises that he does not have those characteristics.
A second method is that the sinner is confronted by the beauty of the character of Jesus and finds himself comparing himself with Jesus. As the sinner does so, he realises that he is imperfect. A third method that the Holy Spirit uses, and probably is the most common way, is to lead the sinner to consider the demands of the law of God, and as he does he realises that he is imperfect.
Through a process, which may be short or long, the Holy Spirit leads the sinner to realise that inwardly he is a spiritual pauper. He may be very religious, or he may be the opposite, yet the outcome is the same. The sinner recognises that in the sight of God he is bankrupt.
There is a difference between being spiritually poor and poor in spirit. Before conversion, a sinner is spiritually poor because he has no spiritual riches. That changes at conversion because a Christian will cease being spiritually poor and instead becomes poor in spirit. What happens at conversion begins this change in status.
Resources of the kingdom at conversion
At the same time, the Holy Spirit will lead that sinner to think about the gospel as the remedy for his spiritual poverty. In the gospel, there is a great supply of riches. From the sinner’s point of view, he experiences repentance and faith in Jesus. They are the responses that the gospel requires, and the Spirit enables them to happen.
So what riches from the kingdom are given to those who recognise for the first time that they are bankrupt sinners? There are three that we can mention. Although he had broken the law of God, the sinner discovers that through faith in Christ he is reconciled to God and is at peace with him. The sinner also discovers that not only is he forgiven his sins, but in addition he is given the righteousness of Jesus as a permanent spiritual garment to wear in the presence of God. And the sinner finds himself a member of the family of God through the Father’s act of adoption.
The rebel discovers that he is at peace with God, the naked discovers that he clothed by God, and the outcast discovers that he belongs to the divine family. Who can calculate the worth of those blessings? And they are just the start of discovering the riches of God’s kingdom.
Poor in spirit in the Christian life
After a person becomes a Christian, he discovers he is still not perfect. He will see that saints in the Bible complained of their sinfulness. Sometimes, their complaints were connected to inward sins and at other times the complaints were linked to outward actions. Indeed, he will see sins that he did not realise he possessed. In contact with others, he often discovers his self-centredness; in times of crises, he discovers his limited inner resources; he finds himself attracted by temptations. He reads that Peter, instead of being poor in spirit in the Upper Room, was self-confident. And he will read in Revelation 3 about how and entire church expressed self-confidence instead of poverty of spirit.
How can we maintain poverty of spirit in the Christian life? Strange as it may seem, the answer is to consider the one Person who never sinned inwardly or outwardly. Repeatedly, the Bible urges believers to consider Jesus and imitate his behaviour. As believers do so, they express their poverty of spirit by becoming increasingly humble. They realise that any spiritual growth is due to the grace of God and to the work of the indwelling Spirit.
Resources of the kingdom for Christians
Every blessing that a Christian enjoys in his life of discipleship is connected to his sanctification. What are the resources that are available to him as he goes through this process? They are connected to the supply of divine grace to all of God's people. Obviously, the Christian has the indwelling Holy Spirit to bring this about, but how does he do this?
One obvious are of privilege available to the poor in spirit is prayer. How often can we speak to God? From one point of view, this is a pointless question because we can pray as often as we wish. We can also pray about many topics, including personal concerns as well as for others.
The Holy Spirit also enables believers to use another source of riches and that is the many divine promises that are found in the Bible. God’s promises cover a wide range of situations. We have promises about divine help, about restoration when we fall, about protection from the powers of darkness, about provision for our souls, about growth in grace, about contact with the persons of the Trinity, and about many more aspects of the Christian life. The promises will function on every day of our journey through this world.
Poor in spirit at the end
Earlier we mentioned the distinction between being spiritually poor and being poor in spirit. Is the attitude of being poor in spirit only confined to this world? It is an expression connected to the fact that we are not perfect in this life, whether at conversion or post-conversion. But will we cease to be poor in spirit when we eventually become perfect at death or when Jesus returns? We can put this question this way, ‘Could the believers living in heaven be described as poor in spirit?’
The answer must depend on the meaning of poor in spirit. There are aspects of being poor in spirit that will not exist in heaven such as being aware of one’s sins and expressing shame for them. Yet there will be aspects of being poor in spirit that will remain. A person described in this way is humble and dependent, and all the inhabitants of glory will be humble and dependent on the Lord. Becoming perfect will open the door for constant expressions of being poor in spirit, of not being independent, of realising our creatureliness, of recognising the greatness of God and worshipping him.
Resources of the kingdom at the end
What will be given to Christians when they go to heaven? One answer is perfection, but another way of stating this privilege is glorification. We cannot describe what this will be like because we have not seen it. All we know is that believers will be like Jesus in character. They will express the fruit of the Spirit in perfection, and they will be living expressions of the grace of God throughout eternity. Yet although they will enjoy such glory for ever, they will always recall that in the past they were lost sinners who experienced the grace of God through the gospel. They will cast their crowns before the throne of God.
Application
The main question is, are we truly poor in spirit? Such a person sees his emptiness and sees the Saviour’s fullness. Such a person sees his need of prayer and the divine promises. The poor in spirit increase in humility along the road to heaven. They can easily be identified. And at the end of the day they will find themselves in the place where there is nothing vain.
How do we imagine entering heaven? Are we going to stride in, full of self-importance? No. Instead, we will walk in as saved sinners, thankful to the Saviour who has prepared for us a place and prepared us for the place. And those who get there will only see humble people forever living in the presence of God.