“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)
The believer has great joy in looking at the words of Christ on what true blessedness is. However, we must be warned that to hear or read about it is not the same as to walk in it and to be truly blessed. What we need, to use older language, is to have an experiential knowledge of this. One reason for this is the pronoun “theirs.” This word teaches us that only the poor in spirit are blessed and have the kingdom of heaven. The text does not teach that all those who know about it, have read about it, or even extensively know about it are blessed. No, it says that the poor in spirit are blessed and they have the kingdom of heaven. There is no entry into the kingdom of God without this. There is no one in the kingdom that is not poor in spirit. It is a fundamental characteristic of the Christian.
The world and a vast number of people within the visible church focus on self-reliance, self-confidence, and self-expression. You are supposed to have high self-esteem and great self-confidence in today’s world, but not according to this verse which is a total antithesis to the worldly way of looking at things. The world and many within the visible church will actually teach all types and forms of self-centeredness as being Christian. This verse, however, simply will not allow for that. If this is so vital to what it means to be a true believer, then this is a teaching that should be proclaimed in opposition to all the teaching of self within and without the Church.
Let us look at what the meaning of this is. The word “poor” in the original has the idea of being utterly destitute and a beggar. Not only is this person utterly destitute and a beggar, this person has no way and no means of obtaining anything. This is descriptive of a person that is totally helpless and is the exact opposite of self-confidence, self-righteousness, self-dependence, and self-esteem. One biblical picture of this is the beggar Lazarus as described in Luke 16:20. Lazarus was a beggar but he even had to be carried to a place in order to beg. This is the picture of the person that is poor in spirit. Not only is this person without any means in the spiritual realm, this person has no way of helping self. The one that is poor in spirit has to be carried by grace to even be able to beg at the throne of grace for more grace. All that this person has will only be obtained by begging as this person has nothing to commend himself with and nothing to obtain anything with or by.
To be poor in spirit in this sense is more than just to be spiritually poor. All people are spiritually impoverished in reality. But what it means is that a person must come to recognize this and experientially live like it which is to live on the sustenance and bounty of another. It is to know from the heart what this is. It is more than a cognizant awareness; it is to feel it in the depths of the soul so that you know impoverishment of soul and know that you need Christ. It is to be so destitute of righteousness that you flee to Christ and realize that you have no way of obtaining righteousness apart from the free gift of Christ. It is to trust in the fullness of the atonement of Christ and in His perfect work. It is to trust in the mediatorial work of Christ to the point that you rest in Him and His intercessory work alone to bring you into the presence of the Father. It is trusting in the one and only sacrifice of Christ as all sufficient. It is trusting in Christ to present you perfect before the Father as a result of His gift of righteousness.
All people are born in the world without any righteousness and a sinful nature. All then go on to live in a way that treasures up wrath against the day of wrath. This means that all people are in reality spiritually destitute in and of themselves. All that they do falls short of the perfect standard of God which is to love Him with all of the heart, mind, soul, and strength. But not all people come to feel the weight of this and bow in submission to King Jesus. So our text is not teaching that all people are blessed because they are poor in spirit since all are that way in reality, but those that come to an experiential understanding and knowledge of who they are before a holy God are blessed. It is in knowing and experiencing this that one demonstrates that he is blessed and that he is one with the kingdom of heaven. This means that people should strive for this state from the depths of their heart.
Poverty of spirit is the opposite of a haughty, self-assertive and self-sufficient disposition. It is to realize that I am nothing, have nothing, can do nothing, and have need of all things. It is a consciousness of my emptiness that comes from a painful discovery that my best performances are as filthy rags (Isa 64:6). It follows the understanding that my best performances are unacceptable and even an abomination before the Holy One. It is the realization that I stand before a holy God with nothing of myself that is acceptable and even worse it is all damnable. It is to recognize the stark reality that I have nothing in myself that is acceptable before God when I stand before Him on judgment day. But even more, it is that chilling sense of utter weakness in knowing that I have nothing to obtain any righteousness before His sterling and perfect holiness. It is to realize that when the text says that “no one is righteous, no not one” (Rom 3:10), that it means me in the depths of my being. It is to know that when the text says that “no one seeks God” (Rom 3:11), it means me and that for my whole life.
Poverty of spirit is the other side of faith. It is the realization of my utter worthlessness which precedes my trust in Christ for all. It is the Spirit emptying me of self so that Christ may fill it. The one who is poor in spirit has the absence of pride, of self-assurance, and self-reliance. It means that we see ourselves as nothing in the presence of God and that we can do nothing in ourselves. It is the tremendous awareness of the utter nothingness of self in one sense as we come face to face with God, yet on the other hand it means the presence of much sin. When this person comes before God, s/he does not trust in morality and good behavior. This person is emptied of self as Isaiah was in Isaiah 6:5 and wants nothing but Christ to stand in and upon. Isaiah saw the holiness of God and he came to an end of his own righteousness. The “woe is me” that Isaiah uttered is the sense of the heart in all those that are poor in spirit. How painful it is to come to an end of our own righteousness.
Until one comes to the stark realization that s/he is unworthy to seek his or her own honor, s/he will not seek the honor and glory of God. Oh how necessary it is to be poor in spirit so that one will seek the glory of God in all things and love Him with all of our being. How necessary it is to be broken of self and poor in spirit to have a real concern for others. Those that are broken from the strength of self are alone those that will trust and depend on God for all things. One must be broken from self-strength to trust in the strength of God. Perhaps an analogy might help for illustrative purposes. It is said by lifeguards that until a drowning swimmer gives up and relies totally on the lifeguard that there is not a lot they can do to save the person. Rather, all the struggles of the drowning person actually put the lifeguard in danger and prevent any real help for the drowning person. The same is true in the spiritual realm. A person that has not given up on self will not trust in the Savior alone. Only those that have given up their struggle to obtain any righteousness at all in their own strength will trust totally in the Savior.
Several people in the Bible had distinct and painful discoveries of their own poverty of spirit, though the texts that describe these do not use the same words. “Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God: (Exodus 3:5-6). Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. Why is that? He was standing in the presence of the Holy One. To stand before God is to come to the realization that God can strike you down as He pleases, but it is also to realize what it is to be so unholy in the presence of perfect holiness. It brings fear.
It was said that Job was a righteous man. Evidently that was in comparison to other men and Job evidently thought he was righteous as well. The Lord allowed Satan to afflict Job in many ways and Job thought that he had done nothing wrong and so could not understand why God did this to him. However, eventually after some bad counselors Job heard from God Himself. Then he replied, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; 6 Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). Just hearing about God in his case was not what was needed. It was to “see” God and to realize who God was. The text is translated as “I retract,” but in reality the term means “abhor,” “despise,” and “reject.” When Job saw and understood God, He abhorred and rejected himself in light of the glory of God. He no longer wanted to argue with God about his righteousness, but was ready to defend the righteousness of God rather than his own. He recognized his utter impoverishment of spirit in the presence of God. No longer did he trust in his own righteousness at all.
We see the same type of thing in David, Isaiah, John, Paul, and Peter. We see that God dwells on high but also with the contrite and lowly in spirit (Isa 57:15). While most people today think of being poor in spirit as something negative and uncomfortable, the great saints of God sought this very thing. They desired the presence of God and knew that a high view of self was not consistent with this. They were brought low in regards to trusting in self and their own righteousness. But this was not a bad thing at all, for it meant that they had a view of themselves in accordance with reality. When a person arrives at that, it means that God has been emptying His temple so that He can reside in it. Man is either full of self or full of God; it is one or the other. A person must be poor in spirit in order to be the dwelling place of God. That is why the poor in spirit are blessed and no one else.
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