Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . —Matthew 5:3
Beware of thinking of our Lord as only a teacher. If Jesus
Christ is only a teacher, then all He can do is frustrate me by setting a
standard before me I cannot attain. What is the point of presenting me with
such a lofty ideal if I cannot possibly come close to reaching it? I would be
happier if I never knew it. What good is there in telling me to be what I can
never be— to be “pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8),
to do more than my duty, or to be completely devoted to God? I must know Jesus
Christ as my Savior before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that
of a lofty ideal which only leads to despair. But when I am born again by the
Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come only to teach— He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The
redemption means that Jesus Christ can place within anyone the same nature that
ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives us are based on that
nature.
The
teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces a sense of despair in the natural
man— exactly what Jesus means for it to do. As long as we have some
self-righteous idea that we can carry out our Lord’s teaching, God will allow
us to continue until we expose our own ignorance by stumbling over some
obstacle in our way. Only then are we willing to come to Him as paupers and
receive from Him. “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . .” This is the first principle
in the
(Taken from Oswald Chambers – “My Utmost
for His Highest” July 21)