The Beatitudes Are Gospel, Not Law

It finally caught up with me. I knew it was there, but hoped I could get past it without further medical help. To no avail. I finally had to admit myself to the hospital so the Docs could load my body up with anti-biotics. So went the weekend and, in a sense, so went last week. Now here it is, over a week later and I'm finally back at the computer.

So what does one do when he's flat on his back in a hospital bed? Watch TV? A little, but so much of what's on the screen truly appalls or bores me. Instead I turned to a book I've been wanting to work with for a number of weeks: Rob Warner's "The Sermon on the Mount." Rob is from England and a Bible teacher out of Queen's Road Baptist Church in Wimbledon. He has degrees in theology and English literature, but is apparently not an ordained minister.

He writes well and has some good insights into the background of the Sermon on the Mount. For instance, there's ever been confusion about what seem to be two different accounts of the sermon, one by Matthew and the other by Luke. Warner points out that it is quite plausible to suggest that Matthew and Luke are reporting the same event, but from significantly different perspectives. Both are relying on different eyewitness accounts passed on in verbal or written traditions.

He further points out that neither Gospel makes any claim to provide a verbatim account of Jesus' preaching. Jesus may well have repeated the themes of the sermon on various occasions and Luke could well be recording a different, but similar sermon from Jesus' itinerant preaching. Thus both Matthew and Luke are faithful, but not verbatim reporters of the extended preaching of Jesus.

I thought those were good points, well made. So I pressed on to discover what Warner had to say about the Sermon's introduction, Matthew 5:3-12, the Eight Beatitudes. Warner calls them Eight Steps to Fulfilment - the Characteristics of the Blessed. As soon as I read the title of that chapter I knew we were in trouble. Rob has it all upside down. He assumes that the Lord Jesus is beginning the chapter with a series of eight statements of the moral Law, a way of life the Christian is to follow in order to be blessed and reach fulfilment.

Let me explain what I mean by the moral Law. Consider Jesus' confrontation of a young man who came to him searching for eternal life (Matthew 19:16-30). Jesus told him to obey the commandments, essentially summarized in the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20. Confident that he had always been doing that, he shied from Jesus' demand that he give all his possessions to the poor and come and follow Jesus. He obviously loved his wealth. In this case, Jesus did use the Law, because the young man's sin had to be uncovered.

That is the first and primary use of the Law -- to uncover and reveal sin in our lives. There is a second, common way we are all confronted with the Law in our daily lives. That's in the civil laws that surround and hedge us all in. This morning's paper was filled with instances of stealing, cheating, killing and adultery. The only way this kind of activity is held in check at all is by the outward enforcing of the civil laws passed by our legislators or the Law written on the hearts of us all, the Law that creates our consciences.

Now Warner makes use of both these kinds of Law in his exposition of the Beatitudes. He decries the immorality of the Western world and he encourages the governments to fulfill their obligations. Then he goes one step further. He makes a third use of the Law. He speaks to Christians, those of us who have put our faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and accepted him as our Savior. Follow the rules or "eight steps" laid down by Jesus and you too will reach personal fulfilment!

For instance, he writes, "In order to receive the blessing due to those who are poor in spirit (emphasis added), we need to rediscover our spiritual impotence. We are simply and wholly unable to fulfil our potential as the servants of God until we discover our absolute dependence upon the resources of heaven." When we do, "we enter into the blessing that Jesus attached to the condition of being poor in spirit. The blessedness to which Jesus invites us therefore begins not from achieving sufficient spiritual merit, but from discovering our acute spiritual inadequacy" (pp.49-51).

So step one: discover your acute spiritual inadequacy and you will be blessed with the Kingdom of heaven.

Step two is much like it: mourn and agonize over the depths of your own sinfulness, the selfish instincts that find expression so easily. Then you will "experience the fullness of Jesus' promise of comfort to those who mourn. You will receive present forgiveness through the grace of God in Christ; once-for-all liberation beyond the grave from the sinful nature; and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.

So he continues throughout his exposition, turning each of the Eight Beatitudes into a step in the new interpretation of the Law by Jesus. The final step is to gain a new perspective on the value of life and identify with Jesus, as did the early Christian martyrs. In doing so you will be persecuted, but you will gain the Kingdom.

Every one of Warner's "eight steps" is Law! Jesus is the new Law giver, the same as Moses. Accept Jesus' grace and forgiveness, yes, but then follow the "eight steps" to complete fulfillment and the blessings of the Kingdom.

How sad, I thought, how very sad. I came away from this reading feeling sick spiritually. I was already sick physically. Throughout the exposition Law was mingled with the Good News of Jesus, the Gospel. In so doing he left me confused, thrown back upon what I must do in order to obtain the blessing of Jesus and His Kingdom. Finally I threw the book down. I could read no further. I had enough problems dealing with the infection in my body. I needed not another in my soul.

If I have left you confused, I invite you to read my own exposition of the Beatitudes. All of the Beatitudes are Jesus' teaching about Himself. He is the One who became poor in spirit, who mourned over sin, who was meek, who hungered and thirsted for righteousness, was merciful, pure in heart, the peacemaker and the persecuted One - all for us. He calls us to be in Him, daily dying with Him through our Baptism and rising again with Him to the new life. The Beatitudes are not another exposition of the Law, a third use of it. They are all Gospel, all Good News brought to us by Jesus, God's Son and the King Himself. In Him the Kingdom of God is present and in Him we are truly blessed, for He is the Son with whom the Father is well pleased and because of Him the Father is pleased to grant us the Kingdom as well.