I'm reading Dallas Willard's "The Divine Conspiracy" and just finished chapter four on interpreting the beatitudes in Matthew 5/Luke 6. Most people assume, and I have preached a series on it, that the eight "Blessed are..." statements are a description of the kind of person God wants us to be. (Bill Gothard says it is a description of the character of Christ, of "beautiful attitudes".) When I preached on these many verses years ago, I went a step further and turned it into a logical sequence from humility at conversion (poor in spirit) to missionary martyrdom (in persecution). The goal, I thought, is for us to "be more mournful over our sin, hunger more for righteousness, be more meek, etc." in order to become more Christlike.
One can make sense of it that way. Most do. We try to emulate these eight qualities, then give up in despair when they see the lack of congruence in our lives.
However, Dallas turns this all on its head. Rather than this being a new list of legalistic standards that, when practiced, make God happier with us, (by works), it is, instead, a list of negatives in the eyes of our society, a set of descriptions of what we, in our humanness, don't want and don't respect. It points to those people in our world that we tend to ignore or avoid, to those we tend to think "are not going to cut it," and elevates their status to full equality in God's kingdom.
So, rather than "poor in spirit" being a synonym for humility, it describes a person who feels like a zero, who has no self-confidence, who is looked down on in society -- and Jesus says that His kingdom is available and open to that person, as well as the "high spirited, confident, popular" person that our world admires. The meek and merciful person who gets taken advantage of and stepped on, the broken-hearted sad person who has suffered many losses and griefs, the waffling peacemaking person who always gets caught in the middle of opposing arguments and is friends with neither side, the one who is constantly frantically seeking justice but can't find it, the pure-in-heart perfectionist who has OCD and is never happy with things being "right enough" for her tastes, the one who is under persecution and being treated miserably -- all of these people are welcomed to find blessedness and bliss by taking up their place within God's kingdom. God's kingdom has nothing to do with external appearances, or status in society, or status in the church, but has everything to do with living life (doing what Jesus says) out of the "center" of genuine, perfect, agape love.
In a culture that says "forget the losers and praise the beautiful, rich, sexy, talented, smart", Jesus says, "No; my kingdom doesn't leave out anybody; it's open to all, even the worst among us." That's why thieves and prostitutes are getting into Christ's kingdom before the Pharisees are -- because they are humble enough to accept a free gift and not try to earn it.
Most people think of "entering the kingdom" as being saved and gaining fire insurance from heaven and a ticket to heaven. Therefore "those who practice sin" won't make it to heaven. Or, in a rewards theology, habiitual sinners won't "inherit" the kingdom, which means they may get to heaven, but as paupers, by the skin of their teeth, without any rewards. But if "the kingdom" is framed primarily in terms of "living life now on earth by continually consciously submitting to God's rule", then "not entering the kingdom" means primarily that these people live THIS current earthly life outside of the power and blessing of God's kingdom now. They live like our culture tells them to live, selfishly, striving for more money, sex and power, rather than from a heart that is fully surrendered to the Lordship of Christ, fully committed to live as Jesus' apprentice in all aspects.
Given this understanding, the majority of "Christians" who attend church are not yet living in the kingdom, for their lifestyle is more world-directed than God-directed. They may still go to heaven when they die, because they have accepted the gift of justification by faith alone, but right now, they are unknowingly being unfaithful citizens of the kingdom of heaven while on their pilgrimmage to that promised land. Why? Because they believe that the "best life" involves getting all the pleasures and possessions and power they can now, in their own strength, rather than relaxing and trusting God to take care of them.
Here's the reality: God's way of life, living as Jesus instructed, produces the best life NOW as well as the best life LATER. Living a disciple's life of "trust and obey" now yields the best life on earth, by abiding in the Vine, walking in the Spirit, seeking God's guidance, seeing reality through God's eyes, loving God and loving people relentlessly. But it also yields the best life later, in heaven, as Christ promises eternal rewards (cf. talents, minas, "govern more cities", be closer to Christ both in proximity and position for all eternity).
See chapters 24-26 in my book, "What To Do Until Christ Comes" as well as books on eternal rewards -- such as "Treasure Principle" by Randy Alcorn and "A Life God Rewards" by Bruce Wilkinson.
Both now and later, "closeness with God" is our greatest reward and highest treasure, but God, in His graciousness, quantifies this by transforming our character into Christlikeness on earth (allowing us to live a "kingdom life" now, being progressively more sanctified, in the midst of hostile territory) and by giving us crowns/responsibilities in the millennial kingdom and in heaven (allowing us to live a pure and complete "kingdom life" without any competition, once Satan and his demons and human followers are all confined in hell and once our sin nature is removed in the glorification of our spirit, soul and body.)
My job, as a pastor, is to model this God-pleasing, kingdom-focused life, then teach it to others. Only this has the power to tranform the world -- one person, one family, one church, one city, one nation, at a time.
