Beckett: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? It is nothing short of humility before God. The poor in spirit acknowledge their total depravity before God Almighty and beg for His forgiveness. Like a poor beggar who begs for coin on the street, so we poor sinners beg the King of the universe for mercy. The poor in spirit therefore confess with genuine repentance, “I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being” (LSB p. 184).

A person stuck in the haughtiness of their sin will find these words absurd and offensive; but for those who humbly make this confession their own, it is the power of God. “For the Word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

The poor in spirit thus experience the work of Christ’s Great Exchange, which is the power of God. Being poor in spirit, with nothing to offer the King except our wretched sinfulness, begging Him for mercy, Christ the King says, “Yes, yes, it shall be so,” and He gives us the riches of the kingdom of Heaven: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. When once you were a sinful beggar before Him, He makes the kingdom of Heaven yours, which occurs in Baptism, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if one is not born from water and Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5; my translation). Therefore, since Baptism begins with repentance, whenever you repent of your sins like a poor, humble beggar, the rich inheritance of the kingdom of Heaven is made yours again.