Matthew 5:3 (NIV): “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Only the poor in spirit can even enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who come based on their own merits, those who figure that they will be admitted because they are nice people, or because of the list of bad behaviors they don’t do, or because of the good things they have done, all will find the door locked to them. These are those who, like the Pharisees of old, try to get into the sheepfold other than the way God has mandated (John 10:1), and they will never be able to get in. They will hear the keeper of the gate (which is Jesus, by the way, NOT Peter – John 10:9) say, “I never knew you. Away from Me, you evil doers!” (Matthew 7:23)
God has determined the rules for entrance into the kingdom, and they are that NO ONE will come in except through Jesus – THE gate. And the only ones who can come in through Jesus are those who are poor in spirit – spiritually bankrupt; so aware of their own unworthiness that they would never dream of coming before God with their credentials out and ready to be presented. Only those who know that they are completely unworthy to stand before God, with nothing good they have done able to take away a single sin, who can only stand far off, beat their breast, and say, “God have mercy on me, a sinner;” (Luke 18:13) only these can even enter the kingdom of heaven.
At the great judgment, ever self-sufficient person, every self-righteous person (a great number of whom are “non-religious” or “secular”, just confident of their own goodness) will find that the righteousness that they believed themselves to be clothed in isa nothing more than filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) Only those who understand and admit that in their own strength they are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17) can have access to the kingdom, where they can truly become God’s children. Only those who fully realize that, when Jesus died on the cross, He was suffering the fate that THEY deserved; only those poor in spirit, will inherit the kingdom, and find eternal riches beyond imagining!
Father, I thank You that You found me, wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, showed me myself as I truly was, and drove me to my knees in utter spiritual bankruptcy, so that I could be lifted up by You as one of Your own children. Thank You that You make that same lifting up available to any who come to You in true poverty of spirit. Amen.
Today's Scripture 