Spiritual Bankruptcy

Jesus didn’t begin His Sermon on the Mount cracking a joke. Nor did He proclaim, “God loves those who do everything right.” On the contrary, He immediately grabbed the crowd’s attention by declaring “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them“ (Matthew 5:3).

Christ knew His audience. He wasn’t addressing the frowning Pharisees standing on the sidelines with their noses in the air and arms folded. He spoke specifically to the barely-getting-by folks in attendance who felt beaten down and discouraged by life in general. He told them, “If you feel like you’re spiritually bankrupt I’ve got great news for you. You’re in the perfect frame of mind to receive the blessing I’m here to give you.”

Spurgeon wrote, “It’s worthy of grateful note that this gospel blessing reaches down to the exact spot where the law leaves us when it has done for us the very best within its power or design. The utmost the law can accomplish for our fallen humanity is to lay bare our spiritual poverty and convince us of it.”

Since the Beatitudes are figuratively a “ladder of light” there’s no more appropriate bottom rung than spiritual bankruptcy. It’s where most Christians start. “Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. God chose what’s low and despised in the world, what’s regarded as nothing, to set aside what’s regarded as something, so that no one can boast in His presence“ (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

The wealthy don’t usually think they’re in need of encouragement. Frederick Buechner commented, “The poor, on the other hand, are under no such delusion. When Jesus says, ‘Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I’ll give you rest‘ (Matthew 11:28), the poor stand a better chance than most of knowing what He’s talking about and knowing that He’s talking to them. In desperation they may even be willing to consider the possibility of accepting His offer.”

That all of us are born spiritually bankrupt wasn’t a revelation then and still isn’t now. Those listening to Jesus’s sermon had been raised on verses like “Everyone rejects God; they’re all morally corrupt. None of them does what’s right, not even one!“ (Psalm 14:3) and “For there’s not one truly righteous person on the earth who continually does good and never sins“ (Ecclesiastes 7:20). The blessing Jesus was bestowing upon the throng that afternoon was that it’s not only okay to be poor in spirit but it’s to one’s advantage!

Our Savior knows all too well what original sin has done to humankind. It has rendered us literally “…dead in our trespasses and sins“ (Ephesians 2:1). R.C. Sproul explained, “To be dead in sin is to be in a state of moral and spiritual bondage. By nature, we’re slaves to sin. This doesn’t mean the fall has destroyed or eradicated the human will. Fallen man still has all the faculties to make choices. We make choices all the time. The problem is that we make sinful choices. We make these choices freely. We sin precisely because we want to sin, and we’re capable of choosing exactly what we want to choose.”

It wasn’t until my marriage was in serious trouble 14 years ago that I became acutely aware of my spiritual poverty. I wasn’t spiritual at all. I was a selfish, lustful, carnal mess of a man. Jesus was talking about my ilk when He preached, “…People loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed“ (John 3:19-20).

In other words, I was finally in the proper state of mind to “die to myself” and surrender all to Christ. What did I gain from it? Nothing less than the kingdom of heaven. It was miraculous! Brennan Manning wrote, “The Good News means we can stop lying to ourselves. The sweet sound of amazing grace saves us from the necessity of self-deception… When I go to church, I can leave my white hat at home and admit I’ve failed. God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don’t need to apply spiritual cosmetics to make myself presentable to Him. I can accept ownership of my poverty, powerlessness and neediness.”

The blessing of being spiritually bankrupt can only be granted by Jesus. No Jesus, no blessing. He’s the only remedy for that condition. As our very forgiving high priest, “He’s able to deal compassionately with those who are ignorant and erring…” (Hebrews 5:2). Dane Ortlund wrote, “The point is that Jesus deals gently and only gently with all sinners who come to Him, irrespective of their particular offense and just how heinous it is. What elicits tenderness from Jesus isn’t the severity of the sin but whether the sinner comes to Him. Whatever our offense, He deals gently with us.”

Sinclair Ferguson opined, “The sad truth is that we know so little of the blessing of which Christ speaks (and which He gives) because we’re all too often full of ourselves and our own means of blessing. In fact, there’s no sadder commentary on our lack of this spiritual poverty than the readiness so many of us have to let others know what we think. But the man who’s poor in spirit is the man who’s been silenced by God and seeks only to speak what he’s learned in humility from Him. If you would be rich and possess a kingdom, you must first lose all – including yourself and your self-centeredness – and become poor in spirit.”

Feeling spiritually bankrupt? For heaven’s sake, come to Christ and be blessed.