Is Donald Trump a success or Oprah or Payton Manning? How do we tell? Jesus provides the answer in question form in Matthew 16:26: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Ultimately success is landing in heaven and failure is, as Jesus described the plight of the rich man, opening our eyes in hell.
We get into this answer at funerals, but most of the time we are too preoccupied with the things of this life to be think about it. It seems that there were eras, e.g. the Middle Ages, when awareness of heaven and hell was a major, ongoing concern for people. Today, with Lord of the Rings, Monday Night Football, getting the kids to gymnastics, and two working spouses, who has time to think about heaven or hell.
And besides, in our existential psyche, everyone’s sure that they will make it just fine. I feel really good about me. I can’t understand why God shouldn’t. Our issue is whether or not we should be angry with God. We have no doubt that He thinks we are special.
And for evangelicals, we’ve all prayed the prayer, even if it was thirty years and two affairs ago. So we know that we’re good to go. We might fight in church like cats and dogs, but that does not diminish our confidence that we are heaven bound. In the words of the old poem: “Living with the saints above, O that will be glory. But living with the saints below, that’s another story.”
Matthew 5:3 sheds a little biblical realism on the topic, telling us who will occupy heaven. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for of them is the kingdom of heaven.” The standard translation, “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” is misleading. The literal translation, “of them is the kingdom of heaven,” is not telling the poor in spirit that they will own heaven—it will be theirs, but that it will be made up of them—they will be its constituency.
Therefore, Matthew 5:3 is telling us that heaven will be peopled by the poor in spirit, those who view themselves as owning nothing, but assess and use all that they have as belonging to God, those who allow this personal poverty to shape their attitudes and actions toward others. In other words, poverty in spirit is a requisite for entrance to heaven.
Am I saying that the gospel includes more than praying the prayer, of asking Jesus into our hearts? Actually, it was Jesus who said, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33)
Some have tried to dodge the implication of this and similar verses by distinguishing between believers and disciples. The entrance requirements for heaven are lower, but to earn the merit badge for discipleship requires more. Serious exegesis disproves this interpretation.
This was the message of Jesus to the rich, young ruler who asked how he might have eternal life. “Go and sell all that you have and give to the poor.” Jesus commanded him to do this because He knew that he was not poor in spirit, that he was still seeing his possessions as belonging to him. The man’s response manifested this idol in his heart.
The fact is that saving faith includes seeing Jesus as God, as El Elyon (Gen. 14:19), the creator and owner, and ourselves as His servants. Genuine saving faith makes us poor in spirit, causes us to divest ourselves of who we are and what we have so like the camel, we are able to fit through the eye of the needle.
In Revelation 3:17 we find the church of Laodicea boasting, “I am rich and have need of nothing.” Poverty of spirit not only will get us into heaven but also would produce an evangelical reformation.