Just how poor will I be if I'm "poor in spirit"?

"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 
Matthew 5:3

Did you know that God made two blood covenants with man?

He made the 1st blood covenant with Israel. 

He made the 2nd blood covenant with HIS Church. 

The covenant God made with ancient Israel that involved animal sacrifices with their shed blood is called the "Old Covenant." 

With this Old Covenant, the people were always DOING something to get their sins forgiven. 

What were they doing?

They were constantly selecting the correct bulls and goats and birds and lambs to bring to their high priest so that he, in turn, could slaughter the animals and sprinkle the shed blood of the animals on the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle and then sprinkle the shed blood of the animals seven times on the floor in front of the Ark of the Covenent.

In contrast, the covenant God made through the crucifixion and shed blood of Jesus is called the “New Covenant.” 

With this New Covenant, JESUS DID EVERYTHING to atone for man's sins and to satisfy the just punishment for sin. 

With the Old Covenant the people were DOING and with the New Covenant the people are RECEIVING.

The Bible tells us that the New Covenant, made the Old Covenant obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). 

But what does that mean? 

To put it simply, it means that the blood of animals could only temporarily cover the sins of humans. However, the blood of Jesus, a perfect human without any sin or deceit found in His heart, could completely atone for man's sin and remove sin's just punishment which is Hell (in Hell man's body and soul endures unquenchable fire along with eternal separation from God).

With that background and knowledge, we can now begin to learn what Christ meant when He said:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

What does the Bible mean when it uses the term "poor in spirit"?

To be "poor in spirit" means that a person recognizes his BANKRUPT CONDITION before God. 

It means He realizes that there is nothing that he can DO to satisfy God's laws for righteous living and, thus, eliminate the just punishment for his sins. It also means that he recognizes his total inability to DO anything holy or good or pure in God's eyes. 

When the Jewish people went up on that mountain to listen to Jesus explain to them "The Beatitudes" and they heard that they were "blessed" if they were "poor in spirit," they were hearing that all the animal sacrifices that they had been bringing to their high priest would never ever be enough to: 

1) atone for their sin 
or 

2) give them the desire and the power needed to live a sinless life
or

3) give them a pure heart capable of doing nothing but perfect, holy deeds. 


However, they shouldn't have been too surprised at hearing this because God had told the Israelites (and it was written down in their scriptures) that the time would come when HIS people would have HIS laws internalized and written on their hearts—a time when they would truly be able to KNOW HIM through a personal, heart-felt relationship (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

Soooooooo, for any of us, the first step to a personal relationship with God is to recognize and be extremely bothered by the fact that we are "poor in spirit," that we are in a TOTALLY BANKRUPT, EVER SINFUL condition before an Almighty, Holy God. 

When we recognize that without God we can do NOTHING good, then we will be blessed because at that point, we are ready to RECEIVE GOD'S SPIRIT into our hearts and minds so that HIS SPIRIT can begin to take control over our very, very, very, very POOR spirit.

In John, Chapter 3, Jesus tells a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, the following:

“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 

You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ " 

Folks, if we want to go to Heaven some day and spend eternity with God, we need to RECEIVE God's Spirit into our hearts and minds. 

But the first step is ---- well ----to answer the question:

Are you poor in spirit?