Christ Disappointed the Hope of Worldly Greatness

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ tried to undo the work that false education had done and to give His hearers a right understanding of His kingdom. Without combating their ideas of God’s kingdom, He told them the conditions for entering it, leaving them to draw their own conclusions about its nature. “Happy are they,” He said, “who recognize their spiritual poverty and feel their need of redemption.” The gospel is revealed, not to the spiritually proud, but to those who are humble and repentant.HH 134.6

The proud heart tries to earn salvation, but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Christ. The Lord can do nothing toward our recovery until we yield ourselves to God’s control. Then we can receive the gift God is waiting to bestow. From the person who feels his need, nothing is withheld. See Isaiah 57:15.HH 135.1

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” The mourning that Christ speaks of does not consist in sadness and wailing. We often sorrow because our evil deeds bring unpleasant consequences, but real sorrow for sin is the result of the Holy Spirit’s working. The Spirit brings us in repentance to the foot of the cross. Jesus is wounded again by every sin, and as we look on Him whom we have pierced, we mourn for sins that have brought anguish on Him. Such mourning will lead us to renounce sin. This sorrow binds the repentant sinner to the Infinite One. The tears of repentance are the raindrops that precede the sunshine of holiness, announcing a joy that will be a living fountain in the soul. See Jeremiah 3:12, 13; Isaiah 61:3.HH 135.2

There is comfort also for those who mourn in trial and sorrow. Through affliction God reveals to us the deadly spots in our characters, so that by His grace we may overcome. He opens to us unknown chapters about ourselves, and the test comes, revealing whether we will accept the reproof and counsel of God. When in such trials, we should not rebel or worry ourselves out of the hand of Christ. The ways of the Lord appear dark and joyless to our human nature. But God’s ways are ways of mercy, and the result is salvation.HH 135.3

God’s word for the sorrowing is, “I will turn their mourning to joy, [and] will comfort them.” Jeremiah 31:13.HH 135.4