Christ Disappointed the Hope of Worldly Greatness

In the Sermon on the Mount Christ sought to undo the work that had been wrought by false education and to give His hearers a right conception of His kingdom. Without combating their ideas of the kingdom of God, He told them the conditions of entrance therein, leaving them to draw their own conclusions as to its nature. Happy are they, He said, who recognize their spiritual poverty and feel their need of redemption. Not to the spiritually proud is the gospel revealed, but to those who are humble and contrite.HLv 199.1

The proud heart strives 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 the recovery of man until he yields himself to the control of God. Then he can receive the gift God is waiting to bestow. From the soul that feels his need, nothing is withheld. See Isaiah 57:15.HLv 199.2

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” The mourning of which He speaks does not consist in melancholy and lamentation. We often sorrow because our evil deeds bring unpleasant consequences, but real sorrow for sin is the result of the working of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings us in contrition to the foot of the cross. By every sin Jesus is wounded afresh; and as we look on Him whom we have pierced, we mourn for sins that have brought anguish on Him. Such mourning will lead to the renunciation of sin. This sorrow binds the penitent to the Infinite One. The tears of the penitent are the raindrops that precede the sunshine of holiness, heralding a joy which will be a living fountain in the soul. See Jeremiah 3:12, 13; Isaiah 61:3.HLv 199.3

For those also who mourn in trial and sorrow there is comfort. Through affliction God reveals to us the plague spots in our characters, that by His grace we may overcome. Unknown chapters in regard to ourselves are opened to us, and the test comes, whether we will accept the reproof and counsel of God. When in trial, 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 end is salvation.HLv 200.1

God's word for the sorrowing is, “I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them.” Jeremiah 31:13.HLv 200.2