Several years ago, I had the opportunity to spend time in Rome. It’s hard to explain how full of history and beauty that city is. In a tour of the Vatican, we walked through the Gallery of the Tapestries — an 800-foot-long room with wall-to-wall tapestries depicting scenes from the life of Jesus. The guide talked a bit about where each tapestry came from and how they were made.
I was shocked to see that behind the beautiful images, the backs were a knotted mess — beauty brought forth from chaos.
8 Expressions of Blessedness
That’s what Jesus is up to. In Isaiah 61, the prophet says that Jesus would comfort those who mourn, turn things that have burned to ash into beauty, and transform despair into dancing.
In Matthew 5:3–10, we see what Jesus is committed to accomplishing. These eight verses are called the Beatitudes. (You can read about them from different angles here and here.) They are eight things Jesus wants to grow in each of our lives.
Blessed are …
… the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
… those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
… the humble, for they will inherit the earth.
… those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
… the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
… the pure in heart, for they will see God.
… the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
… those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
In Matthew 4:23–25 we see Jesus preaching the Kingdom of God. Heaven has invaded earth; the future has come into the present. All that Isaiah 61 said would happen is happening. Diseases are being healed, demons driven out, hope restored, and lives put back together.
The Kingdom is the foundation on which the Beatitudes are built. Each of these eight traits are preceded by the word “blessed” — from the Greek word makarios, which means “happy.” Happy are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the humble, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
The Pathway to Biblical Joy
I think our modern translation of happy is inadequate to hold the weight of this word in ancient Greece. We think of happiness as a subjective feeling tied to circumstances. It’s why “happy are those who mourn” doesn’t make sense. I like to differentiate between happiness and biblical joy. The Bible speaks of joy transcending life’s circumstances.
In Acts 5:41, we read of the disciples rejoicing after being beaten by the Jewish high court. That’s joy, not happiness. In Job 1, we see Job lose everything, tear his clothes, and worship God. That’s joy, not happiness. This is more like what’s in view in the Beatitudes — a joy born of knowing and trusting God rather than a subjective feeling.
I know this firsthand, as over the past thirty-three years following Jesus, I have experienced that deep joy promised by God through a difficult seven-year season in my marriage, “terminal” brain cancer, betrayal, and significant slander. I spend a lot of time with Christians who feel like they are losing heart or feeling thin in the journey. Part of that is the misunderstanding of progressive sanctification as being up and to the right.
If you are judging how you’re doing by victories and losses, then joy is nearly impossible. Every stumble, hardship, or failure will make you move out from the beauty of the gospel and the reality that there is nothing in your past, no present struggle, or no future concern that Jesus wants distance from. He wants all of you: mind, body, and soul.
The Way of the Coil
What if I told you that becoming like Jesus is more like a coil laid horizontally, where every high and every low moves you forward and is used by God to transform you into the blessed people we read about in the Beatitudes? That might change how you view the different seasons of life, wouldn’t it? If God was using the current sorrow or present difficulty you’re enduring to grow you into a blessed life, and Jesus was intimately with you in it, that might help you inherit the promises found in the text.
You might loop through poverty of spirit, through mourning, through meekness — again and again — but each time at a deeper level, refined by experience, softened by grace. You do not graduate from poverty of spirit; you discover it more profoundly as you grow.
The Beatitudes are not merely sequential; they are symphonic. They rise and fall, harmonize and dissonate, but always in the direction of Christlikeness. We are not earning these traits; we are being shaped into them by the Spirit who forms Christ in us. The Beatitudes are not for the ambitious but for the yielded. And if we yield, they begin to move in us, around us, and through us. Slowly. Invisibly. Powerfully.
Here’s another fact about those second lines in the Beatitudes: Almost all English translations will read, “for theirs is” or “for they shall.” A better translation would be “for theirs and theirs alone is the Kingdom” or “they and they alone will be comforted.” Jesus makes this promise to those who follow Him all the way home.
Finally, there is a deep coherence to the Beatitudes. A Spirit-wrought logic that carries the disciple forward, not by human strategy but divine design. The first experience of becoming like Jesus is usually sequential through the Beatitudes. After that, depending on what we brought into the journey, our compulsions and weaknesses, the experience will vary from person to person.
No matter how the journey unfolds, this truth remains: He who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it.
Discover the profound freedom of a grace that meets you right in the middle of your mess in Becoming Like Jesus: The Everyday Journey to Living a Life of Holiness! Join an honest, lifelong journey through the highs and lows of following Christ, and experience the transformative power of letting go of the heavy weight of perfection.
When walking out our faith, we often fall into the exhausting trap of trying to earn God’s approval, and therefore miss the wild, beautiful reality of how He is already molding us. Pastor and author Matt Chandler, in his deeply earnest and encouraging way, helps readers see the Beatitudes in high definition, enabling them to better understand the stunning picture of progressive sanctification, God’s intention for every season of our lives, and how He actively uses our triumphs and tears to shape us into the image of Christ.
Matt Chandler is a husband, father, pastor, elder, and author whose greatest desire is to make much of Jesus. He has served over 20 years as the Lead Pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX which recently transitioned its 5 campuses into their own autonomous churches. He is also the ExecutiveChairmanof the Acts 29 Network, a large church planting community that trains and equips church planters across the globe. Matt is known around the world for proclaiming the gospel in a powerful and down-to-earth way and enjoys traveling to share the message of Jesus whenever he can. He lives in Texas with his beautiful wife Lauren and their three children, Audrey, Reid, and Norah.
