Every Christian has a tendency to revert to a pattern of moral religion that isn’t at all consonant with the gospel. Paul confronted the Galatians about this problem, and Jesus called out the Pharisees for the same reason. If we think we’re meriting God’s favor by any good work on our part, we’re wrong. The gospel calls us into the kingdom of God on the basis of something far more glorious than our imperfect obedience.
R. W. Glenn’s Crucifying Morality: The Gospel of the Beatitudes is a study of the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1–12—the introduction to Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. Glenn argues that quite a lot of teaching on the Beatitudes, especially in Sunday school, has steered many believers in the wrong direction about what Christ is really saying.
Glenn, pastor of preaching and vision at Redeemer Bible Church in Minnetonka, Minnesota, devotes one chapter to each of the Beatitudes, expositing the meaning and application of the Beatitude in view and revealing how it functions as a mark of how true Christians live. Each chapter opens with a quote on the given topic (e.g., meekness) from the world’s perspective—and one from Matthew 5 that flips the worldly idea upside down. Moreover, the chapters conclude with study questions broken into four categories: “For Your Head,” “For Your Heart,” For Your Church,” and “For Your City.” Each category features different types of questions meant to develop personal theology and devotion to Christ with application to the local church family and cultural context. Glenn’s study questions are all written with an edifying, pastoral tone and a love for the church. They are definitely a highlight of the book; don’t skip them.
Marks, Not Means
Glenn contends throughout Crucifying Morality that the Beatitudes are not a series of commands about how one pleases God and gets into his kingdom; instead, they’re the evidence of one who is already in it. “It is no accident that the Beatitudes contain no imperatives whatsoever,” Glenn explains. Rather, they’re “the qualities that begin to characterize sinners who encounter God’s grace in the gospel” (16). So if Christ isn’t commanding rigorous obedience as the requirement for entering his kingdom, what is the purpose of the Beatitudes? In short, they are intended to “jar you from your complacency and lead you to question whether you have entered the kingdom” at all (16).
Crucifying Morality: The Gospel of the Beatitudes
R. W. Glenn
The Beatitudes, in other words, are the marks of a Christian. In fact, one could even say that Jesus is the Beatitudes. Glenn writes:
Do not seek the Beatitudes. Do not turn them into moralistic teaching. Seek Jesus Christ who alone embodies the Beatitudes, and the Beatitudes will then be true of you as well. Why? Because Jesus fulfills them. . . . Seek him through the gospel and you will be a new person, enjoying all the benefits of a relationship with God, living in the kingdom. Christianity is about coming over and over again to rest in the life that Jesus lived and the death that he died for you as a gift of sheer grace. (18-19)
This is glorious, life-changing news. We’re born again by no power of our own. And when through the new birth we enter God’s kingdom, we cannot be snatched out of his hand. Christ’s Beatitudes are the marks of the one who is his.
Rich with the Gospel
Glenn upholds the truths in the Beatitudes and analyzes them in light of what it really means to be a part of God’s kingdom. This book is a refreshing drink from the fountain of God’s grace. The church, corporately, needs this kind of edification and I, individually, need it in order to keep grasping for grace, not trying to pull myself up by my own bootstraps.
Glenn rightly condemns behavioral and rule-obsessed preaching as dangerous and tragic, especially when it uses Scripture as its justification. Such preaching misses the point completely, since the point is Jesus. Jesus fulfills the law on our behalf as our substitute and advocate before God. He is the perfect fulfillment of the Beatitudes, and we produce those qualities because his Spirit lives in us as Christians. Glenn writes:
The Beatitudes] convey the essence of the gospel, but when reduced to flat moralistic teaching, they lose all their richness. In fact, that kind of teaching is just wrong. . . . So, take a few steps back and marvel. The Beatitudes reveal the profile of the Christian, the character of the one who has had a life-changing encounter with the grace of God. . . . If your life bears any resemblance to the Beatitudes, it is because you are blessed in Jesus—you died with him so that you might live in him. The Beatitudes flesh out outrageous grace, which is yours as a gift through the gospel. (115–123)
This is wonderful news. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Get a copy of Crucifying Morality; I have nothing but good things to say and hearty recommendations to give. As you read, I trust it will move you to freshly marvel at God’s grace toward you in Christ.
