Bill Tell, Author at Lay it Down by Bill Tell

“I Hate the Beatitudes”

Posted on May 13, 2016 Written by Bill Tell 4 Comments

I was teaching a class of 20-somethings and announced we would be looking at the beatitudes (Mt 5:3-11). A godly young woman raised her hand and said “I hate the beatitudes.” And then another voiced the same opinion. This continued until it seemed like the entire class echoed the same attitude. They totally disliked what Jesus was saying.

Why? They had all been taught Jesus was saying they had to be better than they were in order to be blessed. They needed to be more “poor in spirit” before they would be blessed. For sure they needed to “mourn” more for their sin. Do everything a little better and then you can be blessed. No grace without better performance. The New Testament’s Ten Commandments.

I didn’t like the beatitudes either…that is until about ten years ago. That’s when I learned to read them through the lens of grace and they become good news. Great news.

The key to unlocking the beatitudes as good news is to understand the context. Jesus was teaching and healing “all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics and paralytics” (Mt 4:24). This attracted huge crowds and uses it as a teachable moment.

Jesus first says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…“. Who had Jesus just blessed with His teaching about the Kingdom and with His healing? The most hopeless, the marginalized and helpless, those who were written off. Those who were already the poorest in spirit had just been blessed. They didn’t have to become more humble and humiliated first. Grace says I am going to love you and bless you just as you are.

Next Jesus declares, “Blessed are those who mourn…”. I was always taught I needed to mourn more for my sin, and then Jesus would bless me, but this doesn’t fit the context. Those he had just preached the gospel to and healed were already mourning – mourning the loss of their health, their careers, their family, their dignity.

Jesus wasn’t exhorting them to mourn more, rather He was saying I am meeting you just as you are. You don’t have do anything to make yourself more acceptable before I will bless you. He had just demonstrated this amazing truth about grace. “God loves you just as you are, not as you should be” (Brennan Manning).

Personally, when I began to read the Beatitudes this way and in context, it gave credibility to Jesus’s words in Mt 11:30, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Walking with Jesus is good news. It is a joy.

Next week I will continue to work our way through these beautiful grace filled verses.

QUESTION: How have you been reading these verses? Have they been good news or exhortations to work harder so you can qualify for God’s blessing?

PS: Let me encourage you to listen to this past Tuesday’s podcast with Dr. Bryan Chapell. Bryan compares the pain of “stop it” with the healing and hope of grace.

Interview with Dr. Bryan Chapell

Posted on May 11, 2016 Written by Bill Tell 8 Comments

This week we have a very special podcast with guest Dr. Bryan Chapell. Bryan is President Emeritus of Covenant Seminary, author of a number of best selling books, and also a friend. In this podcast he tells the story of pastoring his first church and how he stood in the pulpit every Sunday and hurt people. Bryan felt like a complete failure and was ready to leave the ministry. The message of moral behavior without the enablement of grace was hurting both his congregation and himself. Then Bryan made a key discovery…listen!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

How John 14:21 Led me into Burnout

Posted on May 5, 2016 Written by Bill Tell 4 Comments

Let me be honest with you. For most of my Christian life I hated John 14:21. And “hate” is not too strong a word. It exhausted me. Demeaned me. Made me feel condemned. A daily failure. Trying to live it out eventually provided me with a year’s sick leave. I was in burnout. Depressed. I have shared that story on our podcasts.

John 14:21 was toxic to me because, like many who read it, I disconnected it from the gospel. I read it like this: “You need to obey to show God you love Him so that he will be pleased with you and love you back.” This not only creates a lot of hard work, it is really BAD news.

But when I learned to read it in the context of the gospel, I realized it could not mean the above. It is wrong because:

It makes His love for us dependent on our love for Him.
It makes us the initiator.
It makes God the responder.
It makes our obedience the proof of our love.

The gospel tells me the good news that my obedience is a result of God’s love for me, not a cause of it. And so I rewrote John 14:21 in light of the gospel and have taped it in my bible – along with how God is a gambler (see last week’s post). Here is what I wrote:

“You keep my commands and love me because I have given you a new nature and I have loved you first. Don’t ever think you obey and love me so that the Father and I will love you back. We made you into someone who has the ability and desire to obey, not so you can earn our love, but so you can experience the love we already have for you.”

Now it is no longer a “prove it” verse, it is an identity verse that describes me…and it is GOOD NEWS! God’s love is His character and my behavior cannot change His character!

How have you been reading this verse?

REMEMBER: Become a weekly part of our growing Laying it Down community by signing up with your email or using the RSS feed. You can also follow along on Twitter. My address is @billtell. I restrict my posts to what I consider the best of the best on the gospel and leadership.

Comments Policy