Introduction

Continuing in our series on the beatitudes, we arrive at the third beatitude, which reads this way: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). At the onset it is important to be reminded of what exactly a beatitude is. Many seemingly well-intentioned Reformed theologians wrangle this passage by losing sight of the form it takes. For many the form of a beatitude is simply an encouragement to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, etc., etc. Others view the beatitudes as a list of spiritual virtues and dispositions, which when a man strives to do them, then God blesses him. However, that is not what a beatitude is. The word beatitude is like the word Trinity in the sense that it is found nowhere in our English Bibles, but beatitude is a derivative of the Latin word beatitudo, which literally means supreme happiness or blessedness. While beatitude does not appear in our English Bibles, the word does appear quite frequently in the Latin Vulgate. For example, in Romans 4:6 the psalmist is said to pronounce the “beatitude” of the man unto whom the Lord does not impute sin.

Originally in the word beatitude, there was meant much more than an abstract term denoting man’s blessedness. Additionally, the term was meant to refer to a declaration of blessedness. Being used interchangeably with the word blessed or happy, the word beatitude strikes upon what is the very essence of the blessing of God. What does it mean that God blesses someone? For God to bless someone means for God to eternally love someone, to appoint that one to salvation, and to give unto that one every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. The blessing of God is first salvation and all its benefits. That blessing reaches down unto men from the God of heaven, who is supremely blessed in his own triune being. When God blesses someone, God does so by calling that one. Literally, to bless means to speak a good word upon someone. When God blesses his people, that blessing is the expression of his eternal delight in them. Eternally, God spoke blessing toward his people in Jesus Christ according as God delighted in them. Throughout the entire Old Testament, God spoke blessing unto his elect Israel. And in the beatitudes we see the Lord Jesus blessing his disciples and in them blessing the entire New Testament church.

These blessings of Jesus Christ are not mere statements of fact, so that they are dull of any salvific meaning for the church. Neither are these beatitudes meant to inspire zeal in the church and to encourage the church to pattern herself after them. Rather, these beatitudes are pronouncements of blessing upon the citizens of the kingdom. While the beatitudes are certainly statements of fact, they are such as authoritative declarations. They are promises from the Lord that such will be the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Thus we read in Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek.” Notice, the text does not say, “The meek shall be blessed.” This is important to note because preachers may—and many do—look at a passage like this and then speak many great, glowing things about meekness, possibly to the extent of making an entire point of how meekness expresses itself, and then these preachers will make the blessing of God that which accompanies meekness. However, this is not how the text reads. The promise of the text is not a promise to bless merely those who exhibit meekness now, but the text is a declaration of blessing concerning those who are meek.

What explains this? They are blessed. The meek God has chosen. The meek are not blessed, who are first blessed in this life in their own consciences and experiences. On their behalf God sent Jesus Christ into the world to die on the cross for their sins, opening a wide entrance for them into the everlasting kingdom of heaven through his perfect work and righteousness. Unto them God sends the gospel and calls them unto himself, working faith in their hearts by the Holy Ghost and causing them to stand before his presence where he justifies them in their own consciences and experiences. Being children and heirs of the promise of God in Jesus Christ, Christ exercises his gracious rule in his church and works meekness in the hearts of his people by his word and Spirit. The meek have been, are now, and shall be forever blessed. This passage is the good news of the gospel and is blessed comfort for the church.

The Identity of the Meek

The Lord Jesus does not leave his church without a definition of meekness; he has given us the definition of meekness through his servant David in Psalm 37. In the psalm we read of the blessedness of the meek, that they shall inherit the earth. And how shall the meek be known? “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity…Trust in the Lord…Delight thyself also in the Lord…Commit thy way unto the Lord…Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him” (1–7). The meek rest in Jehovah and wait patiently for him. The meek consider the Lord Jehovah, and upon considering Jehovah they also rest in him.

The meek rest in Jehovah. That is the most basic thing that you can say about the meek. They rest in Jehovah because they have been made to consider him. That is what the proud will never do. The proud will never consider Jehovah. The proud have no need of Jehovah. God is not in all their thoughts. The proud are haughty; they are as the Pharisees, who were filled with such a degree of self-importance that they sought after the best seats in the synagogues and broadened the hems of their garments as they passed through the city streets.

Not so for the meek. We must say about the meek that they are also those who are poor in spirit. Unto them God has reached down and, by a wonderwork of grace, has caused them to stand before his presence and to know the greatness of their debt with God and how nothing they are in themselves. The meek see Jehovah, who has all holiness and righteousness, and the meek declare about themselves that they have no holiness or righteousness of themselves. Considering Jehovah, the meek also mourn over their sins. Sin battles hard against the meek, so that day after day they come unto God with heaviness of heart and disquietness of spirit. Sin is egregious to them and a cause for continual sorrow. Considering Jehovah, the meek disparage themselves and are left utterly hopeless in themselves to pay off the massive debt of their sins to such a God.

Never considering Jehovah, the proud are those who suppose that they have some holiness or righteousness in themselves. The proud are not nothing in their own eyes, but they suppose that they have something to contribute to their salvation and to their blessedness. Sin is not very serious, and they have something to offer God. They do not mourn over their sins, but they glory in their unrighteousness. They freely sin without any consideration of the God before whom they must give an account.

However, the meek consider Jehovah. Considering Jehovah, the meek rest in him. The meek consider Jehovah as the God of all holiness and righteousness, and they consider themselves also in relationship to Jehovah, and they come to this conclusion: “Whereas I am a sinner and have no righteousness or holiness, my only source of comfort is in God.” The meek find rest in Jehovah God. Comforting themselves in Jehovah God, the meek also wait patiently for him. The meek have no reason to doubt or fear whatever may befall them because their salvation is entirely wrapped up in Jehovah God. The meek wait upon Jehovah in submission to his will, which alone is good. This patient waiting on Jehovah is the patient waiting of faith. Faith alone expresses itself in patient endurance. Patience is the fruit of knowing Jehovah in his favorable disposition toward a man or woman and resting in that God.

Here we see how utterly antithetical the meek are to the Arminian. The thing about the Arminian is not that he never uses the name Jesus. However, the Arminian will go on and say, “Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone without any works, but I must still believe!” The Arminian has faith in his faith. The root of that wicked false doctrine is pride. That pride is such that it does not consider God to humble oneself before him. Such is the charge against every form of conditional theology that rears its head in the church, for conditional theology in all its forms has its source in pride. The pride of man attempts to remove God from his throne and to enthrone man and his willing and working in the place of God. Such has been the pride of man since the fall of Adam and Eve in paradise, and such shall be the pride of man even unto the end, when antichrist will arise and will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God will sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

There is no greater example of meekness than the Lord Jesus himself. Consider the Lord, who, when the shadow of the cross loomed over him and pressed out of him the bloody sweat in the garden, said, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). There is meekness on vivid display. The Lord Jesus possessed such a will that could never not be in harmony with the will of his Father in heaven. In submission to the will of the Father, Jesus suffered himself to be taken captive, unjustly tried, and innocently condemned to death by men. The Lord Jesus willingly submitted himself to the bitter and shameful death on the cross, upon which he bore the penalty for sins that were not his own.

There is meekness. Considering Jehovah, the Lord Jesus waited patiently upon Jehovah until Jesus should receive the reward of righteousness, which reward he had merited and thus established righteousness for all of God’s elect people. Jesus Christ firmly believed the promises of God toward him, that God should establish the throne of David forever, that God would set Jesus as king upon the holy hill of Zion, and that the rights and powers to execute judgment upon the nations should be committed into Jesus’ hands. All these things would come by means of the humiliation of Jesus Christ, in which he willingly suffered, considering his own will subservient to the will of his Father in heaven. Christ suffered himself to be defrauded to the end that he might accomplish salvation.

For all that meekness is, it is to be lowly. Did not Christ himself say that he was meek and “lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29)? So laden with the burden of our sins, Christ was brought low with grief, so that he was unable to rise. Zion’s king did not stride into Jerusalem with all the pomp and circumstance that one might expect to see from an earthly king, but Jesus Christ came meek and lowly, riding upon the colt of an ass. At the cross we behold Christ in all his lowliness, suffering himself to be humiliated, stripped of all human dignity and of his very name and place in this world, in order to be hung bare upon the tree of the cross. And it was at the cross that Jesus Christ became the greatest of all sinners because it was there upon the cross that he bore the guilt and the shame of all the sins of God’s elect people. There Christ was forsaken in order that we might never be forsaken of God.

Possessing the spirit of meekness, Jesus Christ pours out his life-giving Spirit upon his church, so that he makes them meek. The citizens of the kingdom are meek, and that meekness is a characteristic of their lives as those lives are blessed by God through Jesus Christ. If there is one thing that you could say about the meek, it is that they are lowly. For they have been given the mind of Christ. The meek are not those who lack self-awareness. Rather, the meek have been caused to consider Jehovah. They also are poor in spirit and mourn over their sins. Accordingly, the meek have a very keen sense of who they are by nature and by very deed. They confess openly to God that they are nothing and, indeed, are the chief of sinners. The meek man considers himself in relationship to his neighbor and says, “Although he is a sinner, I am an even bigger one.” For the meek there are no greater sinners than themselves. For this cause the meek do not glory in their sins, but they glory in the grace and mercy of Jehovah God, apart from which they are wholly miserable and without any hope.

Finally, in considering the meek, we also must note about them that they would suffer the loss of all things for the sake of the honor and name of God, for the meek consider Jehovah! Great pride and selfishness are revealed in man when he allows the name of God to be dishonored. It is a manifestation of great pride to suffer the truth of God to be blasphemed. Not so for the meek. The meek would that the whole world revolt against them in protest rather than the truth of God be corrupted. We must never forget meek Moses, who, when he was coming down from the holy mount and was faced with the sinful idolatry of the people of Israel, threw down the tables of stone, so that they were dashed into pieces, and then proceeded to call upon the men of Israel to put their swords at their sides and to slay every man his brother (Ex. 32:27).

Where are the meek in the church world today? It is often written off as love to overlook sin in the church and to keep one’s opinions on doctrine to oneself. Post-modernism, which claims that every individual can have his own truth and that no one person’s truth has any more of a right to be true than another person’s truth, is not meekness. The spirit of meekness is not the same spirit that is embarrassed by the truth and fears that the confession of the truth would come across as arrogant. Surely, those who speak thus possess a spirit, but it is not the Spirit of Christ. Instead, they are under the controlling power of the devil. So soon as the church refuses to engage in doctrinal controversy over the truth, then one can be certain that the devil has entered.

Indeed, it is on account of the confession of the truth over against all lies that the meek are persecuted, being called all sorts of evil things and charged with the most heinous of crimes, for God’s sake. For man is proud over against the meek, and as a ravenous wolf, he devours those who appear to be sheep. That is not first indicative of a lack of meekness in relationship to other men, but it is indicative of a lack of meekness in relationship to God, for man by nature is proud and will not be made nothing before God. Man will never humble himself before the living God. Man by nature will never submit to the will of God. This also is true of the regenerated child of God by nature. How often do we not esteem ourselves and our own wills above the will of God? How often do we not trust ourselves? Failing to consider Jehovah, we do not rest in him as we ought. Therefore, it is so soon as we hear this blessing of God upon the meek that we must pray unto God to forgive all our sinful pride.

The Cause of Their Meekness

The meek are blessed who have been given to walk in that spiritual virtue. The meek are blessed who find meekness completely foreign to themselves by nature, for that blessing comes to them according as they are made the citizens of the kingdom. Those whom God has called out of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son, them God also blesses with meekness. God, who reaches down from heaven in his gracious rule, making the meek poor in spirit and causing them to mourn over their sins, also dashes into pieces their pride by the operation of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts. Whereas before their own wills sat enthroned in their hearts, now the Lord Jesus Christ takes his rightful place. By the operation of the word and Spirit, the Lord Jesus causes them to stand before the presence of God and to confess their own nothingness and unworthiness.

There is a special place given to the preaching of the gospel in the beatitudes, concerning which gospel the sacraments are signs and seals. God uses means to strengthen within his people that spiritual virtue whereby a man or woman is made meek. It is only by means of the gospel of Jesus Christ that the meek find the forgiveness of their sins and everlasting righteousness on account of which they can never be condemned. For this reason the meek are utterly dissatisfied with anything other than Jesus Christ and him crucified. Ultimately, the meek cannot sit contentedly underneath any form of preaching that conditions salvation or their experience of salvation upon themselves and their works.

The meek rise in holy horror when men declare unto them that they must keep the law for their blessedness. The meek are repulsed when men declare unto them that Jesus Christ invites them to sing with him and only when they do that can they be assured that their songs of praise are heard by the Father. All these things are anathema to the meek. Instead, the meek glory alone in the cross of Jesus Christ.  The meek cleave tenaciously to that cross by faith because God himself has arrested them in their sins and has caused them to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Then and only then can one be assured that the kingdom of heaven has come.

The kingdom of heaven comes and possesses the meek. The kingdom does not come through the dramatic depictions of the life and sufferings of Christ in the theaters. The kingdom does not come through the gradual Christianization of this present evil world. The kingdom does not come by any of these means, for the kingdom of God is a heavenly kingdom. How, then, can someone tell that the kingdom of heaven has come? The kingdom of heaven has come when a man, who by nature is proud and does not consider God, is broken in his heart, confesses his own nothingness before God, and seeks for righteousness outside of himself in Jesus Christ.

Their Blessedness

The blessedness of the meek is a crown of grace unto the meek. That meekness is itself a gift of grace from the king of the kingdom of heaven. In grace the king of the kingdom crowns that gift. Being already blessed, unto whom the kingdom of heaven has come, the meek are also promised the earth. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” This is the message that stands antithetically over against the whole world, which rages against the meek and makes inheriting the earth the result of the strength of man, whether that be of a man’s physical abilities or his intellectual abilities. Over against that view stands the word of the beatitude.

The most important aspect of this blessedness of the meek is not so much what they receive but how they receive it. Lacking any real consideration of God, the proud say, “By my own strength and by my own arm of flesh, I shall inherit the earth.” But the meek know differently. Considering Jehovah, they rest in him and confess, “God shall give me the earth.” In what other way would it be possible for the meek to suffer the loss of all things, except that they know the promise of God that he shall give them the earth? The meek can and do suffer the loss of all things because they know that what God has promised he is also able to perform.

May we, then, do what so many have already done and relegate that word “shall” strictly to the future, so that there is no blessing for the meek now in this life? Let the reader always be on guard against those who relegate their blessedness strictly to the future. Oftentimes, those who speak thus do so to make any conscious experience of blessedness on this side of the grave in some way dependent upon man’s works, however those works may be defined.

The blessedness of the meek may not be taken to refer strictly to the future. Surely the meek shall inherit the earth in the absolute future. When heaven and earth shall pass away, then shall they inherit the earth, as that earth is entirely taken up in the heavenly and all things are made new in Jesus Christ. However, that is not merely what Matthew 5:5 refers to. The key to understanding the blessedness of the meek is found for us in Psalm 37:11: “The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” The proud man never truly experiences peace, no matter how great his reputation or his riches. But the meek shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

God gives to the meek an earnest of that inheritance that is theirs by his Spirit. By the operation of the Spirit, the meek are cleansed from the guilt of their sins and are incorporated by faith into Jesus Christ, so that they are righteous in him by faith only. By the Spirit the meek have peace with God by faith in Jesus Christ. By the Spirit the meek live in the earth and enjoy the fruits of the earth, as God is pleased to give them, with a clean and a quiet conscience, such that they can never be condemned. The meek may patiently endure the loss of all things because they have been given an earnest of their inheritance by the Spirit, who is given unto them. The meek are content with whatsoever the Lord is pleased to give them because this world is not their home, for the citizenship of the meek is in heaven.