John Stott

e gospel is Christ crucified, His finished work on the cross

This verb prographein means to ‘show forth or portray publicly, proclaim or placard in public’ (

justification’ means to be in favour with God;

very criminal sentenced to death under the Mosaic legislation and executed, usually by stoning, was then fixed to a stake or ‘hanged on a tree’ as a symbol of his divine rejection

The ‘poor man’ in the Old Testament is one who is both afflicted and unable to save himself, and who therefore looks to God for salvation, while recognizing that he has no claim upon him.

to be ‘poor in spirit’ is to acknowledge our spiritual poverty, indeed our spiritual bankruptcy, before God.

‘He only who is reduced to nothing in himself, and relies on the mercy of God, is poor in spirit.’35

Thus, right at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contradicted all human judgments and all nationalistic expectations of the kingdom of God. The kingdom is given to the poor

s C. H. Spurgeon expressed it, ‘The way to rise in the kingdom is to sink in ourselves.’3

humble and gentle attitude to others which is determined by a true estimate of ourselves.