“All of this points us back to something we discovered at the very beginning of our studies, and which has become increasingly obvious as we have gone along, namely, that the Beatitudes are not directions on how to become a Christian but a multi-faceted description of what a Christian is and how a Christian behaves when the Holy Spirit governs his thoughts, words and actions. The unbeliever who says ‘My religion is the Sermon on the Mount’ is talking nonsense, because he is condemned by the very words to which he looks for salvation. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones rightly says, ‘There is nothing more fatal than for the natural man to think that he can take the Beatitudes and put them into practice.’ The Beatitudes are not a programme but a portrait, not a directive but a description.”
John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for Today (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1996), 216-17.