The Beatitudes from Dallas Willard

I’m working on a sermon for this Sunday.  Jumping into the Sermon on the Mount. 

So, I’m rereading Dallas Willard’s “Divine Conspiracy”, a great book on the whole sermon.  Here is his approach to the beatitudes:

The Beatitudes simply cannot be “good news” if they are understood as a set of “how-tos” for achieving blessedness.  They would then amount to a new legalism.  They would not serve to throw open the kingdom — anything but.  They would impose a new brand of Phariseeism, a new way of closing the door.  (p. 106).