The really good news is that the beatitudes not only describe what you and I should be, they describe what we can be. The gospel of grace can take the proudest man and make him deeply aware of his spiritual poverty. It can transform the meanest into the most humble and the self-sufficient into one who hungers and thirst for righteousness. (6) We must note the relationship between the beatitudes and the grace of God. Are these qualities that we must strive to achieve in order to be saved? Hans Windisch