5:3–7 These first five blessings affirm an important principle for understanding the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon is not an instruction manual for winning God’s favor. Rather, it describes how God wants those to live who have already been transformed by his grace because they have understood their weakness and need for his mercy. The “poor in spirit” (v. 3) are those who know that they, as sinners, do not have the spiritual resources necessary to carry out God’s demands. “Those who mourn” and