***An extremely thorough (if long-winded) exposition of the Beatitudes. I still think I like Willard's interpretation better in The Divine Conspiracy. Watson (like Spurgeon and so many others) sees the Beatitudes as a list of godly attributes--aspirational qualities. Specifically, that the process of salvation and sanctification begins with being poor in spirit and progresses through the other Beatitudes. Willard, on the other hand, treats the Beatitudes as an "in spite of" list. To him, Jesus is saying that the poor in spirit--the "spiritually bankrupt"--are now blessed in the gospel, because access to and friendship with God is no longer limited to the religious elite. I've always felt that the "poor in spirit means knowing you are poor in spirit, i.e., being humble" was a strained interpretation. And Willard interpretation fits better with the anti-legalistic gospel message--the kingdom of God is now available to all people. Even the wretched "poor in spirit."
Still, Watson has some good things to say (and his conclusions are biblically sound, even if I'm not sure these particular verses support those conclusions). It's not up to Watson's usual writing, at least based on the few I've read (The Godly Man's Picture and All Things for Good). Watson is usually one of the more readable of the Puritan writers, but this book took some slogging. Also, it is an absolutely terrible edition--the whole thing is chocked full of typos (for example, "of" spelled "ov"--ugh) and egregious spacing errors (three small words spaced out over a whole line for no apparent reason--I know full justification is partly to blame, but that's just ridiculous). It's a shame the publishers didn't put a little more effort into making this edition more presentable.
Still, Watson (as always) has some very challenging things to say, and I will continue to read his work.
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