The Pure in Heart

[Jesus said] “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Matthew 5:8

There is an important truth that Jesus brings to mind in this Bible verse. We can’t fool God. There is no covering for false notions or hidden deception. God looks right through the outward evidence and inspects the inner motivation. He is looking for the pure in heart.

What is the measure for the kind of purity that Jesus talks about? The Bible doesn’t tell us to compare ourselves to others. It holds us up to God’s perfect and holy Law and measures us against it. If all we had to do were to come out looking better than someone else, then there are plenty of “evil people” in the world to make our sins look smaller than they are. But in the light of God’s holy will, our hearts have never been pure. From the moment of our conception, we have been stained with sin. Only God can produce inner purity within us. It is for that reason that we pray with David: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

In Jesus, God answers our prayer. Jesus had a perfectly pure heart. And he gives that pure heart to us as a gift. Through faith in Jesus, God sees us as if we had a pure heart. It’s why all of the followers of Jesus are, as he said, blessed.

And now, his Holy Spirit works in our hearts to make them as pure as God sees them. The night before his death, Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). This sanctification is God’s work in our hearts to make us more and more like him.

Jesus promises that the pure in heart will see God. The more we listen to his voice in his Word, the better we “see” him. And, one day, when we enter the heaven he won for us, we will literally see him face to face. What a day it will be!

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, purify my heart and fill me with the confident hope that when I die I will be glad to see God. Amen.

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