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Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ~ Matthew 5:8
Today, we continue our study of Matthew 5 which is the Lord Jesus' teaching on the process of the changing of the human heart in reference to God. As we have seen, this change of heart begins with coming to the place where we recognize ourselves as being poor in spirit which means we are bankrupt spiritually before God. This understanding naturally leads to a state of mourning over our bankrupt status before God. This, in turn, leads to our willingness to give up control to God over our lives because we know that we are helpless and hopeless on our own. As we experience the person and goodness of God for ourselves, we naturally find ourselves hungering and thirsting for Him for He truly is our sustenance. The more of God we experience the more we find ourselves becoming more like Him. One way we express likeness to God is that we will become more merciful to others.
The next step involved in this process of a changed heart is seen in the words "Blessed are the pure in heart." This is the first use of the word "heart" in the New Testament. The heart is mentioned over 800 times in the Bible, and in today's verse it is used figuratively to refer to the essence of our being that grants us our moral code. The heart is used in Scripture really most commonly to refer to our soul which is made up of our minds, wills and emotions. We are trichotomous beings with a body, a soul and a spirit. It is in our spirit that we are born again and it is in our souls that we are being changed from one degree of glory to another. We know this as sanctification. As we think in our heart, the Bible says, so are we. In Proverbs 4:23 we read, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." That’s the best Old Testament definition of the heart. The heart is that part of us from which all the issues of life arise.
Morality and spirituality are not the same. As is clearly being spelled out here by the Lord Jesus, spirituality comes before morality. There are many moral people in this world. The question is according to whose morality because God's morality is not the same as this world's nor does it prioritize in the same way. God always values the weak and the poor and the helpless. The key to it all is "purity of heart" which isn't about perfection, it is about disposition and motive.
In Ezekiel 36:25-26 we read, "25 I will sprinkle you with pure water, and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh."
This is God's promise of the new covenant that the Lord Jesus procured for us at His cross. The kingdom of God has always belonged to those hearts that are being cleaned. A sinner is naturally totally unacceptable before God, no matter how religious, altruistic, or moral he may be. If God has not granted us the righteousness of His Son, we will never see God. God requires holiness and this is why the Lord Jesus had to die on our behalf as He did.
This process of getting a more and more purified heart is the product of regeneration or new birth. It is our regeneration that gets us into heaven and it is God's purifying work in our hearts that gets heaven into us now. Once we have come into a personal relationship with God by believing that His Son's sacrifice paid the penalty for our sin, it is then that God begins His work of sanctification in our hearts. Essentially, to be pure of heart is to be undergoing the reality of God cleaning out our heart for His glory.
Once again, today's verse reads, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." For those who are experiencing the purifying presence of God in their heart, they shall see God. This is not only a reference to the fact that we will one day see God with our very own eyes, this also speaks of the everyday occurrences in our lives where we see God at work in our lives. As God is cleaning us out from the inside out, we will see His work in our lives. Through the good and the bad, we will see that He is at work. So often, I have discovered that disappointments are His appointments. When I go through a trial of some sort, if I give God enough time, He will show me that I went through that trial not only for my benefit but for the benefit of others. Trials are essential for the growth of our faith in God which is essentially our heart's ability to see God.
As a result, instead of questioning God or getting mad at Him for allowing this trial in my life, I have discovered that He will show up in and through my life through the trial that I have experienced. For example, several years ago my middle son died three separate times on a Wednesday night. The doctors told us that he had a ten percent chance to live. To make a long story short, eight days later, my son walked out of the hospital. Eight days later. Let me remind you that the number eight in the Bible is analogous of new beginnings. Through that most difficult trial, I witnessed three people make a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, I have been able to empathize with many, especially those who have lost a son or a daughter. My pain isn't the same as theirs because my son lived, but I've an idea about their pain and having gone through that intense trial I have been able to enter into their pain with them. Purity of heart is what enables us to see that the Lord is really good even through those most difficult moments of our lives. This is what it means to see God.
