Climbing from mercy to purity
The climbing of the stairs of the
beatitudes is not only stepping up for the requirements of the “blesseds” but
also for the rewards. What that means is not only is it a greater challenge to
seek to be pure in heart (5:8) than it is to be merciful (5:7), but the rewards
also increase. We are comforted, but even better we shall inherit the earth.
Better yet, we shall be filled with the righteousness of Christ by faith.
Greater still, we shall receive mercy because even the righteous still need
mercy. But what could be greater than that? Seeing God!
In the Old Testament, seeing God was a
thing to be feared, because “no man can
see God and live” (Exod. 33:20). Yet several did see God, including Moses,
Isaiah, and Job said he knew that he would see God (Job 19:26, which also
supports the resurrection). Seeing God was feared, yet an honor without
parallel.
Who has a pure heart?
“Well you know my heart,” some will say. Oh
no I don’t! Jer. 17:9 says, “The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Only
God knows all the hearts of humanity (1 King. 8:39).
The first mention of the word heart was in
Gen. 6:5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
It is described as “uncircumcised, hardened, wicked, godless, defiling the
whole man, resisting the repeated will of God.”
But Ezekiel promised a wonderful heart
surgery in Ezek. 11:19 and 36:26, “A new
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of
flesh.” The Psalmist said that God can create in us a clean heart (Ps.
51:10).
In the New Testament, we see that it is
with the heart man believes and it results in righteousness (Rom. 10:9-10). And
it is only through that faith are our hearts purified, “So God, who knows the heart,…(gave) them the Holy Spirit, just as He
did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their
hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8-9).
Once we are saved, then we can pursue “righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a
pure heart.” It
is only after we are saved can we truly love as it says in 1 Peter 1:22 “Since you have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one
another fervently with a pure heart.”
Turn to James 4:7-10 and see how closely
the brother of our Lord is recalling the beatitudes.
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse
your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will
lift you up.
Old Testament parallel
Psalm 24 was undoubtedly in the Lord’s mind
when he said this beatitude. It reads, “The
earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell
therein. 2 For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy
place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul
to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive
blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This
is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face.”
Pure hearts want to see God
Do you truly want to see God. In discussing
whether or not God was in a sense bribing His children to be good by offering
them rewards, C.S. Lewis said, “We are afraid that heaven is a bribe, and that
if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested. It is not so.
Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire. It is safe to tell the
pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.”
(The Problem with Pain)
Some people don’t really want to go to
heaven and they definitely would not want to see God in this lifetime. They may
say they do but it is because they do not truly see their sinfulness. It is
like the illustration of a mechanic who goes to work.
“Each day, the mechanic starts clean. Throughout the day, he becomes
dirty; but he does not feel overly dirty because he has been like that for days
on end. When he looks at himself, he thinks he is relatively clean. He started
clean in the morning, and he cannot see how filthy he has become during the
day.
“Imagine, however, if right after work, the mechanic went to a wedding.
He tried to embrace the bride, who was wearing a pure white dress. All of the
sudden, he realized that he was filthy. The purity of the white dress caused
the mechanic to see his own impurity. So it is with the purity of the heart.
“The more we see the purity of Christ, the more we see our own
filthiness. When we see the heavenly Bridegroom dressed in white, we see the
blessedness and purity of the robe of Christ’s righteousness. The more we see
the purity of Christ, the more we see the uncleanness and impurities of our own
soul.” (Daily Devotional, gospelchapel.com)
A filthy person doesn’t want to be near a
clean person once he realizes his filthiness. On the other hand a pure person’s
greatest reward is to see the ultimate in purity of heart, the God who created
us.
Question: Do
you truly want to see God?
Some people don’t really want to go to heaven and they
definitely would not want to see God in this lifetime. They may say they do but
it is because they do not truly see their sinfulness. A pure person’s greatest
reward is to see the ultimate in purity of heart, the God who created us.
Question: If
you don’t want to go to church, don’t want to read the Bible, don’t want to
hear sermons, don’t want to give, but want to live like the world does, ask
yourself this, “Do I really want to see God?”
What keeps us from seeing God?
Hebrews 12:14 speaks on seeing God, “Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one
will see the Lord.”
A filthy person doesn’t want to be near a clean person
once he realizes his filthiness.
Question: Think
of a time when you were absolutely filthy. What did you want to do and did you
want to be in a perfectly clean room?
