“The pure in heart are blessed, for they will see God.“
Matthew 5:8
Holy Bible Holman Christian Standard Bible, Black/Burgundy, Leathertouch, Personal Size Bible. Holman Bible Pub, 2014.
Matthew Henry called this “the most comprehensive” of the beautiful attitudes (p. 19). I take his meaning literally, in that there is no part of the human life that one’s purity or impurity does not entail. The Jesus-follower is to be pure inside and out. This is a holistic understanding of purity. This includes both the material and spiritual reality. This characteristic entails the heart, mind, body and soul. Purity of the whole person defines the life of the individual trusting in Jesus.
“We must lift up to God” Henry admonishes “not only clean hands, but a pure heart” (p. 20). The purity preached by Jesus was more than another form of legalism. As we have noted all along the way, the beautiful attitudes are new tactics for life resulting from a reborn identity in Jesus Christ. These are not boxes for sinful men to check off. This is the flowering life of a Jesus-follower. This is faith in bloom. This is the realization of the new nature within and without.
“Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity… God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch… If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things. And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us.”
(Chambers, March 26th)
Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest: an Updated Edition in Today’s Language: the Golden Book of Oswald Chambers. Discovery House Publishers, 1992.
In choral music, vocal parts are broken into serval voice parts, traditionally soprano, alto, tenor and bass. These parts move together, sometimes working together by supporting the melody, and sometimes by breaking off creating individual melodies that are beautiful individually and are made even more glorious together. This is called harmony. Though the vocal lines are noticeably different, by having them work together they continue in a partner dance of give and take. Oswald Chambers uses such imagery to describe the purity of man. Human purity is defined by the tightness of one’s harmony with God.
I’m sure that “give and take” has some scratching their heads. Does God need our cooperation? I am not going to hash this out except to simply state: God asks for our obedience. It is God’s desire that we relate, interact and walk daily with Him whether or not He needs it. Seeing as God existed in the beginning, holding all things together in His Three-unity person, I would be inclined to say that relationships are God’s ordained means for His good, please and perfect will. Relationship with God through Jesus, animated by His Holy Spirit, will bring this world to a new and everlasting life. This is the melody line that God has been singing before the foundation of the world.
“If men renounce their own good, if in penitence they have renounced their own hearts, if they rely solely upon Jesus, then his word, purifies their hearts. Purity of heart is here contrasted with all outward purity, even the purity of high intentions… Only they will see God, who in this life have looked solely unto Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For then their hearts are free from all defiling phantasies and are not distracted by conflicting desires and intentions. They are wholly absorbed by the contemplation of God. They shall see God, whose hearts have become a reflection of the image of Jesus Christ.”
(Bonhoeffer, p. 112)
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. Touchstone, 1995.
Each human must acknowledge God’s complete goodness. Each human heart must acknowledge Jesus’ sinless life. These are the defining features of God’s holiness. God is good and without sin. This is total. Acknowledge it today. There is no gradation or even the shadow of turning with God. “The most important thing” says J. D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham NC “is seeing the beauty and glory of God revealed in the Gospel” (pp. 89-90). The Gospel is the glory of God on display for every single person to embrace. It is the way in which humans can enter into a relationship with God.
In Germany’s darkest days of Nazi oppression, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was forced to recalibrate His entire philosophy of ministry around relationship with Jesus. In his teaching, it became of utmost importance for the Jesus-follower to look solely upon Jesus. This is no less than an allusion to Moses’ snake in the wilderness (Jn. 3:14-15). Salvation comes by taking the glory of God in Jesus into our minds, hearts, bodies and lives. This appears to be what Bonhoeffer insinuates in saying of the pure in heart are those whose “hearts have become reflections of the image of God.”
“Purity is the ability to keep our focus on God and not let our eyes wander over to the distraction of the world. When God is our focus, then everything else in life in the proper perspective… purity must incorporate a single-minded focus on God.”
(Kinnard, p. 69)
Kinnard, G. Steve. The Gospel of Matthew – The Crowning of the King. Illumination Publishers International, 2004.
Dr. Kinnard notes a vital point. Other loves fade in view of Jesus and the riches of His gift of costly grace. When our all is demanded in service of and focus on Jesus, we have little to invest elsewhere. Eventually, Jesus-followers will all be brought completely into the knowledge of Jesus at His return and completion of the work He has declared finished. We have His word to go on. We can take that to the bank. If He said it, it is good as gold.
This is a practicable holiness. An investment of the self in Jesus will surely result in an outworking of good deeds, good thoughts and good desires. The Psalmist knew this even without the manifestation of God on earth (Ps. 15:1-2). If you truly know God and are willing to learn from Him, you will come to understand this in your new nature. It will go well for those who realize this (Ps. 24:3-6). The work of God is one of the many channels through which He assures us of our salvation. The good that is within us must present itself in self-sacrificial action, reflecting Jesus’ sacrifice (1 Tm. 1:5).
“Holiness consists in our conformity to the likeness of Christ. This takes in the whole of sanctification. Christ is the express likeness of his Father, and the saints are conformed to the likeness of Christ. Thus it is that we have God’s love restored to us and God’s likeness renewed in us… And blessed be God that there will be many brothers… in spite of all the opposition of the powers of darkness, Christ will be the firstborn among many brothers.”
(Henry, p. 583)
Henry, Matthew, et al. The NIV Matthew Henry Commentary in One Volume: Based on the Broad Oak Edition. Zondervan Pub. House, 1992.
We must be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. This conformity is present in every daily decision to take up the cross of Christ (Mt. 16:24). The majority of the believer’s life is tied up in what is called sanctification. This is the continual “setting apart” of the believers’ life. This is the morning, noon and night struggle for the follower of Jesus. It is the desire of God that evil would be daily washed from our hearts (Jr. 4:14). The regenerate heart does not stop sinning, but we now have a character that knows how to effectively deal with our sin in the blood of Jesus.
The regenerated person will desire to sin less. The regenerated soul will sin less as they progress through sanctification. This is not done in a vacuum. There stand around us a host of other Jesus-followers. Take heart, good follower of Jesus! Others stand on your flank. We have all around us a multitude of brothers and sisters in arms. You can hear the joy in Matthew Henry’s voice when he realizes “I’m not alone”. I see the periwig wearing man of God furiously writing at His study raises his eyes to the bay window. With an ink besmirched hand he peers out into the field and there he sees a vision of the great hosts of saints that stand resolute in Jesus! “By jove,” Henry cries, “let us run this race together!”
“Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.”
1 John 3:2-3
Holy Bible Holman Christian Standard Bible, Black/Burgundy, Leathertouch, Personal Size Bible. Holman Bible Pub, 2014.
Hope in Jesus results in regular washing. Purity results in a faith placed in the assurance of God to accomplish in us what He has accomplished in His Son. The hope which results in regular purification is one that believes in Jesus’ soon-coming and personal revelation to us. As surely as He will present Himself to us and complete our salvation, we will also regularly apply His blood to our sinfulness. The blood of Jesus washes white as snow. Those standing in the crimson flow of Calvary are made pure.
It is the burden of those being sanctified to deal with this daily purification. We do not bear that burden alone. The Holy Spirit groans and works alongside us. As surely as Jesus stands at the hand of God the Father, we are destined to be completely and perfectly conformed to the image of His Son (Rm. 8:29). Many days it is a struggle to clearly see this vision. We are not meant to fully comprehend at this time(1 Co. 13:12). We live in the tight harmonies, the dissonance. There is a tension of sanctification that we must abide.
Thank God for the Holy Scriptures! The Word of God preserves for us the constant Truth of the Gospel. In his book Gospel, J. D. Greear encourages believers “get down on your knees, open the pages of the. Gospels, and pray that the Jesus who walks through the pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John gives you a glimpse of His true majesty” (107). Greear agrees with the saints of old that an encounter with Jesus will not leave you the same. In his classic work on The Holiness of God, R. C. Sproul wrote “we need to be people whose lives have change because our minds have changed” (199). The Gospel of Jesus is sure to change your whole life, starting inside and working itself out.
“Remember, Good is as Great as He is Good!”
Noah R. Hunt
POIEMA: Created for Truth 