Pure In Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  Matthew 5:8

Jesus says that if you want to see God, you must have a pure heart. The interesting thing about Jesus’s statement is that according to the Bible no one has a pure heart. At the risk of trashing your self-esteem, let me show you some of the statements the Bible makes about humanity from Romans 3. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” “There is none who seeks after God.  They have all turned aside.” “There is none who does good, no, not one.” “With their tongues they have practiced deceit.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” And to top it off, the Lord says in Jeremiah “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. (17:9)” We must understand Jesus’s statement about a pure heart in light of the whole counsel of the Bible.  The pure in heart will see God, yet no one has a pure heart.

The Need for Something Drastic

So, on the one hand, Jesus said that it’s the pure in heart that will see God. However, on the other hand, we see from the rest of the Bible that no one has a pure heart. Where does this leave us? That leaves us in need of something drastic. That leaves us in need of a new birth. Jesus told a very religious man named Nicodemus that if he wanted to go to Heaven Nicodemus would need to be born again. You have heard of the term “Born Again,” but you probably thought of it as just another term for “Saved,” “Evangelical,” or even “Christian.” But “Born Again” is not a figure of speech, Jesus was speaking literally. Does that sound strange to you?  It did to Nicodemus (see John 3).

What Does it Mean to be Born Again?

The Bible teaches us that when you sincerely trust Christ as your Savior something supernatural happens to you. You become a new creation in Christ. You may have seen a bumper sticker that says something to the effect of “Christians are Just Like Everyone Else, Just Forgiven.” These bumper stickers are well meaning but not biblically correct. Christians are not like everyone else. They have been made new in Christ. Ezekiel 36 gives us the essence of what it means to be born again. “²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” So you see that when a person receives Christ that person is given a new heart that loves God and wants to obey Him. You might say that person becomes “pure in heart.”

How to Purify Your Heart

The answer to our search for a pure heart lies not in our goodness but in the work of God. When you realize that you fall short of Jesus’s standard to be pure in heart, it leads you to the cross. When we trust in Jesus’s work on the cross and turn to Him, we are not only forgiven our sins, but we are born again. The Holy Spirit comes inside us and gives us a new heart that loves God and wants to obey Him.

One final note. I have noticed that there is a pattern for many people. They sense the need to be right with God. They try their best. They go to church. They try hard to stop some of their sins. This process lasts for a few weeks, and then they crash and fall back to their old life. Sometimes people repeat this pattern over and over. The reason for this may be that they are trying to be religious, but they are not born again.  Religion can’t save you.  Only Jesus saves. The way to live for God in a way that lasts and is meaningful is to trust solely in Him and let Him purify your heart.