Alright! Welcome again to part 5 of our series of studies about seeing pictures of Jesus in the Beatitudes.
We have been taking our time and moving slowly through the Beatitudes, and we are taking this approach purposefully, because not only does it allow us to focus on one specific picture of Jesus at a time, and therefore dig deeper into it; but this slower pace is also beneficial because so often the beatitudes are seen as a list of rules to try and live for and towards, rather than as the pictures of Jesus and aspects of our new identity in Him today.
So today, we continue where we last paused in part 4, as we see more pictures of Jesus, and our new identity in Him.
Let’s get into the scripture, starting with Matthew 5:8:
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
Now just as with our verse last week about the merciful obtaining mercy, the same type of legalistic performance-based mindset is typically read into this verse as well. Preachers will often say that you need to make your heart pure for God! You will never see God unless you “get yourself right!” – and they turn this whole thing into a work of man’s strength, instead of a New Covenant reality which God gives to us based on the sacrifice of Christ. And this kind of misapplication of scripture, and failing to rightly divide the truth based on the New Covenant of Grace which we are in today, is what is a stumbling-block and a stronghold for many people.
Massive numbers of Christians today are on a grand quest in an effort to purify themselves and their own hearts, and it’s a road that can lead to all sorts of evil, and a lifetime of frustration and guilt and condemnation, because the more that we try to clean ourselves up and make ourselves pure, then the more our own sin nature will reveal itself. It’s the old “Pink Elephant” trick: If I tell you not to think of a Pink Elephant – it’s already too late because you just thought of one. The same general idea applies to trying to spiritually clean ourselves up and purify our own heart. We cannot succeed by our own efforts and strength.
To fully understand why this is true, we only need to answer one simple question: What is the standard for purity? When Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart, what is the standard for purity which He is referring to? If we are to honestly ask and answer this question, it will reveal to us why our own efforts are never sufficient; because God’s standard has never been “your best effort” or “merely good enough” – His standard has always been absolute perfection. Remember that this is the very same Jesus who also set the perfection-bar when He said “Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect” in Matthew 5:48, and as we have studied before, the only One who meets that criteria is Jesus Himself, and the only way for us to meet that criteria is to accept Him and be born again as a free gift.
Knowing this then, we can already begin to see how the typical idea of what Jesus means here in Matthew 5:8, that we need to purify ourselves when He says blessed are the pure in heart, can not truly be what He is talking about. And why those who think that they somehow can purify themselves, actually have a very low standard of what purity is.
Jeremiah 17:9, says that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. It’s important to remember this because the common advice of the world tells us to “listen to our heart”, “just follow your heart”… especially in matters of love, and biblically-speaking it’s the worst advice that anyone could ever give or follow.
The point being that our heart is not only sort-of evil, or a bit misleading, but it is deceitful above all things, and not just wicked, but desperately wicked. You see, we don’t fully realize the depth of our own sinfulness, and how truly in-need we are of Jesus Christ. The very fact that we often think that we can handle things ourselves, is a good reminder that we don’t actually comprehend how completely dead we are apart from Christ.
God Himself makes a point to mention it way back in Genesis 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.”
Take notice of the details here… the wickedness wasn’t just present, it was great in the earth. And the thoughts of man’s heart wasn’t just a little bit off, it was only evil continually.
We often do not actually realize this, but even the things that we think are good, holy and right, are totally corrupted and dead apart from Christ. It is His working in us that enables to even think correctly!
The reason why it is important for us to see and recognize these facts is because it gives us the proper perspective to understand Jesus true intent and meaning for what He said during the sermon on the mount (and everything else, really). It is vital that we fully understand the completely dead spiritual state that we were in apart from Christ, and the completely divinely perfect standard necessary to succeed.
So then, if our heart does not get purified by our own strength and effort, how exactly does it happen? For the answer, let’s take a look at Ezekiel 36:26-27:
“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 a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them.”
Now notice what this verse is actually saying; Notice what God is saying that He will do for His people. He says that I will take away your heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
God is the one who removes our old stony heart; and likewise He is the one who replaces it with a heart of flesh.
And we see more detail in verse 27, where God says that He will put His Spirit within us, and that it is Him who causes us to walk in His statutes (set time or portion), and keep His judgments (justice) and do them.
You see, He is the one who enables these things within us – not ourselves, and this is the point of it all. When was this purification done? When did He place His Spirit inside of His people, and cause them to walk properly?
My friend, it is the finished work of Jesus Christ, and His New Covenant. Our new Identity in Him is when this happened. (Joel 2:28, John 14:16-17, Acts 2:17, Hebrews 10:16)
So now, when we read the words of Jesus where He says Blessed are the Pure in Heart, for they will see God, we can look at it with a new perspective; one not of rules, and striving, but we can look at it with a smile on our face and a song in our (pure) heart, knowing that Jesus has indeed finished the work, He has purified our heart, and we will see God face to face in Heaven.
Join me next week as we continue seeing pictures of Jesus in the Beatitudes.
Be blessed.