Do you know the Abraham of scripture, whom God called
out of the land of the Chaldeans to become the father of a nation that would be
called Israel? Guess what – he messed up. Yep, he messed up kind of big time;
his heart chose not to wait on God and instead chose to go where God said not
to go. He temporarily stepped out of God’s will, the consequences of which fell
hard on him and his nuclear family, and even continue through to our times and
actually impacts us! Despite his serious disobedience in that instance, though,
God would still come to call him friend!
Similarly, those disciples who were considered close to Jesus, his traveling
buddies so to speak – who even set aside their regular work and income, and personal
schedules to follow Him all throughout Judea, parts of Samaria and Galilee for
three years, even they had issues. Some of them were doubters, some had a
militant edge, a number of them by their actions told Jesus, “I’m out!” when He
was arrested. Still, Jesus would call them His
friends – and Jesus does not pick friends willy-nilly! And look
at what the apostle Paul says about himself, he who is considered one of the
great apostles, faithfully carrying out God’s will to spread the Gospel to the
Gentiles, risking his life to do it, so that even to this day, we
are experiencing the benefits of Paul’s faithful evangelism: this faithful person who, in God’s grace, saw
Divine things that no one else in scripture experienced
in that way -- even
he struggled with sin!)
So, then, how is it that these faithful persons can be
said to have “pure hearts” and see the God of their salvation, the God of
promise? How is such a thing possible? It is only through Jesus’ sacrifice for
our sins – His death on the cross, a single act – that could make it possible. Jesus’
sacrifice – the Blood He shed for us – had the power of canceling our sin debt,
wiping out the condemnation of our souls and protecting us from the wrath of
God,
because He, Jesus, would cover, i.e., take the guilt of all our sins on
Himself. His sacrifice not only liberated us from the body of sin, as Paul
calls it, but also opened up the way to God for us, to “see” God as He reveals
Himself in His Word, when we repent and accept the invitation contained
in the Gospel to believe Jesus is our Lord and Savior. It is possible
because when we allow Christ’s blood to “operationalize” in us, when we
surrender our hearts – i.e., our wills and presumed right to be boss of our
souls, the Holy Spirit, placed in us by God, cleanses or takes away the power
of sin in believers’ lives. Then, when we submit to His cleansing work, our
hearts will be shaped
and trained in righteousness. We will be able to
“see” God with spiritual eyes as noted above and experience Him in ways that persons without the Holy Spirit cannot (Psalm
51:1-2,10-12; Romans
6:9-11,17-19; Galatians
5:16-17,19-25; Ephesians
1:3-19). The Holy Spirit enables us to choose obedience – both to repent of sins we know we committed, and those that the Spirit has to reveal to us; to
seek and do those things that please God. The process to make us pure before
God is called sanctification[1] , which begins at the
moment of salvation, and continues throughout our earthly lives until we look
like Christ. So how else does the Holy Spirit cleanse and purify our hearts? He
works in us through the Holy
Word of God, prayer,
and circumstances
– along
with faithful believers in community – to gradually ‘knock
off the dirt’ of a life once controlled by a sinful nature. He motivates us to
live a clean, moral life, to be “living
sacrifices”, and to pursue God’s will in our lives. A pure
heart is a heart like Christ’s. This world and our sin nature makes keeping
our hearts pure hard work. We must work and submit to what the Spirit is doing
for us per above in shaping us like Christ - that’s the purity God seeks. Nothing
else this world has is going to shape our hearts in a way that pleases God! If we
are to be living sacrifices to God, then our hearts are to be a
temple to God. The pure in heart delights in all
things God and seeks above all things to please Him. (Psalm
1:1-3; 37:4;
112:1;
Ephesians
5:8-10)
For they shall see God. Can we see God with our natural eye? No
– no one can. So why does the scripture say that if we
live purely before God that we will see Him? Well, the answer to that
question is two-fold. First: As
the Holy Spirit begins changing us to be like Christ, as our hearts grow in obedience to Him, we begin to spiritually
“see” God through Christ and how He has revealed the Father in
scripture. We
see Him spiritually by faith as we grow closer to Him.
As we continue
submitted to God, we will come to see the image of God in
others and in the glory of God. As noted in Ephesians 1 above, we are
adopted by God as His children at the time of our salvation; the child
can see his/her Father!! Secondly: When
we are ‘translated’, that is, when God exchanges our human form for one that is
incorruptible, we will be
able to gaze on the full beauty of the Lord our God, we shall see Him
face-to-face and fall at His feet in worship! For only the pure in heart will
gain the heavenly kingdom of God and see Him.
Explore
· Has
anyone experienced this: the water company (in my area it is the Washington Suburban Sanitary
Commission, aka WSSC) is doing work on your street and needs to shut the water
off for several hours (yikes! But it happens). When they have completed their
work, they notify the residents in the area that for the next several hours
they should boil their water. Why do you think that is? What could happen if
you choose not to follow that recommendation?
· Again,
the foregoing discussion is a lot of meat to chew on. As you go through it,
what part(s) stand out for you in a way that you had not thought of before?
· Lastly,
an audit: When we consider the purity that we are called to,
o
what do we allow into our hearts – the “throne”
God’s temple, for a temple is a place where God is worshiped? What kind of
media and gaming do we participate in? Does it honor God and His character?
Does what we read and what we view with our eyes honor God and His moral
standards for us?
o
See our bodies as God sees them – as
sacred. Sacred things are treated modestly and honorably. Does how we intentionally dress or not dress, exposing certain
body parts – does it honor God? That is, when a person looks at how we dress or
expose certain body parts, does it draw him/her toward Christ so that our outsides reflect who we are to be in Christ?
o
Does our conduct toward one another align
with God’s Word?
o
What is worship? Do we worship God daily?
o
The big question is: Do we
really want to see God?
Bonus: Let Praises Rise - Trey McLaughlin & SOZ; Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord - Michael W. Smith
[1] Sanctification: a
process of being transformed into Christ’s image by the work of the Holy Spirit
in you. He directs you into the things of Christ - His words, His character, His lifestyle; when we submit to His work in us, not only will we see His transforming power in us and over us, but also will the angels in heaven, and the world around us. Sanctification is a life-long process -- beginning at the time of our salvation until we are raised up by Christ to be with Him.
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