Text: Matthew 5:5-8; Hebrews 12:14
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God” Matthew 5:8
The statement in Matthew 5:8 was spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ as part of what is called the Beatitudes among “the Sermon on the Mounts”. Here Jesus was addressing not only His disciples but also the multitude of people who gathered to hear what He, Christ, had to say about the heavenly Kingdom.
There are two issues raised in the statement. First, the purity of heart, and second, the issue of seeing God at last. These two thoughts are reiterated in Hebrews 12:14. It is thus clear that except a man is holy, he cannot make heaven or see God.
A number of deductions can be made from the two texts referred to. One, God expects that our hearts be made pure in order to see Him on the last day. But how can the heart be made pure – the heart described in Jeremiah 17:9 as “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…”
Two, He commands that we follow peace with all men. But the unsanctified man cannot follow peace with any man, not to talk of all men.
In the light of what the Scripture says in Genesis 6:5, “that 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”, one wonders how the natural man is to live in peace with all men without a change of life, without the heart’s transformation.
God told Moses, “thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live” (Exodus 33:20). To see God on the last day, our hearts must be purified, purged, made holy; and this is done only by the act of God.
Little wonder, therefore, that the sanctification experience is a must for all believers in Christ. As long as we live and hope for the second coming of Christ, we must follow peace with all men and live a holy life.
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