If the Beatitudes were based on works, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” would be the most hopeless of them all.
Why?
Because I don’t have a lot of problem admitting things about being poor in spirit. And it seems to come naturally to me to mourn my sins and offences against God. And feeling meek in relation to fixing things myself (impossible) and knowing I must surrender to the authority of Christ seems to happen without resistance. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness in the belief that I will be satisfied by faith instead of good works seems to happen without much trying. And even feeling merciful towards others is something I’m always learning to work into my daily life with a sense that I really want this and know God will help me do it.
But “pure in heart”? That seems to trigger so much guilt, shame, and fear, that it would be easy to let a good-works mindset tell me I am a hopeless scumbag of sin who could never expect to see a smile on God’s face because of all the impurities within me!
And that is why I love using the term “good news” more than its counterpart, “the gospel”. In English, “the gospel” is the term we typically use to speak of the message of salvation. However, in the Greek we are translating from, the word translated “the gospel” sounds like “euangelion”. It is where we get our word “evangelism”. And the primary meaning of the word is “good news”, specifically, the good news of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the familiar account of an angel announcing the birth of Jesus Christ, the expression “good news of great joy” is used. Here the “good news” comes from the same Greek word that is elsewhere translated “gospel”. And my point is that many of us understand that “the gospel” is about Jesus Christ saving us from our sins, but we don’t naturally hear it as “good news of great joy”, often because we have so much negative baggage about our sins and failings that we simply don’t think of it that way.
However, when we come to the Beatitudes, we must have an understanding that they are taught to people who had already heard the gospel, the good news of great joy that God has given us his Son as our Savior. Jesus had already made it clear that, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Or, repent and believe in the good news of great joy that the Savior has come!
How does this help us who often feel like failures in our walk with God hear the blessing of “the pure in heart” as good news? After all, if it is only with a pure heart that we “shall see God”, and we know there is that “if people really knew us they would hate us” part of ourselves lurking deep within, how could we ever have the purity of heart that will see God? After all, God’s own word says, there is “the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” To have a heart that is pure-heartedly holy seems completely out of reach. At least to me.
That is where we must do a double-check that we are hearing Jesus’ Beatitudes through the good news of great joy that we have a Savior who is Jesus Christ our Lord. It is in this good news that we can acknowledge that we are sinners in need of a Savior because we have a Savior who came into the world to save sinners!
And, it is in this good news of great joy that we can understand and accept that it is “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” I am totally fine with the idea that I have nothing to boast about. But without the gospel that would be hopeless. However, in the gospel, not having works to add to my salvation is not hopeless. Having an impure heart that needs saving is not hopeless. Having a salvation that “is not your own doing” IS… NOT… HOPELESS!!!
One thing we must never forget is that our salvation is three-dimensional. These three dimensions of salvation are referred to as justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification declares us righteous in God’s sight at the moment of our new birth. Sanctification works righteousness into us as we grow up in Christ. And glorification prefects righteousness in us so that every child of God will be as righteous as Jesus in eternity.
We must apply this to “blessed are the pure in heart” so that we see all three of these dimensions at the same time. This is where our hope lies, in a salvation that sees us as pure in heart now, that helps us grow to be purer in heart every day, and that guarantees our perfect purity of heart when we see Jesus.
Let’s apply the justification side of our salvation to “blessed are the pure in heart”. Paul said that all those who are disciples of Jesus Christ have “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ”. He adds that for anyone who “believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” This is what makes the good news “of great joy”. This is why the prostitutes and tax-collectors were entering the kingdom of God while the religious elite were not. These sinners understood something of this message that they were received by faith in a way they would never be welcomed by good works.
And now, after the evidence of the crucifixion of Christ, it is abundantly clear that God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And that is why our faith is counted as righteousness. That is why our faith is counted as “pure in heart”. That is why “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This happens in our justification by faith as we trust in Jesus Christ and “become the righteousness of God” in our Savior.
And then it continues in our sanctification as we constantly keep short accounts with God about our sins, always confessing them to God whenever we fail him, and always knowing that he is always forgiving us, and always cleansing us of our sins.
Paul described this sanctification dimension of our growth in righteousness so beautifully when he wrote that we are “being transformed into the same image” as our Savior “from one degree of glory to another.” We are already “the righteousness of God” in Christ according to our justification by grace through faith, but every day we are BEING transformed into the same image of our Savior in degree after degree of glory. And that is why we can have daily hope of being “the pure in heart” because we know we are seen that way by God in our justification, and we know God is purifying our hearts every day in our sanctification.
And that brings us to the third dimension, the “living hope” of one day feeling completely pure in our hearts without any fear of ever having impurity within us ever again. Here we look to the apostle John as he describes the return of Christ and says, “we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” That is what the Bible calls our “glorification”. It may feel utterly unbelievable that we could ever be fully like Jesus in righteousness, particularly in purity of heart, but that is what is promised to us in our so great salvation. We SHALL be like him. Period. No exceptions for anyone who has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
A very necessary aspect of us relating to God in our salvation is described like this,
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Knowing that our justification by grace through faith has already made us “the righteousness of God” in one way, and our glorification by grace through faith will complete the pure-hearted work of God in another, our daily focus must be on how we join God’s work of making us more like Jesus every day of our lives. If God is daily working to transform us into the image of his Son from one degree of glory to another, what are we to do to attach to him in what he is doing?
Paul’s answer is that we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling based on the fact that God is already working in us so that we would both will the things he wills by his good pleasure and do the things he is pleased to lead us to do. God is at work first, and he is at work now, so we actively look at how we are to work these things out into our lives in joyful fellowship with our Father.
And the way John told us to join God in his work is, “everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” In other words, everyone who knows we have been made pure in heart in our justification, and that we will be made completely pure in heart in our glorification, joins God’s work in the present by constantly purifying ourselves as we keep seeing the glory of the purity of God. We confess our sins to God every time we fall into them because we truly want purity of heart rather than the corruption of sin.
The bottom line is that all the Beatitudes are a description of what it looks like in our lives when God is blessing us with his grace. Our faith will feel poor in spirit. Our faith will mourn our sin. Our faith will meekly surrender to the authority of Christ as our Savior. Our faith will hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God offered to us in the gospel as a free gift of grace. Our faith will begin expressing itself in mercy to others as we have experienced the abundance of God’s mercy towards us. And our faith will delight to grow in pure-hearted righteousness from one degree of glory to another in the safety that we are already the righteousness of God in Christ, and will most definitely be as pure-heartedly righteous as Jesus when he returns and we see him as he is.
Today, let’s expect to see God call us to greater steps in purity of heart than we have ever taken, and praise him for the so great salvation that enables us to take those steps.
And because this good news is received and experienced by grace through faith, let’s rejoice in the hope we have in Christ that we can become more pure-heartedly like him today than we have ever been before.
The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.
(Psalm 12:6)
© 2024
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
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