Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8
Jesus says here that the pure in heart will see God. Actually He’s saying only the pure in heart will see God. This is a massive problem for everyone, because if we’re honest, we all have to admit that we are anything but pure in heart. That’s the truth, and that’s exactly what the Bible says about each and every one of us.
Look at the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked [or incurably sick]” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus, in Matthew 15:19, said, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
Our Faith in Christ
If that is the natural condition of every human being, how does anyone qualify to be called “pure in heart”? This is how: our faith in Christ results in the purifying of our hearts. Peter put it this way: “Since you have purified your souls [hearts] in obeying the truth through the Spirit … love one another fervently with a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22).
As Peter says, that moment of obedience to God’s Word, which I take to refer to the instant you put your faith in Christ, your heart was purified (see Acts 15:9). Since our hearts have been purified by faith, we now have the promise that we shall see God.
Seeing God
Ultimately, of course, Jesus was referring to heaven, seeing God there and beholding His face. But there’s another aspect to seeing God: we can see Him here and now as we experience His presence in our daily lives.
When our hearts are purified, our spiritual eyes are opened and we see God. We see Him in His Word. We see Him at work in His church. We see Him in the lives of His people. We see Him in the circumstances of our lives and in the created world around us. What a wonderful blessing indeed to see God!