"Blessed are the pure in heart:for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8).
We now approach the most heavenly and lofty of all the beatitudes, and in some respects the most
difficult to make plain to others. Not, surely, that we should be less acquainted with a pure heart
than with a merciful heart, but the object of the pure heart, and the effect of seeing that object,
is a blessedness which transcends the power of language.
The moral condition of the heart or soul is here the important question. Since God is pure
absolutely, there must be purity of heart to appreciate Him. There is no thought here, we need
scarcely say, of bodily sight, for even Jesus is now hidden from our view. It is only with the eyes
of the heart or the moral vision of the soul_which is simply faith_that we can see God or
appreciate His excellency and glory; and this blessedness is made to depend on the condition of
the heart. "Blessed are the pure in heart:for they shall see God." The purer the heart is, the more
clearly it will see God, and the more clearly it sees God, the purer it must become. Thus the one
acts and reacts upon the other.
The purity of heart which is here pronounced "blessed" may be the result of faithfully following
in the line of the earlier beatitudes, especially the preceding one, which leads to the contemplation
of God in one of the most attractive aspects of His character_divine mercy. From the beginning
to the close of Scripture, mercy is spoken of as the grand prerogative and glory of God. The
Psalms especially speak much of His "mercy and His truth." To Him "belongeth mercy"; "He is
plenteous in mercy"; it is "above the heavens"; and "the earth is full of His mercy." Now the
simple or normal effect of drinking at this fountain of mercy is to become "merciful," and this
grace immediately precedes and leads the way to that moral perception of God which results in
purity of heart.
It may be well to notice here that we cannot make or keep the heart pure by trying to do so. Were
we to look within and make the condition of the heart our study and our object, we should sink
down, as many have done, into a state of mere mystical self-occupation. To be merciful, the heart
must have an object that is the perfect expression of the divine mercy; to be pure, it must have an
object that is absolute in purity. As the heart is not inherently pure, it can only be accounted so
by reflecting a pure object; and that object being Christ, we find in Him the true explanation of
a pure heart and seeing God. The heart is purified by faith in Christ who is the brightness of God’s
glory and the express image of His Person (see Acts 15:9, 1 Peter 1:22, Heb. 1:3). What relief,
what rest the heart finds in finding Him! No theories, no efforts, no experience can solve the
question of making the heart pure, but Himself_Himself known as the once lowly but now exalted
Man in glory.
May the eye of our faith rest on Him; meditate long, meditate deeply on Him; gaze now on that
"countenance transcendent." Blended there are the rays of all divine perfection. Majesty divine
as "the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God," mingling its many glories with the
sweet and lowly graces of godly sorrow, meekness, righteousness, mercy, holiness, and peace,
together with all goodness, wisdom, and love, is the God whom the pure heart sees.
But Christ must be our one object; a pure heart must be an undivided heart_ a whole heart. Thus
and thus only shall our whole body be full of light. All other objects but dim our spiritual vision.
"They looked unto Him," says the psalmist, "and were lightened." When darkness is loved rather
than light, there can be no perception or appreciation of moral beauty. Such was Israel’s
blindness, and such it is now, but the day is coming when they shall look on Him whom they
rejected and see in Him the glories and perfection of the Godhead. Then, truly, shall they see
God, and know the blessedness of being "pure in heart."
With the people of Israel, we know, this is future; but what of our own purity of heart? Is it a
present, deep, divine, blessed reality? Is my heart pure? Do I see God? These are solemn
question^ but proper ones; and God forbid that any of us should speak of these things without
knowing them personally in the divine presence. But surely we know Him in whom the holiness
of God is perfectly reflected. There only we can see God and have communion with Him.
Throughout the New Testament there is much said about purity of heart. It is looked for as the
true condition of all Christians, though, alas, all are not "pure in heart." So much is said, and said
truly, about the deceitfulness of the human heart in our discourses and papers that the expression
"pure in heart" is supposed, even by most Christians, to be a figure which is not intended to mean
what it says, and thus it is passed over. But Scripture means a great deal that is most definite by
pureness of heart. The apostle in writing to Timothy says, "Follow righteousness, faith, charity,
peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." This passage clearly teaches what we
are to look for and expect in all who come to the Lord’s table. Only such will suit Him who says,
I am "He that is holy, He that is true." The apostle Peter in his address to the council (Acts 15)
speaks of the Gentiles as "purifying their hearts by faith," and therefore as entitled to Christian
fellowship as the Jewish believers. And in his epistle he says, "Seeing ye have purified your souls
in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one
another with a pure heart fervently." The apostle James says similarly:"And purify your hearts,
ye double minded." John also, in speaking of the Lord’s coming, says, "And every man that hath
this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He [that is, Christ] is pure." Here the Lord Jesus is
brought before us, not only as being in Himself essentially pure, but as the measure and standard
of purity for us.
The hope of the Lord’s coming has thus a transforming power. In looking for Him and waiting
for Him now, we seek to purify ourselves even as He is pure. But when we see Him as He is in
the glory, we shall be like Him_perfectly conformed to Him in all things. Now we are
transformed by degrees, then we shall be conformed completely and for ever.
This is also the teaching of 2 Corinthians 3:"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord." The meaning is plain and most important:we behold the glory of the Lord in the
unveiled face of Jesus_the exalted Man in the glory_and are transformed according to the same
image from one degree of glory to another by the Lord the Spirit. But we are not only transformed
into His likeness morally, we are the reflectors of His glory. Now the believer is the glass in
whom the image of the Lord should be seen.
Oh, may nothing come between my heart and Him, that the likeness be not marred! The purer the
mirror, the more distinct will each feature appear. Language fails to express the heart’s joyous
wonder in meditating on this highest expression of sovereign grace. To be maintained in outward
purity, as men reckon, is a great mercy, and one for which we never can be too thankful. But to
be brought so near to the Lord, and to be so purified by faith as to become like a polished mirror
on which may be reflected His glory, transcends all power to express the praise and thanksgiving
due to His most blessed name.
The day is near when we will see our Lord face to face, and as He is_in all the deep realities of
His love and glory. The great promise of the New Jerusalem shall be fulfilled:"They shall see His
face, and His name shall be in their foreheads." The likeness will then be complete and manifest
to all. Higher than this we can never rise; richer in blessing we can never be; and for this
consummation of all blessedness, not we only, but our Jesus prays, "That they … be with Me
where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me" (John 17:24).