The Pure in Heart

What Does it Mean to Be Pure in Heart

In the ESV pure is used 30 times in the Book of Exodus

Most of those are in reference to the materials used to build the tabernacle and the items

The gold was to be pure

clean, without blemish

Any impurities, other metals or minerals had to be worked out of the gold prior to using it in the Tabernacle

because the gold was going to be in the presence of God, it could not be impure

In Job the use of the word pure, turns to man

Like gold, man is required to be pure

not mostly pure, but completely pure

Specifically mans inability to be pure

Job’s friends even ask questions like “can a man be pure before his Maker?”

Job and his friends discussed with the idea of mans purity

Purity in heart refers to moral uprightness and not just ritual cleanliness

Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 100.

“External purity is all that man asks at our hands, “for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16: 7), and the promises and blessings of the covenant of grace belong to those who are made pure in heart, and to none besides.”

— The Beatitudes by C.H. Spurgeon

Not only do our actions need to be pure, our motives also

We Cannot Be Pure Without Christ

It’s a problem we often struggle with still today

simply the premise of the questions “why do bad things happen to good people” is wrong

the problem with purity is that it is impossible

we cannot be both pure and have sin

there’s not a line we cross where we go from pure to impure

we are born into impurity

Psalm 51:5 “5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

Isaiah 53:6 “6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

we choose sin

Often we try and categorize sin

In man’s eyes that is the case, one sin can be worst than another, that’s why different crimes had different punishments

In our relationship to God, no sin is small enough to be insignificant

From murder to a white lie, every sin is big enough to disqualify us from being in God’s presence

This is why Christ responds to the rich young ruler with the statement “why do you call me good, there is no one good but God”

As humans we are completely unable to be pure of heart without Christ

Every aspect of our purity, comes from Christ

Even our desire to be pure, is a gift Christ gives us

Romans 3 is very evident in this

No one is righteous

No one seeks after God

All have sinned

There is nothing in us that allows us to be pure

This doesn’t negate Christ from demanding purity from us

While we are unable to achieve a pure heart on our own, Christ helps us to become pure

We Will See God

In the world around us

Romans 1

God has made his power shown through nature

In His Word

In His Church

In His Presence