Blessed are the pure in heart
Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.In all of the beatitudes Jesus is describing the characteristics of Christians along with the blessings. Notice he is not describing what must be done in order to merit the blessing. It is not do these things and receive grace, it is the gift of grace produces these attributes. In this beatitude Jesus pronounces a blessing on yet another Christian characteristic. Those that are in Christ by the power of Holy Spirit have pure hearts that are focused on Christ. They have hearts that were made alive by Holy Spirit through regeneration, and they follow the leading of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14). They are in Christ and their lives are centered on the things of Christ. From their pure hearts flow love, honesty, integrity, and the rest of the fruit of the Spirit. These Christians are powered by God’s grace and not their own man generated self-effort.
The blessing Jesus pronounces is that the pure in heart shall see God. The pure in heart are in Christ by the gift of God’s grace and they alone will see God. Jesus does not make any provision for the so-called carnal Christian (all flesh, all the time) to be included with the pure in heart. God through the power of the Holy Spirit begins the process of conforming all of the redeemed to the image of Christ during their earthly life. This is called sanctification and all Christians experience God’s power and work in their lives unless providentially prevented by events such as death immediately after conversion.
Praise God that the fruit of sanctification leads to eternal life where Christians shall see God.
posted by jazzycat at 11:25 PM
4 Comments:
Wayne, we must be on the same page lately. ;-)
November 06, 2007 6:55 AM
Wayne, great post!
That whole carnal Christian thing was promoted by L.S.Chafer and strongly refuted by B.B.Warfield. MacArhur feels that had Chafer interacted with Warfield on this issue we would not be dealing with this false doctrine today. This two class of Christian thing (carnal, spiritual) comes as a result of the Keswick model of sanctification. That model was formulated in 1875 by some well-meaning people; but it was error nonetheless. That model takes away from the Reformed concept of regeneration resulting in conversion; that idea that a person enters the sanctification process (conformity to Christ) at the point of repentance and faith. Incidently, many of the Keswick model don't believe one should preach repentance (at least the change of life variety) or the Lordship of Christ to the unsaved.
November 06, 2007 7:45 AM
Daniel,
Your post was really a good thorough explanation of how these Christian characteristics are blessings that are wrought by God.
I started this series a couple of months ago because I believe the beatitudes highlight God's POWER and sovereignty in salvation. God acts and man responds, rather than man acting and God responding. Your post pointed this out masterfully.
I am amazed that people can believe that God’s power can fail to produce the disciples that Jesus in the beatitudes and Paul in Romans described. This is to deny the power of God as this power is presented in the Bible. I would hope and pray that anyone seeking to know God better would consider these teachings as presented in the New Testament before they get influenced by the bizarre false teachings that Mark has outlined in his comment.
In short, I would encourage any new seeker or believer to carefully read the gospels and Romans carefully before adopting any other gospel other than the one taught in the New Testament. Go to Scripture and not to books asserting the opinions of man. After a person has discerned what the Scriptures teach for himself, then these other books and teachings can be more accurately considered.
Wayne
November 06, 2007 10:26 AM
Good words Wayne.
Difficult to accept that we have pure hearts. But they are clean. His blood has cleansed us from all sin. And we never need to be washed again; except our feet do, and that's everyday for me.
But He is faithful to send His Spirit, and people, and even angels to help us walk with clean feet in this dirty world.
November 07, 2007 3:35 PM
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