Is Purity Possible?
By Matt Watson
Matthew 5:8 -
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
NO ONE IS PURE
In San Antonio we have hard water, which means that unless you soften and filter it, you will see little flecks of minerals in otherwise perfectly drinkable tap water. Likewise, the Food and Drug Administration has set a threshold for a certain percentage of impurities (like insect body parts) that can be present in our food (like flour). However, this is not pure, it is merely acceptable. To be pure means to be of a single substance or mind, meaning there is nothing else mixed in. The Bible shows us that God commands his people to be pure from sin because he is pure from sin. He cannot abide by our rancid and corrupted hearts because he is completely pure and holy.
In our response to this, we tend to fall into one of two equally disastrous groups. We either pursue purity with fanaticism, or we reject it with apathy. We either separate ourselves from the world and culture so extremely that we reject all music, movies, and activities that don’t align with our world view, or we think it is meaningless to try and decide to do whatever makes us “happy.” This is displayed by the two brothers in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The older brother worked hard and long on his father’s farm. He only listened to K-Love radio, he never got drunk, and he never cussed. Meanwhile, his younger brother took his inheritance and spent it all in Las Vegas breaking God’s commandments. However, neither pursuit gave them a relationship with their father and neither made them pure. Both were full of sin, whether it was pride or rebellion.
We pretend we are pure by convincing ourselves, “well at least I haven't killed anybody.” But the Bible says that “none is righteous, no not one…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:11, 23). The toilet paper hoarding at the beginning of the pandemic supports this. Grocery stores had to make special hours for seniors so they could get common, basic household supplies before they were purchased in bulk by somebody else.
PURITY IS ONLY POSSIBLE THROUGH JESUS
The first thing to know is that nobody is pure of heart. The question remains then, how can we relate to this beatitude? How can anyone hope to be pure? It is humanly impossible because humanity is corrupted by sin. But it is not impossible for God, because his nature is completely pure and holy. His son Jesus is fully God and fully man and is the spotless lamb without blemish (1 Pet 1:19). It is in Jesus we have our answer because he is both the means and the goal for our purity.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones says “being pure in heart means to be like the Lord Jesus Christ Himself…perfect and spotless and pure and entire. Analyzing it a little we can say that it means we have an undivided love which regards God as our highest good, and which is concerned only about loving God. To be pure in heart, in other words, means to keep ‘the first and great commandment’, which is that ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.’”
Jesus is the great answer to all of our questions. He is the satisfaction for every longing, he is the source of every good thing, and he is the one that sustains everything together. He alone is pure, and he alone can perfectly have an undivided love for God. He alone has done what we cannot by living a perfectly pure life without sin. On the other hand, every time we yell at our kids or spouse, every time we don’t mark our timesheets correctly, and every time we yell at people in traffic we show that we do not honor God with our lives, failing to live and love in perfect obedience.
That is why the cross is so fantastic. It is not just the legal means for pardoning us from sin. The cross is where we have our impure hearts, our sinful and wicked little hearts, exchanged for Jesus’. Faith in Christ for our salvation means that we aren’t just saved from Hell, but we are saved to live like Jesus. He loves God perfectly, and the Great Exchange at the cross enables us to love God perfectly. Jesus sits at the right hand of God, and because of the cross, we are allowed to see the face of God when we go home. We can boldly approach the throne as children rather than as criminals.
Jesus enables us to live in a way that is neither like the older brother, or the younger prodigal brother. Jesus enables us to live in a way that honors the Father and gives us access and approval to him through his life, death, and resurrection. He does this by giving us a new heart, and new desires, and new thoughts which by the Holy Spirit help us to flourish.
HOW TO CULTIVATE A PURE HEART
1) Learn Jesus’ Word. Psalm 119:12 says, “Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes!” Learn God’s word and statutes by reading it! We must become students of his word to learn it.
2) Sharing Jesus, His Word, and His Ways. Psalm 119:13 says, “With my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth.” Those who teach others end up being so much more familiar with the material than if they had simply just listened to it. We will be even more familiar with the Bible when we are sharing it with our family, friends, and neighbors.
3) Delighting in Jesus’ Word. Psalm 119:14 says, “In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.” Jesus’ word must be precious to you. At times it feels like an obligation, so ask God to give your heart delight in reading his word!
4) Think Upon Jesus’ Word. Psalm 119:15 says, “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” Biblical meditation is not emptying your mind, it is filling it. Wrestle, interact, contemplate, apply, and process through what you are reading in the Bible.
5) Memorizing God’s Word. Psalm 119:16 says, “I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.” How do you keep from forgetting something? Remember it! Fill your mind with the word and write verses down on a flashcard or use an app to memorize God’s word.