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The Mount Sinai of the New Testament. The Beatitudes (Part 4). Blessed are the pure in heart for thy shall see God. (Matthew 5:8). Ivory Soap. 99 44/100 % pure. Hard to see out of!.
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The Beatitudes (Part 4) • Blessed are the pure in heart for thy shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)
The Jews were so exacting in regard to ceremonial purity that their regulations were extremely burdensome. Their minds were occupied with rules and restrictions and the fear of outward defilement, and they did not perceive the stain that selfishness and malice impart to the soul.
Jesus does not mention this ceremonial purity as one of the conditions of entering into His kingdom, but points out the need of purity of heart. The wisdom that is from above “is first pure.” James 3:17. Into the city of God there will enter nothing that defiles. All who are to be dwellers there will here have become pure in heart. In one who is learning of Jesus, there will be manifest a growing distaste for careless manners, unseemly language, and coarse thought. When Christ abides in the heart, there will be purity and refinement of thought and manner. (Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pp. 24, 25)
The pure in heart shall see Christ as a friend and elder brother. Those who are constantly looking unto Christ for his counsel, who pray in sincerity for his Holy Spirit, will be grieved if a cloud hides him from their sight. Satan will pass his hellish shadow across their pathway in order that the human agent shall not discern God, but may behold him who obtrudes himself between the soul and God, suggesting, as he did to Adam, his lying sophistry to lead men into transgression. He frames lies to substitute for a “Thus saith the Lord.” (The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895)
You may turn your face from God so that you can not see him, but you can not place yourself where God will not see you; for the darkness is as the light to him, and he knoweth every secret thing. (The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895)
Through the imputed righteousness of Christ, we are accounted guiltless. Christ has given to every human being the evidence that he alone is able to bear human grief, sorrow, and sin. Those who claim Christ as their substitute and surety, hanging their helpless souls upon Christ, can endure as seeing him who is invisible. The benediction, “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God,” belongs to them. (The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895)
Christ passed over the ground where Adam failed, and redeemed his disgraceful failure. He was made perfect through suffering, and is able to succor all who shall be tempted, and to make a way of escape, that they may be able to endure temptation. Though he was a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. He knows how to sympathize with every human being; for he has identified his interest with the interests of those he came to save. What a wonderful high priest is Jesus! We may lay our very soul burden upon him. We may lay our hand of faith upon the promise of God, that he will pardon the guilty, and impute to us the purity of Christ.
Through the faith that works by love the soul is purified, and the human agent can discern God; for he is a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The one great need of the sinner is righteousness, and the word of God is called “the ministration of righteousness;” for it presents a sinless Saviour to the defiled soul, One who was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The righteousness of Christ is a free gift; we can obtain it without money and without price. Christ himself has become the sin bearer. In his own person he answered all the claims of the law, and through the offering of himself, he made it possible for the human agent to keep the law of God, and to stand before God as innocent, accepted in the Beloved. (The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895)
Men can not continue in sin and stand faultless before God; for God will not tolerate sin. The human agent must separate himself from sin, crying out with earnest soul hunger, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” The Lord will answer such a cry, saying, “A new heart also will I give thee.” (The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895)
The more lowly the soul in its own estimation, the more distinctly and clearly will God be discerned. He who is in communion with God will recognize the divine excellence of heavenly things, and respond to the invitation, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” The word of God comes in power to the soul, impressing the mind with the exceeding great and precious promises. Those who learn of Christ, look earnestly unto him that they may catch his Spirit, and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. Their feelings become pure, their words pure and tender, and the earnest of the inheritance leads them to walk in love, drawing near to God, to listen to the voice of the true Shepherd. (The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895)
Those who are occupied with earthly things, enjoy a low, cheap level, and their souls could not bear the purity of the saints in light. The conversation of heaven would be a language which they could not understand, and they could not endure the purity of infinite holiness. Heaven would not be a place of perfect bless to them; for the faculties of the mind would not be capable of dwelling upon heavenly things. (The Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895)
I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and the Son. I gazed on Jesus’ countenance and admired his lovely person. The Father's person I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light covered him. I asked Jesus if his Father had a form like himself. He said he had, but I could not behold it, for said he, if you should once behold the glory of his person you would cease to exist. (A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views, of Ellen G. White, p. 44)
