On the sermon of the mount, Jesus makes this statement as He gives the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8) To see God - who wouldn't want that? Isn't that the goal and desire of every believer? But we have one problem: None of us have a pure heart.
The Greek word used for "pure" in Matthew 5:8 is the word katharos, which means to be "clean, blameless, unstained from guilt." As much as that sounds nice, it sounds nothing like the human heart. It sounds nothing like my heart to be honest. There have been way too many conflicts, circumstances, traffic jams, movie spoilers, ministry problems and money issues to prove that my heart is far away from pure.
I hate to be the one to bring you some bad news today, but no one has a pure heart - at least not by their own strength and their own capacity. The good news however is that even when we cannot make our own hearts pure, there is a better way. That way is Jesus' way.
This is why the cross is such good news. While we all have impure hearts and have disqualified ourselves from ever getting a chance to see God, Jesus' death, burial and resurrection now becomes our free pass to come into God's presence with boldness and confidence. That's because our hearts can now be made pure, not by our own strength or capacity, but simply through the finished work of Christ.
Do you really want a pure heart? Do you want to be cleansed of all past unrighteousness and to be removed of your desire for sin? News flash: It's not happening by your own strength. We need the power of the Holy Spirit made available through Christ. Like David says in Psalm 51:10, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." We need God to create clean hearts for us because we cannot create it on our own.
When God gives us pure hearts, it not only changes our status but also our way of life. Many of the things we used to value and love will no longer have a place in our hearts. The desire of sin can and will be removed. Malachi 3:2 says, "But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap."
Allowing God to create in us a pure heart is not going to be easy and it's not going to happen overnight, but it can and will happen if we allow God to transform our hearts. But the decision has to start with you. Do you want a brand new heart from God and are you willing to surrender that brand new heart to Him now?
