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A Walk through the Beatitudes (part 6)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt 5:8)
Then there is this, a promise so big it almost sounds like hyperbole. The thought of seeing God is both exhilarating and frightening. We are overwhelmed with the thought of seeing God, and finally finding that missing piece. That elusive “thing” that we have been missing since humanity first rebelled against God. And yet, we are fearful of what we will find when we see him. Our lingering guilt and remorse for the countless selfish transgressions of our lives causes us to shiver at the thought of seeing God.
But to the pure in heart the fog begins to clear, revealing the truth that there is no life apart from the source of life. As we purify our hearts we begin to see God for who he truly is. We begin to see the grace, the mercy, the love, the kindness, the joy, and also the justice of God. He is the source of all that is good, all that we long for.
But to see God we have to get past the noise of our fallen hearts. The self-serving old nature needs to go. The sin we cling to must be forsaken. The old desires must be transformed and retrained on God himself and his righteousness. We must learn what it means to possess real singleness of heart, a pure heart, unmixed, a heart focused on God and his glory alone. Where do we find a heart like this? Only in the cross of Christ. (2 Cor 5:15-18)
This purity is not brought about by the power of our will. Our old nature is truly focused on self and we can not overcome selfishness through a self driven desire to improve ourselves. This is clearly self defeating and hopeless.
What we need is something else something outside ourselves. Something that can destroy this constant self serving drive that corrupts us all. This something is the cross of Christ. But how does the cross of Christ help us today?
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
(2 Cor 5:14-15 ESV)
The secret, if you can call it that, is having faith that Jesus by his death accomplished more than just payment for our past sins. By his death he also “killed“ our old nature, breaking it's stranglehold on us.
However, when we see this and believe, we are left with a choice. We either choose to live in this new life in Christ or continue to focus on ourselves. The purity of heart Jesus is talking about refers to a singleness of heart, a heart unmixed, where we live in the faith that Jesus has set us free. As we give up on all other sources of help our hearts can truly rest in a pure trust in the cross of Jesus. Then we can know the blessing of seeing God, then we can know the blessing of a truly new life.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…
(2 Cor 5:17-19 ESV)
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
(Rom 6:10-14 ESV)
Today as always the challenges are great, but God’s grace is greater. We are not victims or slaves, but rather new creations in Christ!
Faith is believing that this is true and responding accordingly. Today we have everything we need in Christ, encourage someone with that truth and allow this new creation in Christ to shine in everything we do!
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
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By Tom Possin“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt 5:8)
Then there is this, a promise so big it almost sounds like hyperbole. The thought of seeing God is both exhilarating and frightening. We are overwhelmed with the thought of seeing God, and finally finding that missing piece. That elusive “thing” that we have been missing since humanity first rebelled against God. And yet, we are fearful of what we will find when we see him. Our lingering guilt and remorse for the countless selfish transgressions of our lives causes us to shiver at the thought of seeing God.
But to the pure in heart the fog begins to clear, revealing the truth that there is no life apart from the source of life. As we purify our hearts we begin to see God for who he truly is. We begin to see the grace, the mercy, the love, the kindness, the joy, and also the justice of God. He is the source of all that is good, all that we long for.
But to see God we have to get past the noise of our fallen hearts. The self-serving old nature needs to go. The sin we cling to must be forsaken. The old desires must be transformed and retrained on God himself and his righteousness. We must learn what it means to possess real singleness of heart, a pure heart, unmixed, a heart focused on God and his glory alone. Where do we find a heart like this? Only in the cross of Christ. (2 Cor 5:15-18)
This purity is not brought about by the power of our will. Our old nature is truly focused on self and we can not overcome selfishness through a self driven desire to improve ourselves. This is clearly self defeating and hopeless.
What we need is something else something outside ourselves. Something that can destroy this constant self serving drive that corrupts us all. This something is the cross of Christ. But how does the cross of Christ help us today?
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
(2 Cor 5:14-15 ESV)
The secret, if you can call it that, is having faith that Jesus by his death accomplished more than just payment for our past sins. By his death he also “killed“ our old nature, breaking it's stranglehold on us.
However, when we see this and believe, we are left with a choice. We either choose to live in this new life in Christ or continue to focus on ourselves. The purity of heart Jesus is talking about refers to a singleness of heart, a heart unmixed, where we live in the faith that Jesus has set us free. As we give up on all other sources of help our hearts can truly rest in a pure trust in the cross of Jesus. Then we can know the blessing of seeing God, then we can know the blessing of a truly new life.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…
(2 Cor 5:17-19 ESV)
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
(Rom 6:10-14 ESV)
Today as always the challenges are great, but God’s grace is greater. We are not victims or slaves, but rather new creations in Christ!
Faith is believing that this is true and responding accordingly. Today we have everything we need in Christ, encourage someone with that truth and allow this new creation in Christ to shine in everything we do!
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe