Now Is the Time: Devotions From Time of GraceExemplo

Pure is Better

The U.S. government’s Food and Drug Administration is tasked with overseeing the safety of things we buy to put into our mouths. Purity is a big deal--even small amounts of certain toxins can cause illness and death.

It is a good thing that your eternal destiny isn’t riding on the degree of moral purity in your heart. The disobedient spirit that lost Paradise for Adam and Eve lives on inside us. It is only through the forgiveness that Jesus bought for us on a cross that we can be considered righteous.

What, then, did Jesus mean with his sixth Beatitude? “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). King David explains in Psalm 24 that one with a pure heart is he “who does not lift up his soul to an idol” (verse 4). God has infinite patience with our sins against his laws, but he will not tolerate despising his gospel or inventing something else to worship. It is in the Bible alone that he reveals himself. Sinners like us have pure hearts when we listen to the God of the Bible and believe him. Through faith in the gospel Paradise is regained, and we will be able to do what now is impossible: we shall see God.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, one completely dedicated to you.