“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8)
Another issue that we must deal with in this subject of seeking a pure heart in order to see God is that of works versus grace. A pure heart will never be gained if it is sought out of a motive that is not love for God and a desire for God. Some might think that we have to work hard in order to obtain a pure heart and in return God gives a sight of Himself as a blessing. This is a fundamental error and a huge mistake. A pure heart will only come by grace alone and the sight of God will only come by grace alone as well.
In this as in all things God is sovereign in giving this sight to people. It is not something that people earn; it is something that is a sovereign act of God that He gives by grace. No one can obligate God to give this sight of Himself as it is God’s giving of Himself and not just giving a thing. A sight of God in this sense is God’s giving Himself and an understanding of Himself. This is seen from several texts. I Corinthians 2:10-12 tells us that God has to reveal these things to us in the Spirit for it is the Spirit that knows the depths of God and so can reveal those to men. Believers have received the Spirit in order that they may know the things given to them by God. Verse 14 then goes on to tell us that the “natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.” To put it bluntly, only God knows Himself and only God can give us the understanding of Himself. No man or woman has the power or understanding to know God apart from God giving them that power or understanding. No amount of works will ever bring God under the obligation to open His heart and imprint Himself on the souls of human beings. All that God does in terms of giving benefits as the self-existent God is by grace and grace alone.
When a person comes to faith in Christ, there is far more going on than meets the physical eye. Acts 26:18 sets out one perspective of how this happens: “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.'” The eyes have to be opened so that they may turn from darkness to light. The eyes have to be opened so that they may turn from the dominion of Satan to God. Does a mere human being have the power to turn himself from Satan and to release himself from the bondage that he is in to Satan? No, that is a work of grace. Without question this opening of the eyes is a work of grace and so this whole picture of salvation is of grace.
Another picture of the Gospel is seen in 2 Co 3:15: “But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Until people see the glory of the Lord they have a veil over their face. That veil has to be taken away and the face has to be turned to see that glory. It is in beholding that glory that a person is transformed to be like Christ. In one sense this is the Gospel and in another sense this is sanctification. But we know that this is all of grace. No one can ever bring God under obligation to where He shows him or her His glory. We only know God and see His glory by grace and it is nothing but grace that does this.
Perhaps the clearest picture of this is in 2 Cor 4:4: “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” In this text it is the devil that blinds the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. It is the devil that does this and it is the devil that must be overpowered for anyone to see the light of this glory. We then see in verse 6 that it is God is the One who has shone in our hearts. Notice that it is not that God is the One who has shone something else in our hearts, but God shines Himself in the heart. God is the One that overpowers the god of this world and one way that He does that is by shining Himself in the heart of the person. Can anyone argue that this is done on account of anything but the glory of His grace? Can anyone really argue that God shines in the heart of a person because that person has earned it? How repugnant that is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ where sinners are saved by a pure and sovereign grace. If grace is not sovereign, then it is not the biblical grace. God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace (Ephesians 1:6) and not by works.
Ephesians 1:17 shows us that this is true for believer and unbeliever alike. Paul prays “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” Another word or term for seeing God is the knowledge of God. Paul does not pray for the people to obtain this by works, but that God would do this of Himself because it is God alone who can do this. All ways of seeing God and all knowledge of God is by grace because there is no way of bringing God under the obligation of human beings and that is how all things are done to His glory.
The believer must always realize that everything that he or she receives from God is from God as grace. There is nothing the believer receives from God that is not by grace. The sight of God is the highest form of blessedness and it too will only come by grace. The great promise of the believer and of the beatitudes is to see or experience the life of God in the soul in some way. It is not just that the Beatitudes are ways to live a happy life or ways to live a better life, but instead they teach us the way of grace. A pure heart is a heart that has been cleansed from the stench of dead works and the desire for those dead works to please God. A pure heart now lives by grace. It has been stated before that even if a believer could obtain something by works the believer would refuse to do so in order to live by grace. It is the delight of the believer’s soul to live by grace because that shines forth the glory of God while works do not. It is a vile thing to suggest to a believer that loves the grace of God that she or he may know God by works.
A pure heart wants to see God so it can glorify and enjoy Him rather than see Him for selfish reasons. The pure heart wants to see the display of the glory of God and wants to please God through displaying His glory for His pleasure. Holiness is to be set apart from the world and set apart for the purpose of being filled with and then displaying God. A heart that wants the display of the glory of God is a holy and pure heart and will never be satisfied with anything but the beauty and glory of God displayed in and by grace. The desire to do various works as a way to manipulate God in any way would be abhorrent since the goal is to display the glory of His grace. This is simply the opposite of what a heart that loves God would want. It would not be a pure heart.
A man-centered approach to this beatitude would be to devise ways to work for a pure heart so that a person could see God and be saved. The God-centered approach is to look at all the ways of self as works and know that God will never do anything but by and through grace. So the soul that truly wants to see God from a God-centered view will determine to seek a pure heart in the way of grace so that the sight of God would also be by grace. In reality this is the only way that this will happen. A heart that selfishly desires God is not a pure heart and will not see God in His glory. A selfish heart must be humbled and broken in order to be pure. So a man-centered approach will never obtain a truly pure heart and so will never give a true sight of the glory of God. It is only the humbled soul that will ever be broken from its man-centered ways and so seek God for a pure heart that it may see God in His glory.
It is hard to read Matthew 11:25 without seeing the main point of it all: “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. 26 “Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. 27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” As we see the glory of this, we can see that the revelation of God and His truth comes only by His sovereign choice and so it is all by grace. God hides these things from the wise and intelligent and so He hides Himself from the proud and those that try to find ways to understand God without humility. But God reveals Himself to the infants or to those that are humble rather than proud of their own wisdom and intelligence. This is nothing but a stamp of sovereignty and of grace. This is another way of saying that God gives the pure in heart a sight of Himself and that is to them alone. We know that “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5). One way God opposes the proud is by not giving them wisdom and knowledge in the spiritual realm. Those without humility and without a pure heart will not see God because He opposes them. Works to know God is simply pride and impurity and He does oppose them. However, He gives grace to the humble. It is grace to open their spiritual eyes and heart and give Himself to them. In fact, it is a grace that exalts His glory. That is what a pure heart wants.
God Loves... Himself 
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