The Pure in Heart (Part 3)

In Part 1 of this series, I cited a few Old Testament promises that pointed to a coming day in which God said he would purify seeking hearts:

"I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you" (Ezek 36:25).¹

"Many will be purified, made spotless and refined" (Dan. 12:10a, NIV).

"For he is like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings of righteousness to the LORD" (Mal. 3:2b-3).

In parts 1 and 2, I cited several New Testament texts which emphasize heart purity. For example,  "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God" (Mt. 5:8). "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim. 1:5). "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart" (1 Pet. 1:22).

I also noted that heart purity is not to be confused with sinless perfection; it is a gift of God to be existentially realized in this life to the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, let's proceed further. 

The Heart of the Matter

The heart is that inner faculty of man where one's thoughts and imaginations, desires and aspirations, and choices and actions originate. It is the very fountainhead and spring from which all man's attitudes and behavior flow.

Christianity is a religion of the heart. True, it is a way of life, but it is a way of life that flows from the heart.

When the Lord Jesus Christ enters a person's life, he enters the very heart of that person to set up his kingdom, and from there launches a campaign to bring under his sovereign reign every facet of man's life.

Man-made, self-righteous religion expends enormous will power to conform one's life to a self-devised code of religious conduct. Such religion is merely externalized futility, which ends in disillusionment and despair. After all, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots" (Jer. 13:23)? 

The Heart Impacts Our Conversation

During his earthly life and ministry, the Lord Jesus always went to the heart of the matter. Jesus said even one's conversation is heart-revealing.

Addressing hypocritical Pharisees one day, Jesus intuitively knew these religious pretenders were evil people. While projecting an image of goodness, Jesus knew they were corrupt at the core. Christ called them a nest of snakes—a "brood of vipers," saying, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil" (Mt. 12:33-35).

Jesus said of these people that it was impossible for them to pursue a lifestyle of wholesome conversation with others because of the condition of their hearts. The tree was "bad," therefore it produced bad fruit.

The apostle Paul exhorted believers of his day, "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place . . ." (Eph. 5:4a). Christians don't tell off-colored jokes. Christians don't use profanities, vulgarities, or obscenities, or hang around people who do (if they can help it). Christians don't share salacious stories, or laugh at those who do. Why is this? Because their once defiled hearts have been purified. And purified hearts—hearts enthroned by the pure Christ—do not use their consecrated tongues for filthy purposes.

Now, lest Satan should take advantage of a recent convert, allow me to provide this note of caution. The old language—the language of "Egypt"—may not necessarily leave overnight, but it will leave.

E. Stanley Jones, who served Christ in India for more than 50 years, speaks to this point from personal experience. He said the next morning following his conversion, "I walked out into a new world. The trees seemed to clap their hands; the sky was never so blue, and nature was never so alive and radiant." Jones said he was feeling so good, "I walked up to my chum, Ras, slapped him on the back, and said, 'My, what a d___ fine day!" Jones amusingly adds, "The angels must have smiled and said: 'He's trying to say "Hallelujah," but he doesn't know the language yet.' "²

But Paul not only said what God's people should not speak with their tongues, but what they should use their tongues for: "but instead let there be thanksgiving" (Eph. 5:4b). Let there be continuous thanksgiving to God from the lips of Christians, and let there be continuous thanksgiving for and toward God's people. "I thank you, Father" (Mt. 11:25) characterized the life of Jesus. It did the samein the life of Paul. So it should for us. It will if the heart is good and pure. 

The Heart Impacts Our Conduct

One cannot be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and live a filthy life. It's absolutely impossible! How is that? Because a disciple of Christ is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And where the Holy Spirit dwells he brings with him divine holiness, a divine purity—the very purity of the ascended Christ.

Where the Holy Spirit does not have control, the religious man and woman will do their best to conform to a man-made standard of purity and righteousness. Such people major on externals and minor on heart matters. Such were the Pharisees of Jesus' day who were fanatical regarding their dietary laws. To these, Jesus said, "There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him [I can almost hear one of them choke on his broccoli at this point!], but the things that come out of a person are what defile them" (Mk. 7:15).

Christ's own disciples needed him to interpret what he meant. Jesus explained, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person" (Mk. 7:20-23).

Why is sexual immorality so pervasive in our culture? Because of impure hearts. Why is plagiarism so wide-spread in our educational institutions? Because of impure hearts. Why do applicants lie and embellish their résumés? Because of impure hearts. Why do marriages too often end in divorce?  Because of impure hearts. Why are we so discontent with what we have? Because of impure hearts. Why is there so much bickering and complaining in some homes? Because of impure hearts. Why do we indulge our eyes with risqué media? Because of impure hearts. Why do we criticize our brothers and sisters in Christ, thus exalting ourselves? Because of impure hearts. Why do some women wear clothing with immodest necklines and hemlines? Because of impure hearts. Why is it easier for us to think bad of a person instead of good? Because of impure hearts. Why do we insist on having our own way in church business meetings? Because of impure hearts. Why do we run from church to church, trying to find the perfect one? Because of impure hearts.  

Those Who Received Pure Hearts

I realize there are those Bible scholars and teachers who say a pure heart is beyond  our "wildest dreams" in this life and none should expect to receive such. Interesting, isn't it? These religious sophists apparently believe themselves to be wiser than the Scriptures, for the Lord Jesus and the apostles taught that God wants all of his children to enjoy a pure heart and, furthermore, the Scriptures record that many did.

Peter says he and the 120 disciples received pure hearts on the day of Pentecost , and that a man by the name of Cornelius did also along with his entire household.

Testifying at the first Jerusalem Council, having been convened for the purpose of giving Paul and Barnabas an opportunity to explain their ministry among the Gentiles, Peter defends Paul's ministry by explaining what happened when he himself first preached among Gentiles. Peter stood to his feet and reminded the church leaders how God had sent him to preach the gospel among Gentiles: "God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8-9). A cleansed heart is a pure heart. You cannot have a pure heart without having a cleansed heart.

This same apostle Peter, the apostle who had received a pure heart along with all the other disciples on the day of Pentecost, wrote years later to first-century Christians: "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart" (1 Pet. 1:22).

The issue here is not some theory of sanctification as to how one may receive a pure heart. The question should be, Do I have a pure heart? You say, "I'm clothed with the righteousness of Christ." Does such a doctrine purify your heart? You say, "Christ's righteousness has been imputed to my account." Does such a belief give you a pure heart? Theories won't change the heart, my friend. I don't need a theory of righteousness or sanctification. I need a pure heart. It is not a question of what Augustine, Luther, or Wesley said about the matter. It is a question of whether I will receive what God has promised, what Christ has provided through his death and resurrection, and what the Holy Spirit effectually makes real to all thirsty hearts. We don't need more theories of righteousness and sanctification. We need more God-thirsty men and women who will do what young Donald McPhail did one morning.

The Scottish Presbyterian revivalist, Duncan Campbell, used to tell the story about a young man who came to Christ during the mighty move of the Spirit in the Hebrides Islands. Donald McPhail was his name. Some time following his conversion, Donald was sorely struggling with his divided heart. On the one hand, he was rejoicing over his new-found Savior; on the other hand, he was debating whether he should truly be Christ's disciple by surrendering his all.

One morning, according to his established ritual, he went out to a hillside to pray. Donald knew little about the Bible or theology. He was merely hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of God. He wanted to be one with God. In great agony of prayer he cried that day, "Lord Jesus, if you don't do something for me soon, I can't take it any more!"

Donald would later confide to Duncan Campbell that God heard his prayer, giving him a cleansing unlike any he had known before, and uniting a previously divided heart. 

It seems to me there are at least three cleansings spoken of in the New Testament. These cleansings are grounded in the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of Christ and effected by the Holy Spirit. No one should ever speak of his own sanctity, but neither should he deny the power of God to do in him what Christ died for and for which the Holy Spirit was sent. 

1. There is the cleansing of the conscience from the guilt of sins committed (see, for example, Heb 10:22; 1 John 1:9). 

2. There is a cleansing of the heart from the defilement of sin (see, for example,  Mt. 3:11; Acts 15:9). 

3. There is a daily, continuous cleansing available and necessary for all God's children (see Jn. 13:10; 1 John 1:7).

More about these cleansings in the next issue. 

I now ask you, dear reader, Would the Lord Jesus have told us, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," if he could not give the thirsty-hearted a pure heart? Would Peter have declared that the hearts of Cornelius' household and those of the 120 were purified on the day of Pentecost if they were not? Would Peter later have exhorted Christians to love one another with a pure heart if such a heart condition were unavailable in this life?

Let's not preoccupy ourselves with theories of sanctification. Let's go to the High Priest himself, asking him to satisfy our heart's need. If you do so, I believe you will discover that through the shed blood of Christ and the fiery ministry of the Holy Spirit, he will give you a heart as pure as he gave to Peter and many others. After all, isn't that one of our fundamental needs? 

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, . . ." (Eph. 3:20). 

- Soli Deo Gloria -

1. Unless otherwise noted, all Bible references are taken from the English Standard Version.
2. E. Stanley Jones, A Song of Ascents: A Spiritual Autobiography, p. 34.