"BLESSED are the pure in heart, for they will see God." This beatitude seems to me to reach the very heart of the experience of being a Christian truly. The whole of these Beatitudes are concerned with knowing God and seeing him and being accepted by him. Here we are told what is necessary to see God and to dwell in his presence. This Beatitude follows naturally all the rest of the Beatitudes we have considered. Every one of these Beatitudes are concerned with seeing God in some way. This Beatitude is concerned about seeing God with joy and in all his beauty and excellence. When we are poor in spirit because of the corruption and sinfulness we see within us and in our lives; and when we mourn before God because we see this sin has offended God, and tarnishes his glory; and when we are brought low before God on account of this understanding of God and ourselves in relation with God, we have begun to see God, but it is a sight that brings sorrow and fear. When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up in the temple, he saw God in his holiness and he was filled with terror.

This helps us to understand that seeing God is more complicated than natural earthly seeing with our physical eyes. When we have the experience of the first three Beatitudes we are seeing God, but it is a seeing with our mind and with our heart and with our feelings. Isaiah saw something with his eyes, but this triggered off a seeing within himself, which made him see his utter sinfulness and defilement, because the holiness of God destroys all impurity and sin.

From this seeing we see we need righteousness, and this righteousness is bestowed to us because in our seeing of God in his holiness, we know how much we need righteousness and we just hunger and thirst to be righteous, and we know that if we are to be righteous we must receive it as a gift from God. Isaiah received such cleansing. So we obtain mercy, and in the light of this infinite mercy of God we become merciful because we can�t be anything else in the light of God�s mercy we perceive bestowed upon us. From this we enter into the realm of this Beatitude concerning being pure in heart.

From all this spiritual experience brought to us by the gracious work of God in our soul we desire to see God, because now we have begun to see him in a new and joyful way because of the saving love we have had bestowed upon us. We are told by Jesus that seeing God is for those who are pure in heart. What is it to be pure in heart? Being pure in heart, what it is, rises out of all that has preceded this Beatitude.

Being pure in heart is being honest before God, and not seeking to hide from the truth about ourselves as sinner before God, and from this is a singleness of heart to belong to God wholly and completely, and dwell in his presence, and be what he would have us be. Pureness of heart is to be occupied with God with are whole being, and be filled with all the fulness of God. So pureness of heart is to be pure as God is pure and to be holy as God is holy, so that we may glorify God and live for him, and please him. This is something that reaches right down into the depth of our being. The heart is the centre of our being, and the very essence of our being. So pureness of heart is concerned first and foremost with inner holiness, so that we love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and desire nothing else than to live in God and he in us. A little or even a big outward correctness, and avoidance of sin, will just not do. Pureness of heart must have pureness within, so that there may be nothing in us that offends God, and nothing which interrupts our fellowship with God. If we truly are pure in heart and desire such pureness, it will be a sorrow and concern to us when we see how little we love God, and how much the world attracts us. Our longing will be to pursue everything that will keep us in the presence of God and in his love.

The promise is that we will see God if we are pure in heart. In this life we see through a glass darkly. The reason for this is that we still live in this vale of sin, and we still express our new creation through this still corrupt and sinful flesh. If we saw God face to face then our bodies would be consumed and we would die, and so our seeing of God is spiritual and partial, but nonetheless real and beautiful. But John in his epistle writes these words, �Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.� This is a tremendous assurance. Now we still are afflicted with sin. This is not our new self, but sin still resident in our sinful flesh. For this reason we can�t see God face to face. But when we are brought by his power and grace to glory, we shall be like him. We shall be like him in holiness and purity, and then this beatific vision will be wholly ours, for we shall see him face to face.

Even now we see God in a way that others can�t, who have not saving faith, in his creation, and in his Word, the Bible, and in history and in our own lives as God works in us to will and do of his good pleasure. We are also able spiritually to see God in the face of Jesus Christ, as we are brought to know and see Jesus by the operation of the Spirit in our lives. This vision of God and experience of God so ravishes our soul that we want it to remain and increase in us, and so we seek to be pure in heart, mortifying our corrupt affections, and seeking the Lord in all the means of grace he has given us. The promise we find is true, for the more we, with singleness of heart, seek the Lord, the more we find we are found by him, and filled with the glory of his presence deep within our souls.