Blessed Are The Pure In Heart

July 10

Some people become quite incensed at the notion of certain individuals gaining entrance to heaven. This is because there are those whose actions warrant the severest consequences, and some of us (because we tend to be quite judgmental), cannot abide the thought that they might attain the gift of salvation.

After all, who wants to meet Genghis Kahn or Adolph Hitler when one enters through the Pearly Gates? Who wants to stand face-to-face with some of the worst criminals in the annals of time upon entering eternity? Who can imagine bowing at the Throne of Mercy and Grace beside someone who had committed atrocities in his lifetime?

The reality is that these ignominious fellows are highly unlikely to have had a desire to lay their sins at the feet of Jesus before they expired, so the free gift of cleansing from the evil they perpetrated is not likely to have been received by them. Their vile hearts were stained by the wickedness that they so gladly enfolded to themselves. Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:8 are unlikely to have any application to them for He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

He did not say, “Blessed are the pure.” No. He knows that none of us are pure. But those who are pure in heart have a hunger for righteousness that cannot be satisfied in any way but through the acceptance of Jesus’ gift of salvation. When we lay our sins at His feet and receive the cleansing His shed blood provides, we are absolved of the sin that renders us unworthy to see God. Those who are pure in heart know their own need for a Savior and pray all men will lay their sins at His cross.