How to See God

I don't know about you, but I had a blast last Sunday, worshipping Jesus with so many of you, sharing from the Scriptures, and honoring the Moms and future Moms among us. And I find myself already getting excited about this upcoming Sunday as well. I'm looking forward to being at the amphitheater at Kohlmann Park (pray for great weather!) and looking at the next section of the Sermon on the Mount with you. If you want to look ahead at next week's passage, read Matthew 5:38-48, contemplating the idea of grace.

But here on the blog, we've been going through the Beatitudes. This week we come to verse 8, which reads...

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Matthew 5:8

Longing to See God

The famous theologian and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, believes that humans long to see God. In what has become known as his "God-shaped vacuum" quote, Pascal wrote:

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” 

We can see what Pascal was talking about by the number of religions that have existed through time. We see it in the vast array of philosophies and worldviews. We see it in the pursuit of happiness that every human engages in.

But as Pascal points out, this longing that is in every human heart can only be filled by God. We long to see Him.

Who is Pure in Heart

Jesus points out in this sixth beatitude that the only people who are going to actually see God are the pure in heart.

But this poses a problem. The Bible states over and over and over that no one is pure, no one is righteous, no one can see God on his own merit. If sinful mankind actually saw the Perfect God, he or she would die.

So let me get this straight... According to Jesus, in order to see God, you have to be pure in heart. But according to the rest of the Bible, no one is pure in heart, so if they saw God, they would die. Is this some bizarre Catch-22 or contradiction?

This conundrum is why Jesus came to earth. He knew mankind was sinful and therefore separated from God. And he knew that humans couldn't see God or else they'd die (and its difficult to be in a relationship with a dead person!). So Jesus came to earth to pay the penalty for sin, so that we could be forgiven of our sin against God and be given a pure heart.

So if you want to see God, you have to place your faith in Jesus. Because only He can give you a pure heart.

So let me ask you, if you haven't fully surrendered your life to Jesus, what is holding you back? Because I truly want you to see God.