T’S AMAZING HOW ONE WORD CAN cause such an epiphany. But that’s what one Greek word has done for me. At the heart of the famed Beatitudes, Matthew reaches deep into the Greek language and employs a word rich with meaning when He quotes Christ. “Blessed are the pure in heart,” Jesus says, “for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).*

 

One author notes: “Verse eight sets the keynote for the entire sermon.”¹ It is not a coincidence, then, that Jesus addresses the human heart, while at the same time addressing the heart of the gospel message. In all our discussion about the Christian life—from Sabbath observance, to health reform, to loving others—what deserves our attention most are matters relating to the heart. While the Pharisees were busy trying to clean the outside of the cup—and we spend much of our time doing the same—Jesus wanted to address the root of all that pertains to the Christian experience. Thus, He exhorts His followers: “Blessed are the pure in heart.”

 

The Greek word for “pure” that Matthew uses is katharos. Because New Testament authors often referred to the Greek translation of the Old Testament—known as the Septuagint—Matthew’s reading audience would immediately have linked this word to the Old Testament, where the verbal form of the word is used more than 250 times. In Psalm 24, for example, David wonders: “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord” (Ps. 24:3-5).

 

It’s almost as if Christ is alluding directly to this psalm. Those who receive blessing from the Lord, David writes, are the ones who have a pure heart, which is what David desired for himself. For one of his most well-known psalms, the Greek translators also use the same language when David petitions: “Create in me a clean [katharos] heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10).

 

In much of today’s discussion and theological debate we far too often focus our energies on peripheral and symptomatic issues. Quite honestly, we major in minors. While we spend a lot of time talking about jewelry, structural reorganization, or becoming more “progressive”—issues that all have their place but are, nonetheless, “outside of the cup”—many of us fail to address our human hearts. We miss the thing that Jesus focuses on. This is precisely what Jesus addresses in the Beatitudes.

 

Elsewhere, as well, Jesus plainly states: “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt. 15:19). While we may try hard to keep these “bad acts” from ever occurring, unless we go to the root of the problem—the heart from which these actions flow—we will simply be treating cancer with pain medication. Such an action may rid the person of temporary discomfort, but it will never prevent a person from inevitable relapse.

 

Of course, we cannot clean or purify our own hearts. It was Solomon who wondered: “Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean, I am pure [katharos] from my sin’?” (Prov. 20:9). The obvious answer: no one.

 

But this is the beauty of our understanding of Christ’s day of atonement ministry. More than simply looking through a stack of books to see who’s worthy of heaven and who isn’t, Christ’s Most Holy Place ministry focuses primarily on providing total cleansing of the human heart. Again, the Greek version of the Old Testament utilizes the same word for “clean” when we read in Leviticus: “For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord” (Lev. 16:30). This is precisely what Christ is doing now.

 

We sinful human beings have no way of cleansing ourselves. We cannot gain purity of heart through any resolution that we make, however sincere it may be. But Christ, in His great heavenly ministry, is working to cleanse a people who will stand in His presence when He returns.

 

As author Roy Gane puts it: “By His Spirit, God can speed up the spiritual growth of His people so that they outgrow sin. By cleansing His people and presenting them to Himself without blemish, Christ works Himself out of the job of forgiving sins. He does not walk off the job. We could say that He is ‘laid off’ from this work because there are no more forgivable sins to forgive.”²

 

Amazingly, this is precisely what we see in the book of Revelation, where John utilizes the same Greek word to describe God’s people at Christ’s second coming. With one accord the great multitude shouts, “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean [katharos] and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints” (Rev. 19:7, 8).

 

God can finally place a clean wedding dress on His bride when He knows that the wedding dress is a reflection of a clean heart and a pure character. That is the only way that the clean dress will not be dirtied.

 

God desires cleanliness of heart and purity of character. We cannot achieve that if we are left to ourselves, however. Fortunately, God has set up a system by which He can achieve that in the lives of His people. We can respond to this good news by faith and thus be truly blessed when we accept Christ’s heart of purity.

 

Heaven awaits us and, more important, so does God.

 

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²Roy Gane, Altar Call (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Diadem, 1999), p. 330. It appears that Gane is responding to the idea that Ellen White proposes when she says that we will live in the last days without a mediator (Early Writings, p. 71; The Great Controversy, p. 425).

 

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