Pure

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

Take a moment and think about all the ways in which we can apply the word pure. We can talk about pure water, purebred animals, sounds can be pure, gold can be pure, and the list goes on. When something is pure, it is unmixed, or uncontaminated. Purity is different then simply clean. Something that is pure is without contamination in both seen and unseen dimensions. So what does purity have to do with holiness? Purity and holiness, in fact, go hand in hand.

There are two ways in which purity and holiness align. The first has to do with sinners being decontaminated, or purified from sin. The second has to do with having a fixed will. These are the concepts we will explore.

Purification from Sin and the Sacrificial System

Psalm 51 is my favorite Psalm. It’s my favorite because it tells the story of the tremendous, gracious, reconciling, and purifying work of God in response to King David’s humility and repentance. Psalm 51, as a repentance Psalm, also illustrates the biblical metaphor of sin as defilement. David’s words of repentance brings the metaphor to life in Psalm 51. With a brief look at the psalm we see the comparison made between sin and impurity:

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! (51:2)

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (51:7)

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (51:9-10, emphasis added)

In these verses we find these words pertaining to purity: “wash” (2x), “cleanse”, “purge”, “clean” (2x), and “blot out”. Seven times we encounter this psalm using the purity metaphor in connection to sin. But how, exactly, is sin comparable to contamination, or impurity? The consequential dynamic of sin that the contamination metaphor symbolizes is guilt. To be unclean is to be guilty. To be impure, or contaminated, is to be marked as blameworthy. Let’s flesh this out a bit further.

This idea comes into sharper focus when we think about the sacrificial system. The rituals and procedures for purification from sin that are detailed in the sacrificial system serve as an elaborate symbol, or object lesson that makes guilt, the unseen consequence of sin, tangible. This symbol of the sacrificial system served not only the purpose of helping God’s people to get a firm grasp on the guilt of sin, but also God’s gracious rescue plan that centered in forgiveness through the cross. But how does this work?

The sacrificial system detailed that those who were guilty of sin, of violating God’s rule, would be declared innocent through a sin offering which included taking the life of an animal. The means that, that it is through death alone that the guilt of sin could be lifted. This is why it was the sprinkling of blood cleansed the sinner from defilement. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the impurity, or guilt of the sins of the people was reversed with the sprinkling of blood on the Ark of the Covenant. This activity meant presenting before the God of Israel (represented by the Art of the Covenant), the life of the animal (represented in the blood) so that their sins could be forgiven sins. Leviticus 16:14 reads, “And he [the priest] shall take some of the blood of the bull [sin offering] and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the East side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.” Thankfully, by God’s grace, his people have the option of offering another in their own place so that the consequence of sin, that which defiles, could be lifted from them and placed onto the substitute. It is in this activity that worshippers are made clean, or pure. In other words, it is through this ritual that worshippers are alleviated from the guilt of their sin. The death of the animal symbolized the consequence of sin (death) that would be transferred from the worshipper to the animal.

So, once again, to be impure is to be guilty of sin which is punishable by death. On the other side of the same coin, to be clean, or pure is to be innocent, or righteousness. Here is where the concept of holiness comes into the picture. To be holy is to be declared not guilty, to be pure, clean, innocent, and righteous. This status can only come through sacrifice. As Jesus offers his own life as a sacrifice for sin, our bloodguiltiness is forgiven and we are declared clean, pure, innocent, righteous; we are cleansed from the contaminated by sin. It is through Jesus and Jesus alone that people can be purified.

This is precisely what we see in Psalm 51. Because David committed sin, he is guilty, he is contaminated. As he asks for cleansing, he is asking to be forgiven, to be pronounced innocent. His request is driven not only by his desire to be alleviated from the shame of defilement, but to be eligible to re-enter the God’s community through His people (Psalm 51:8).

To be holy is to be pure, to be fully free from the guilt of sin.

Purity of Heart

There is another sense in which purity and holiness come together and that is at the place of the heart. Here, the human heart represents the will. The heart is the place where our desires originate. So, to talk about a pure heart is to say something about our intentions, our desires and our will. How does this work?

We said before that something that pure is unblended, unmixed. There is only one element, not several. Pure gold is just gold, and nothing else. This means that to have a pure heart, is to have pure, unblended, and fixed will. And what is that will? To love and obey God and have no competing desires. This is what John Wesley means when he talks about Christian Perfection. He is talking about a will, a heart that is completely devoted to God. This is entire sanctification. Entire sanctification is when we have completely abandoned all human desire and have aligned our desires with Christ and Christ alone. This means having a pure heart, to abide in Jesus and no where else. 

We find this idea as well in Psalm 51. We saw already how David please for cleansing, for forgiveness. But he not only asks for God to forgive his sins, but also to, “Create in me a new heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (51:10). David is asking that he not only be purified from the sins he has committed, but also that God would align his heart so as to protect against future potential sins. David is asking God to make his heart pure, unblended, unmixed, and fixed on doing the will of God alone.

It is through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that we can pure, that we can be alleviated from the guilt of sin and have a will that is fully devoted to doing the will of God.

(this is an except from a working book manuscript by myself and Charles Lake titled Holy is a Four Letter Word. All Rights Reserved)