9. See God
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Everyone knows that no sinful human being can see God in all His glory and holiness and survive the vision; yet, here Jesus promises that we will see God. This is astounding and it must have seemed even more so to the audience of Jesus’ day. How can anyone “see God?” What does this mean?
Seeing God must mean something like “seeing with the mind’s eye,” perceiving and understanding in the heart (which is pure), seeing by faith, making the invisible real. See = believe. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” [John 20:29]. Those who are born from above will see the kingdom of God [John 3:3]. It is possible to see by faith the invisible things of the kingdom of God and even to see God Himself. Jesus has indeed “opened the eyes of the blind.” In reference to the healing of a blind man Jesus refers to the spiritually blind in John 9:39: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see.” This was spoken in the context of the healed blind man believing in the Son of Man: seeing is believing.
Not only will believers in Christ see God spiritually in the mind by faith during this life, but also they will see God physically in glory in the next life because then all sin will be removed from our presence and nothing is left to impede the beatific vision. The redeemed saints in heaven are truly “pure in heart” for sin is gone. In this life, before we die, we are purified in heart through the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins; therefore, we can “see God,” that is, believe Him. However, in this world and in our own flesh sin remains and the presence of sin prevents the physical vision of God. But we do have the Word of God, which speaks the Gospel to our hearts to purify. We believe the Word: we are pure in heart; we have the promise of seeing God. By faith Jesus becomes more and more the only thing that is real and eternal.