Seeing God

This beatitude presents highest ideal for what is to be attained by believers. The attainment is seeing God. Purity of the heart is the qualification of the attainment. Christ presents this because he wants his subjects to adopt this high ideal and strive for it.

How do we reach this ideal that is presented by this beatitude? How do we make this beatitude our own? How do we practice it?

1. we must appreciate what this beatitude presents to us
   the prospect for seeing God
   in the future: heaven, new heaven and earth
   now through the eye of faith: in creation, providential dealing, salvation, written revelation
2. know how this beatitude is practiced
   the conditional basis for this ideal of seeing God is sanctification
   we need to practice purity
   but we know we are not pure
   purity is gained through the blood of Christ and the promises of God that pertain to salvation
   we gain purity as we see Christ by faith
   it is practiced by laying hold of the gospel of peace
3. we must avoid the danger that this beatitude implies
   the danger of externalizing religion
   this is what the Pharisees did
   this is what the church at Ephesus did when they lost their first love
   true religion is a matter of the heart and not of the externals