01/11/22 A LITTLE CLOSER LOOK AT PURITY OF HEART

01/11/22 A LITTLE CLOSER LOOK AT PURITY OF HEART

Bible believers know that God requires CLEAN HANDS and A PURE HEART (an undefiled heart, a heart cleansed from all sin), or at least we should know this.

Some argue that a pure heart is impossible (even for God's salvation) in this present world.
Some argue that a pure heart is not required by God.
Some argue that God counts us or sees us as having a pure heart (contrary to the facts and the evidence).
Some argue that Christians get a pure heart at the time of justification.

Let me review my understanding (based on the Bible witness).
Being regenerated does not remove the Sin Nature (aka, the Double Mind, the Old Man), the corruption from the heart of the believer.
God requires believers to have a pure heart.
A pure heart is not achievable through any human effort, any more than forgiveness, regeneration, justification, adoption is achievable through human endeavor. But no one is either converted to Christ or purified in heart without submitting to God and accepting God's grace.
God provides a pure heart to the believer, through the redemptive work of Christ, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and faith in God's ability, desire, and willingness to cleanse us from all sin.
A pure heart is not attained through incremental and progressive growth (though incremental and progressive growth is essential for a believer to come to the point of receiving and obtaining a pure heart, as a work of God's grace). As long as there is any sin in the heart, the heart is not pure. You cannot grow into purity incrementally. You are either pure or you are not pure.
We do not grow into purity, since purity is the absence of any and all pollution. Purity, like justification and regeneration, is received instantaneously as a work of God's saving grace. On the other hand, maturity is incremental and progressive, attained by growth.

There will be a certain amount of maturity before there will be actual purity. After the heart is purified there will be more aggressive and thorough maturing.
Purity of heart is the expressed desire of the serious and sincere, yet Carnal (Double-Minded) Christian, just as forgiveness and newness of life is the expressed desire of the sinner who is seeking salvation. Purity of heart is a work of God done in the believer, just as Newness of the heart is a work of God done in the non-believer.