“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” ~ Matthew 5:8
“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:” ~ Colossians 1:12
The following quote is from John Owen as he discusses “The Necessity of Evangelical Holiness.”
“Follow holiness,” saith our apostle, “without which no man shall see the Lord;” for it is the “pure in heart” only that “shall see God.” It is hereby that we are “made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.” Neither can we attain it before we are thus made meet for it. No unclean thing, nothing that defileth or is defiled, shall ever be brought into the glorious presence of this holy God. There is no imagination wherewith mankind is besotted more foolish, none so pernicious, as this, that persons not purified, not sanctified, not made holy, in this life, should afterward be taken into the state of blessedness which consists in the enjoyment of God. There can be no thought more reproachful to his glory, nor more inconsistent with the nature of the things themselves; for neither can such persons enjoy him, nor would God himself be a reward unto them. They can have nothing whereby they should adhere unto him as their chiefest good, nor can they see any thing in him that should give them rest or satisfaction; nor can there be any medium whereby God should communicate himself unto them, supposing them to continue thus unholy, as all must do who depart out of this life in that condition. Holiness, indeed, is perfected in heaven, but the beginning of it is invariably and unalterably confined to this world; and where this fails, no hand shall be put unto that work unto eternity.”
“All unholy persons, therefore, who feed and refresh themselves with hopes of heaven and eternity deceive themselves. Heaven is a place where as well they would not be as they cannot be; in itself it is neither desired by them or fit for them.”
“And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” 1 John 3:3
“There is, therefore, a manifold necessity of holiness impressed on us from the consideration of the nature of that God whom we serve and hope to enjoy, which is holy.”
“Our concernment and interest in God, both here and hereafter, do depend on our being holy.”
Owen has strong words for those who hold to antinomianism:
“He that thinks to please God and to come to the enjoyment of him without holiness makes him an unholy God, putting the highest indignity and dishonor imaginable upon him. There is no remedy; you must leave your sins or your God.”
And lest his readers conclude that he had veered off course into works righteousness, he continues:
“It is true, that our interest in God is not built upon our holiness; but it is as true that we have none without it. Were this principle once well fixed in the minds of men, that without holiness no man shall see God, and that enforced from the consideration of the nature of God himself, it could not but influence them unto a greater diligence about it than the most seem to be engaged in.”
May we all take seriously these words of caution and encouragement; the Scriptures clearly show the necessity of holiness. Those who are justified are also being sanctified. The process of sanctification in our “here and now” is preparing us, “making us meet” for the enjoyment of God for all eternity.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” ~ Hebrews 12:1
