Purity – Paul Nordman

Love’s Pure Light

“Tis the season of angels, or so it seems. It was an angel who told a young Mary about the child she would bear, and several times did angels guide her husband, Joseph, as well. To the shepherds on the night-shift appeared an entire host of them, all heralding the Messiah’s birth. What an experience! But did you ever notice people’s oft-fearful responses to angelic encounters throughout the Bible? Daniel was “set trembling on his hands and knees.”¹ Soldiers guarding Jesus’ tomb “shook and became like dead men.”² The shepherds were “terrified”³ that first Noel, and when an angel appeared to Cornelius, the Roman officer “stared at him in fear.”⁴ Then there’s Gideon, who thought he would die. Literally.⁵

But these were only ministering angels, celestial servants. God speaks so of them: “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”⁶ Then if the appearance of God’s messengers is so overpowering as to cower the bravest among us, how unimaginably more so must be the presence of our holy God? Even the vision of Him overwhelmed John in the Revelation given to him: “When I saw [Jesus], I fell at his feet as though dead.”⁷ What a predicament: God’s eyes are “too pure to look on evil,”⁸ and “man may not see [Him] and live.”⁹ Not in this world, anyway. God is pure by nature, and by nature we are not.

Yet how did the angels so often reply? “Don’t be afraid.” For God is for us. He will judge, yes, but His desire for us is not condemnation, but purity, restoration, and friendship. Hear Jesus’ heart as He intercedes for us in the eve of his crucifixion: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.¹⁰ God wants us to be with Him and to see Him in full glory. And John says He has made it possible: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”¹¹ Jesus shed His blood, sacrificed His life, to purify our life, and thus purified, we will see the glory of Christ — “Son of God, love’s pure light.”¹² We need not be afraid.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Father, thank You for purifying us through Your Son, Jesus the Messiah. Bring us into Your presence in Your time through Jesus, the way. May we see His glory and rejoice before Him forever. Amen.

¹ Daniel 10:10 NIV
² Matthew 28:4 NIV
³ Luke 2:9 NIV
⁴ Acts 10:4 NIV
⁵ Judges 6:22-23
⁶ Hebrews 1:7 ESV (see also Psalm 104:7)
⁷ Revelation 1:17 ESV
⁸ Habakkuk 1:13 NIV
⁹ Exodus 33:20 NIV
¹⁰ John 17:24 NIV
¹¹ 1 John 1:7 NIV
¹² Joseph Mohr, “Silent Night,” Hymnal.net, accessed: December 23, 2025.

You’re Pure for Sure

Do you remember Pure gas stations? Their slogan, “Be Sure with Pure,” was something of a losing proposition, seemingly, for in the late 60s its parent company rebranded Pure as Union 76. It seems people were willing to tolerate a little dose of impurity in their gas tanks, after all. So it is likewise with our spiritual life: we accept some measure of impurity; in fact, our sin nature prefers it. But God does not.

Sometimes we errantly look upon God’s mercy as a “replacement” for His judgment, as if sin is no longer sin — or no longer to be judged as sin — and as though sin has somehow outlasted God’s Word and won the day. For example, a pastor friend once mused about sexual sin clearly condemned in the Bible. “I think under the new covenant, it may no longer be a sin,” he said. I was stunned, for by no means will God ever taint His purity through capitulation. Such would be unmerciful to us.

To understand God’s mercy, we must understand our sin. By its nature, sin separates us from God, as David confessed in song, “No evil can dwell with You.”¹ Isaiah proclaims of humankind, “your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God.”² Moreover, even “our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”³ And lest we think God grades us on a curve, James warns us, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”⁴ It is into this squalor that God’s mercy brilliantly shines.

Then to understand God’s judgment, we must understand His purity. Sin must be completely eradicated, but how could a flawed people so separated by sin from God even begin atone for our sins, let alone succeed in doing so? Only God’s sinless life can sacrificially atone for a people made in His image. And so it is that God “made Him who knew no sin [Jesus] to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”⁵ This sinless Jesus “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, eager for good deeds.”⁶ In Hebrews we read, “Such a high priest truly meets our need — one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.”⁷ In His purity, Jesus withstood God’s judgment and, in His mercy, He purifies all who live in Him. In Christ, we’re pure for sure. He makes us so.

Then, “since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”⁸

Be sure. You’re pure.

Father, thank You for Your judgment of sin, and thank You for purifying us through the sacrificial atonement of Your Son. In His name we pray. Amen.

¹ Psalm 5:4 NASB
² Isaiah 59:2 NASB
³ Isaiah 64:6
⁴ James 2:10 ESV
⁵ 2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB
⁶ Titus 2:14 NASB
⁷ Hebrews 7:26 NIV
⁸ Hebrews 10:21-22 ESV