“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” Ephesians 1:14
In Christ, I am holy and blameless. That seems like almost sacrilege to say that doesn’t it? We hear a lot about being “just a sinner saved by grace.” And we are – make no mistake about it. We do nothing to earn our salvation, BUT once we are saved, we become something new. We become someone who is holy and blameless.
The word holy in the original Greek actually means, “a saint.” I don’t know about you, but I rarely feel saintly, but God says, IN CHRIST, that’s who I am. The idea comes up several other times, too.
For instance, in Colossians 1:22 it says, “Yet He has now reconciled you to His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”
This doesn’t mean we never sin – obviously, we are human so sin happens – but it means that when God looks at us, He sees His Son’s righteousness transferred to us.
It’s hard to wrap my mind around this concept because I don’t feel very holy or very blameless. I feel like someone who is broken and messy a lot of the time. How would I live differently, though, if I believed I really was holy and blameless in God’s sight?
How would I live differently if I really believed in my heart and didn’t just know in my head, Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Hettie Green, nicknamed the “Witch of Wall Street” died a very wealthy woman, but she died arguing with a maid over the merits of skimmed milk. Hettie, despite her great wealth, lived like a pauper. It is said she never turned on the heat or used hot water. She had one black dress and set of underwear which she did not replace until they had completely worn out. She didn’t even like them washed too often because soap cost money.
Hettie had a natural head for business and numbers, and those gifts made her a very wealthy woman in a time when women in working in finance was unheard of. Unfortunately, she never enjoyed that wealth. Instead, she lived a substandard existence, even refusing surgery to fix a painful hernia because it cost $150.
We can look at Hettie Green and shake our heads at her foolishness, at the great waste of not ever tapping into her enormous wealth, but we have been given “every blessing in the heavenly places.” We’ve been told we are free from the mastery of sin, and we’re told we can stand before God holy and blameless. Yet, we live defeated and without victory.
Like Hettie, we spend out time grasping at the dregs of our vast spiritual wealth, but never finding the joy of our Savior. We ARE daughters of the King. HE said that we are holy and blameless, that we are saints.
Being holy and blameless does not mean we never sin – we are human, after all. But God promises that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive those sins and cleanse us of our unrighteousness. True conviction should result in true repentance. Once we repent, God forgives us and our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west. We do not have to live with regret and shame hanging over us like a dark cloud.
2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces repentance without regret leading to salvation, but sorrow of the world produces death.”
Satan would really like us to live in worldly sorrow. He would love for us to continue to view ourselves as the dead creatures we were before our salvation. He does not want us to live the abundant life in Christ that was promised to us. He does not want us to live in the confidence that we are holy and blameless. He wants us to live like we are spiritual paupers with the kind of sorrow that darkens the soul and makes us despair. He wants us to be like Hettie Green – blessed but never enjoying those blessings.
After all, if we live like we are spiritually poor who will ask us about God’s riches?
Blessings, Rosanne