Holy and Blameless

The next several blogs will be about Ephesians chapter 1.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we would be holy and blameless before Him."
Ephesians 1:3-4

Wow!  This is rich with meaning!  Paul starts of with a blessing or thanksgiving to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He makes it personal - Jesus is our Lord.  And Jesus came from the eternal, omniscient, omnipotent God of the universe!  And through Christ, Paul is accepting the blessing from God.  These blessings are for every believer.  God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (because we have followed Christ and Christ gave His blood and God accepted us!)  What are these spiritual blessings?  Sonship (or daughtership) with the Father.  Access to the throne of God.  Confidence before God.  Forgiveness.  Love.  Joy.  Peace.  Holiness.  Being blameless.  Can you name others?  What about having the God of all the universe protecting us and providing for us!  What about knowing the future and how the world ends and being confident that God will keep His word forever? Wow!

Many non-Christians or Christians who have not been taught God's Word will look at another believer and call them self-righteous or sanctimonious.  But right here in Ephesisans we see that we are holy and blameless, yes, righteous before God.  It is not self-righteousness because we realize that our only righteousness comes through the blood of Christ.  But don't be a Christian that believes that he remains in his unrighteousness until heaven.  Throughout Scripture we are taught that we are the righteousness of Christ.  God looks upon us and sees a holy and blameless child.  He is not basing His perception on what we have done, but rather who we are through the blood of Jesus.  Jesus' blood allowed God to pass judgment on us and He declared that we are righteous!  Then He took us in as His own and gave us the right to be called children of God!  And, according to this verse, God knew before He made the world that He would do this!  He knew that man would sin, that He would send Jesus, and that some would follow and become His forever children.  God knows man - our sinfulness, our rebellion, our selfishness.  Yet He still loved us and knew before He even began that He would have to sacrifice His Son for us.  He did it anyway.  That is Love.  that is our God!

Do you know that you are holy and blameless before God?  Holy is to be set apart.  You are not of this world.  You are an alien here.  Your real home is in heaven.  Do your actions and words set you apart?  You are blameless.  God looks upon you and sees the blood of Jesus.  In thankfulness are you walking and growing towards maturity and blamelessness?  If you ever wonder if God really loves you, just read theseverses.  He adores you!

Hint of the day: Discipline is necessary, but afterwards extend a hand of forgiveness to your child.  Then don't keep bringing up the bad deeds.  (This goes for husbands and wives also!)  Deal with each transgression as it happens.  If you see a pattern then deal with the underlying situation, but forgive and let go.  Teach your children of God's blood.  Take a white piece of paper and have the child srit his/her name on it with a black marker.  Then take a red marker and have them write out various sins.  Take a red piece of cellophane and hold it over the paper.  You can see their name, but not their sins.  That red cellophane represents Christ's blood.  When God sees us, He sees us throug the blood and calls us by name.  He does not see our sin.  Sin does keep us from wanting to fellowship with God.  So confession is very important to keep us coming to God.