Holy and Without Blame

Ephesians 1:4

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

I have been reading Ephesians 1:1-14 everyday for a while as I study who I am in Christ. For some reason the second half of verse four stood out to me, "that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."

The idea that I can be "holy and without blame" is humbling and mind blowing to me.

As humans, we tend to hold on to past hurts-either our own or those done to us, or even those we have done to others. However, this verse shows that we can stand before God without any of those hurts!

It is not until we are washed in the blood of Christ that we are truly clean. It is only then that we can be found "holy and without blame" because God only sees Christ.

Revelation 1:5 tells us that we are washed "from our sins in his own blood."

The purpose of washing is to remove dirt and grim. We do it to be clean and without blemish. The only way to do that with our sin is with what is pure and holy-Christ's shed blood-blood that was shed for us for that purpose.

Once we are washed, God removes our sin "as far as the east is from the west." (Psalm 103:12). That means they are removed from us so far they are gone. We no longer need to carry them or see them when we look in the mirror.

Praise God for His mercy and grace!