Holy and Blameless

We were chosen before the foundation of the world to be "holy and blameless before Him" (Eph 1:3). Paul uses the same phrase in Colossians when he says, "He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach" (Col 1:22). What is "holy" and "blameless" ... and has He succeeded?

"Holy" is hagios in Greek. It refers to "the sacred." We've kind of gotten away from that term, so what is "the sacred"? It refers to those things that are pure or consecrated. Holiness, then, is a position. It's "set apart," "other." It's a position that God puts us in ... set apart for Him. It's a positive -- "pure." "Blameless" is amōmos in Greek. It means most literally "without blemish" or "unblameable." It's a negative ... lacking blame. Now, we all are "blameable" in some sense, but that's not this. This is the notion that nothing is left. All our transgressions are addressed and paid. Which, of course, was the point of the Cross ... the "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses" (Eph 1:7). Paid in full.

Has He succeeded? The reference (in both cases) is to being holy and blameless "before Him." That's critical. We may not see ourselves that way. We know what we've done. We know who we are. But He sees something different. He sees "Christ in me" (Col 1:27). He sees me "clothed with Christ" (Gal 3:27). "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor 5:21). In His "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses" (Eph 1:7), we are wiped clean. And when He clothed us in Christ, we are made righteous ... perfectly. We need both. Positive -- perfectly righteous -- and negative -- forgiven. If the command is "you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48), it requires perfectly sinlessness and perfect righteousness. He did that in us.