Holy And Blameless Series

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord

Holiness is therefore not just a blessing that God has for us, but is essential for our Christian lives.

The second part of the constantly repeated command is the key - "as I, the Lord your God am holy". This holiness is not our own holiness. It is God’s. It is a gift from God. It is not our righteousness, goodness or power that makes us holy, but God’s. Holiness is not something we achieve ourselves, but a gift of God. It is not a reward for good behaviour, or for spending a lot of time in prayer, but it is a gift of God. It is therefore a blessing for all believers, not just a super-spiritual elite.

As well as making us holy, he also makes us blameless. This blamelessness means that no accusation against us will have leg to stand on. When Satan, the accuser of God’s people accuses us of any sin or crime before God, God immediately dismisses the case. Of course we have committed many sins and faults, but as far as God is concerned all our past sins and faults are completely forgotten.

It is God’s eternal will to for us to stand before him just as if we had never done anything wrong in our whole lives. But we know that we are guilty people. So how can God just declare us innocent and make us blameless? We are told in verse seven.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

Again it is Christ. The source of all our blessings. Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross. In the Old Testament the priests were temporarily made holy so that they could approach God by being covered with the blood of sacrificed animals. As New Testament believers we are not called upon to offer animal sacrifices or to cover ourselves with the blood of animals to be made holy, instead we have the blood of Jesus, the sinless, perfect man. The holy Son of God.

This all takes place in an attitude of love. God’s love for us. A love that he had before he created the world, before there was any humanity. A love that sent his Jesus to the cross.

These verses of Ephesians teach us that God plans to make us holy, it has always been his plan that we should be set apart from him, yielded to him, belonging to him, constantly in his presence, free from our sin addiction. Not only that, but he has given us the means to be Holy, the shed blood of Jesus who took the blame for our sin.

The holiness that we are called to have as Christians is not our own. It does not come from our own goodness, our own abilities or powers but from the holiness, the righteousness, the purity and the power of God.

He calls us today to submit to him, to stop struggling in our own power but to yield to him, and his power and righteousness.