Question of the Day
September 30
Q: How can anyone—especially God—think of me as holy and without blame?
A: In God's eyes, you are exactly as Ephesians 1:3-4 describes you: "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes."
If you're like many believers, however, when you read the two verses above, your heart sinks. How can that be? Sometimes I stumble and mess things up.
But before you go too far down that track, remember: The blessing and the choosing has nothing to do with you! It’s God, and He only, who has blessed and chosen you to be holy and without blame. And why would He do that? Because He loves you!
We must always fall back on the fact that God loves us! It's what gives us the ability to do the things that please the Lord. It's understanding His love for us and being free from condemnation that enables us to obey His commandments by loving others. (See 1 John 3:21-22).
Stop viewing yourself in light of past failures, and start seeing yourself like God does. Instead of focusing on the sins you've committed in your life, He sees you the way you were created to be in the beginning: as perfect as Jesus Himself!
He doesn’t deem you holy and blameless because of your perfect behavior. He declared you holy before you ever did anything, either good or bad. He called you blameless before the foundation of the world.
To understand how that's possible, you must realize you existed in the mind and heart of God before you were ever created. He knew you before the devil ever got a chance to mess you up. Before time began, He saw you as the pure, perfect child of God He planned for you to be.
He also knew the devil would use sin to try to mess up His plan for you. So before the earth was even created…before Adam and Eve took their first breath…and before the devil ever hatched his demonic plot against them…God put His plan of redemption in place. He established Jesus as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). He redeemed you…and me…and all who would ever receive Jesus as Lord "with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:19).
God didn't wait until after you sinned to redeem you. He did it before you were even born. He put His redemption plan in place and declared you righteous, holy and blameless before time began. All of that came rushing into your innermost being when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
So stop arguing with Him and start agreeing with Him! Instead of seeing yourself in the light of your old, sinful past, start seeing yourself like God does—with old things passed away and all things having become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). That's the secret to developing confidence in your being holy and blameless in His sight!
A: In God's eyes, you are exactly as Ephesians 1:3-4 describes you: "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes."
If you're like many believers, however, when you read the two verses above, your heart sinks. How can that be? Sometimes I stumble and mess things up.
But before you go too far down that track, remember: The blessing and the choosing has nothing to do with you! It’s God, and He only, who has blessed and chosen you to be holy and without blame. And why would He do that? Because He loves you!
We must always fall back on the fact that God loves us! It's what gives us the ability to do the things that please the Lord. It's understanding His love for us and being free from condemnation that enables us to obey His commandments by loving others. (See 1 John 3:21-22).
Stop viewing yourself in light of past failures, and start seeing yourself like God does. Instead of focusing on the sins you've committed in your life, He sees you the way you were created to be in the beginning: as perfect as Jesus Himself!
He doesn’t deem you holy and blameless because of your perfect behavior. He declared you holy before you ever did anything, either good or bad. He called you blameless before the foundation of the world.
To understand how that's possible, you must realize you existed in the mind and heart of God before you were ever created. He knew you before the devil ever got a chance to mess you up. Before time began, He saw you as the pure, perfect child of God He planned for you to be.
He also knew the devil would use sin to try to mess up His plan for you. So before the earth was even created…before Adam and Eve took their first breath…and before the devil ever hatched his demonic plot against them…God put His plan of redemption in place. He established Jesus as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). He redeemed you…and me…and all who would ever receive Jesus as Lord "with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:19).
God didn't wait until after you sinned to redeem you. He did it before you were even born. He put His redemption plan in place and declared you righteous, holy and blameless before time began. All of that came rushing into your innermost being when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
So stop arguing with Him and start agreeing with Him! Instead of seeing yourself in the light of your old, sinful past, start seeing yourself like God does—with old things passed away and all things having become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). That's the secret to developing confidence in your being holy and blameless in His sight!
