He Has Made You Blameless

Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

~ Colossians 1:22 ~

For so many of us when we accepted and confessed Christ as our Lord and Savior (or "got saved"), we act like we were entering into some "agreement" with God that allows us into heaven. We act like there is a contractual obligation on our part that requires us to rid our lives of all the dirtiness (bad stuff like smoking, drinking, swearing, enter whatever your vice is) that God wouldn't want in heaven. So we spend wasted time trying to figure out what we should do better or stop doing altogether, so that we can meet the standard that allows us to enter in to God's presence.

From our skewed lens that we view God through, we somehow believe that we "get it". That somehow the plan can't be as simple as He says it is. But it is. He, through no effort of yours, has already completed the work for you to be presented blameless in His presence. The atoning work of Christ crucified on the cross reconciles, or restores, you to Him. In that work of Christ, GOD brings you into HIS own presence without a single fault. It's already done. You have to do nothing but come to Him.

He has made you blameless, so #ApproachGod.

He Makes You Holy

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

~ 1 Thessalonians 5-23 ~

Too often people believe that they are not worthy to approach God. They believe they are too sinful or too dirty. They believe that because of the “horrible” things they've done, God doesn't want them. Here’s the truth, we aren't worthy; we are too unclean; we are too full of fault to step into the presence of the Almighty, but the more important truth is that He does want us. He desires to bring us into His presence and to do that He aims to make us holy.

Hearing the word holy causes many of us to think of it as this unattainable level of perfection. But it’s not unattainable. Holy in this instance means a couple different things. First it is us being “set apart”. We are set apart from the world. We are made different. When we accept and believe the work of Christ on the cross, we are made blameless, standing before God as His own (pure and untarnished), thus not belonging to the world anymore. This is not a prideful setting apart and actually is centered on the humbling of our hearts. The second is that He continues that work in us. The work that God does in us, through Jesus, keeps us blameless so that He can bring us into His presence without fault (Jude 1:24). This is not to say that it is an easy process. God will remove things from your life, ask you to do other things you’ve not done before and essentially completely change everything about who you were in the past. It will take intentionality on your part, but He is faithful and will do His good work in you (1 Corinthians 1:8-9).

He makes you holy, so #ApproachGod.