I am going to look at these two attributes of our being new creations together since they are so closely linked. One of the struggles with accepting these as part of who we are is that we are often so focused on ourselves and our need to meet God’s expectations that we put these into the category of something we must work to become. This either creates a need in us to work really hard to somehow achieve a holy life, or to realize we can never be successful at such an endeavor and give up.
Here we face an incredibly important question: When Paul tells us that God ‘chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight’, what is he talking about? Is he challenging us with what God wants us to become, or is he relating what God has already provided in our life through the saving grace of Jesus?
If you have been walking with us over the past few weeks, you know the answer. All these attributes listed in Ephesians one and two are applied to our lives by the mercy of God at the moment of our salvation. If you have sought redemption through faith in Jesus, you ARE holy and blameless in God’s sight.
This truth is affirmed in Ephesians 5:25-27, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
This makes it clear that it is God’s work to “clean us up” and make us presentable to be in his presence. In short, because our salvation covers our sin with the blood of Jesus, when God looks at us, he sees the holiness and blamelessness of Jesus. This is one of the most amazing truths of our relationship with our Lord. Jesus took our sin, buried it in the deepest sea, and replaced it with his holiness. God no longer has access to our spiritual ugliness but has forgotten it ever existed. God will never bring our sin up to us again. Hebrews 10:14-18 teaches us this, “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
This is a hard concept for our human minds to grasp. We have trouble forgetting the past, especially those things that have caused us pain. Add to this our understanding that God is omniscient, he knows everything, past, present, and future. So how can he forget our sin? It comes down to a matter of choice. God chooses to never hold our forgiven sin against us. He chooses to separate it as far as the east is from the west. He chooses to see us as holy and blameless. Because he is also all powerful, he can perfectly stand by the choices he makes.
For us, this means that we do not have to carry guilt and shame for our past. Although we may need to deal with consequences of bad decisions in this life, God has blotted them from his memory. It means that we will never face judgement for that forgiven sin. God will not play a video of our lives and scold us for those things displeasing to him. They are gone.
As Christians, we are tempted and at times give in to sin. We are promised that if we confess that sin, God will forgive. That sin is already under the blood of Jesus. Our need to confess is for our benefit, to keep our communication lines open and our
attention on our Lord. He has done the work of redemption; we reap the rewards of being holy and blameless.