SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2018 11:34 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Purpose—Holiness
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
1:4b
Message of the
verse: “that we would be holy and
blameless before Him.”
I
have mentioned many times that God chose us before the world was formed, and
when we think about that we realize that God knew, as He knows all things, that
we would be in a state of sinfulness when we were born, therefore God would
have to make a way for us to be saved from that sinfulness, and that way of
course was through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now as we look at this
portion of verse two we see the word blameless and this word in the Greek is Amomos and it literally means without
blemish, or spotless. So as we look at
this small portion of verse four we see the purpose for God choosing us and
that is to make us blameless before Him.
It is because we are chosen in Him that we are “holy and blameless before
Him.” Let us look at 1 Peter 1:18-19 for
a little help “18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver
or gold from your futile way of life
inherited from your forefathers, 19 but
with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of
Christ.” As we look at these two verses
we see how it is that we have been redeemed, which is with the precious blood
of the unblemished and spotless blood or Christ. This is how we are holy and blameless before
God for we are “in Christ,” and as mentioned before we are what Christ is, and
that is holy and blameless. I am
thinking of a passage from the book of Zechariah that I will have to look for
but it shows the High Priest as being in filthy closes, but God sees him as
being clean and pure. “1 Then he showed
me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his
right hand to accuse him. 2 The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you,
Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand
plucked from the fire?" 3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the
angel. 4 He spoke and said to those who were standing before him,
saying, "Remove the
filthy garments from him." Again he said to him, "See, I have taken your iniquity
away from you and will clothe you with festal robes." 5 Then I
said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean
turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the LORD
was standing by. 6 And the
angel of the LORD
admonished Joshua, saying, 7 "Thus
says the LORD of hosts, ’If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My
service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts,
and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here (Zech. 3:1-7).” The angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ.
John MacArthur writes “The unworthy
has been declared worthy, the unrighteous declared holy. It is Christ’s eternal and foreordained plan
to ‘present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle
or any such thing but that she should be holy and blameless’ (Eph. 5:27).”
Paul is talking about our position
and not our practice. This speaks of the
sanctification that believers receive when they are born again. We are declared righteous by God through
Christ, and as we live our life on earth we continue to grow in Christ to
become more like Him, and then when we get to heaven we will be perfectly
sanctified. “Our practice can and does
fall short, but our position can never fall short, because it is exactly the
same holy and blameless position before God that Christ has. We are as secure as our Savior, because we
are in Him, waiting for the full redemption and glorious holiness that awaits
us in His presence (MacArthur).” Because
of what we are in Christ we should strive to live lives not that reflect the
holiness and blameless that is our destiny.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: After going
over the first seven verses in Psalm 51 earlier this morning and then learning
that I am holy and blameless in position in Christ I am to continue to desire
to live a life that will please the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I have to decide
how I am going to teach my Sunday school class this Sunday as there are some
things that I am thinking about that I am not sure of. I trust the Lord for wisdom.
Answer to
yesterday’s Bible question: “Luke.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Where did people think
Samson’s strength lay?”
Answer in our
next SD.
10/31/2018
12:22 PM
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