Sunday, August 5, 2018

The Christian's Purpose



Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,  according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

I vividly remember my great old mentor for Lamb of God church, Bill Stiles, emphasize the foundational truth of the Christian necessity of being holy and blameless before God in love as the Christian purpose. That marker to measure our Christian growth and mature in the process of holy sanctification has never left the lenses by which I view myself and provided purpose in my Christian ministry to others. I recently read an article on this very subject that I’d like to share that states that in the grand purpose of our “selection” into God’s family, two key words are used:

First, be “Holy” (Greek “hagios”) stresses dedication. As stated yesterday, the 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word “holy” as: 1. Properly, whole, entire or perfect, in a moral sense. Hence, pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. Applied to the Supreme Being, holy signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character; and man is more or less holy, as his heart is more or less sanctified, or purified from evil dispositions. We call a man holy, when his heart is conformed in some degree to the image of God, and his life is regulated by the divine precepts. Hence, holy is used as nearly synonymous with good, pious, godly. 2. Hallowed; consecrated or set apart to a sacred use, or to the service or worship of God; a sense frequent in Scripture; as a holy priesthood. 3. Proceeding from pious principles, or directed to pious purposes. A holy man or woman is distinctively God’s, set apart for God’s use, separated from the secular, and consecrated to God’s service. All who are “chosen” are chosen to be holy. In Colossians 4:5-12, the Colossian Christians were told to “mortify” the physical appetites, to “put off” their sinful mental attitudes and habits, and to “put on the new man . . . as the elect of God, holy and beloved”. The focus is character … the character of holiness.

In 1 Corinthians 1:4-8 , the Apostle Paul writes: “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Secondly, be “without blame” refers to our reputations. The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word “blame” as: Censure; reprehension; imputation of a fault; disapprobation; an expression of disapprobation for something deemed to be wrong. Blame is not strictly a charge or accusation of a fault; but it implies an opinion in the censuring party, that the person censured is faulty. Blame is the act or expression of disapprobation for what is supposed to be wrong. By knowing and understanding this definition, we are able to better grasp the Webster’s definition of the word “blameless” as: “Without fault; innocent; guiltless; not meriting censure” for life application. This character of blamelessness will only be fully realized in heaven, but there is a present responsibility to “present your bodies a living sacrifice and be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” - Romans 12:1-2.


The character of holiness will become the cause of a lifestyle of blamelessness. We are to be the “sons and daughters of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” - Philippians 2:15. This holy and blameless condition will result in “the praise of the glory of his grace”, where God will someday “gather together in one, all things in Christ”. What a magnificent thought!

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