A Word of Encouragement and Comfort
God chose all of us, who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, before the Spirit hovered over the waters and before He said, “Let there be light.” He saw us in the beginning, before we were. He saw our entire life from birth till death; knew every thought, word, and deed; and chose us simply because He wanted to (Ps. 139:1-5, 16; 2Tim. 1:9).
When we consider what our life has been, none of us can claim to be holy and blameless; certainly not before we knew Christ, but also not after. As Christians, we are, at our best, sinners saved by grace (Rom. 7:14-25; Eph. 2:8-9). Sinless-ness and absolute purity will not occur until we see the Lord face to face and our corrupt flesh where sin resides is transformed into the incorruption of immortality (1Cor. 13:12; 15:51-55).
But God chose us in Christ Jesus, His Son, who is the only holy and blameless man. Thus, the holiness and blamelessness we have is not our own, but is imparted to us through Christ, who dwells in us in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (Eph. 1:4-5 NLT)
He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Cor. 5:21 HCSB; also Rom. 4:5; 1Pet. 2:24)
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Rom. 8:9-11 NASB)
And He is called the Holy Spirit because He is the one, who sanctifies us (consecrating us) for the Lord’s use by taking the word of God and conforming us to the image we see of Christ, in whom we were created for God’s purpose.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2Cor. 3:17 NASB; also Rom. 8:29; 1Ths. 4:3)
But we should and are [morally] obligated [as debtors] always to give thanks to God for you, believers beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through the sanctifying work of the Spirit [that sets you apart for God’s purpose] and by your faith in the truth [of God’s word that leads you to spiritual maturity].(2Ths. 2:13 AMP; also 1Pet. 1:1-2)
And God’s purpose of choosing us and sanctifying us was so that we would become like Him by cooperating with Him in agreement and obedience and live a life that is consecrated to Him according to our destiny in Him.
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Phil. 2:12 NASB)
Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you. For Scripture says: But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. (1Pet. 1:15-16 HCSB)
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Eph. 2:10 NASB)
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11 NASB)
Thus, the encouragement is this: the more we cooperate with the Lord in complete submission to His will in obedience, the more we experience His life of holiness and blamelessness. For the day we confessed Christ Jesus and were baptized, we died that He might live. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us, and the life we live now and for the rest of our appointed days, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us. For as He is so are we in this world (1Jn. 4:17).
It’s not about us; it’s about Him in us.
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