Monday, April 29, 2013

holy & blameless

Colossians 1

15
 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

16
 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.

He made the things we can see

  and the things we can't see...

     such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
 
Everything was created through him and for him.



17
 He existed before anything else,

  and he holds all creation together.

18
 Christ is also the head of the church,

  which is his body.

He is the beginning,

  supreme over all who rise from the dead.

  So he is first in everything.

19
 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,

20
 and through him God reconciled everything to himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

  by means of Christ's blood on the cross.



  21 This includes you who were once far away from God.

You were his enemies,

     separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.

22 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.



  23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.

Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.



"...you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault."

iow, because of Jesus, God doesn't see our sinfulness or sins - quite actually, God sees us as just the opposite: holy & blameless.

Can we let that sink in?!

Think about all the sins you've done...

Never mind, that would take too much time for you or me!

Anyway, think about it - thru Jesus' sacrificial death & resurrection, God doesn't see all those sins - just doesn't see them - and what's more, sees us as holy & blameless!

Amazing!

It's the scandal of grace.



So if He can forgive & forget all those sins, what is the only reasonable response to such love & grace?

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