19) For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20) And, having made peace through the blood of his
cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they
be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in
your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present
you holy and unblameable and unreproveable
in his sight:
23) If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and
which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am
made a minister;
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t
is necessary for us to accept that all that we have in salvation is due to what
He has accomplished through His death, burial and resurrection. All of
what He has done will be for naught if we insist upon following our own
understanding.
There
is no excuse for anyone who is saved not to prosper in Him. For what was
purchased at
There
is a formula to obtaining from God. And that is, that one must instantly accept
what He has already done. Instant acceptance would also liberate us from
wasting time on worrying about finances, healing, marital problems and other
things. To be taken care of completely, all we need do is to commit our lives.
Contrary
to what many believe, it does not take great faith to accept what God has
already done. Too many feel that exhibiting true faith is believing for something to be done. What has been
done simply needs to be received. When it is accepted, it will manifest
itself.
The
problem that we have with trying to "run" things is one that we
should not have, because if we could figure things out, we would not need the
anointing of the Spirit.
A
great price was paid for that anointing and that right to be restored
"holy and unblamable". All that Christ had,
He had to give because of Man allowing Satan to usurp authority over him in the
Garden of Eden.
With
the opportunity to regain our original status and live uprightly before Him, it
is difficult to understand why we would not be willing to do all to obtain and
maintain that status. For one thing, a sincerity toward God will mean that one
will want to "be" (i.e. choice of congregations) where He wants us. In
fact, the only reason one would not want to be where God assures
salvation is because of one following "wicked works". This would be
the only reason for complaints because of "standards" or a too
"strong," hard word. Even if we leave a place of one standard to go
to another of lesser, we cannot live any differently. It is God Who sets the standard of holiness, so if it is His standard
being followed, we have no choice but to live by it.
The
unity in the body achieved through Christ is done through baptism in His name.
This baptizes us into His death and makes us one with Him.
Because
of His death and our participation in it, we are presented "holy and unblamable." We have no other way to change our status
in life but through this means. Without salvation, all men start out equally
and remain equal before God—as sinners. It is the power of the Holy Ghost and
Him only which is able to change a man's status in life or anything else about
him.
The
Undertaking
"unblamability" does not mean that we will
never again be accused, but it does mean that we are not guilty. You see, once
we have come to Christ, no matter what we have done, we are acquitted.
The fact of our holiness is ours because of the redemption of Jesus, not our
flesh. This is what others need to know. Being redeemed out
of sin and from the influence of flesh means that it can no longer dictate to
us how to live our lives.
Freedom
in Christ means the power and right to rejoice in Him. We can rejoice because
of that freedom and all that comes with it. We can rejoice in the fact that the
devil has nothing in one who is unblamable. We can
rejoice that death has no power over one already delivered. With all of this
victory, all that is left is to offer praise.
We
have nothing to worry about if we will simply "continue in faith":
that faith which we had to have to come out of sin in the first place.
That "delivering faith" is the faith that made us "holy and unblamable".
Anyone
who has been blessed to be made "holy and unblamable"
needs to offer God an apology for any complaints he has made. We need to say,"Lord, I'm sorry for complaining and I'm ready to
offer You praise!"
We are those who can be charged with nothing—as long as we stay in Jesus. For those who become and stay "holy and unblamable," nothing can hurt us and nothing can pull us away from the grasp of the One by Whom we have been restored.