We live in a world that drives us to think of our value in terms of our behavior, our productivity, our merits. The grace of the gospel overturns such ideas. Knowing how God sees His children is critical to our mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
Today I'm sharing a excerpt from my latest book, which focuses on the astounding identity available to us in Christ. One of those identities is that we are blameless before Him:
“He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 1:8 (CSB)
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, to be blameless means “to be innocent of wrongdoing.”
This is an astounding thought: You are considered innocent of any wrongdoing before God’s throne. If I’m honest, I can barely get a foot out of bed in the morning before I am wronging someone with unbidden, condemning thoughts. Usually, the target is me.
Perhaps you can relate. So, how can we be blameless? Only because of Jesus. Colossians 1:22 says Jesus reconciles believers to God through His death, presenting us “holy and blameless and above reproach” before the Father (ESV).
The Greek word used for blameless in both today’s verse ad in Colossians 1:22 takes the concept a step further than the Oxford English Dictionary. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, it means one who “cannot be called to account, unreprovable, unaccused, blameless.”
My experience is often contrary to that. I am rather good at reproving or scolding myself regularly. I feel the brunt of accusation and blame from voices around me and in my own head. We all have an inner critic who likes to accuse us of failure and wrongdoing, who likes to catalog all our imperfections and sins.
Are you familiar with this inner critic who starts hurling accusations at you before you’ve had your morning coffee? According to Scripture, you do not have to listen to those accusations because in God’s eyes, you are unaccused.
If you are in Christ, you are blameless before God. It can be tempting to be hard on yourself, to live in a grip of shame. Your identity in Christ is different from blame and shame. It is blameless.
Embrace your blamelessness today. Be a little less hard on yourself. Remind yourself that, in Christ, you are beyond accusation. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you live in that identity more and more.
Reflect: What areas of blame or self-condemnation do you wrestle with the most?
Loving God, I receive the truth that I am blameless before God, and that there is no condemnation for me. Bring this truth alive in my life today.
Affirm: In Christ, I am blameless before God. I can reject condemnation.
If you enjoyed this excerpt, get the whole book! Fully Known, Fully Loved is available at Amazon. Purchase it here.