Archive for February 8th, 2012

Delbert McClinton

Wednesday, February 08th, 2012 | Author:

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy  Jude 24  NASB

Blameless - The English translation comes from a combined Greek word (amomous) meaning without spot or blemish.  There are connections between this word and non-Christian sacrificial rituals, but in the Christian context, the word is a metaphor for the absence of any internal imperfection.  In the New Testament, it is used to describe the sacrifice of the Messiah as the Lamb of God.  It is also found in the legal context implying that the one who is blameless is legally innocent.

In this verse, the word is applied to God’s children, followers of the Messiah.  It is important to note that this verse places the power and agency in God’s hands.  In other words, we who believe are not found blameless because we earned that status by believing.  We are blameless because God takes the active role in sustaining our right standing before Him.  Just as God counted Abraham righteous, so He counts us righteous.

Everyone who has experienced the life-changing power of Yeshua HaMashiach knows the truth of this verse.  Blame is a word that describes how we felt over and over while the sin ruled our lives.  Blameless describes a condition that is a gift to us.   But it is not our doing.  If we think that once we accept the lordship of Yeshua we somehow get an injection of more “will power” to put us on the straight and narrow, we will soon discover failure again.  If Yeshua is to be our antidote for sin, we will have to take the dosage daily, hourly, even moment by moment.  We do not maintain our walk because we take control of our sinful behavior.  That is the pathway to relapse and destruction.  How many times did we think that all we needed was another church service, another prayer or another commitment.  Now we see that we were still trying to tell God how He should fix the problem. We had not given Him the right to control life even in the middle of our religious “will power.”

We are kept purified because we have allowed God’s grace to keep us from stumbling.  We have surrendered to His will and it is by His will that we can stand forgiven and free.  Submission and surrender mean that we stop telling God how to fix us.  We just let Him do what He wants.

Delbert has it right.  

Topical Index:  amomous, blameless, Jude 24

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , ,  | 4 Comments