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How Holy is Good Enough?

“How holy are we supposed to be?” I was asked this question years ago. My simple answer was, “Just as holy as God. That’s all.” That is a tall order, impossible in fact. 

However, in Ephesians chapter one, Paul says the following about our holiness possibilities. It’s in verse four where he says this, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him.” What makes this statement so wonderful is what he says in verse three of this same chapter. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:


Have you ever wondered about what all of those “spiritual blessings in heavenly places” are? Of course, it is the fact that God has chosen us to be holy and blameless. The only way that sinners like you and me could imagine being holy and blameless would be through a miraculous work of God in predestination. That last word sometimes strikes fear in a Christian’s heart because they don't know exactly what it means. It seems to have ominous ramifications. However, what God did in predestination gives us all hope in the world of being sinless saints. This work of making holy and blameless people is one that only God could accomplish. By the way,  holy and blameless are synonyms. It’s Pauls way of emphasizing our perfectness. 


How God did all of this before creation is a demonstration of his Grace and omniscience. It is not that he saw who the good guys would be way in the distant future. It can't be that because there weren’t going to be any good guys (Romans 3:10). It is that he chose people to pull out of sin’s filth. He didn’t do this arbitrarily but included his own son Jesus Christ in the transaction. Jesus would have to die to redeem those chosen (Ephesians 1:7). It is all quite amazing when you stop to ponder it. Are you a chosen one?
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