Holy

God gets the final say in your identity.

Through Ephesians 1, we’ve explored labels God places on our lives: first chosen, then heir, and now holy and blameless.

As a baseline, we all could identify as sinners.

Scripture like Isaiah 64:6 and Romans 3:23 support this view, but only if we stop there. The gospel flips the story. Christ’s death and resurrection give us the gift of God’s righteousness. Romans 5:15-17 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 show that although Adam’s sin brought condemnation, Jesus’ act brings justification and holiness for those in Him.

Look at Romans 5:15

"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!"

God’s definition of you is the truth and, ultimately, more important, your opinion. He sees us as holy and blameless in Christ, not based on our own actions but on His grace.

The problem comes when we let our experience define us instead of God. We still sin, yes, but our identity isn’t determined by our failures.

Living this out is called progressive holiness. That means that we act on who we already are in Christ.

We do this by walking by the Spirit, not gratifying the sins of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). It's in our daily remembrance of the sin we have been rescued from and our daily reliance on the Holy Spirit that we can walk out who we really are in Christ.