Blameless before God
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 1:24–25
“Who, me?” Have you ever responded that way, either aloud or silently, when someone asked you to take on a task you felt unqualified for? I have. And more often than not, the question leads to a refusal. “No, that’s way out of my comfort zone.” Or “My plate is full. I don’t have time for that.”
Sometimes even, “Have you thought about so-and-so? She’d do a much better job than I would.” But sometimes the root cause of my reaction is fear of failure not incompetence or busyness.
When I read verse 24 of the only chapter in Jude, I stumble over its promise. Present me “without fault and with great joy”? Who, me? How am I going to enter God’s presence “without fault”?
I’m a tangle of selfishness, stubbornness, and snarkiness. Yet at the same time I am a beloved child of God who has been washed clean by the blood of Jesus. I now wear his robe of righteousness, so when God the Father looks at me, he sees Jesus’s pristine righteousness. And when I walk through heaven’s gates, the earthly shroud of my body will have vanished, and I’ll stand before God dressed only in Jesus’s pure white robe.
The theological word for this phenomenon is glorification. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul explained the process: “And we all … are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord.” As the Holy Spirit continues to chip away the sinful habits and mindsets in me, as he incorporates Jesus’s attributes in me, I look more and more like my Savior.
That gives me hope. I’m not what I will be, but I’m not what I was either. The glorification process is sometimes painful, but when the Holy Spirit points out the progress he has made in me, I’m encouraged. And thankful.
When you reflect on God’s promise to present you “without fault and with great joy,” do you say, “Who, me?” Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the ways he’s making you more like Jesus. And thank God for the white robe of Jesus’s righteousness you wear.
Dig Deeper
What does the Bible say about being dressed in Christ’s robe of righteousness? Compare Isaiah 61:10 with Philippians 3:9, Ephesians 4:24, and Revelation 3:5.
How do Ephesians 1:3–8 and Colossians 1:21–23 help to explain the concept of “without fault”?
Romans 8:28 tells us that “all things work together for the good of those who love [God].” To what do verses 29–30 connect “the good”? In what way do those connections provide a deeper, more complete understanding of verse 28?
You may also want to read Justification and Sanctification.
Denise K. Loock