And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him…
Colossians 1:21-22
Consider who we were without Christ, and how Christ’s perfect righteousness can be ours because of what Christ has done. Jesus’ righteousness is not just evening out the scale for us. It’s not like God “cleans up” our own righteousness with a little bit of Jesus’ or supplements our righteousness with Jesus’ when we are lacking. No! Our righteousness counts for nothing before a holy God. We are lacking in every way!
Nothing we do could change us from alienated and hostile to holy and blameless. Only because Jesus lived the holy and blameless life that we could not, and died in our place, can we be changed from hostile enemies, separated from God. Only because Jesus lives to mediate between us and God can we become holy and blameless children. When God looks at us, he sees Jesus’ holy and blameless life instead of our sin.
Thus, we who were once alienated and hostile have become holy and blameless and above reproach! By faith in Christ, we become set apart from sin, free of blame and guilt, removed from God’s disapproval and disappointment in us. We become acceptable in God’s sight.
This is grace.
Studio Update:
I found my colored pencils in the last month. Honestly, I go in spurts. Sometimes, I want that watercolor feel and the stroke of a brush…and then there come the days when I long for the detail and intensity you get from colored pencils. And then…there’s the days when I want both. On the Christmas picture below, I laid down a wash of watercolor where I wanted the general colors to go, and then intensified and detailed it with colored pencil. So, so happy with all the textures and color my colored pencils give! Now, I’m about to go into a pen and ink spurt…
Anyway, that’s all for this post. Hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks,
Blair