To what time does “holy and blameless before God” refer?

Explanation:

Paul begins his letter by offering praise to God for the blessings that he has bestowed on the believers. One of these blessings is the fact that God chose believers who were unholy and sinful, to be holy and blameless in Christ. Paul goes on to expand on the riches of God’s grace and the saving work of Christ, before getting back to the topic of holy living. In Ephesians 4:1, Paul encourages the Ephesians to live a life worthy of their calling, presumably thinking back on the fact that God chose believers to be holy and blameless before him. He goes on to explain, in various ways and with various language and examples, the sort of life to which the Ephesians have been called. This life is conducted in lowliness and meekness, is patient and forbearing (Ephesians 4:3). Believers are called to attain unity of faith in the knowledge of Christ (Ephesians 4:14), to be built up in love (Ephesians 4:16), to be renewed in the spirit of their mind, and to put on a new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). The point is, God has called believers to live a holy and blameless life, and Paul exhorts his audience to take this calling seriously.²

Counterargument:

Although Ephesians 1:4 and Ephesians 4:1 – 6:20 both have to do with being holy, the circumstances of these two passages are not the same. The verb to choose is used in Ephesians 1:4 to explain that God has called believers before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him. Here, Paul is dealing with a breathtakingly vast sweep of time, from before God created anything to the time when Christ returns. The point is that God is sovereign from beginning to end, choosing believers from the beginning to be holy and blameless at the end. Ephesians 4—6 is not so much about the culmination of God’s plan as it is a call to live a renewed life now, in light of God’s ultimate plan. Βut their efforts to live according to their calling will be fraught with difficulty. Still, the effort and participation in the Spirit will be worthwhile because when the fullness of time comes (Ephesians 1:10), we will finally stand before God holy and blameless, just as God chose us.

Response to counterargument:

When Paul uses the verb to choose to explain that God selected believers before the foundation of the world, he is saying that before he even created, God chose believers to put their faith in Christ so they would begin living a new life. In other words, the circumstances of Ephesians 1:4 and Ephesians 4:1 – 6:20 are the same. One cannot be chosen by God without being called by God; the two concepts work together (Romans 8:30). And although believers continue to endure struggles and frustrations, even as they put off their old nature and put on Christ, when Christ returns the work of sanctification will be complete.

Explanation:

In Deuteronomy, we have an excellent example of God conferring the status of holiness on the Israelites, while at the same time calling them to holy living.³ First, in Deuteronomy 7:1–6, God commands the Israelites to purge the land of Canaan when God hands the nations over to Israel. God explains that if the Israelites fail to accomplish this, the people living in that land will turn the Israelites' sons and daughters away from the Lord. This is unacceptable to God, because Israel was a holy people, chosen by God to be his possession. Here we notice that God confers the status of holiness on the Israelites, and not because there was anything special about the Israelites that they should receive God’s favour (Deuteronomy 7:7). Then, in Deuteronomy 7:11, God warns the Israelites that because God has conferred this grace on them, they are to be careful to follow God’s commands and statutes. So, we see that Israel has been declared holy, and therefore must live a holy life. We find something similar in Deuteronomy 14:1 – 26:19, where once again God explains that Israel is a holy people because they have been chosen by God for his possession (Deuteronomy 14:2). Because of this, the Israelites are to obey God’s commands, commands which God explains through Moses in the following thirteen chapters.

Interestingly, we see Paul doing something similar in his letters to the church at Corinth. For example, in 1 Corinthians 1:2 and 1 Corinthians 6:11, he explains to the Corinthians that they have been sanctified in Christ. In other words, the Corinthians have been called holy. Then, in 2 Corinthians 7:1, Paul suggests that they should cleanse themselves from every defilement and be made perfect in holiness in the fear of God. This is the same formula that we found in Deuteronomy. The believers are called sanctified in Christ; therefore, they are exhorted to be sanctified.

Counterargument:

The term holy is used in a variety of contexts and manners in the Old Testament. When we combine this with a search in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) for the Greek term ἄμωμος (blameless), we find that it is often used to characterize the status that an animal must hold for it to be worthy of sacrifice to God (Leviticus 4:28, Leviticus 4:32; Leviticus 5:15, Leviticus 5:18; Leviticus 23:12; Numbers 6:14; Numbers 28:3; and many more).⁴ We know from elsewhere in Paul’s letters that believers are not blameworthy until we reach our heavenly dwelling (2 Corinthians 5:2; Romans 7:14–20). Given that the only acceptable sacrifices before God must be blameless, and that the believer will not attain perfection in this life, it is hard to see how Paul could be referring to the believer living a blameless life now.

Response to counterargument:

While blamelessness is often connected with the standard an animal must hold in order for it to be an acceptable sacrifice to God, it is also used in other ways. For example, it is put on the mouth of David in a passage known as David’s Psalm three times, with three different meanings. First, in 2 Samuel 22:24 it is used to describe David’s own behaviour: I was blameless before him. Then, in 2 Samuel 22:31 the term is used to describe God’s perfection. Finally, in 2 Samuel 22:33 the term is used to indicate that God has made David’s ways ἄμωμος. So we see that the term can mean something like a state of perfection, as in the case of 2 Samuel 22:31, but it can also mean something like right living before God. A similar pattern emerges when we look at how ἀμωμος is used in the Psalms (Psalm 15:2; Psalm 18:23, Psalm 18:30; Psalm 64:4; etc.).

When God confers holiness on Israel in the Old Testament, he immediately follows this up with a command to live a holy life. While Paul does call believers to holy living, he does not do this until several chapters later. This makes it difficult to know if Paul is making a grand redemptive statement about God’s plan in Ephesians 1:4, or if he means to call the Ephesians to holy living but takes several chapters to get to the details.

Explanation:

Paul indicates that before the foundation of the world, God chose believers to be holy and blameless before him. The preposition Paul uses is κατενώπιον, which can mean before, or, in the presence of. Taken in its plainest sense, it seems the preposition refers to a future event, because we are not now in the presence of God.⁷ Added to this, we know from elsewhere in Paul’s letters that there is a time when believers are set to stand before God (2 Corinthians 5:10). Since we are not standing before him now but are set to in the future, it is likely that when Paul says something about being in the presence of God, he is referring to a future event.

Counterargument:

While Paul gives us good reason to believe that there will be a future judgment when we will stand before God (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 2:5; Romans 14:10–12), because of the nature of God we stand in his presence at all times. The Bible indicates that God is all-knowing and all-present, and that there is no place where we are hidden from his presence, not even in Sheol (Psalm 139:7–8). The author of Hebrews also states that no creature is hidden from the sight of God (Hebrews 4:13), and through the prophet Jeremiah, God reminds us that there is no way to hide from him (Jeremiah 23:24). All of this gives us reason to think that the highlight of Ephesians 1:4 is not the preposition before, for all things are always before God. Rather, the point is that through faith in Jesus Christ, one is now before God holy and blameless.

Response to counterargument:

We know from Scripture that God created all things and is therefore exalted among all beings, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present. For this reason, Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109) labelled God the greatest conceivable being. This means that we truly are always in God’s sight, so to speak, just as the psalmist makes clear it is impossible to escape God’s presence. Still, the Bible is also clear that there is another layer to what it means to be in God’s presence. For example, in Luke 1:19, when the angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah in the temple, he testifies to his own authority by declaring that he stands before/in the presence of God. Gabriel wants Zechariah to know that even though God is all-present, in some sense Gabriel stands in the presence of God in a privileged manner. In 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul explains that those who do not obey the gospel of Christ will be excluded from the presence of the Lord. And there are other places where the Bible makes clear that there are different ways to understand what it means to be in the presence of God (Exodus 33:14; Ecclesiastes 5:2; Job 1:12). All of this is to say that there is a special sense in which to understand the presence of God aside from his omnipresence. It is this special sense of being in the presence of God (which will be initiated by Jesus’ second coming) that Paul is drawing attention to in Ephesians 1:4.

Explanation:

In Ephesians 1:4, Paul introduces the notion that God chose believers to stand in his presence holy and blameless. When we reach Ephesians 5:27, we get a glimpse into the mechanism and timing of this wonderful promise. In Ephesians 5:25–26 we read that because Jesus loved the church, he gave himself up for her in order that he might sanctify her. The purpose of doing this is so that he might present her holy and blameless. There are two important points to note. First, the verb to present is in the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive mood is used to refer to an action that is not yet true in reality.⁸ The action might represent the speaker’s wish, doubt, or condition for some consequence. This means that when Paul states that Jesus wants to present the church holy and blameless, he uses the subjunctive to indicate a desired state. This implies that the state is not yet a reality, but is the future purpose/desire/hope of Jesus. The second item to note is that Paul uses the same adjectives holy and blameless as he does in Ephesians 1:4 to depict the transformative state of believers who put their faith in Jesus. When we connect Ephesians 5:27 to Ephesians 1:4, we see that it is Jesus’ purpose to recreate believers who put their faith in him, so that in the future he might present them holy and blameless before God.^9,10,11,12

Counterargument:

There does seem to be some indication, based on the subjunctive mood of to present in Ephesians 5:27, that sanctification through Christ is an ongoing process with future intention. Still, in Colossians 1:22 we encounter the notion that Jesus’ work of reconciliation means that believers are presented before God holy and blameless already now. There we read that Jesus has now reconciled in his body through death, in order to present us holy and blameless. This passage sounds familiar to Ephesians 5:27, except that the verb for to present is in the aorist active infinite instead of the subjunctive (in Ephesians 5:27), carrying the sense of completed action. Since both letters were written by Paul, and both use the same language, it is difficult to know which tense is more appropriate for informing the meaning of Ephesians 1:4.

Response to counterargument:

It is difficult to decide which passage, either Ephesians 5:27 or Colossians 1:22, might better inform our interpretation of Ephesians 1:4. Still, we can adjudicate between them on the exegetical principle that one should look to the context closest to a passage to refine a text’s meaning before moving outward. Even though Ephesians 5:27 comes several chapters into Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, still, it is still within the same letter. This gives us some reason to think that Paul kept a unified train of thought throughout the letter to the Ephesians, and so we should look to Ephesians 5:27 to decide on the meaning of Ephesians 1:4.

Response to response to counterargument:

Biblical interpretation is both a science and an art. The principles are meant to guide an exegete toward discerning the meaning of a passage, but it must be remembered that principles are not hard and fast rules. While it might be the case that Ephesians 5:27 gets at the meaning of Ephesians 1:4 better than Colossians 1:22, this is not at all obvious, nor should it be considered as such.

The one problem with this view is that it downplays the theological notion that by placing one’s faith in Jesus Christ, one can begin the sanctification process here and now. God not only desires for believers to stand before him holy and blameless on the day of Jesus’ second coming, but he wants us to turn from our sinful ways now. In this sense, Interpretation 2 is a plausible option but tends to downplay the urgent call to holy living.