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--This devotion appeared originally on the blog "Growing Into Up" by Jennifer Heidinga, who has made it available here with permission and now also as a podcast!--

But now he has reconciled you by Christ\u2019s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation (Colossians 1:22 NIV)

Today I came across a file on my cell phone that I had saved there several years ago. It was 90 statements of identity in Christ and the corresponding Scripture. There were a lot of wonderful and incredible truths on the page. The first truth read "I am blameless and free from accusation (Colossians 1:22). As I sat reading this statement of identity and the Scripture that goes with it, I marveled at this truth that I already knew. Sometimes the truths in scripture are so good that they almost seem too good to be true. We are spotless, we are blameless, we are chosen, we are not accused. We are righteous and reconciled to God, we are not condemned.

Of all people, Paul who wrote the letter to the Colossians had reason to feel fault-filled and accused. Before encountering Jesus on the road to Damascus through a blinding vision, he was a Pharisee who was zealous for God. He studied the Torah under a prominent teacher in Jerusalem and was bent on imprisoning any who were Jesus followers. The Jewish ways were law and those that followed anyone or anything else needed to be eradicated. He had many Christians thrown into prison, and Paul approved and watched, while he stood by with the coats of those who stoned the first Christian martyr, Stephen. Paul had every reason to feel condemned. So how can he write a statement such as this one found in Colossians chapter 1? I think that what Paul writes in Romans 8 puts it all so well:

Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won\u2019t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one\u2014for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one\u2014for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God\u2019s right hand, pleading for us. Romans 8:32-34 NLT

I try to imagine myself not only standing before God, but standing faultless before His throne. It seems a hard concept to grasp...the depth of love that would call His broken people blameless and faultless and without accusation. But God did not spare even His Son. His love is so expansive that he claims us as chosen and pulls us into his presence. He finds us without blemish and without the need to defend ourselves amidst the mess of who we are. Christ sits on His throne pleading and interceding for us. Romans 8:35-39 tells us how nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ. We are chosen, blameless, faultless and no one dares accuse us who are made righteous with God through the blood of Christ.

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