Genesis 17:1-7
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
Abram fell face down, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram ; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
Some have said that baby’s first word is “pa-pa”, but personal experience has taught me that with adequate coaching, “ma-ma” can be an infant’s first word. The first words, the first step, the first uninterrupted night of sleep for a child are all-important events in a family’s life. Fortunately, we rarely record the first “no”, the first disobedience, or the first stretching of the truth that our young charges make. Such is the nature of the human condition that none born in the natural way can escape. It seems fair to include such in the facts of life. Part of parenting is to direct your children to guard both their speech and their actions to be within acceptable standards of society.
A natural tendency of life is that our body parts wear out suddenly or by degrees. Everyone has heard of the modern miracle of joint replacement for the diseased and painful knee. When a cane and medicines don’t suffice, a talented surgeon can place a surgical prosthesis tailored to your gender. Following rehabilitation a return to a more satisfactory life-style is possible. Some common problems are not graced by such a favorable end result. Strokes and their sequelie can leave devastating results that modern day rehabilitation is powerless to rectify. Such may be the impairment of the blood supply to the left side of the brain leaving the victim unable to utilize a paralyzed right arm and leg. Unfortunately, the speech center that co-ordinates speech formulation and performance is injured so that the individual is mute. He or she is suddenly trapped in a verbal wasteland with no ability to speak. The frustrated family attempts to help their loved one by encouraging them to speak to all visitors and suddenly Mom, Dad, Grandmother or Grandfather does say a few words to the visitor who is often a member of the clergy. This perhaps sweet and docile patient at the family’s insistence brings forth only profanity and says no more. He or she is embarrassed, the family is mortified and the preacher quickly heads for the door. Neuroscience has looked at this phenomenon and has declared that such language is not stored or co-ordinated in the speech center but is distributed over the brain diffusely and leaves the patient able to swear but not to converse. The behavior is not intentional, personal or willed.
God urges Abram to walk before Him and be blameless. Since Abraham demonstrated faith in God and was deemed righteous, we are Spiritual descendants of Abram since we declare a similar faith.
Therefore we are to pursue a blameless walk as well. Such a walk is characterized by obedience to God’s wishes. This walk can only be initiated once the Holy Spirit of God indwells a believer. This pathway to God’s presence in eternity is known as sanctification. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia has 11 pages of small print devoted to this word and the associated topic. It reveals more than perhaps we wish to know and quotes many individuals with contrasting opinions. I view my role to be one of suggesting answers rather than raising questions in your mind. Sanctification is intimately concerned with and is a portion of salvation. So, firstly, what is salvation?
To rightly understand salvation and its need, you must begin with the doctrine of sin. Sin is simply disobedience to the wishes and direction of God. Since God is Creator of us and all that we see and know, He has a right to exercise control over us. Man from a platform of pride denounced God’s right to enact His will upon us resulting in estrangement from God. Fellowship with God was broken and man is powerless to re-establish this relationship. God out of the grace of His own person has devised a plan of restoration that we know as salvation. We as God’s helpless created are saved from ourselves and the power and control of sin by a Sinbearer provided by God. This Sinbearer is Jesus His Son who was punished by God for the believer’s sins 2000 years ago. A rebirth of man’s soul occurs in association with faith in Jesus as a sufficient sinbearer.
The goal of God in this process of restoration is to infuse the believer with His own character. The Holy Spirit of God who indwells the reborn believer in Jesus accomplishes this. Reigning on the throne of the believer’s heart, the Holy Spirit directs one on the pathway of sanctification.
The passage from Genesis 17 refers to this as being blameless. Being blameless before God is an unnatural process for man because it requires a willingness to change one’s focus from himself to God and to others. It is through this process that one becomes Holy. Holy is a difficult process to both understand and grasp because it requires one to be set apart and different.
Just how different does the process require you to be? Critically, you must die to self. In so doing you consider both God and others to be more important than yourself. Jesus makes it quite clear that His followers must pick up their own cross of service. The cross of 2000 years ago was a place of execution and sacrifice. This underlines the willingness to be servant rather than served. This process and sanctification is a process and not an experience, it is a life long process beginning with rebirth. Its success and accomplishment is verified by the production of Spiritual fruit. This fruit is expressed in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control.
If you search the pages of the New Testament, you discover that this fruit is representative of the personality of Jesus. Very simply the command to Abram “to be blameless” is the same encouragement that we have to be Christlike.
We are to pursue Holiness, as Jesus is Holy.
