Levend Water
Accepted in the Beloved - Charles H. Welch
Index - Page 7 of 26
`WITHOUT BLEMISH', THE SACRIFICIAL CHARACTER
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The mind is irresistibly drawn to Isaiah 1:6 by this description :
` From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying
sores'.
Lastly, we have the words of the Shepherd lover, saying :
` Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee' (Song of Sol. 4:7).
We return with the light received from the Old Testament usage of this word, to Ephesians 1:4, and realize with
worshipping wonder, that we, who were aliens, strangers, Christless, hopeless and, by nature, children of wrath,
associated with lasciviousness and all uncleanness, from whose mouth, corrupt communications have proceeded
(Eph. 2:2,3; 4:19,29), are here placed with the acceptable unblemished, priest and offering. To us, this Priest and
this Offering can be none other than Christ Himself for `He offered Himself without blemish to God' (Heb.9:14) and
was fore-ordained to be the `Lamb without blemish and without spot' (1 Pet. 1:19).
With this sacrificial character so evidently impressed on this word, let us return to the prison epistles and look at
the three references together.
The purpose of God, planned before the ages, is indicated in Ephesians 1:4.
The fulfilment of this purpose in the ages to come is revealed in Ephesians 5:27.
The glorious basis of this fulfilment is given in Colossians 1:22. Let us first look at the basis :
` And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight'
(Col. 1:21,22).
This blemishlessness arises not from anything we can do, but from the offering of that blemishless Sacrifice on
our behalf `in the body of His flesh, through death'. Ephesians 5 looks at the same presentation and the same
company from another angle.
` That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself
a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish'
(26,27).
The reader will see that it would be nearer the truth if the words of Ephesians 1:4 `without blame' and of
Colossians 1:22 `unblameable' were altered so that these three passages all read alike `without blemish', thus
retaining the connection which is so evidently intended, between the blessed acceptance of the Church and the
typical character of the Priest and Offering. This therefore is a part of the blessedness that is included in the words
`Accepted in the Beloved'.
`Unreproveable' (Col. 1:22).
Blameless in the Court of law and in the estimate of man.
The word `unreproveable' in Colossians 1:22, is a translation of the Greek anengkletos, a word made up of a the
negative, and engkaleo to accuse or to blame, which in its turn is from en `in' and kaleo `to call' and so `to call in
question'.
This word is translated `blameless' in its other occurrences, but as the translators of the Authorised Version
employ the word `unblameable' in Colossians 1:22 for another Greek word, we can understand their choice of
`unreproveable' here. We shall see more clearly the implications of our `unreproveable' position as accepted in the
Beloved, if we note the seven occurrences in the New Testament of the word engkaleo. Just as the phrase `without
blemish' is linked with the ideas of sacrifice, altar and priest, so the word `unreproveable' is associated with the idea
of a court of law. The first six occurrences of engkaleo refer to the law courts at the time of the Acts :