So that he might himself bring the Church, in all her beauty, into his own presence, with no spot or wrinkle or blemish of any kind, but that she might be holy and faultless.
So as to prove yourselves blameless and innocent-- 'faultless children of God, in the midst of an evil-disposed and perverse generation,' in which you are seen shining like stars in a dark world,
But now he has reconciled you to himself by the sacrifice of Christ's earthly body in death--it has pleased God that you should stand in his presence holy, pure, and blameless,
And so make your hearts strong, and your lives pure beyond reproach, in the sight of our God and Father, at the Coming of our Lord Jesus, with all his Holy Ones.
May God himself, the giver of peace, make you altogether holy; and may your spirits, souls, and bodies be kept altogether faultless until the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then will 'Wickedness Incarnate' appear, but the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his lips, and annihilate him by the splendor of his Coming.
I solemnly charge you, in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who will one day judge the living and the dead--I charge you by his Appearing and by his Kingdom:--
how much more will the blood of the Christ, who, through his eternal Spirit, offered himself up to God, as a victim without blemish, purify our consciences from a lifeless formality, and fit us for the service of the Living God!
so it is with the Christ. He was offered up once and for all, to 'bear away the sins of many'; and the second time he will appear--but without any burden of sin--to those who are waiting for him, to bring Salvation.
that the genuineness of your faith--a thing far more precious than gold, which is perishable, yet has to be tested by fire--may win praise and glory and honour at the Appearing of Jesus Christ.
It would, indeed, have been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn away from the holy Command delivered to them.
Dear friends, we are God's Children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that, when it is revealed, we shall be like Christ; because we shall see him as he is.
'He is coming among the clouds!' Every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him; 'and all the nations of the earth shall wail for fear of him.' So shall it be. Amen.