God chose us in Christ so that we should be holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4).

Oh? How, exactly, does one become holy and blameless? I’ve been at this thing for a long time—reading my Bible, praying, supporting missionaries, and a whole lot more!—for decades! And in spite of all the time and effort, my progress toward becoming holy and blameless is… disappointing at best.

First of all, there’s the problem of all the trespasses and sins in my past. With my track record, I could never be considered “holy and blameless.” Secondly, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t stop sinning. So it’s a double whammy: my past, and my present.

Therefore, the only way I can ever be holy and blameless is for God to do a giant switcheroo: (1) charge all my sins to someone else, and (2) credit someone else’s blamelessness and holiness to me.

But you just can’t do that! That would be cooking the books! Wholesale robbery!

Actually, that’s exactly what God did! And the quote above from Mr. Tozer spells this out perfectly.

As to my past sins, God put them all on Jesus, who fully paid the penalty for all my sins. Next, as to my standing as a sinner, God applied all of Christ’s holiness and righteousness and blamelessness to my account. That makes me holy and blameless. Declared so by God. On account of the switcheroo with Jesus! (This whole transaction is spelled out clearly in 2 Corinthians 5:21.)

Isn’t that amazing?