What does it mean that believers have been set apart for God?
Believers have been set aside and are intrinsically in God's program to be used as He sees fit, because they are His. This setting apart means they should be holy, or set apart, and without blame before Him, even though they remain sinners saved by grace who still sin.
Les explains that the holy utensils in the temple were set apart only for God's purposes, and that pictures believers. As God sees it, believers have been set aside and are intrinsically in His program to be used as He sees fit, because they are His. This means they should be holy, or set apart, and without blame before Him. Les acknowledges that every believer is a sinner saved by grace, still possessing the old sin nature and still sinning, yet God declares them blameless. He then points to I Corinthians 1, where the carnal Corinthians had been saved out of paganism but had not yet understood Ephesians; Paul still writes to them in I Corinthians 1:6-7.