Because I Said So

I'm finishing up the book Letters from a Skeptic by Gregory and Edward Boyd. I just came to this passage written as a response to a question regarding how we can be forgiven (holy) and sinful at the same time:

"So, how can we be holy and sinful at the same time? I'll explain it with this analogy. When God created the world in the beginning, He said, 'Let there be light' and there was light. He said, 'Let there be dry ground,' and there was dry ground. And so on. God's Word, we see, is 'ontologically productive.' It creates being.

"Now our salvation is no less the result of God's word than is our creation. God says, 'All the sin of Ed Boyd's past is gone,' and all your sin is gone! And God says, 'Ed Boyd is perfectly holy before Me,'' and you are perfectly holy before Him."

The simplicity of this, especially after reading the other chapters, which tackle such complicated issues, is striking to me. Spiritual milk, to be sure, but isn't it tasty?