It’s in our blood. Part 2
Just in review of last week
From the outside, the idea of the blood of Christ is a gory, grotesque principle. Most people become squeamish at the sight of blood. But God established a penalty and a price for sin and mankind’s sinful nature. It was the sacrificial exchange of one life for another.
Leviticus 17:11
“For the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.
Another way to read this verse is…
God said, “I have given it to you (the creature’s life, which is in its blood) to make atonement for yourselves (covering the offense you have committed against Me).” In other words, those who are covered by the blood sacrifice are set free from the consequences of sin. The last clause of Leviticus 17:11 could be read either “the blood ‘makes atonement’ at the cost of the life” (i.e., the animal’s life) or “makes atonement in the place of the life”
Sin has cost the human race…
– Real intimate relationship with God.
– It has limited our potential as human beings,
– It has brought us under the bondage and control of the author of lawlessness and sin, Satan.
– It keeps us mentally and emotionally enslaved to guilt and shame.
– It blocks us from peace with God.
But none of that is God’s plan for our lives. He created Adam and Eve to live perfect lives in daily relationship with Him. In the beginning He would come and hang out with them each evening just to spend time with them face to face.
The problem with the Levitcal law was it was a temporary fix. Every time there was sin another animal would need to be sacrificed. Think about that in your own life. The Levitcal sacrifice was only ceremonial, in that, it could not completely make one pure enough to stand in the presence of a Holy God.
Last week we talked about the first four points of the blood of Christ
- We have a relationship with the Father because of Jesus’ life
- We have been bought back from the enemy by our big brother
- We are no longer under any condemnation
- There has been a line of separation drawn between us and all of our enemies
This week we continue on with four more.
- Christ’s blood provides for bold access into God’s presence.
Hebrews 10:19
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus”.
Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, physicist and philosopher, spoke of a “God-shaped vacuum” in every human being that only God Himself can fill.
In the Lord’s presence is….
– “strength and gladness (joy)” – 1 Chronicles 16:27
– “rest” – Exodus 33:14
– “fullness of joy and pleasures forever more” – Psalm 16:11
– “times of refreshing” – Acts 3:19
- Jesus’ blood brings justification to the guilty.
Romans 3:24
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”.
One of the common tactics of the enemy of man’s soul involves accusation.
Scripture actually refers to Satan as the accuser of God’s people (Rev. 12:10). One of his ploys begins with, “And you call yourself a Christian.” The statement hurts, and the enemy knows how to guide it into the human mind with pinpoint accuracy.
The problem with such accusations is that more often than not, they are true.
At this point, God’s teaching concerning forgiveness through Jesus’ blood gives a person the ability to resist the enemy’s accusations.
Once sin is dealt with through Christ, in a very real sense, it is as if it never happened. It is gone forever, never to be acknowledged again.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” Revelation 12:11
- Jesus’ blood takes care of a defiled conscience.
Hebrews 9:14
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”.
It is easy to pursue religious activities in order to appease God or our own conscience or to pay Him back for the wrongs we have done—or even to earn the right to enter into His holy heaven.
All of this is worthless in light of what the Bible says about justification. Which is are being made right in God’s eyes. Justification is only by faith, not something where we can be good enough we simply have to accept Christ sacrifice rather than thinking our goodness of work can make us right before God. We are already justified by His blood.
Acts 13:38,39
“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses”.
- Jesus’ blood brings peace to troubled hearts.
At Jesus’s birth, the heavenly host promised peace to men. In one way or another, everyone is looking for peace. The Scriptures declare that genuine and lasting peace is only available through Jesus’ blood.
Colossians 1:20
“Having made peace through the blood of His cross”.
WE have peace through the blood of Christ because…
-we are separated from the world and placed in real relationship with the Father
– We can live in the Father’s presence always
– Our conscience is made clear
– We have forgiveness not because of what we can do but instead what He has done for us.
WE have something the children of Israel never had a new covenant with God, not based on our work, goodness, or sacrifice but Christ blood
Hebrews 9:11-15
So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant
This is what Jesus meant by His dying words on the cross: “It is finished” John 19:30. Never again would the blood of bulls and goats cleanse men from their sin.
Only by accepting Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross for the remission of sins, can we stand before God covered in the righteousness of Christ 2 Corinthians 5:21
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”.
Today we will celebrate communion
The cup of the Communion table is also a reminder of blood. Jesus said, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission [forgiveness] of sins” (Matt. 26:28).
Share and serve Communion
EXTRA SCRIPTURE REFERENCES FOR THE APP
Here are the 20 Things the Blood of Christ Does
- It remits sins (Matt. 26:28).
- It gives life to those who consume it (John 6:53).
- It causes us to dwell in Christ and He in us (John 6:56).
- It is the means by which Jesus purchased the church (Acts 20:28).
- It is the means by which Jesus becomes our atonement through faith (Rom. 3:25).
- It justifies us and saves us from wrath (Rom. 5:9).
- It redeems us (Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rev. 5:9).
- It draws us nearer to Christ (Ephesians 2:13)
- It grants us the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:14).
- It brings peace and reconciliation to God (Col. 1:20).
- It has obtained eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12).
- It cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14).
- It is the means by which we enter the most holy place with boldness (Heb. 10:19).
- It speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24, NIV).
- It sanctifies us (Heb. 13:12).
- It makes us complete for every good work (Heb. 13:20-21, NKJV).
- It cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
- It bears witness in the earth along with the Spirit and the water (1 John 5:8, KJV).
- It is the means by which Jesus washes us (Rev. 1:5; 7:14).
- It is the means by which we overcome the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:11).