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Saved By the Blood

blodyrose2.gifWhy?  Why is it necessary for there to be a shedding of blood to forgive us of sins?  This is a question that has plagued many people, and yet it is made clear in the Bible.  Let us go all the way back to the beginning, to a place where there wasn't any sin.  Wouldn't it be nice to live in such a place?  Adam and Eve did.  God commanded Adam saying, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you do you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16b, 17)  Now that wouldn't have much an impact on this issue if Adam had obeyed. 

blodyrose2.gif"So he blew it", I can hear you asking, "Why do I have to pay for that?"  The truth is you don't.  Yet the sinfulness of Adam is now part of you.  You sin all on your own.  That you are answerable to God for.  Now the amazing thing is that God knew all about this ahead of time.  As the Bible says that God "has saved us and called us to a holy life -- not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was gien us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time." (2 Tim 1:9) 

blodyrose2.gifDo you understand what God is saying here?  Do you?  God knew that mankind would mess up.  He created us to have fellowship with Him, but He knew we'd blow it, so He went made a way to come back to Him.  It is the ONLY way.  It is through the blood of Jesus.

blodyrose2.gif"Now wait a minute?"  I can hear some of you screaming.  "How can there be only one way?  How can you Christians be so narrow-minded to think you're the only ones who have it right?"  The answer is simply that there was NO way back to God.  Even with the sacrifices of bulls and rams, as prescribed by the law of Moses, it couldn't get mankind back to God.  We were lost, hopeless.  Why?  Because God Himself declared the punishment for sin -- death!  That would mean that in order for mankind to be returned to fellowship with God the death of a perfect man would have to occur to at the very least negate the sin of Adam.  Unfortunately since Adam there has been no such person.  The only truly, totally perfect being was God, and here's the hitch, HE DOESN'T DIE!!!  How in the world are we going to get back to Him?  No amount of self-denial, personal humiliation; no amount of blood of bulls and rams, no amount of lifetimes could bring us any nearer to God than the worse sinner on the planet.  We were lost!

blodyrose2.gifGod's solution was one that cost Him personally, for knowing that only a perfect man, a perfect sacrifice could atone for the sins of mankind, became man for us.  That man we call Jesus.

blodyrose2.gifAgain there are the cries, "Jesus was a good man, a great teacher, a prophet, but he wasn't God."  If Jesus wasn't God then there is NO salvation for any of us.  Jesus claimed to be "the Son of Man", "The Son of God", the "Lord of the Sabbath", and He claimed to be the "Way, the truth and the life" which He clarified saying, "No man comes to the Father but by Me."  You see JESUS was the first one to say He was the ONLY way,  not Christians.  And He was the only way because only He was God in the flesh, only He had lived a perfect life, only His blood was pure and holy enough to cover the sins of the entire world and bring us to God.

blodyrose2.gifThat is why we talk about being saved by the blood.  It is not just important, it is necessary.  It is essencial.  As Jesus prepared both Himself and His disciples for His sacrifice it was the time of the Passover.  This is when the people of Israel remember how God sent the death angel through Egypt and killed the firstborn of all the land in one night.  The people of God were warned and told to kill a lamb and sprinkle its blood upon the doorposts of their homes.  When the death angel comes and sees the blood he will "passover" that place, hence the name. (Exodus 12:13)

blodyrose2.gifDuring this time of rememberance of that occassion Jesus also celebrated with His disciples.  Taking the cup Jesus said, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (MT 26:28)  That very night He was arrested, and in the morning put to death on the cross -- for you and for me and for everyone who lives.  It is by His precious blood that you can find salvation.  Come to Him today and become part of a very special family, the family of God.

blodyrose2.gifThe following are portions from Romans and the book of Hebrews which talk about the same thing.  So if you think I'm talking off the top of my head you may want to check it out.  Don't choke on it, there's a lot of meat in there.

blodyrose2.gif"God presesnted him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished -- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus." (Rom. 3:25,26)

blodyrose2.gif“When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once and for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

blodyrose2.gif“The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

blodyrose2.gif“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance -- now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep’. In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without blood there is no forgiveness.

blodyrose2.gif“It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have to had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Heb. 9:11-28)

David Brollier (10-31-04)