Issue 1423 – Nothing But the Blood – April 16, 2024
As we do most Monday evenings, our community group gathered for food, fellowship, prayer, and study. Our text came from Sunday morning’s sermon.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:5-10
It is a profoundly deep passage. It speaks of the importance of true fellowship and the need for Christ and preaches the gospel. There is so much in those five short verses that it would be easy to preach on them for over a month.
I have been pondering the passage in which John writes, “…the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
When I first became a believer, I finally understood that Jesus died to be the propitiation for my sins and that I was saved by faith through God’s grace and the finished work on the cross.
I struggled with the blood part. Why did blood have to be shed? I knew that the answer was, at least in part, because God said so. I knew the Old Testament sacrificial system was a type of Christ, a shadow of things to come. Still, I wondered why.
I became more familiar with the Scriptures and realized they answered that question.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Leviticus 17:11
One writer explains it this way,
“A “sacrifice” is defined as the offering up of something precious for a cause or a reason. Making atonement is satisfying someone or something for an offence committed. The Leviticus verse can be read more clearly now: God said, “I have given it to you (the creature’s life, which is in its blood) to make atonement for yourselves (covering the offence you have committed against Me).” In other words, those who are covered by the blood sacrifice are set free from the consequences of sin.”
Still, one might wonder if that holds true today. The writer of Hebrews makes it clear.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctifyfor the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Hebrews 11:11-14
The writer reinforces his point later in that same chapter.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Hebrews 11:22-23
It isn’t just any blood that saves us; it is the blood of Jesus.
We can praise Jesus for the blood. When I think of it, I am reminded of the Robert Lowry song “What can wash away my sin,” aka “Nothing but the Blood.” It’s a song familiar to many church choirs and sung by many recording artists. This link takes you to one of them.
Praise His name for loving us enough to die for us.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. Your value in God’s eyes is so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that his plan for heaven will not be complete without you.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV)