All tagged Blood
We talk a great deal about being like Jesus, but we rarely speak of those instances when He was most like us; those moments when His humanity was most evident. Perhaps we are afraid that by doing so we might denigrate Him, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Man called Jesus was just as important to our redemption as the divinity of Christ. Crucifying either one alone would not have been sufficient.
As Christians we study a great deal on the life of Jesus, and we focus heavily on the cross, but there is one fact that we minimize... Jesus was always doing the will of God. Jesus rose in the morning to speak with His Father, continued speaking with Him all day long, and then spoke to Him before retiring in the evening. Why did He do this, and why should we likewise be in constant conversation with God?
You asked Jesus Christ to come into your life, and you know that He gave Himself on the cross so that you would be redeemed, saved from sin, but it was not merely the act of dying that purified you... it was His blood. Death alone does not wash us clean, no, it is the blood of Christ... the very life that flowed within Him.
When Communion is offered in your church do you examine yourself to determine whether you are a believer before you participate? Do you look inward and find that you can take the bread, and the wine, while understanding it to be the body and blood of Christ... a reminder to you? There are those who believe that taking Communion improperly is an innocent attempt to go along with the crowd, while others view it to be sacrilege or sin, and there are even those who see it as a pretense designed to fool the Church. How do you approach Communion?
Are you a reflection of Jesus? Has He instilled in you a gentleness of spirit, and made you lowly of heart... meek? Are these attributes that you even find desirable in this dog eat dog world that exists today? If you allow yourself to be immersed in the blood of Christ then this is exactly how you should look to the those around you! Can you see these characteristics as strengths, and not weaknesses?
Have you ever donated blood? Have you gone down to the Red Cross and given because they said that they were running low and that people might die without it? Well, when you did this you probably did so because yes, it would help someone, and no, it wouldn’t harm you in any way to give. Likely, you didn’t think much about all those people who depend on you to share your blood with them... but Jesus did.
Do we look to Jesus to heal us? Do we depend upon Him to come to us in our times of illness and to lay His healing hand upon our head? Do we wait for Him to say rise and walk, or return our eyesight, or restore our hearing with a bold touch? Well sometimes the healing comes when we go to Him. He is more than a healer... He is the healing itself, and all that needs to happen is for us to come into contact with Him.
There is great mystery in the blood of Jesus, a newness that isn’t seen anywhere else in the Bible. The symbolism in the blood of communion is beyond rich, and gives us more than purification and forgiveness... it changes our lives completely, and cuts us off from the old life we were once living. The blood of Jesus requires that we make a choice... to continue on as we have been, or to drink of it and be called out... made other.
Do you have sacrificial blood on your clothing? How about on the door of your household? No? Maybe you have it on the ground around you, in your prayer closet, or sprinkled on your Bible? Is the answer still no? Well there was a time when this would have been the case, but now that is no longer necessary because of the New Covenant we have with God in Jesus Christ. Today we consume the blood in Holy Communion in remembrance, and it is in each of us.
Do you think that you are too far gone to be salvaged? Are you too embarrassed to come before Jesus and ask for forgiveness and a new life? When you look at your past do you think it is too filthy and torn to ever be made new once more? Well think again because the blood of Jesus Christ can wash away any stain, and mend the holes in every garment in life.
What do you think of during communion? What was happening on that day of the first communion in which Jesus offered the bread of His body and the cup of His blood to the disciples? On that day they were celebrating the Passover feast, eating the Seder meal, and it has a certain order and meaning to all of its parts. Every movement, every food, each cup of wine has meaning and timing. When did Jesus offer Himself to His disciples? What did it imply?
Do you suffer, or cry in this life? Do you hunger or thirst in your days here in this world? Do you long spiritually for fulfillment, and yearn to see the face of God? Well, take heart; for those who are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ have a heavenly existence waiting for them in which there will be no suffering, hunger, thirst, tears, nor longing to see the face of God. The blood of Jesus prepares us for the glorious eternity of heaven, and to be encamped with God.
Do you have the blood of Jesus on the sides, and above the door of your life? Is your lintel smeared with the promise of eternal life? If we were to walk back in time, and down the streets of Egypt, we would see the very real blood of Passover lambs on the doorways of houses, but the Holy Spirit reveals to us the spiritual reality of that act; it shows us the power of the blood of Jesus Christ to in our lives; it makes tangible the promises of God... grace, forgiveness, and everlasting life.
We don’t enter into heaven to live an eternal life because we deserve it. That kind of thinking is based upon our own vanity and arrogance. Our salvation and ever lasting life is sealed by covenant, and that covenant comes by God’s acceptance of the death of Jesus Christ as our blood sacrifice. Only through Him can we be redeemed, perfected, and sanctified. Only through Him can we claim the covenant of grace.
Are you in a covenant relationship with God? Have you accepted the blood of Jesus Christ as the inauguration of that covenant? Has God’s grace and forgiveness of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus become your blood offering that has sealed this covenant? We see the cross and say “this is the covenant”, but it is only a sign. We see the rending of the temple curtain and say “this is the covenant”, but it is only a sign. We see the empty tomb and say “this is the covenant”, but it too is only a sign. The covenant is forgiveness, and the blood of Jesus is the offering that seals it. Is His blood upon you?