All tagged blood
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 everlasting 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 offering that sealed your covenant with the Lord? Has God’s forgiveness of the world’s sin through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus become your covenant? Many of us 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 also a sign. Then 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? Are you forgiven?
What does the church do with the fruit of great sacrifices that have been made for it? Does it horde them like provisions in its larder? Does it consume them itself like a fine wine? Or, perhaps it distributes them among the needy and deserving? This greater question that I have asked about the church begs each of us to answer similar questions of ourselves... what do I do with the fruit I receive from the sacrifice of the martyrs, and of Jesus? What do I do with the blood offering of Christ, and the suffering of so many others? There are certain things that people give you, or blessings that God lavishes upon you that are just too great to accept unto yourself. Let's look in scripture at a bible story that serves as an example...
Are there sins in our lives that the Lord must remove by fire? Do we hold on so tightly to them, or have they become so deeply rooted, that the only way to remove them is to burn them out? I think of a couple examples today of purification by fire. The first is Isaiah who spoke unclean Things among a people who commonly did the same. When he came into the presence of God he realized he was sinful and the smell of smoke caused him great fear... because he felt as though God might destroy him for his transgression... Do we have sins that cause us to feel this way too?
When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, that the cup be taken from Him, and His prayer was so fervent that His sweat fell like blood, an Angel was sent to strengthen Him, and for years I read this to mean that the Angel strengthened His faith, and gave Him the physical determination to obey God’s Will, but then it dawned on me that I was wrong. Jesus had perfect faith, belief, and never wavered in obeying God’s will. What I now envision the Angel bringing Jesus was the strength of God’s love. I see an Angel holding Him in a loving embrace, and covering Him with His Father’s love. When sin and death passed away and the world was transformed, Jesus endured all of the suffering, and took on the world’s sin, not by some miraculous degree of physical fortitude, but through the power of love. Do we look to God’s love when we face the hard things in our lives? Do we feel the loving embrace of our Father as unseen Angels hold us close?
If we were asked who the greatest intercessor was in our lives, what name would we answer with? Perhaps we would give that title to our mother or father, our pastor, or a Saint we know who has a powerful way of communicating with God in prayer, but although these would be good answers they would fall short of one man; a man who had spent his life interceding for us… Jesus Christ. He was born to intercede, and He continues on in that role through eternity.
The New Covenant was prophesied time and time again in the Old Testament, sometimes boldly, but at other times in less straightforward fashion, but the prophesy was believed nonetheless. So why is it that so many Christians today can’t see that this covenant has arrived, and that we are living under it? Why can’t we see that this prophesy has been fulfilled by God through Christ, and is ours to be followed today, and every day.
Good Friday, and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We like to focus our eyes on the resurrection story of Easter morning, and sing of the blood that has washed away our sin, but what of the body that was scourged, and hung outside the walls of Jerusalem just days prior? What of the corpse that laid in a dark tomb far from the temple mound? Do we relate to the true suffering, and understand what was required of Christ as He became our sin offering? When Jesus tells us to pick up our cross and follow Him it isn’t to the whipping post where His blood was shed... it is to Calvary, a place of ridicule, shame, and suffering unto death; a desolate place, separated from the gold candlesticks, and far from the altars of the temple.