- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
PROMISES OF HIS BLOOD.
By Peter Street
Justification means to acquit, to declare righteous, or to use another phrase “just as if I’d never sinned”. The Lord’s blood is the main factor in achieving this marvellous state.
Many people have failed to understand this great Biblical truth, largely because they have never seen the importance given to it in the Old Testament. The institution of the Passover, as a mark of God’s loving covenant relationship with His chosen people, was based on blood (Exodus 12 v7). The commissioning of Aaron was accompanied by the blood of a bull on the altar (Exodus 29 v12). Aaron was committed to the use of blood as a means of atonement for the sins of the people (Exodus 30 v10). There was no salvation, cleansing or justification in the days before the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ apart from the shedding of blood and of faith in this great fact.
In the New Testament the place of blood is seen as the central theme of salvation. We will examine the use of blood and the blessings which faith in it produce in the life of the believer. Our Lord Jesus Christ shed His life’s blood on the Cross (Mark 14 v24) and all that follows this amazing statement is found in the one word “salvation”. Let us now examine this in more detail.
Justification is via the blood shed by the Lord Jesus (Romans 5 v9). Our Lord gave His life’s blood when the spear of the soldier went into His side. His death was by the shedding of the blood.
Deliverance of God’s wrath over sin is via the blood of Christ. Romans 5 verse 9 also says that we shall “be saved from God’s wrath through Him”. What a glorious truth this is, for God looks on humanity as sinners deserving judgement, but when covered by faith in the blood of Jesus they are reconciled to the Holy One.
Forgiveness of sins is achieved by the shed blood of Christ (Matthew 26 v28). Those who allow faith in the shed blood of Jesus to wash over their life is a forgiven sinner. They stand before God without a single sin in their life, because of the blood of the Covenant sealed at Calvary.
A ransom is achieved by blood (1 Peter 1 v18-19). Freedom from slavery for an individual was achieved through the process of ransom. The Lord Jesus came, “to give His life as a ransom for many“ (Matthew 20 v 28). The price has been paid by the Lord Jesus in the shedding of His precious blood and the sinner is no longer a slave but now a redeemed child.
The Church began because of the shedding of blood. “The church of God, which He bought with His own blood” (Acts 20 v28). When the Lord Jesus shed His life’s blood He anointed a body of believers who were united to Him. Faith in the shed blood not only blesses us as individuals but brings us into fellowship with people united to the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The conscience is cleansed by the blood shed at Calvary. This is a very precious promise of truth for sinners whose consciences have been scarred by our sin nature and by actively engaging in sin. “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” (Hebrews 9 v14). This means the sense of right and wrong blemished by sin is restored.
Heaven is magnified by the blood of the Lord Jesus (Revelation 7 v14). It contains many people whose robes have been washed pure white because of the blood of the Lamb, meaning that they are holy. A great crowd will all be worshipping the one true God, from every tribe, people and language. Not a tear will be shed because of the shed blood of the Lamb.
The believer is continually cleansed from sin by His blood. “The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us of all sin” (1 John 1 v7). As Leon Morris says, “it refers not only to a once-for-all cleansing but to an activity which takes place day by day”. How precious it is to know that the activity of Calvary is achieved by faith on a daily basis. We are clean because of the Cross and we will inherit eternal life through faith in the blood.
There is peace with God through the shed blood (Colossians 1 v20). The believer is no longer alienated from God (Colossians 1 v21) and is reconciled to God (Colossians 1 v20). These verses include the phrase, “making peace through His blood”. Peace comes to the anxious believer because they have peace with God and their mind is renewed and refreshed by the Lord Jesus.
We are a chosen people (1 Peter 1 v2), no longer separated but brought into close contact with God. Paul reminded the Ephesians that they were separated from God but are now, “brought near by the blood of Christ” (2 v13). A majestic Creator, who was without beginning or end and perfectly holy, decided to bring sinners into close fellowship with Himself. He restored that precious relationship He had with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2). The barrier was broken down (Ephesians 2 v14), the dividing wall of hostility was abolished and we are brought into close contact with this awesome God.
We are given the right to enter the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 10 v19). On the Day of Atonement, and on this day only, atoning blood was brought into the Holy of Holies by the Jewish High Priest alone. After much fearful preparation, the Priest did this to achieve the cleansing of the people. The Day of Atonement was the last of 18 days of penitence by God’s chosen race. But at Calvary the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom, giving forever the believer the right to enter the Holy of Holies, which is the presence of God. The believer has the right to enter into God’s presence because Jesus shed His blood, what a privilege this is.
Satan’s power has been broken by the Shedding of the blood (Revelation 12 v11). Death was Satan’s intention, which he achieved in the Garden. Adam and Eve sinned and Satan’s plan of control was completed, but Jesus once and for all broke that control. Satan tried to defeat Jesus and must have thought victory was secure when Jesus died. The death was shown by the shed blood, but the conquest was completed when Jesus rose from the dead. Trusting in the blood shed by your Lord means that Satan is a defeated enemy.
God has sealed all of this by a covenant (Hebrews 13 v20). How can we be sure that all the above promised blessings are really ours forever and without possibility of loss? Paul gives us the answer, it is because Jesus shed His blood that we receive the “cup of thanksgiving” (1 Corinthians 10 v16). Every time we share in the Communion we remind ourselves that what Jesus did in the Upper Room when He shared with His disciples for the last time the Passover meal, applies to us here and now. It is the blood of the everlasting Covenant.
“There is a fountain filled with blood. Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; and sinners plunged beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains.
I do believe, I will believer, that Jesus died for me. That on the Cross He shed His blood, from sin to set me free.”
William Cowper.