"The Blood of Christ " - Ben Bailey
The Blood of Christ
The Holy Spirit says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins” (Heb. 9:22). The Old Testament Levitical system was a very bloody system (Lev. 1-5). For every sin, there was a blood sacrifice to be offered (Lev. 4:1-12). Yet, the Scripture records that the blood of bulls and goats could never really take away sin (Heb. 10:3-4). How thankful we should be that Jesus was willing to shed His blood once for sin so that the sin problem would have a permanent solution (Heb. 10:12). Notice just how important the blood of Christ is to our salvation.
When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper He said, “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Mt. 26:28). When Jesus was on the cross “…one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out” (Jn. 19:34). It was at this point in time a fountain was opened for cleansing of sin (Zech. 13:1). Without the shedding of Jesus’ blood, we would not have forgiveness (Rom. 6:1-4; Acts 2:38).
The Apostle Paul said, “In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). Paul later wrote that we are brought near to God through the blood of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:13). The word “redeem” literally means to “buy back.” Before Jesus shed His blood, we were enslaved to sin (Rom. 6:17-18). Jesus paid the ransom price to free us from sin. Paul said of Jesus’ sacrifice, “who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal. 1:4). Only through the blood of Christ could we be bought back into a right relationship with God (Jn. 14:6).
Because of sin, the relationship between God and man had been severed (Isa. 59:1-2; Ezek. 18:4; Rom. 3:23). Yet, how wonderful it is to hear Paul tell the Colossian Christians that Jesus made “peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20). Through the blood of Christ, we can have the peace of God which surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:6-8).
The Scriptures tell us that Jesus loves us and is willing to wash us from our sins in His own blood (Rev. 1:5). At what point do we contact the blood of Christ? When do we receive that washing of our sins in the blood of Jesus? We contact the blood of Christ in the watery grave of baptism (Rom. 6:1-4; Eph. 5:26; Heb. 10:22). Paul was told to “arise and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). Since it is the blood of Christ that cleanses our sins, then we must conclude that baptism is the point at which we reach the blood of Christ (Acts 2:38; Mk. 16:16). Furthermore because we can lose the benefit of Jesus’ cleansing blood as a child of God (Heb. 10:24-26), we must continue to walk in the light as Jesus is in the light, and we must continue to confess our sins as His children so that the blood of Jesus can keep on cleansing us from all sin (1 John 1:7-9). Thank God for the precious blood of Jesus that not only makes us pure, white, and whole in God’s sight but maintains our purity in His sight so that one day we can “see God” for eternity (Isa. 1:18; Mt. 26:28; 5:8).