Living Under The Blood - part 1

When we think of the blood of Jesus what is the first thing that comes to mind for most Christians? Is it something we just say to cover ourselves when we are sick, or something that we use to cover our children as we pray over them before the start of every day? Most people even some Christians don't really understand what the Blood of Jesus really means. The death of Jesus did way more for us than most people or Christians even think. What does His death mean to you? For most it means that their sins can be forgiven and they can get a fresh start.

In the Old Testament God would say that blood would have to be put upon the Mercy Seat:

(Leviticus 16:13) "And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, 

and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward;

 and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.".....

(Leviticus 16:16)..."And he shall make an Atonement for the holy place, 

because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, 

and because of their Transgressions in all their Sins 

and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, 

that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness"

What was this a description of? They were sprinkling the blood of goats to atone for their Sins and Transgressions that they had committed against the Lord a midst their uncleanness. We no longer have to do this! I know I have not been sprinkling any blood on the mercy seat in the holy of holies in my church, have you? So then if we do not atone for our sins in the same way as the Old Testament then why would God look at our sins in the same way as the Old Testament? We can’t just pick and choose our way to live according to the bible, God said that in the new testament the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ.

(John 14:6)"Jesus answered, 'I am the way 

and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me".

So where is our Mercy Seat and what do we do to atone for our sins then? We do not have to atone for our sins anymore! Jesus Christ is the Mercy seat for us!

(Romans 3:25) "God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, 

through the shedding of his blood “to be received by faith.

 He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he 

had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished"

Lets look at a few words in Romans 3:25. The first one is atonement, what does that word mean? According to The World English Dictionary it means:

Atonement:
A. satisfaction, reparation, or expiation given for an injury or wrong
 b. the sufferings and death of Christ

Basically it is saying that Christ was given as a sacrifice of satisfaction to God! Jesus Christ's bloodshed was a satisfaction for God's Wrath! Because the sins before Christ had gone unpunished, God was withholding his punishment from us! Look at the word "forbearance" and you will see what I mean.

Forbearance according to Dictionary.com means:
1.self-control; patience
2.Law -abstention from or postponement of the enforcement of a legal right,
3.The act of forbearing; a refraining from something.

The word Forbearance alone means a whole lot doesn't it! God had to show self control and patience with us, he refrained from his wrath upon us. Now let’s look at the other part of the definition and see what was really going on. Definition number two says flat out LAW! Abstention from the enforcement of a legal right!! You don't think that according to God's Law we should have all felt his wrath and punishment? Of course we should have, but the bible says it right there plain as day according to Romans 3:25 Jesus Christ's Blood was enough to keep God from punishing us according to his LAW! God can no longer enforce his Law on us because of Christ's sacrifice, that is why we are all still here today, that is why God has not completely wiped us all from the face of the earth! Not because of our own good deeds or what we have done on our own, but because Jesus died for US so that we would not be punished anymore according to God's LAWS.

At the end of the scripture it clearly says that God had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished! Why would he all of a sudden decide to start punishing us now if he left the sins beforehand unpunished? Jesus Christ was all the punishment needed to atone for all our sins! That is what the Good news is all about, the fact that no matter how hard we try to live a good life or how much we try to be perfect we are always going to fall short. He knew that we would not be able to uphold his Laws anymore, so in his final effort to save us from his much deserving wrath, he sent his son Jesus, who had no sin at all to become sin for us so that we could remain in God's love. Jesus became our new Mercy Seat; his blood is what is on the Mercy Seat now that is why he is the only way for us to get to the Father. God also said that he would forget all of our sins and our Lawless acts. If God is willing to forgive and forget our sins when we ask him to because of Jesus’ Bloodshed, then why do we still remind ourselves of our own sins?  Why do we let the Devil tell us we are not worthy or not good enough to receive God’s blessings?  

There is a reason for this thinking and tomorrow I will talk about it more in my next blog. I leave you with this scripture to remind you that God will remember your sins no more, so you don’t have to either:

(2 Corinthians 5:20) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,

 so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(Hebrews 10:17-18)  “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. (emphasis on all scriptures are my own)

Click here for Part 2

Be sure to read my series : The Fear of The Lord

Living Under The Blood - part 2

 We live under a new covenant! That is why there is an Old Testament and a New Testament we are under the Testament of Jesus Christ! If we try to live any other way we are saying that Jesus Christ's death is not important to us and we want to go back and live under the old ways or “Old Testament”. It’s like saying “Hey thanks Jesus I know you died for my sins and all but I want to go back to the old ways or Old Testament”. How can we call ourselves Christians and live that way? We are condemning ourselves, when we say that we believe Jesus Died for our sins which clearly begins a New Testament for us but we still want God to see us as living under the Old Testament.

Let’s Clear up any confusion you might be having right now, if you have been reading the blogs prior to this one you might be saying “What does he mean by Law Or Old Covenant and Old Testament?”. They are all one in the same! When God talks about Law in the Bible, he is talking about our Old Covenant or agreement we had as a nation of people prior to Jesus Christ dying on the Cross. Let’s quickly break it down so that we can understand all of this. Let’s look at the definition of all these words and see how they relate to one another. According to dictionary.com

The word Testament:

     -  Law ; a will,  especially one that relates to the disposition of one's personal property.

2             -  a covenant, especially between God and humans.

The word Covenant:

1         -  an agreement, usually formal, between two or more personsto do or not do something specified.

2           - Law . an incidental clause in such an agreement.

3           -   the conditional promises made to humanity by God, as revealed in Scripture.

4              - the agreement between God and the ancient Israelites,in which God promised to protect them if 

they kept His law and were faithful to Him.

So what word do we see in common? The word Law. Testament means a law or covenant that was between us and God. The word Covenant means pretty much the same thing, an “agreement” or “conditional promise” that is made between us and God. As we read the scriptures let’s go ahead and replace the word Law with “Old Testament” and see what happens.

In Romans3:25 it clearly states that God left the sins committed beforehand unpunished, because he knew that Jesus Christ would atone for all of them. If they were atoned for back then, why would our sins not be atoned for now?

This has been something I have been struggling with my whole life! I just kept failing God every single day! Even though I knew that my sins were forgiven the devil would still torment me with them and bring them back to memory. He would say remember when you committed that sin the other day, because of what you did God is punishing you for it! But that couldn't be further from the TRUTH! God does not punish us on a daily basis according to our sins and transgressions; he said they are removed as far as the East is from the West! (Psalm 103:12). I used to say to myself "Why if they are forgotten am I being judged and punished for them"? I did not know that it was all a lie from the devil to keep us from receiving God's Favor! God wants to bless us all the time, but because we try to live by the law (Old Testament) God cannot bless us the way he wants to.

When we try to live by the Old Testament we are saying that Christ Died for nothing.

(Galatians 2:21) "I do not set aside the grace of God, for

 if righteousness could be gained through the law (Old Testament), Christ died for nothing!"

(Galatians 2:16)"know that a person is not justified by the works of the law (Old Testament), but by faith in Jesus Christ (The New Testament). So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus (The New Testament) that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law (Old Testament), because by the works of the law (Old Testament) no one will be justified."

Doesn’t it make a bit more sense now? The scriptures flat out say, that is we try and live according to God’s Old Testament we will not be justified!  God is telling us that if we do not live our lives according to the New Testament (Jesus Christ’s Death) then God will not show us his Grace or “unmerited favor”.

(Matthew 7:21-23)"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?'23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

What is God saying in this scripture? They did miracles and even cast out demons in the name of God, so why is it that he says “I never knew you”? God is saying clear as day! That no matter how many "Good Works" you have done according to the laws (Old Testament) it is not enough to get into the Kingdom of heaven. What you are telling God is that you have done enough to get into Heaven and you don’t need to have Faith in Jesus (The New Testament) because you made your own way by trying to do works according to the Old Testament. Having Faith means what? Believing in something that cannot be proven! If you are doing good works then you are trying to PROVE yourself to God? God wants us to put our faith in him through the belief of Jesus Christ (New Testament). The death of Jesus started a whole new covenant between us and God! We have to acknowledge that by saying Jesus Christ died on the cross for me. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are doing more than just admitting He died for us, we are telling God “I agree to the NEW TESTAMENT”!  That is so amazing to me, not only do I get to have Jesus Christ as my savior to help guide me on my path, but I am now apart of the New Testament with God! 

I pray that these blogs will be a blessing to all who read them!

Go back to the Home Page