WHAT CHRIST ACCOMPLISHED WHEN HE SHED HIS
PRECIOUS BLOOD.
Paul
in his Ephesian letter told of our woeful position without the atonement of our
Lord Jesus. We were derelict, abandoned.
Indeed, Paul described us, ‘We were without Christ, aliens from the
His
death made the estranged acceptable to or friendly with God: foreigners to
God’s covenants became citizens of His commonwealth; the hopeless succeeded
with rejoicing. This amazing outcome
from the shedding of the blood of our dear Lord. This brings perennial joy as
we contemplate what HE did on the cross.
Through
the cross, Christ reconciled Jew and Gentile to one body (the church) , putting
the enmity to death.’ So the death of our Lord accomplished this union of
saints. While sin shattered relationship with the Father, the death of our Lord
restored and built up. We cannot exhaust
the blessing HE attained on the tree.
‘He
came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and to those who were near’.
In
Don Richardson’s ’Peace Child’, two warring tribes in Papua New guinea agreed
to adopt a babe from one tribe, with every warrior laying down his arms.
Despite their cannibalistic lifestyle, they opened a new reign of accord.
Instead of merciless invasion, pillaging property, stealing wives and little
children, they commenced peaceful existence.
For years, the missionary had pleaded with the Father for some clue to
reach this primitive people, who extolled treachery as in Judas the betrayer of
Christ. They now preached Christ, the peace Child, the Prince of peace as their
Substitute. God opened the door of
cultural acceptance: a church was born..
After
Paul solemnly affirmed,’ All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,’
(Romans
3:23) the redemptive blood of our Lord justified us freely through His
grace. Scripture reminds us of our
Lord’s achievement through his blood-shedding. He continued, telling us that
‘the Father set forth our Lord ‘to be a propitiation through His blood.’ In
dying, He shed His life-blood and so satisfied the righteous requirement of a
holy, sovereign God. His blood expiated our troublesome indebtedness: He paid
our debt. Oh, how can we express our
deep gratitude to our beloved Saviour, Who justified us, and satisfied the
Father?
The
Bible warns against those who disrespectfully shun the theme of ‘the blood of
Christ’. ‘Of how much sorer punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought
worthy who has trampled the Son of God under foot, counted the blood of the
covenant, by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of
grace (third Person of the Trinity ). (Hebrews 10:29) Some scorn this precious theme, terming it
the ‘gospel of the butcher’s shop’. Such language offends the Father, who warns
clearly. This distressed me as a young
hospital orderly during WW11, when our chaplain cowardly refused to preach
salvation by the blood of the Lamb. I was shocked when he rejected this
precious truth. While he repelled many from God, I learned to treasure the
precious, cleansing blood of the Lamb.
The
writer to the Hebrews describes the punishment meted out to the one who
tramples the Son of God under his feet.’ Oh, how heartless to dishonour our
worthy Lord. He vulgarly devalues the precious blood of the covenant by which
he was sanctified. He mocks the treaty
which was sealed in His blood; and then abuses the gracious Spirit. Let teachers
boldly preach the agreement through the blood of Christ. All heaven supports
them in this enterprise.
The
beloved apostle John wrote of the value or virtue of His blood, ’Jesus said to them, I assure you, most
solemnly I tell you, you cannot have any life in you unless you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood ( unless you appropriate His life and the
saving merit of His blood. (6:53 Amplified bible). This is not physical as
cannibals practise, eating human flesh and drinking the blood of victims:
rather a spiritual acceptance of His inner life and our beloved Lord‘s worthy
death. We should not fear to receive every word spoken by our dear Lord. We lay
hold on the mysterious, but gloriously real, riches won for us by His precious
life-blood,
Participation
in the life of our dear Lord, that is ‘Who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life; and the glorious promise, ‘I will raise him up at the last
day.’ (v54) So we possess the immediate
gift of eternal life, and are assured of the resurrection of the body. ‘We
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ Absorbing the goodness of His flesh and blood
provides for us eternal security.
The Lord’s
Supper illustrates the marvel of His shed blood. ‘Jesus took bread, blessed it,
and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘Take, eat, this is My
body.’ (Matthew 26: 26) ‘Then He took
the cup’. The picked the ripe grapes from the vine, crushed them under foot,
extracting all juice. This symbolised the intense, indescribable sufferings of
the Lord on
Again
Christ asserted, ’This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many
for the remission of sins.’ (v28) His blood
sealed the new pledge of our eternal salvation; while the Father releases every
believer from the crushing weight of his sin.
When we first accepted our Deliverer, we wept tears of relief. Never again would the burden of sin blot out
our hope of eternal life. No other religion remits sin. Christ is the only Saviour, who shed His
precious blood for our salvation.
I
recommend you click on GOD’S PLAN OF SALVATION in your mother tongue.
Ensure
that you fully enjoy what your Lord accomplished through His shed blood.