The Blood of Jesus

With Easter approaching, how cool that the Holy Spirit laid this topic on my heart a few weeks ago?! When He first whispered, "study my blood," I thought, "Ummm, that is pretty clear and concise, are you sure?" I am so glad He is patient with me in my stupidity and even my arrogance.

I found a book by Andrew Murray concerning the blood of Christ that just blew me away. It is titled, "The Power of the Blood of Jesus." The first chapter speaks of redemption and it was so rich and profound, I haven't moved much beyond it! I wanted to share some of what I loved concerning this topic.

Blood represents the soul or life of something. If a dove is a nice sacrifice, then a sheep or goat is better. An ox is better than that. A man is far better than an ox. So, imagine the holy Son of God's blood. Nothing beats that. It trumps all.

Murray states that there are many blessings for one washed in the blood...reconciliation, cleansing, sanctification, union with God, victory, life itself...but they all start and are wrapped up in the first blessing of redemption by the blood.

I guess what hits me the most is that there is one common theme throughout scripture...beginning to end. It is blood. In the old testament, we see Abel offer an acceptable sacrifice to God...which results in fellowship with Him. We later see Noah step off the ark onto a cleansed earth and the first thing he does is offer a blood sacrifice. We next see Abraham offer Isaac on the altar...who is spared, but the substitution of a lamb is taught. We see the reference to why Jesus is called our "horn of salvation"...because the ram was caught in the thicket by its horns.

Moving through the pages, we see instructions for the Passover...life was only spared by the blood on the doorframes. Later, the Israelites are commanded to build a sanctuary...a place for God to dwell among them...and everything inside will point to sacrifice and blood.

After 4000 years of preparing men for this concept of sacrifice and blood, enter Jesus. In the new testament, Jesus himself tells us that the very reason He came was for the shedding of His own blood. We must partake in that, or we won't be freed from sin and death. His sacrifice was the final and ultimate one. It was the only one that satisfied God. It is the sole basis for our freedom. It is our redemption.

In the future, in our Heavenly Home, we will still sing about the blood. "There was no phrase by which the great purposes of God, the wondrous love of the Son of God, the power of His redemption, and the joy and thanksgiving of the redeemed--can be gathered up and expressed save this--"THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB." Think about that! One phrase sums it all up for us who have been called and redeemed!

Some things I think God wants me to take away from this study:

1. God can only deal with sin through blood

2. God wants us to think about Christ's blood the same way He does

3. When we value His blood, we will draw near to God and be infused with love, joy, and His glory

4. The blood of Jesus will always be the GREATEST mystery! (So much for my clear and concise statement, huh?)

5. We should desire to understand more about the power of His blood and TRUST Him to reveal new insights to us. "Trust Him to work out in you the full merits of His blood so that your whole life may be an uninterrupted abiding in the sanctuary of God's presence.'

Let's open our souls this week that precedes Easter and ask Him to reveal the blessings of the blood to us!

Thank you Jesus! Your blood trumps all...even death!