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We sing about the blood of Jesus because that is how we are made acceptable to a holy God. We who place our trust in what Jesus did on the cross are not punished for our sin. God no longer sees our sin. He sees the innocent blood of our mighty Savior.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me wide as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. A great antidote to that foolish living that you once were living, and perhaps other people around you are pressuring you to continue living that lifestyle is remembering the fact that you are atoned for by a mighty savior. What does that word atonement mean? It is a Bible word that means “punishing Christ for my sin.” We get the idea of atonement from the Old Testament practice of punishing an animal for the sins of the people. All throughout the Old Testament in the sacrificial system, they would punish an animal that was innocent for the sins of the people. Leviticus 17:11 says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul." You see this idea of punishing someone else or punishing an animal for the sins of the people all throughout the Bible. You and I deserve punishment, and in order to protect us or shield us from that punishment, God says, "I'll require the lifeblood of a lamb or the lifeblood of an animal." The story of the Passover is found in Exodus 12. God tells His people that the death angel is going to come to punish the Egyptian households. However, if the children of Israel would take the blood of a lamb and post it on their doorposts, the death angel would pass over those homes, and they will not be punished. Genesis 22 tells the story where Abraham is told to slay his son on an altar before God. However, it was only a test. God stops Abraham from doing this. Genesis 22:12–13 says, “And He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’ Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.” So instead of his son, Abraham offers an animal. We see it prophesied about the future Messiah in Isaiah 53, which talks about the Messiah’s blood shed and his body broken for the people’s sins. It was prophesying about Jesus, and verse 6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Verse 7 describes Jesus, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.” John 1:29 recounts John the Baptist baptizing people, and as Jesus passes by, John declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, Who pays for the sins of the world.” Finally, Revelation 5 is a picture of a heavenly scene where only Jesus is worthy to break open the seal and read the scroll. Revelation 5:8–9 says, “Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: 'You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.'” With all of that as context, Peter states in 1 Peter 1:18-21, “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God." He planned it. God, in eternity past, knew that you would be paid for, you would be bought, you would be atoned for by this mighty Savior. He purchased it. We pay for things with money, but Peter said it wasn’t paid for with silver and gold. He says, it's worth far more than silver and gold. This redemption, this atonement was paid for by the precious, sinless, spotless blood of Jesus Christ. God sent his own Son to pay for you. You may think, “He paid for me because I'm valuable.” No, you've got it backwards. You're valuable because he paid for you. You may think, “I'm not worth much.” Just look at the cross and recognize that you are infinitely valuable to a holy God who wants you in His family and wants you in His kingdom. However, you are sinful and he's holy. You cannot stand in His presence, so He punished His own Son for your salvation. Now, if you would just accept and receive the gift of salvation that God paid for by sending Jesus to the cross, you can be made free, you can be purchased, you can be atoned for by this mighty Savior. He proved it through the resurrection. Do you know how you can take it to the bank that Jesus Christ did what He said He would do, that He paid for your sins? You couldn't see this when He was on the cross. All you could witness was something physical happening during the crucifixion. How do we know He was paying for our sins? The proof is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He did not stay in that tomb. God raised Him from the dead to put His stamp on what Jesus did on the cross. God raised Him from the dead to prove that He did what He said He was going to do. We’ve been redeemed. We’ve been atoned for by a mighty Savior. Putting together all that we have said about 1 Peter 1:17-21, we must understand and appreciate that we are different from the people of this world. Charles Swindoll said this, “Let me explain what this means. All those who don’t know Christ are merchandise in the slave market of sin. Whether they realize it or not, they are in bondage to desires, impulses, and ignorance—alienated from God, the one source of true freedom. They live in a condition in which they cannot help or change themselves. Spiritually blind and shackled in sin, they are jostled and abused by the uncontrollable flesh, the alluring world, and the seducing demons. They continue to dwell in that futile, frustrating lifestyle passed down to them from previous generations. Their only hope is help from the outside.”[1] A. W. Tozer had a great illustration at this point. He writes, “From this fallen way of life we are set free; we are redeemed. A Christian has been delivered from this way of life and from the moral magnetism of those entanglements. “A man once told about some sheep dying during a midwinter in Niagara River. Some of them had died upstream in Niagara, and they either would fall in or be thrown into Niagara River. It was very cold, but the tempestuous Niagara was not frozen, and it carried these dead sheep over the falls. Before the sheep went over the falls, the bald eagles would gather and dive down and ride these carcasses and tear out their flesh. One great eagle after another would fly upstream, land on one, tear with her talons, pull with her great sharp beak, get herself a mouth full of meat and gulp it. Then when they were about to go over the falls they would leap up gracefully on their broad wings and circle back and repeat the same thing over again. “As it was getting colder, one eagle made a mistake. She rode a little too long the last time, and her talons froze into the wool. When she, confident in her self-assurance, spread her great broad wings to take flight, her talons were frozen into the wool of the sheep and she plunged over to her death along with the carcass she had been feeding on. If somebody could have untangled her talons from the wool, it would have been a kind of redemption, a release. “God has provided a moral release from the tradition of our fathers, the foolish way of life that we see all around us.”[2] We are free from sin’s power. We are free to live for Jesus Christ. We are free to live a holy life. We don’t have to live that same aimless conduct that we once lived before. We can live for Jesus. God is our Father. He is our Judge. He is holy. Jesus Christ is a mighty Savior. “Dear God, I praise You that You laid my sin on Jesus. You paid for my sins on the cross. I rejoice that You raised Jesus from the dead, and now I worship a risen Savior. Thank You for Jesus! Amen.” You can read the first three antidotes of foolish living in the previous three blogposts. [1] Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on James, 1 & 2 Peter, vol. 13, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2014), 169. [2] A. W. Tozer, Living as a Christian: Teachings from First Peter, ed. James L. Snyder (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009), 48–49. |
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