THE BLOOD OF CHRIST Hubert Krause Additional Editing by Orest Solyma Church of God in Williamstown

Transcription

1 THE BLOOD OF CHRIST Hubert Krause Additional Editing by Orest Solyma Church of God in Williamstown INTRODUCTION The Day of Atonement is one of the two Holy Days of God during which the blood of Jesus Christ is the subject of special emphasis. I would like to consider this subject in my message today. BLOOD FOR BLOOD God the great Life-giver, is also the great Defender of human life, a principle ingrained in His covenant with Noah: Ge 9:6 Whoever sheds man's blood [wantonly, carelessly, premeditatedly], by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man. God elaborates on this in the Book of Leviticus, explaining why blood must be shed for the blood of man: Lev 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Shed blood is sacred; both the innocent blood of a human being made in the image of God, as well as that of any substitutionary animal sacrifice, which epitomized the life of the sacrificial victim. Human blood that is spilt without cause demands vindication. In ancient Israel, even a domestic animal that had taken a human life was to be stoned to death in the upholding of this principle (Ex 21:28-32)! Shed innocent blood polluted the land and in turn required the shedding of blood as the means of forgiveness to atone for, to cover, to remove the guilt, in order to avert wrath and death. This is the fullest and truest sense of meaning of the word atonement, as we shall see: Nu 35:33 So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement [perhaps restoration?] can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. Dt 19:10 lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you. 13 Your eye shall not pity him [the murderer who has shed innocent blood], but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you. The guilt of bloodshed has to be immediately addressed. Like the blood of righteous Abel, it cries out to God for vengeance and justice and curses all who are stained by it (Gen 4:10-11). This is why the martyrs of God are justified in demanding vengeance: Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" God, who is perfectly just, who demands that all sin be dealt with and that all evil be accounted for, also demands justice according to His definition for all innocent blood shed. THE GUILT OF INNOCENT BLOOD Let us now go to the Book of Deuteronomy to see this principle further validated, by means of a parable, in the Law of God. Dt 21:1 "If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance from the slain man to the surrounding cities. 3 And it

2 shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke. 4 The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. 5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled. 6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 Then they shall answer and say, 'Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. 8 'Provide atonement [Heb: expiation: the means of pardon,covering, reconciliation], O LORD, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.' And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood. 9 So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD." It is worth noting that the word expiation comes from a sixteenth-century word from Latin which gives the sense of removing guilt through piety. This definition is inadequate, as we shall see, as are the definitions our language has for other words used in translating atonement. They need therefore to be qualified. When an innocent victim is found murdered, the community is faced with the possibility of great wrath from God because of the unexpiated blood (v 6-8). The pre-condition is that someone must accept responsibility in order to avert the divine wrath. The community represents the world. The innocent man is Christ, and we are all guilty of His blood: 1Pe 1:18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver [the symbol of redemption] or gold [the symbol of purification], from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a [n innocent] lamb without blemish and without spot. Humanity is collectively responsible for the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who has tasted death for us all (Heb 2:9). Like the elders of Israel, like the Church of God, the whole world must announce to God that it does not want to have this innocent blood held against it. But how? By doing certain things that are themselves parabolic we might indeed see that the wages of sin is death, and that the gift of God is life. But is that gift unconditional? What is required before God forgives? OUR PROPITIATION FROM GOD Let us notice something of first importance about the blood of Jesus Christ: Ro 3:25 (NRSV) whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement [that is, the means of forgiveness; the word is sometimes translated here as propitiation, from the Latin propitiare, meaning to appease. However, we cannot, by doing God a favour, appease Him!] by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed. The NIV footnote for the words sacrifice of atonement reads: as the One who would turn aside His wrath. Christ is the means or place of forgiveness, represented by the Mercy Seat, on which and before which the blood was sprinkled; He is the sacrifice that averts the divine wrath of God against 2

3 sin. Unlike the innocent blood of Abel, which cried out to God for justice and retribution, His innocent blood offers us forgiveness and reconciliation if we accept it in godly faith: Heb 12:24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. The innocent blood of the Incarnate Son of God, like the innocent blood of the substitutionary animal sacrifices which typified His supreme sacrifice, is God s means of redeeming us from the wages of sin. The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa 53:6). PURIFICATION BY BLOOD The writer of the Book of Hebrews, alluding to the blood of Christ, tells us: Heb 9:22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission There is no forgiveness universally unless blood is shed. Someone has to pay! Now let us notice verse 23: Heb 9:23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these [ritualistic and parabolic sacrifices], but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. This purification is all-pervasive: the spiritual altar in the heavens, which is not pure, we are told by Job (Job 15:15), must also be cleansed.. Col 1:20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Therefore, by accepting the blood of Christ: We are first brought back to God: Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. We are purified and cleansed from dead works and from the futility of the world: Heb 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? We need to rethink how the shed blood of the innocent Son of God cleanses our consciences. We share in His life individually, just as we do by feeding on Christ as the Bread of Life: Jn 6:53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." Do we know what it means to eat and drink of the Life of the Son of God? The Church collectively is offered this sharing in His life: Ac 20:28 "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood [ the blood of His own, with Son or Servant being understood, is a better translation]". 3

4 Our sins are remitted, we are justified made right with God saved from His wrath, and redeemed: Mt 26:28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Ro 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood [or made righteous by His blood how?], we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Eph 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. REJECTING THE ATONEMENT: JUDAS AND THE PHARISEES As we have noted, the shed blood of His elect Son is precious to God (1 Pet 1:19). If it is rejected, God is insulted, and the curse of innocent blood shed but not expiated unleashes His wrath and vengeance: Heb 10:29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? Judas Iscariot probably understood the Old Testament symbolism of innocent blood shed requiring vindication by blood, but He rejected the life being offered by the Son of God: Mt 27:3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." And they said, "What is that to us? You see to it!" 5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood." 7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.9 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced." The thirty pieces of silver which Judas was willing to accept as his price for betraying his Master was apparently, referring back to Ex 21:23, the standard price for a slave. Jesus Christ, the precious Lamb of God, the Slave or Servant of His Father (Isa 52:13), was treated like a human slave yet His blood is precious and without price! The commentaries seem to agree, from the Greek word translated temple above, that Judas, in his desperation, appeared to have hurled the coins into the into the sacred court of the priests; some of the money could have even reached the temple porch. The perverse religious protocol of the priests, more in accord with Talmudic traditions, forced them to regard the coins as holy because they had landed in the sacred area, but they could not be put into one of the regular accounts. The innocent blood of the Son of God counted for nothing to them, but His ransom price was suddenly holy! The reality, however, is that His ransom is holy. The irony is that the Jewish priests had no comprehension of that Just as innocent blood shed cursed the land until the blood of the guilty was shed (Nu 35:33), so the rejection of the blood of the Son of God brings curses upon the generations of humankind until there is either an acceptance, through repentance and faith, of the only sacrifice that removes guilt, or the wrath of God to its full measure and its result, the final death: 4

5 Mt 23:29 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' 31 Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt [so that the wrath of God may fully descend upon you!]. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." Luke amplifies this: Lk 11:50 "that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation." 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation." This prophecy of Christ will continue to be fulfilled! Unless the Son of God is accepted as Redeemer (Jesus), and as Messiah (Christ), there can be no forgiveness or salvation. THE VENGEANCE OF GOD To curse God by willfully rejecting the shed blood of His Son leaves the wrath of God as the only alternative the exacting of the penalty of death for guilt in the murder of the innocent Son of God! Mt 27:25 And all the people answered and said, "His [referring to Christ s] blood be on us and on our children." The guilt of bloodshed was not accepted by the generation of Christ s day. The accountability for unrequited innocent blood was therefore imputed to, borne by, and passed onto subsequent generations until there is a righteous acceptance of guilt: Isa 22:14 Then it was revealed in my hearing by the LORD of hosts, "Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement [or, more appropriately, no forgiveness, no removal of the penalty of sin] for you, even to your death," says the Lord GOD of hosts." This is the nature of the wrath of God to come. His vengeance upon the godless age that rejects Him and the blood sacrifice of His Son is depicted also as a symbol of blood: Ac 2:19 I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And God will repay blood with blood: Rev 16:6 "For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due." So the type of prayer uttered by Nehemiah and Jeremiah has its place: Neh 4:5 Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders (Compare Job 14:17). 5

6 Jer 18:23 Yet, LORD, You know all their counsel which is against me, to slay me. Provide no atonement [no means of removal of sin] for their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from Your sight; but let them be overthrown before You. Deal thus with them in the time of Your anger. CONCLUSION The precious blood of the Son of God has not been shed in vain. Its acceptance means reconciliation to God and deliverance from His wrath, its rejection brings curses and the vengeance of God. 6