There’s Power in the Blood

Study by Patricia Backora

God knew from the beginning that fallen man could not perfectly keep His Law. Ultimately, man is not a sinner because he sins; rather, he sins because he is a sinner by nature! The Law was given to Moses at Mt. Sinai by god to make mankind aware of his total depravity and need for a Redeemer. Paul tells us in Galatians 3:24 that the Law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Our failure to keep it reaffirms the truth stated in Romans 3:23: For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Only Christ could qualify to redeem people from the penalty of broken Law, for he lived out His entire life without committing a single sin . He was not crucified to pay for His own sins, for there weren’t any ( John 8:46; II Cor. 5:21. Through the shedding of perfectly innocent Blood, he atoned for the sins of all who would accept His free offer of salvation, whether born before or after His Atonement ( John 3:16-17; 7:37-38; Hebrews 9:28; Rev. 22:17). Otherwise, a perfectly holy and perfectly just God could not have justly forgiven one single sinner.

 

The Governor’s Reprieve
Psalms 14:1-3; Romans 3:23

Some people wonder why God waits so long to put the wicked on trial for all they’ve done. The sad truth is, God found all mankind guilty of sin a long time ago and fallen mankind has already been condemned to death. Jesus says in John 3:18: He that believeth on him (the Son of God) is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already.
Every unconverted man or woman, and every child who has awakened to an awareness of sin is already condemned to eternal separation from God’s presence because all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Every unconverted person in the whole wide world is sitting on death row.

Your only reprieve from eternal death is to accept our divine Governor’s pardon and walk free from the prison cell of sin. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ (Romans 6:23). This reprieve was provided by the substitutionary death of Christ.

Care must be taken by preachers to ensure that all conversions are genuine, that people have not responded to altar calls out of peer pressure. A superficial “decision for Christ” is NOT the same as deep surrender, accompanied by the “washing of regeneration (newness of life) and renewing of the Holy Ghost” spoken of in Titus 3:5 . Salvation is contingent upon repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21). This is an individual experience. No one is ever automatically saved by being brought up in church, or christened as an infant!

 

Adam’s Sad Legacy

When God confronted Adam and Eve for their trespass in the Garden, they faced Him wearing aprons of fig leaves they’d sewn together because they were ashamed for God to see their nakedness. Their sin was fully exposed to God’s sight. God had to take the life of animals and use their skins to make clothes which would provide better protection for the bodies of Adam and Eve.Their spiritual nakedness also had to be remedied. Only through the offering up of temporary animal sacrifices could sin be concealed from God’s sight, until the one true Sacrifice was offered for sin once and for all, and the sins of believers were taken away as far as East is from West.

Abel, a son of sinful Adam, became a child of God through faith in the coming Redeemer, and satan didn’t like it one bit. Most likely the devil worried that God might use Abel to provide a line of descent for “the seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15) , although God Himself would be the Father of Christ.
Satan had engineered Adam and Eve’s loss of fellowship with God in Eden, and begun to kill their physical bodies. Untold destruction had been wrought in their psyches. The sin nature had embedded itself in the very genetic code of man, to be passed down through countless generations. Adam lived to witness the outworking of this hereditary sin nature when his son Abel became the world’s first homicide statistic, slain by his jealous brother Cain. The story is recorded in Genesis 4:1-15.

Evidently sibling rivalry existed between these two young men, at least in Cain’s heart. Cain approached God in a spirit of competitiveness, while Abel’s attitude was one of contrite faith toward God. Blood sacrifice was what God required as an atonement for sin, for without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 10:28). God’s penalty for sin is death. The soul which sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:4b). Romans 6:23 says: The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ’s own sinless soul was made an offering for sin on our behalf (see Isaiah 53:10). Had Christ committed even one sin during His lifetime on earth, He would have disqualified Himself from paying the penalty of our sins, and God could not justly have forgiven one sinner.
It would yet be many centuries before Christ would come to earth to die for Abel’s sins. In Old Testament times, animal sacrifices were offered up as symbolic substitutes. These sacrifices were counted by God as acts of obedient faith, anticipating His appointed time when Christ Himself would die as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

Cain must have heard these truths at the knee of Adam, his sadder but wiser father. But evidently Cain refused to take consolation in this mercy of the Lord. Most likely he rankled over the expulsion of his parents (and hence, himself) from the delights of Paradise. Humankind had been sentenced to a life of grueling toil, aging, sorrows of innumerable kinds, and eventual physical death. I can picture the cogitations of a mind like Cain’s: Who does my dad think HE is, teaching ME how to run MY life, after the way HE fouled up? I could have kicked back and sipped cider under an apple tree all day! In any event, I wouldn’t have had to toil like a mule day in and day out just to eat! Life sure is a drag, thanks to good old Dad. I’ll placate God in my OWN way, not Dad’s. And if God doesn’t like it...well, TOUGH!

What a thorn Cain must have been in the hearts of his parents. Surely the rebellious nature of their eldest son was a poignant reminder to them of the sorrow their own disobedience had brought to God. The treacherous Absalom would bring such anguish to his father King David many centuries later.

Flashing his cheesiest smile, Cain brashly approached the stone altar he had erected. Proudly he brandished his gift to God, a conveniently bloodless heap of fresh farm produce he’d cultivated from the cursed ground which had been cursed through Adam’s sin (Gen. 3:17-19). My, Cain thought, won’t God be thrilled with MY donation? Much more than He’ll be with Abel’s! The very idea...presenting a pile of raw, bloody flesh to the Almighty! God’s finer sensibilities will surely be offended.

Cain misread God, if he’d bothered to try to understand Him at all. The faith of Abel is commended in Hebrews 11:4: By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he gained God’s assurance that he was righteous, God approving of his gifts; and by faith he, though dead, speaks.

But God wasn’t pleased with Cain’s self-styled offering, or his insubordination. It was Abel who’d been obedient, humbly casting himself by faith upon the mercy of a Deity offended by sin. Abel entertained no delusions about the utter depravity of the human nature he’d inherited from his father Adam. He realized that only with God’s help could it be held in check. He knew that man, in spite of his best efforts, falls short of the Glory of God and that sacrificial blood must be shed to cover his sin from God’s sight. Leviticus 17:11 says: It is the Blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Hebrews 9:22, in the New Testament reaffirms this bedrock principle of salvation: Without shedding of blood is no remission (forgiveness of sin).

The hard-hearted Cain couldn’t have cared less about God’s plan of salvation. Like most people he considered himself no better or worse than any other human, hardly bad enough to merit God’s attention. He refused to see his sin nature in the light of God’s unfathomable Holiness. Unlike his brother Abel, Cain was not accounted by God as righteous.

Cain’s “sacrifice” was an exercise in futility. God noticed how Cain glowered as the smoke from his offering refused to ascend heavenward, how the fire fizzled out no matter how much he fanned it and blew on it.

“Why are you so angry, Cain?” God asked him. “And why that pout on your face? If only you’d done what you were supposed to, you would have been accepted by Me. But because you disobeyed me, sin is even now lurking at your door. It wants to dominate you, but you must overcome it (Genesis 4:7).”

Even at that point God was offering Cain a chance to repent and do what was right: offer an animal sacrifice for his sin. But Cain was a free thinker who wanted to do things his own way. He opened the door to that sin God warned him about and it took complete control of him, causing him to murder his own brother in a jealous rage.

Adam and Eve had such wonderful fellowship with God in the Garden before their sin alienated God from them. But God’s Good News is this: Now the Sacrifice of Christ has availed to restore man’s broken relationship to the Father. Anyone willing to enter in to this provision of God in Christ can now enjoy the same intimate friendship Adam had with God before his fall.


 

The Old Covenant: Promise of the New

Under the Mosaic Covenant, only those Gentiles who had sacrifices offered for them according to the Law of Moses could share in the same salvation God offered Israel. These few converts, like the believing Jews, looked forward in faith to the coming of that one perfect Sacrifice Whose blood would make a final atonement for sin.

At the time of the Jews’ Exodus from Egypt, God’s patience with stubborn Pharaoh had finally run out. He still wouldn’t let God’s people go. God had already visited nine terrible plagues upon the Land of Egypt. Now the worst was about to come. The Israelites needed to avail themselves of the protection God offered them from the Angel of Death who would fly over Egypt and slay the firstborn of every family. God’s instructions to them are recorded in Exodus Chapter 12.

On the night of their departure, the Israelites were to slay one lamb for each household, roast it and eat it. But the blood of the lamb was to be smeared on the side posts and lintel of the house (Ex. 12:7). As the Death Angel flew over the Land of Egypt he would look down and see the atoning blood on the houses of the obedient Israelites. Any home protected by the Blood was spared the destruction of its firstborn son because of God’s promise to the Covenant People in Ex. 12:13 : When I see the blood I will pass over you . Thus began the annual celebration of the Jews’ Passover, a time of remembrance instituted by God (Ex. 12:14) , a celebration of their deliverance from Egypt and from the Angel of Death which struck unbelieving Egyptians. The Paschal Lamb itself came to be called the Passover (Mark 14:12).

Just as God delivered Israel from the bondage of Egypt, He also promised to redeem them from the bondage of sin ( Psalms 130:8). In I Cor. 5:7 Jesus is called our Passover Lamb. The blood of bulls and goats, offered continually in the Temple could never truly take away sin (Hebrews 10: 1-18), but these sacrifices served as “promissory notes” before God attesting to faith in that One Who was to come to finally take away sin forever through the sacrifice of Himself ( Isaiah 53:3-6; I Peter 1:18-20).

 

Christ Suffered to Heal Our Alienation From God

Do you know why Christ’s anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane was so great, as He prayed for the strength to give up His Life for you and me? The prospect of being scourged, mocked and nailed to a Cross was terrifying enough, but He knew He faced an even worse ordeal_temporary alienation from God the Father.

He Who knew no sin became sin for the sake of sinners, nailed to the Cross in their stead. At that moment God had to avert His eyes from the One Who had always been so dear to Him. God’s pure eyes of Holiness could not look upon that loathsome bundle of sin Christ had taken upon Himself.

Deep in Christ’s soul He felt the absence of fellowship with God the Father. All He could feel was the dreadful stroke of God’s wrath against sin falling upon Him. This terrified Jesus, as He hung on that Tree. Psalms Chapter 88, believed by many to be a Messianic Psalm (a prophecy of Christ) paints a stark picture of the anguish suffered by Christ on the Cross of Calvary. In verse 7 the afflicted Man speaks of the weight of God’s wrath crushing Him, how it hits him in waves. In verse 8 the Man laments that the Almighty has separated Him from His friends and made Him loathsome to them. He feels like a helpless Prisoner.

There is nothing more frightening than to sense that you’ve pushed God too far and strayed out from beneath the covering of the Blood, and you are in danger of the judgment of God. There have been times when I got careless enough to hang onto wrong thoughts satan sent me instead of rebuking them in the Name of Jesus. Then I knew that awful fearful feeling, though God in His mercy restored me to fellowship with Himself. How did He do that? I regained God’s abiding peace through the ministrations of Christ, My Heavenly High Priest, Who ever lives to make intercession for me and sprinkles me anew with the atoning Blood (I John I:8-10; 2:1-2; Heb. 7:25).Through the Blood we can experience daily victory over satan, who accuses the saints before the Throne of God, and will do so until he is finally denied access to the heavenlies (see Rev. 12:10).

 

God and Man Reconciled in Christ

A most wondrous miracle occurred at the moment of Christ’s death. He, the spotless Lamb of God, had just made atonement once and for all for all the sins of humankind. Animal sacrifices had served as temporary promissory notes pointing toward the final payment for sin. At the moment of Christ’s death, these were no longer needed. Now the Way into the Holiest Place of all had just been opened for all who would come to Christ for everlasting life. No longer was access to God’s Presence severely restricted as it was after the Law of Moses was given, when only the High Priest might enter into the Holiest Place and even then only once a year. When Christ shed His precious Blood to make a final atonement for our sins the heavy curtain concealing the Most Holy Place in the Temple was ripped in two from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45; Heb. 10:19-22. Through the Blood of Jesus we have the right to enter even into the Holiest Place of all.

After the crucifixion of Christ the Veil in the Temple separating mankind from the Most Holy Place ripped asunder. The chief priests knew this miraculous event had occurred. They also knew there was no natural cause for it. Not even the recent earthquake could have caused such stout fabric to rip apart. These learned men, above all others in Jerusalem, ought to have understood the meaning of this marvel. For centuries saints and prophets had yearned to be brought into a greater intimacy with their Maker, for the distance between God and man to be removed .But instead of giving God thanks for this unspeakable grace, men too blind to accept the Truth refused to acknowledge that God Himself had torn the Veil of Separation and opened the Way into His Holy Presence. Not only did blind leaders of the blind refuse to enter in themselves, but they misled the people, thus sealing the doom of their City of Jerusalem and its Temple (Luke 23:27-31).

 

Kept Through the Power of the Blood

You, as a believer in Christ, have been washed in His Blood and baptized into His Body by the Spirit of God. As you continue to walk in the faith of Christ and abide in Him you are also kept by the power of God (John 15:4-5; II Cor. 13:5; Colossians 1:21-23; I Peter 1:5). Daily look unto Him to cleanse you of all sin, both known and unknown, by sprinkling you with His Blood. Commune with Jesus continually in good times and bad. See the Christ in other Christians and treat them accordingly. Depend on Christ for wisdom to know how to share His Love with unbelievers. As you do these things, you will feel the peace of God rest on you and know you are in fellowship with Him.

Many religious groups have it all wrong where it concerns what it takes to get saved or stay saved. In their ignorance they’ll rigidly enforce rules regarding diet, dress, tithing, donations, and ceremonies of all kinds. These are nothing but man’s foolish attempt to gain favor with God through outward works of the flesh. Carnal ministers simply can’t trust God to protect His own flock from perdition.

What really grieves God is that so many think that their abstinence from harmless amusements like ball games or sports, or from certain adornments, foods and beverages makes it more likely that they will beat others to the gates of heaven. That is robbing Him of Glory. It is only through the Blood of the Lamb sprinkled on the Mercy Seat in heaven that anyone can freely approach God’s Presence in Prayer Isaiah 52:15; Heb. 9: 13-14, 19-24) It is CHRIST Who makes you acceptable to God, not your dietary habits or wardrobe.

Mature saints are often ashamed to have to come to God to ask forgiveness of sins. They think that since they’ve walked with God for so many years they should be well past the stage where it’s easy to stumble into pitfalls of the flesh; so they perceive it as an agonizing humiliation to come before the Father and confess they aren’t so perfect after all. But every believer needs God’s grace to overcome the weaknesses of the flesh until the day of his glorification, when the sinful likeness of Adam drops away like a dead chrysalis from a butterfly and he is perfected into the likeness of Christ.

Don’t worry. God is never ashamed of repentant people. Repentance toward God and faith in Christ is what reconciles us to Himself. The danger comes when we are unwilling to repent. God is well pleased when we come for help of any kind. You cannot hide anything from Him. He loves you, imperfect though you are. The precious Blood of His Son can cleanse you from every transgression under the sun. The very fact you care indicates you are growing more mature. It would be a far greater disgrace not to come and confess your sins so God can blot them all out. Nothing is to be gained by self-sufficiency. You began your walk with God by acknowledging your own helplessness to save yourselves, and you must continue it by leaning on His everlasting arm.

So long as you realize your utter dependency on God, He is able to lift you up and carry you over the rough spots of life. The Blood of Christ is sufficient to wash away every sin. It can give you victory over the evil one who would destroy you. Through the merits of the Blood, Christ is able to save you to the uttermost and see you safely to heaven. Only those who finally reject Christ after once knowing Him can be lost again, as Peter indicates in II Peter 2:20-22, where he speaks of a sow being washed and returning to the dirty pig pen, or the dog returning to his vomit. Where eternal security is concerned, we need to maintain a reverent attitude toward the Spirit of God and heed his warnings of when repentance is needed in our lives.

When God adopted you as His child, it was for keeps. Don’t ever let any lie of satan make you feel unfit to be in His Presence. So long as you walk softly and humbly before God with a contrite heart, trusting in the Blood of Jesus to cleanse you from every sin, you can approach His Throne with a holy boldness. Before you approach God in any other kind of prayer be sure that your heart is right before Him by petitioning Him for the forgiveness of all sin, and for the cleansing of the Blood of the Lamb. Ask God to help you to forgive others who have hurt you. That’s not always easy, I know, so you have to let Christ in you do this for you. If you sense that demonic forces are hindering you from making these vital petitions, ask God to dispatch angelic helpers to lift the oppression of satan. You really do need God’s angels to wage war in the heavenlies on your behalf. Don’t say within yourself that you’re not important enough for God to intervene to this extent. He gave His dear Son to give up His Life for your sake. God would even have sent Him to do this just for you if YOU had been the only one requiring salvation, His love for you is so unspeakably great.

 

Achieving Peace Through the Blood of Christ

The blood of Jesus can set you free from false religious spirits masquerading as piety. I have seen saints who consider it a mark of spirituality to go around looking sad all the time. They continually beat on themselves about their imperfections. They honestly feel guilty about looking or feeling happy, even about wearing bright clothing. Every trial, no matter how nasty it is, is embraced as being from the Lord and seen as a penance to be endured for personal cleansing.

Well, I’ve got news for you. The devil isn’t interested in perfecting you. He’s out to destroy you, or at the very least render your personal ministry ineffectual by hobbling you with endless hindrances. If personal suffering could redeem the soul, every deathbed would be a launching pad to heaven! The Blood of Jesus redeems our soul and sanctifies it ever afterward, as we continue to trust in Him. Paul asks in Galatians 3:3: Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Folks, we began this journey by faith and we must finish it by faith.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, not put a positive spin on them (I John 3:8). We are told in James 4:7 and I Peter 5:8-9 to resist the devil. Revelation 12:11 tells us we can overcome satan by the Blood of the Lamb. How can we apply this principle?

Whenever you get a negative thought that denies the Truth of God’s Word it is always from the devil. Old Sluefoot especially lies about the bedrock truths of salvation. He’ll use the same old line on you he used on Eve: “Did God really say that?” If that happens, don’t act defensive, but go on the offensive. Proclaim loudly that you are redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb and the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to you by faith (Romans Chapter 4). You are made one spirit with Him by faith ( I Cor. 6:17). In God’s eyes you as a believer are just as innocent as Jesus!

Because of the power of the Blood of Jesus to cleanse and sanctify the soul, the devil has no right to accuse any believer of sin (Romans 8:32-34), especially one who walks softly and tenderly before God, wearing the Helmet of Salvation by faith (Eph. 6: 17).

Self-castigating, sour-faced saints become that way because instead of focusing on the perfection of Christ within, they fixate on the remnant of a fallen Adamic nature which will not be completely cast off till the day of their glorification. I know everyone feels like crying at some time, but these people confuse a humble, contrite heart with a morose disposition afraid to crack a smile for fear of being “carnal”. I have seen many under the oppression of religious spirits. They are continually bowed down, weeping and wailing in God’s presence instead of singing for joy of heart. Whenever I get around such people, I can sense a spirit of heaviness on them. God promises His children the Oil of Joy for mourning and the Garment of Praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:3). The Joy of the Lord is our strength ( Neh. 8:10).

So next time satan tries to tell you you’re such a big sinner you’ve got no right to sing and praise the Lord, plead the power of the Blood of Jesus, praying in the power of the Spirit. It will make the devil will take off like a ruptured duck! He hates the Blood of Jesus because it spelled his defeat and the soon-coming final end of his kingdom, and he knows Who is about to take over the throne of this earth!
Plead the redeeming power of the Blood of Christ over your home. Do spiritual warfare by praying in the Spirit against any negative psychic influences you sense might be coming against you, whether they are evil spirits, spells or curses. If you know of some ancestor who was involved in the occult, even go so far as to renounce that sin in Jesus’ Name, though it is not your own personal sin Why? The devil will seize on any excuse to accuse you before the Father or attack you, and he must be resisted steadfastly in the faith.Be filled with the Spirit of God and stay filled in order that your prayers may be more effectual. You cannot rationalize away a spiritual foe who is very real.

 

A Dangerous Doctrine

The believer who wants to remain connected to Christ by faith and grow into His likeness is secure. But there is also circulating a demonic doctrine of unconditional eternal security which leads people to believe they would even go up in the Rapture if Jesus caught them on a bed of adultery when He returned for His saints. Their reasoning: “I can’t keep God’s law anyway. Jesus paid it all, so it doesn’t matter how I live.”

But it does matter how you live. Paul says in I Cor. 6:9: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate; nor abusers of themselves with mankind (homosexuals), Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).

In the Parable of the Unwise Stewards in Luke 12:45-48, Jesus lets us know He will hold His servants accountable not only for their faithfulness, but their moral conduct prior to His Coming. Those who revel in drunken debauchery and mistreat their fellow servants share in the fate of unbelievers. Other servants are punished with varying severity for committing lesser sins or for being disobedient.
The motivation of the heart is everything. Colossians 3:2 says: Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. And Jesus said in Matt. 6:21: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. if our hearts are centered on Christ, we will be better able to withstand the wiles of the devil who does his worst to bring us out from beneath the secure covering of the Blood of Christ.

To illustrate the correlation between individual responsibility and true eternal security, I am including an incident from my novel Tough Love in Christ’s Millennium in this article. Lord Stephen, Royal Mayor of Joystar, is taking Saul Savage to task over his careless attitude toward the grace of God.

 

Saul Savage Gets a Lesson in Eternal Security

“Once saved, always saved,” remembered Lord Stephen. “You never would have said that, Saul, unless you at least partially believed it.”
“That is the belief of many,” said Saul softly.

“The covering of the blood of the Lamb does not extend over the head of one who stubbornly refuses to repent of his rebellion or idolatry,” declared the ruler. Those souls who are ignorant, or weak, or those who stumble because of the frailties of mortal flesh; let them come to Christ for cleansing and rest on His perfect righteousness, for His goodness alone is acceptable to God the Father. Blessed are those who diligently examine their own hearts to see if they are walking in the Faith; even those who throughout the days of their mortality tread softly before God with a submissive, repentant heart. These souls can rest, knowing they are secure beneath the covering of the blood of the Lamb, which being sprinkled on their conscience, maintains them as blameless in the righteousness of Christ.”

Seemingly ignoring the main thrust of Lord Stephen’s teaching, Saul fixated on his first statement. “Then...eternal security is nonsense?” he gasped.

“Those souls who walk reverently before the Lord in the way I have just described, even they are at rest from the fear of eternal perdition,” replied Lord Stephen. “But many have deluded themselves into thinking that they can serve both God and idols. Throughout the ages, many have abused the grace of God by regarding it as a license to sin.”

“He who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out,” argued Saul mildly. “It’s there in the Bible.”

“That same one who comes to Christ can later decide to cast out his own precious faith in the Lord by his own deliberately perverse way of life,” insisted Lord Stephen. “In such a vile manner, a reprobate can cast Christ out.

 

* * * * *

 

I would like to share the lyrics of a song about the Blood of Jesus. I learned from my friends right after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1970. It was a favorite with my daughter as she grew up. Its writer is unknown, though it is believed to have originated on the West Coast. Even its exact title is a mystery, though we always called it:

 

The Butterfly Song

The Fountain Which flowed from the Nazarene’s veins
Where the spike of my sinning was driven in pain
Is the Blood of our God a silken wove thread
That He spins to enfold me from where it is bled.
Into the cocoon comes a flickering flame
You don’t have to look at me till I’ve been changed
The worm caterpillar is ugly to see
But the Butterfly living is Jesus in me.
Conceived in eternity, born before dawn
And he died for the wretched one singing this song
King Jesus, King Jesus, my God and my Lord
His Blood is the Fountain of Love freely poured.

 

 

A Prophetic Word

Spiritual Israelites

Exodus 19:5-6; Romans 2:28-29; Titus 2:14; Ephesians 2:11-14; I Peter 2:5-10

There is a widespread false teaching that love alone is sufficient to cover sins, and that belief in a blood atonement is no longer necessary in these “enlightened times.” That is but one example of the abominable measures man has taken to try to make My gospel more palatable to modern tastes. Many sincerely misled people are being led down the path to perdition, for My Truth does not change to keep in step with the whims of fallen mankind.

Many diverse peoples with varying customs and practices existed in Biblical days, but Israel alone was My Chosen People, and My unique treasure. Why? Not because they were physically more attractive or more intelligent than other races, but it was a calling of My grace and election. I blessed Abraham who believed in My promises, and his faith was accounted unto him for righteousness. I commanded him to offer up certain types of animal sacrifices at set times in the right way, and in locations of My choosing. He always followed My instructions diligently. By faith he looked forward to that One Sacrifice whose blood would remove sins from My sight forever. In the days of his descendant Moses, a fuller revelation of divine ordinance for temporary animal expiations was instituted. While the priestly tribe of Levi faithfully carried out My directives in offering sacrifices for themselves and for the congregation, there were countless tribes in the earth which scoffed at the notion that blood sacrifice was necessary to atone for sin. Many peoples contemporary with the ancient Israelites wanted to do things their way, not My way, so I left them to their own stubbornness. Those Gentiles who did sacrifice to their false gods had only a distorted concept of how to offer sacrifice for sin, just like Cain before them. Many heathen nations even sacrificed infants and small children, and participated in orgies in honor of the demons who were the real powers represented by their idols of wood and stone. I had not entrusted My Word of faith to them, only to believing Israel.

Many present-day believers in Christ are descended from peoples who dwelt in spiritual darkness. But I see them not as Gentiles, but as spiritual Jews. In My eyes they have become one spirit with Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. My Body of believers is a Chosen Nation, and a Royal Priesthood. These are appointed to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto Me; the sweet incense of praise and prayer, the offering of intercessory prayers for transgressors, and the ministry of proclaiming to sinners the efficacy of My atoning Blood. I could not have bestowed a greater honor upon My people. Those redeemed ones who honor My Son as Lord are accounted as the true children of Abraham, the Father of Faith.

 

 

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