The Blood of Jesus Redeems You

From the book: Seed Truths-From Genesis to Revelation

By: Mike Harding

 

8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  Revelation 13:8

 In order to understand why the message of the blood of Jesus begins in the book of Genesis, we must look first in the book of the Revelation. The apostle John wrote that the Lamb of God, Jesus, was slain from the foundation of the world. What does this mean? It means that before God created the heavens or the earth or the angels or Adam and Eve, Jesus was already crucified. How could that be? It was already done in the heart and mind of God. It was already planned and accomplished in the mind of God. God had this whole thing planned out. He knew that Lucifer would rebel, although God did not make him rebel. God knew that Adam and Eve would fall, although He did not make them fall. God had already planned, in eternity past, to bring forth what we now call the church, the sons of God, the body of Christ, and the bride of Christ. Within the Trinity, the incarnation was already planned and agreed upon. The second Person of the Trinity would become a man, Jesus the Messiah, born of a virgin. Within the Trinity, the crucifixion and the resurrection were already planned and agreed upon. Jesus would take the sins of the world upon Himself. He would shed His blood – innocent human blood – to pay for human sin and satisfy God’s justice. He would rise from the dead and grant forgiveness to whoever would believe in Him.

 So God created the heavens and the earth. And God created time itself. Time has a beginning and an end. Outside of time is eternity, where God lives. God can look at time from any direction in eternity. He can see the beginning from the end. He can see the end from the beginning. Somewhere on the timeline of the human race – two thousand years ago from where we stand - God placed the cross. God chose the moment in history when He would be born into the earth as the man Jesus Christ. He chose the moment in time where He would be crucified and resurrected. He prepared for that moment with a thousand years of prophets and prophecies. Those prophets and prophecies predicted hundreds of details of the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, second coming and eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ.

 There were two reasons why God gave all those detailed prophecies of the life of Jesus Christ. The first reason was so that the world would recognize the Messiah when He came - so that they would recognize the chosen time by the signs. Only the man who fulfilled all of the prophecies could be the Messiah. Jesus is that man.

 But there was another reason why God prepared the way with hundreds of prophecies about the life of the Messiah. The reason is that Jesus would need a road map for His own life and ministry!

 When the second Person of the Trinity was born into the earth through the virgin Mary, He came as a baby. He came to live as a man. He stripped Himself of His knowledge and power as God. Philippians 2:5-7 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” The verse that says He “made Himself of no reputation” implies, in the Greek, that He stripped Himself of His divine knowledge and power. He came to be the second Adam – to live as a man in obedience to the Father – and to not make the same mistake that the first Adam made.

 This means that the baby Jesus lying in the manger did not know that He was God. The toddler Jesus did not know that He was God. He did not know that He was the Messiah. He did not know that He was born to die on a cross. As a boy, He probably only knew that He had fellowship with God in a way that other people did not. He knew that He was different! And His mother knew some secrets also that the angel Gabriel had told her!

 As a Jewish boy, Jesus began to read the Scriptures. As He was reading, the Holy Spirit began to speak to Him through those scriptures. The Holy Spirit was giving him revelation and illumination through the prophecies. Jesus began to identify Himself in the prophecies. He began to understand who He was. The Holy Spirit was teaching Him. He discovered His destiny. He saw that He was God incarnate. (How would you like to be reading the Bible and find out that you are God? Wow!) He saw that He was the promised Messiah. Reading passages like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, He saw that He would die on a cross and shed His blood for the sins of the human race. As a man, He had to live and follow His destiny purely by faith in the written Word of God! (Jesus modeled for us how to find our identity and our destiny by reading and obeying the Bible. The Holy Spirit will help us!)

 After His resurrection, after His victory, He was restored to His Divinity. But He also was still fully human. Jesus is still human. After He returned to the throne in Heaven, He did not take off that old human body and throw it away. God became a man forever! It’s an eternal commitment. Sitting at the right hand of the Father right now is a man, our big Brother!

 So, if we understand that the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world, then we can understand how the message of the blood of Jesus begins in Genesis. It was all planned out!

 

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

 21 Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.  Genesis 3:7, 21

 As soon as Adam and Eve had fallen into sin, they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. This is symbolic of religion. Through religion - through ceremonies and rituals and good works - we try to cover ourselves. We try to fix what we broke. But it doesn’t work.

 God came and did something very strange. He clothed Adam and Eve with an animal skin. Why is this strange? It’s because, up to this time, there was no death. Animals don’t voluntarily give up their skin! God killed an animal – an innocent animal – in order to cover Adam and Eve. Innocent blood was shed because of human sin!

 In this way, God was symbolically saying that the animal represented how Jesus would come and shed His blood so that our sin would be covered. It’s simple: fig leaves represent religion. But only the blood of Jesus can redeem us. This is verified in the book of Hebrews:

 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.  Hebrews 9:22

 Did you know that blood speaks? It does. At least, it speaks to God. God hears it:

 10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.  Genesis 4:10

 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.  Hebrews 12:24

 In Genesis 4:10 and Hebrews 12:24, we see that blood can speak different things. The blood of Abel cried out in accusation. It cried out for vengeance and justice and punishment. It testified of a crime committed, demanding justice.

 But the blood of Jesus, according to Hebrews 12:24, speaks “better things” than the blood of Abel. What does it speak? It cries out for mercy and forgiveness. It testifies that God’s justice has been satisfied, and the sin has been paid for.

 When we call on the name of Jesus, His blood covers us. It speaks to God for us. It says, “Forgiven! Righteous!” When you pray or intercede for an unsaved friend or loved one, cover them in the blood of Jesus! Cover them in the blood that cries out to God for mercy and grace!

 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.  Exodus 12:7, 13

 God was trying to get Israel to understand, a thousand years in advance, that only the blood of the Lamb could save them. The “Passover Lamb”, as it was called, was a symbol or prophetic picture of Jesus. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, he announced, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) God gave Israel the blood of the Lamb before He gave them the Law. He was already saying, “The Law can’t save you. The blood of the Lamb can!”

Just before He went to the cross, Jesus ate the traditional Passover supper with His disciples. They did not realize that they were eating the Passover supper with the true Passover Lamb! Jesus confirmed that He was the prophesied Passover Lamb. By His blood we are redeemed, and by His blood the New Covenant is established and sealed.

 20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.  Luke 22:20

 In the book of Joshua is another part of the thread, or theme, of the blood of Jesus:

 18 unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household to your own home. 19 So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. 20 And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear.” 21 Then she said, “According to your words, so be it.” And she sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet cord in the window.  Joshua 2:18-21

 Rahab, the harlot from Jericho, became part of the nation of Israel. How did that happen? When Joshua sent spies into the city of Jericho, Rahab hid them and protected them. She believed in the God of Israel. She believed that Israel’s God was the true God, and that He would give Israel victory in the land. She wanted to join them. God saw her faith. She was saved by faith! (The blood of Jesus redeems us so completely that the ex-harlot, the Gentile Rahab, became part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ Himself! See Matthew 1:5.)

 Rahab asked the spies to spare her and her family when their God gave them the victory over the city. The two spies told her that she must tie a scarlet thread in her window. Anyone under the covering of the scarlet thread would be saved! The scarlet thread is the blood of Jesus. The scarlet thread represents the message of the blood of Jesus that runs from Genesis to Revelation. The blood of Jesus is the scarlet thread that runs throughout the whole Bible!

 Now, jump back to the book of Leviticus:

14 He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. 15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.  Leviticus 16:14-15

 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.  Leviticus 17:11

 God gave Israel, under the Law, a system of animal sacrifices. Each animal sacrifice was intended to symbolize the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Pretty much everything in the Law – the temple, the priests, the sacrifices, the feast days and holy days, pretty much everything – represented Jesus Christ.

 In Leviticus 17:11, God said that He had given us the blood to make atonement for our souls. Only innocent blood can pay for our sins and redeem us. Why? It’s because the blood represents life. The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23) Death means the pouring out of an innocent life as the payment for sin. The blood represents life. The shedding of blood is the price of sin.

 God said in Leviticus 17:11, “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” God was revealing something very important here. If the life of the flesh is in the blood, then animal blood has animal life. And human blood has human life. If that is true, then the blood of an animal can never really pay for the sin of a human being. Humans and animals are not equal. Humans are created in the image of God. Hebrews 10:4 confirms this:

 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.  Hebrews 10:4

 So if animal blood cannot really redeem a human being, why did God give animal sacrifices in the Old Covenant? Clearly, they were symbolic of Jesus Christ.

 Human sin requires the shedding of human blood. In fact, it requires the shedding of innocent human blood. A guilty human cannot pay for the sin of another guilty human. The substitute, the sacrifice, must be a sinless human. Since all the human beings on earth were fallen, corrupted and guilty, there was only one possible solution: God became a man!

 God became a man so that He could shed innocent human blood to redeem human beings.

 But there was another problem: one innocent man can only die for one guilty man. One life pays for one life. That’s justice. But there are billions of human beings who needed to be redeemed.

 And there was another problem: if an innocent man dies for a guilty man, the guilty man is forgiven. But if the forgiven man sins again, he is guilty again. Another innocent man has to die in his place to redeem him. Each time he sins, it costs another innocent life!

 But God has the solution. The solution is in Leviticus 17:11. “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” If Jesus was only human, if His blood was only human, then His blood could only redeem one other person. One life pays for one life. And if Jesus was only human, His blood could only pay for sins committed in the past. Any new sins would require a new sacrifice.

But if Jesus is both human and God, then His life is both human and Divine. And His blood is both human and Divine. “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” If Jesus is human, then His human blood can pay for human sins. And if Jesus is God, then His blood is Divine. His blood is eternal and infinite. His blood can pay for all the human sins committed by all the human beings in all times – past, present and future! Now, that is God’s perfect solution! Jesus has to be both God and man at the same time. Otherwise, we are all lost. Otherwise, His sacrifice could not save us.

 But we are saved! Look at Hebrews 9:12-14:

 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 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?  Hebrews 9:12-14

 Did you notice in this passage that only the blood of Christ can cleanse your conscience? If you have faith in Jesus Christ, you are forgiven and righteous before God by the blood of Jesus. If you are saved, God sees you as clean. He is willing to answer your prayers. He responds to your faith. But your own conscience might still condemn you. If your own conscience is condemning you, it kills your confidence toward God. It torpedoes your faith! 1 John 3:21-22 says, “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him…”

 Sometimes God has forgiven us for something, but our own heart still condemns us. Our own conscience still accuses us. It weakens our confidence toward God. It torpedoes our faith. How can you cleanse your conscience? By the blood of Jesus! Apply the blood of Jesus to your heart, to your soul, and to your conscience. Choose to receive the forgiveness that His blood provides you. It will renew your confidence toward God. It will strengthen your faith for answered prayers!

 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace…  Ephesians 1:7

 In the New Testament, God is no longer speaking in symbols or prophecies. We have redemption through His blood. Right now! We have the forgiveness of sins. Right now!

 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  Ephesians 2:13

 Ephesians 2:13 says that we who once were far off (Gentiles; non-Jews) have been brought near by the blood of Christ. You have this position now. You are already close to God. You are as close to God as you can get. It is done by the blood of Jesus.

So why does James 4:8 say, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”? It’s because many kingdom truths are like two sides of the same coin. You can develop a closer friendship with God, but you cannot get a closer position to God. You have been brought near already by the blood of Jesus. Use this gift - use this position - to develop a closer friendship with God!

 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 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. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight --- 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.  Colossians 1:19-23

 Paul teaches us that, by the blood of Christ, God made peace with you. By the blood of Christ, you are holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. This is not something that you have done. This is something that God has done! You might not always feel that way, but God says it’s done by the blood of Jesus. Trust that!

 8 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. 9 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, 10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”  Revelation 5:8-10

 The thread is complete in the book of Revelation. It is fulfilled. We will stand in the throne room of God, worshipping Him and singing, “You have redeemed us to God by Your blood!” Hallelujah!