Better Blood Series

During the last presidential election (2016), we heard a lot about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the two primary candidates. We heard less about Gary Johnson, Jill Stein and other third-party candidates. However, the most interesting candidate, which I doubt any of us heard about, was Zoltan Istyan. He ran as a candidate for the Transhumanist Party, whose purpose is to, “become god-like and overcome death.” Zoltan campaigned by driving around the country in a camper, shaped like a coffin. He called it the “Immortality Bus” from which he promoted the use of science and technology to overcome death in our lifetime. (Ethan Richardson, “The Ash Wednesday Immortality Bus,” Mockingbird blog, 3-1-17; www.PreachingToday.com)

Wouldn’t that be nice, but I’m afraid that no matter how hard people try to beat death, the death rate among human beings still remains at 100%.

Science and technology are not the answer, but there is a way to become God-like in character and overcome death. There is a way to overcome sin and its devastating effects. There is a way to be set free from our depravity. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Hebrews 9, Hebrews 9, where we find out how.

Hebrews 9:15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. (ESV)

The death of Christ redeems the believer. His shed blood on the cross sets the believer free. So, if you want to overcome sin and its devastating effects…

DEPEND ON THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, WHICH IS ESSENTIAL FOR YOUR REDEMPTION.

Rely on the cross of Christ, which is absolutely necessary to set you free. Trust in the death of Christ, which is crucial for your deliverance from sin. You see…

Christ HAD to die to activate the provisions of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant, the Law, declared that “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4,20). The New Covenant provided forgiveness and freedom from sin, but a death had to occur to put it into effect. The blood of Christ was essential to RATIFY the New Covenant.

Hebrews 9:16-17 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. (ESV)

When a person makes out his last will and testament, that will is not executed until a death has occurred. In fact, that will is useless until AFTER the person dies.

It’s like the guy who willed his body to science. He chose Harvard Medical School, because, as he put it, “My parents wanted me to go there and this is the only way I could get in” (Time magazine).

He had to die in order for his will to be accomplished. In the same way, Christ had to die in order for God’s will to be accomplished. Christ had to die in order for the provisions of God’s New Covenant to be realized.

We looked at that covenant before (in Hebrews 8). There we saw that when God wrote out His will, He wanted believers to have not only the forgiveness of sin, but also an internal righteousness AND an intimate relationship with Him forever.

God wants His people to be holy, because THEY want to be holy. God wants believers to be holy, because they have an internal desire and a drive within to be holy, not because of an external code imposed on them from the outside.

It reminds me of the old story of a pastor in Oklahoma, who took a Native American to a pastor’s conference. They went to the train station together and caught a train to the city where the conference was held. The site of the conference was a big, beautiful mansion, where the pastors were discussing the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, or the difference between Law and Grace.

Throughout the conference, the pastor’s guest did not say a word. Then at the very end, he made this observation: “It seems to me that the train station demonstrated law and this house grace. At the train station there was a sign, ‘DO NOT SPIT’, and yet the men there did. Here, there is no sign, yet no one spits.”

No one spit, because no one WANTED to spit. They didn’t need a sign telling them NOT to spit. In the same way, God wants our behavior to be inherent on the inside, so that there is no need for a law on the outside. God wants us to desire righteousness from within, so He doesn’t have to force us to keep the rules from without. God wants us to have an internal righteousness.