Hebrews 9:22
22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
(NIV)
A Trail of BLOOD
runs from the Garden of Eden to
Bossier City!
Since Adam and Eve bit the serpent’s bait in the Garden and God provided clothing from the skins of animals, sin has left an undeniable trail of blood!
Every man and woman of Adam’s Race
has needed the sacrifice of BLOOD
to bring forgiveness for sins committed.
The trail of blood continued with Noah. The first thing Noah did when he came out of the ark was to offer a blood sacrifice.
Genesis 8:20
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
(NIV)
Noah and his sons and his grandsons continued to offer blood in order to be forgiven. And the trail continues…
God told Abraham:
Genesis 22:2
2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
(NIV)
And Abraham in obedience traveled to the place of sacrifice God showed Him. Abraham climbs the mountain, carrying the lit torch in one hand and feeling the knife blade rub against his leg, with the wood for the fire strapped to Issac’s shoulders.
Genesis 22:7
7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
(NIV)
If you were Abraham, how would you answer that question?
Genesis 22:8
8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."
And He did. And the trail of blood continues through Moses, David, all the prophets and priests because…
Without the shedding of BLOOD
there is no forgiveness.
This bloody trail found its way to the Temple in Jerusalem where it left its stain on the floor of the Holy of Holies.
Hebrews 9:7
7 But only the high priest went into the inner room, and then only once a year, all alone, and always with blood that he sprinkled on the mercy seat as an offering to God to cover his own mistakes and sins and the mistakes and sins of all the people.
(TLB)
The High Priest took the blood and poured it upon the Mercy Seat of the Altar so that the people could be forgiven and back in “oneness’ with God.
Atonement = AT-ONE-MENT!
This trail of blood found its way to the place of the skull, Golgotha, just outside of Jerusalem, when Jesus, the Son of God became our substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
I John 2:2
2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
(NIV)
Jesus began the shedding His BLOOD for the forgiveness of our sins several hours before the crucifixion.
Luke 22:44
44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
(NIV)
Dr. C. Truman Davis is a nationally respected Opthalmologist, vice president of the American Association of Ophthalmology, and an active figure in the Christian schools movement. Dr. C. Truman Davis is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He is a practicing ophthalmologist, a pastor, and author of a book about medicine and the Bible. He is founder and president of the excellent Trinity Christian School in Mesa Arizona, and a trustee of Grove City College. The following descriptions of the crucifixion are from his writings, Originally published in Arizona Medicine, March 1965, Arizona Medical Association, and from Dr. Cahleen Shrier, Associate Professor of Biology and Chemistry at Azuza Pacific University.
Under great emotional stress of the kind our Lord suffered, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. Hemohidrosis makes the skin tender, so Jesus’ physical condition worsens slightly.
After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus. The palace guards then blind-folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face.
In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.
Preparations for the scourging were carried out when the Prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would have made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter, but the Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes.
The Roman legionnaire steps forward with a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs. At first the thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the flesh, producing an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles.
The flogging leaves the skin on Jesus’ back in long ribbons. By this point, He has lost a great volume of blood which causes His blood pressure to fall and puts Him into shock. The human body attempts to remedy imbalances such as decreased blood volume, so Jesus’ thirst is His body’s natural response to His suffering (John 19:28). If He would have drank water, His blood volume would have increased.
The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood. The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. Flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body. The thorns also cause damage to the nerve that supplies the face, causing intense pain down His face and neck.
After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed.
In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy cross weighing at least 110 pounds is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance.
Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Jesus quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wooden cross on the ground. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action being careful not to pull the arms to tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The cross is then lifted in place.
As it is lifted, Jesus’ full weight pulls down on His nailed wrists and His shoulders and elbows dislocate. In this position, Jesus’ arms stretch to a minimum of six inches longer than their original length.
The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain -- the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.
At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. A terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.
In the midst of all this suffering, this blood-shed, Jesus exhales these words:
Luke 23:34
34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
(NIV)
“They do not know what they are doing”? What do you mean?
Sin is a deliberate, determined, decision.
That’s why there can never be forgiveness without sacrifice! Without blood!
But even today, 200 years after Jesus paid it all, we still do not know the pain we inflict upon Him when we sin! When we sin, we treat Jesus as if he had never lived and never died, while all the while He shed His blood to make us just as if we had never sinned!
Romans 5:9
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
(NIV)
Will you end this trail of blood?
It flows all the way to you today. You can be forgiven through Jesus’ blood. Come to Christ today!
