Title: The Bloodline of a Champion – 4
“The Blood Produces Righteousness”
Text: I Peter 1:18-20
I did a search on the internet for “Human Blood Components.” Wikipedia gives over 200 hundred components found in the human blood. Most of these components I cannot pronounce so I will leave it at two hundred. When I began to read through all the ingredients found in the blood, I was amazed to think that there is that much stuff found in our blood.
All of the human blood components work together to bring life to the body. There are also many important functions of human blood including:
Supply of oxygen to tissues
Supply of nutrients
Removal of waste
Immunological functions, circulation of white cells and detection of foreign material by antibodies
Coagulation or self-repair mechanism (the blood causes the body to heal itself)
Messenger functions
Regulation of body pH
Regulation of core body temperature
Your physical health is not only determined by the quality of the blood but also by the circulation of the blood. The same is true for the Body of Christ. There is a supply of life, removal of waste, immunological functions, self-repair mechanisms, and messenger functions through our faith in the blood of Jesus and fellowship with other believers. There is healing in the blood by there is also a healing in the circulation of the blood. You cannot be a healthy Christian when you are separated from the Body of Christ.
Just as the human body has every necessary ingredient to survive and thrive, the Bible tells us of all the ingredients of the blood that makes for full salvation. There is righteousness, forgiveness, mercy, grace, redemption, sanctification, healing, victory, blessing, boldness, prosperity and power in the blood of Jesus! Now that is something to rejoice about.
You should be so full of the Holy Ghost that if you got bit by a mosquito, he would fly off singing, “There’s Power in the Blood.”
II. WE ARE DECLARED RIGHTEOUS
One of the main ingredients in the blood is righteousness. We read this Scripture last week but it is so powerful that I have to read it again this week.
Romans 3:23-25, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.”
Remember to propitiate means, “To gain or regain the favour or goodwill of.”
Justified means “Just as if I had never sinned,” it is also means, “declared righteous.”
So, we have been justified and declared righteous freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We learned last week that the sins of your past will have no impact upon your future. Your past has no effect on you whatsoever!
Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
Luke 17:21, “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
The kingdom of God consists of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost! These are three main ingredients to the kingdom of God. Righteousness simply means, “Right standing with God.”
The blood makes us righteous! We know that from the past several weeks.
The blood brings righteousness, and righteousness brings PEACE!
Isaiah 32:17, “And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.”
It really does make sense! Your peace is not disturbed anymore because you are right with God. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace (calm; quietness; settled down; not disturbed; not upset; not fretting). Peace is a calm assurance that God is taking care of you regardless of your circumstances and that peace comes when you receive His righteousness. And your righteousness was already paid for by the blood.
Say this out loud: “I HAVE PEACE WITH GOD. MY PEACE IS NOT DISTURBED ANYMORE BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN MADE RIGHT WITH GOD THROUGH THE BLOOD!
Peace is a product of righteousness and joy is a product of righteousness.
Romans 14:17, “Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
When you are right with God you have a peace, a calm assurance that God is taking care of you and because you have that calm assurance, it brings you joy. It is like a chain reaction.
Because of the blood we have righteousness
Because we know we are righteous we have peace that passes all understanding
Because we have peace, the joy of the Lord rises up and becomes our strength.
Hallelujah! Because of the blood we have righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost! Thank God for the blood!
II. SIN CONSCIOUSNESS DESTROYS FAITH
Another definition of righteousness is “The ability to stand before God without a sense of sin, guilt, or inferiority.”
In other words, when you stand in the righteousness of Christ, there is no consciousness of sin. Sin consciousness destroys our faith. That is why the devil is the accuser of the brethren. He likes to bring up your past. He will bring up something that you have done or something that should have done that you didn’t do.
One of the most important things we learn from the blood is that man can never quite measure up. Not just in what he did that he should not have done, but in what he didn’t do which he should have done. The devil has always got something to bring up so that you don’t quite measure up.
Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost is a product of the blood, whereas, Sin consciousness is a product of religion. Religion brings sin consciousness, the blood brings righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Ghost! Which one do you want?
So, that means as long as we stay focused on the blood, we can stand before God without a sense of sin, guilt or inferiority. Everyone runs a little bit of guilt in their lives. Guilt says, “I didn’t do enough, I should have done, could have done, or wish I would have done!”
Psychologists say that if they could just get rid of guilt, they would get rid of 80% of their patients. They say that the source of depression and most mental problems is a sense of guilt or shame.
No matter what happened, whether it was your fault or someone else’s fault, the devil will somehow manage to make sure you feel bad about it. The devil is constantly trying to produce guilt because sin consciousness destroys faith and he knows that! You can’t have faith regarding any breakthrough in your life if you are constantly feeling guilty about something.
Sin consciousness makes you not want to talk to God because you know, He knows, we know, and everybody knows! You might think, “I don’t want to pray,” because you feel like you are disqualified or unworthy. You really have no expectation of His blessing in your life because you feel so unworthy. Sin consciousness leaves you in a state of continuing to try to be accepted by God, but the blood brings you into a state of perfect standing with God. This does not happen based on what you have done, but based on what Jesus did with His own blood.
God had to do something to remove the sin consciousness, so he traded His righteousness for your sin and restored you into perfect fellowship with Him. Very few people ever accept and receive this kind of righteousness. The moment you understand that you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, your faith immediately takes off to a supernatural level. Then you can say, “I expect God’s best blessings because I am right with God.”
Romans 8:33-34, “Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Who can bring up charges against you now? It is God that justifies! In other words, because of the blood of Jesus and His righteousness, the highest court in the land has declared you NOT GUILTY! You have not only been declared NOT GUILTY, but all the charges that you once had have been dropped. So, Paul says, “Who can bring a charge against you? No one has a right, you have been freed from every charge. Your slate has been wiped clean. You have been given immunity from all these charges.” Listen to the rest of the Scripture:
Romans 8:35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Thank God for the blood! Thank God for the love that Jesus has for each of us.
Here is what Christian Psychologists, Minirth and Meier, have to say about human behaviour: Shame is at the root of all self-defeating behaviour. When people begin to feel worthless, they really don’t need the devil to kill them, they will kill themselves. These Psychologists go on to say, “Anytime that you find an addiction – whether it is an eating addiction, drug addiction, spending addiction, or approval addiction – you will always find shame.” Shame is at the root of all addiction.
So, how do we get rid of shame? We need to realize what the blood has done in us. It has made us righteous. (Right standing with God)
