Alba 2-12-2023
NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD
Ephesians 2:11-13
Tuesday is Valentine’s Day. At this time you see a lot of hearts because the heart, in our culture, represents love. But the heart also has a very important responsibility. It pumps the blood that we need to keep us alive.
A Reader’s Digest article once told of a 67-year-old man named Bill who had donated over 100 pints of blood over the years. No doubt many people owe their lives to this man’s kindness.
When asked if his good deeds would get him into heaven he replied “When that final whistle blows, and St. Peter asks, ‘What did you do?’ I’ll just say, ‘Well, I gave 100 pints of blood. That ought to get me in.”
Sorry Bill, your 100 pints of blood aren’t going to cut it. In fact, you could give all your blood to Red Cross, you could give all your possessions to the poor, you could give your life to save the life of someone else… and you still couldn’t pay off the sins of your past.
The Bible tells us that there’s only one thing that can cover our sins, and that’s the blood of Jesus. Let's read Ephesians 2:11-13.
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
These verses tell us that the only hope we have is in the blood of Jesus Christ that He shed on the cross for our sins. It is like the hymn we sing:
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Praise God that in spite of our sins, Jesus came into this world, and willingly became the sacrifice so that our sins could be removed.
In the Old Testament, in order for person to have some access to the mercy of God an innocent animal had to die. For the wages of sin is death; and without the shedding of blood there is no removal of sin.
But notice that even that did not apply to us, because it applied to the Jews, not Gentiles. Gentiles were not included in those sacrifices. It was only for the Jews.
So Ephesians 2:12 tells us “That at that time we were without Christ, (because we were) aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise.”
So that means that prior to the coming of Jesus, Gentiles did not belong to the community where the covenants of promise were enjoyed. And they were strangers to the privileges of the people of God.
An alien and stranger has no knowledge of the ways that things are to be done. Guy McGraw tells how he went backpacking in Australia with a friend over a college break.
They rented a car and immediately began driving on the wrong side of the road. There were shouts and honks to which his friend yelled back at them, “Be quiet, we’re tourists”!
Speaking of aliens and foreigners, we have a lot of them coming illegally into our country. Just because they are able to put their feet on the land of the United States of America does not change the fact that they are illegal.
In spite of what our government plans to do with these many people who are coming, their citizenship is in another country. And without Christ, we will not have citizenship in heaven. We will remain aliens and strangers to the promises of God.
A person may have been raised in a religious home, have the best of manners, be highly intelligent or artistic, be very educated, be an enjoyable person.
But if that person is ‘without Christ’ then, even though quite high on the scale as humans go, he or she is still without the life that only God can give.
Without Jesus' shed blood, we have no way to cover our sins. We have no one to carry our sins and make us whole. We have no hope.
A South American Indian told a missionary who had led him to Christ, “When I was living in the jungle, we never knew a day without fear. When we woke up in the morning we were afraid. When we went out of our houses we were afraid. When we walked along the river, we were afraid. We saw an evil spirit in every stone and tree and waterfall. And when night fell, fear came into our huts and slept with us all night long.” He described a hopeless situation.
The rest of verse 12 says that the Gentiles (that's us) who were not included in the promises God gave to His chosen people, had “no hope”, and were “without God in the world.”
Because without Jesus, we are without God. And that is a hopeless situation. Our sin causes us to be excluded and rejected. But God, because of His love for us, would not tolerate it to be so.
Deliberately, purposefully, intentionally Jesus came among us and became for us the means to be accepted by God and to be forgiven.
So are we now under the Old Testament law? Do we have to sacrifice animals so that their blood can cover our sins?
No, because Hebrews chapter 10 tells us that although those sacrifices were effective because they were instituted by God, it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away our sins.
Look at Hebrews 10:11 which says, “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
It’s a lot like flea dip. People take their dog to be dipped. Your old dog is getting fleas, so you take him to a local flea dip clinic one day, and he gets dunked, and there are no more fleas.
After a while, what happens? He starts scratching again. Time to take your old dog and have him dipped again. In the same way, the sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament had to be done every year.
Hebrews 10:1 says, “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.”
In contrast to that, Hebrews 10:12-13 says, “But this Man, (that's Jesus) after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
One offering! One sacrifice! Once for all! When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, that one offering is enough for all who will come to Him in obedient faith to receive God's grace and forgiveness.
The blood of Christ is a permanent solution to our sin problem. It put away our sin once and for all! Under the Old Testament religious system, the priests had to offer sacrifices every year for the sins of the people.
That system couldn’t cover sin permanently. And that’s the way it is with all religious systems. You have to keep coming back to do it again and again.
There was a valuable lesson taught in those sacrifices both for Israel and for us: that there needed to be something better. Because the stain of sin runs deep, and it’s going to take something more than the blood of an animal to make atonement!
You have to keep coming back to the system to experience its benefits. But not so when you enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. He takes care of all your sin once and for all!
The reason for the Old Testament sacrifices is explained in Leviticus 17:11 where God says, “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.”
So “life”...“is in the blood.” This goes for animals as well as humans. As obvious as this statement may seem, many have overlooked it, to their peril. It was thought that leaches could be used to bleed men and women to make then healthy.
In fact, “bleeding” had been a debated but fairly common medical practice. Doctors figured if you are sick, your blood is bad, so the way to cure it is to remove that bad blood.
Not only did it not aid in making people healthy, it killed them!!! Historians agree that George Washington died in part due to the two pints of blood they bled from him when he was sick. We’ve learned some things since then. So much for the medical science of the day.
Sherm Nichols, when he was ministering at Villa Heights Christian Church in Joplin, told that when his son Andy was just a few years old, he’d get a scrape or a cut.
He said, the boy was fine with it, that is, until he saw that he was bleeding. Then, he’d go ballistic! Why? Because blood is significant…especially when it’s yours, and you’re looking at it!
We need blood. If for what ever reason you were to lose too much blood, you would die. So life really is in the blood. And the blood that Jesus shed on that cross is what gives us life.
Look as scripture that tells us about the blood of Jesus. It does so much. There is power in the blood.
1. It makes us clean. Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
And I John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
We see that an inspired man of God (Ananias) said that Saul, who after his conversion is known to us as the apostle Paul, needed to be baptized so as to “wash his sins away” by the blood of Jesus Christ.
2. The blood of Jesus not only cleanses, it is the price paid to redeem us from our penalty for sin. 1Peter 1:18-19 says, “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
And Colossians 1:14 says, “In whom (that's Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
3. The blood of Jesus not only cleanses and redeems, it justifies, (just as if I'd never sinned).
Romans 5:8-9 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
4. The blood of Jesus not only cleanses, redeems and justifies. It also is the only way through which we can reestablish our relationship with God that was broken because of our sins.
Our text here in Ephesians 2:13 testifies that we “who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
It is the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross that allows us to come “near” to our heavenly Father. Without His shed blood, we would still be in our sins and would not be able to approach a holy God.
God so loved the world that He wanted there to be a closeness the world had not experienced since before the fall of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve walked with God. They had a personal relationship with Him. All that was lost once sin entered in.
Verse 13 says that we who were once far off because of our sins have been brought near (we did not come near, we were brought near) by the blood of Christ. It is not something we can do on our own.
But when we are covered by the blood of Christ we are accepted before the throne just as Jesus is. The blood of Jesus makes it possible for us to be able to enter into God's perfect, glorious presence.
The 67-year-old man named Bill had it wrong. You don't get into heaven by donating blood, even if it is 100 pints.
You can get to heaven only if you have received the blood spilled on the cross on your behalf by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
CLOSE:
Let me ask you something. Is every soft drink the same?
Is all music the same? Is all ice cream the same?
Is every donut the same? Is every restaurant the same?
Is every: car, house, college, football team, mattress, hotel, shampoo, soap, razor, tooth paste, chicken sandwich……the same?
We all know that those things are not the same. And why is that? Because – they look different, feel different, taste different, have different stuff in them.
Have you ever heard what some people say, that all religions are the same? Well, if you look closely at various religions, you will see that they are not the same.
They have different teachings, rules and requirements. They often have different gods. And they are definitely different from Christianity.
Only in Jesus do we have One who willingly offered Himself to die in our place, taking the punishment for our sins on Himself.
Only in Jesus do we have One who shed His blood so that by His sacrifice, we could be forgiven.
Is there a difference? There surely is a difference!
And He calls us to Himself through faith, repentance, confession and baptism so that we may walk in newness of life with Him.
