IT’S STILL THE BLOOD
Heb 9:12-28
As a child my parents took me to a great panorama of the Civil War. I was fascinated as the wonderful continual painting that depicted scene after scene of the War Between the States.
This morning I want you to come with me and let us visit a panorama of what I will call “The Redemption of Mankind.” We will not be able to examine every scene, but I do want you to notice a common thread in each scene: the necessity of the shedding of blood.
First, I want you to come with me to view the beauty of the Garden of Eden.
(Scene 1) Garden of Eden
God sacrificing the animal to cover the shame of Adam and Eve
(Gen 3:6-7) And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
(Gen 3:21) Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
God driving Adam and Eve from the garden; but next we see Abel offering the blood of the sacrifice as he again is in fellowship with God
(Scene 2) Mount Moriah
God providing a substitute for the burnt offering of Abraham
(Scene 3) Egypt
Blood of the passover lamb placed on the lentil to protect the children of Israel
(Scene 4) Tabernacle
Blood of the Goat of the sin offering sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat
(Scene 5) Calvary
The Blood of Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, shed for the sins of man
It’s Still the Blood....
1) that provides an Atonement/Covering for the Ugliness of our Sin
Since man committed the first sin and shame fell upon man, but even more importantly a holy God cannot look upon sin, he has tried to cover his sin. His has tried to cover his sin with good works but God can see right through them. Man’s sin penetrates like a dirty stain.
2) that provides Redemption from the Debt of our Sin (9:12-14)
Man’s Sin has sold him into debt
(1 Peter 1:18-19) Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
"Redeemed, How I Love to Proclaim It" by Fanny Crosby
Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!
Redeemed through his infinite mercy, His child and forever I am.
Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb
Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever I am.
3) that provides Reconciliation from the Separation of our Sin (9:15)
(Isa 59:2) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
(Rom 5:10) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
4) that provides Cleansing from the Filthiness of our Sin (Heb 9:19-22)
(1 John 1:7) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Nothing But the Blood by Robert Lowery
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh! Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
5) that provides Propitiation from the Wrath of our Sin
(9:22) ...and without the shedding of blood there is no remission
To Propitiate means to “appease the wrath of the gods.” Man’s sin deserves Wrath. God is a holy God and as we have already examined cannot stand in the presence of sin, AND he is also a just God which means that his very character demands the punishment of sin. God’s wrath is that punishment. This is why God created hell, eternal damnation, to appease His wrath against sin.
hilasterion--
relating to an appeasing or expiating, having placating or expiating force, expiatory; a means of appeasing or expiating, a propitiation
a) used of the cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, which was sprinkled with the blood of the expiatory victim on the annual day of atonement (this rite signifying that the life of the people, the loss of which they had merited by their sins, was offered to God in the blood as the life of the victim, and that God by this ceremony was appeased and their sins expiated); hence, the lid of expiation, the propitiatory
b) an expiatory sacrifice
c) an expiatory victim
(from The Online Bible Thayer’s Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright.)
(Rom 3:25) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
(1 John 2:2) And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world KJV
(1 John 2:2) He is the one who took God’s wrath against our sins upon himself and brought us into fellowship with God; and he is the forgiveness for our sins, and not only ours but all the world’s. TLB
6) that provides a Substitution for the Penalty of our Sin (9:26-28)
(1 Peter 3:18) For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
Abraham
Day of Atonement
There is a Fountain by William Cowper
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains...
