Nothing But the Blood

September 22, 2017

Nothing But the Blood

People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

Romans 3:25b

Read: Romans 3:25-26

These two verses are so densely packed with deep theology we could spend quite a bit of time with them. For today, I want to lift up just two points. First, these two verses make it clear that forgiveness of sins is completely dealt with by God through the shedding of the blood of Jesus and his sacrificial death. I am thankful to be a part of a church that at least monthly celebrates the sacrament of Holy Communion with the liturgy, "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

(UMC - A SERVICE OF WORD AND TABLE I)

Secondly, Paul asserts that those who have been justified by faith in Christ Jesus have a double assurance. We are assured of God’s favor with us today as we are in a right-standing relationship with God. We are assured that we will be vindicated in the future as we stand before God’s Throne of Judgement because we are in a right relationship with God, through faith in Christ Jesus.

My Takeaway: There is a huge temptation in our present culture to do away with talk about blood sacrifices. There are some ministers who seek other language to use in vain efforts to explain how God managed to forgive our sins. May I never, ever forget that my forgiveness was won, first, last and always, through the shed blood and sacrificial death of my beloved Savior, Christ Jesus.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2017 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.