The Blood of the Lamb
Part 1
The Price of
Redemption
I’m truly convinced that God who wanted the world to
take another look at Calvary inspired Mel
Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ”. Jesus – the principle figure in all
the history of mankind – is little known and understood and so are the meaning
of Calvary, the Cross, Redemption, and the shedding of blood.
In Proverbs 24:3-4 we read: By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding
it is established and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious
and pleasant riches.
We, the Body of Christ, are the house that the Lord is building to Himself, for
a habitation. Knowledge is the accumulation of pleasant truths, which fills the
house. Yes indeed there is much knowledge in the house of God. However
understanding establishes it. It gives the house a solid foundation, it settles
what’s wavering and weak; in other words it makes the person firmer in the
faith. The word itself says it: understanding = to stand under, to support, to
hold you in the mind (would you say that it suggests having a sound mind?).
It is the ability to take hold of God’s ideas so that we can have His mind,
which is sound and firm.
Another meaning of this word is “to be intelligent”. The person who is
intelligent is the person who “reads in” (from the Italian word
“leggere”= to read), the person who is skillful in taking hold of ideas,
meanings, in separating mentally and thus rightly dividing the Word of truth (2
Tim.2: 15).
In English we have the expression “I read you” to convey that we have gone past
the hearing of the words spoken and have comprehended what the other person
intended to communicate.
When it comes to things pertaining to God and His Word, understanding comes by
Revelation. Peter understood who Jesus was, when he exclaimed:”you are the
Christ, the Son of the Living God”.
I said all the above to state that we need a fresh revelation that would open
our understanding of the work, the benefit, and the power of the Blood of Jesus,
given for our complete redemption. Jesus came to redeem us from death and to
bring us to LIFE. For this reason the whole plan of Redemption hinges on the
one principle that runs throughout the Bible:
THE LIFE OF THE FLESH IS IN THE BLOOD.
Lev.17: 11
The very property of blood is LIFE, both in the physical and in the spiritual
realm.
When a doctor orders a blood test, it’s usually to find out if the body is
diseased; indeed then the “life” is in the blood”.
When Adam sinned, the human blood became diseased, his blood carried the
sentence of death, both in the physical realm and in the spiritual “…the soul
that sinneth, it shall die” Ezek 18:4. Spiritually Adam died right away and
when that happened, the death processes was put in motion in the physical body
also. Someone put it this way: “eating of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil caused blood poisoning” and it brought death to the human race because all
mankind is related to Adam by blood. The only thing that can drive out DEATH is
LIFE. As a transfusion of “good” blood can stop the process of death in the
natural, so it is in the spirit. Spiritual (Eternal) LIFE is in the blood, but
not in the human blood that contains the poison of Adam’s sin, but in the pure,
spotless, uncorrupted, precious blood of the Son of God.
Peter wrote: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as silver and gold… but with the precious blood of Christ, as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot.1 Pet 1:18-19
The preciousness of Jesus’ blood surpasses by far that of Adam’s blood even as
the value of silver and gold (the most valuable stones found on earth) is above
that of other metals. Furthermore, silver and gold as precious as they are, can
corrupt, but Jesus’ blood is incorruptible.
In his book “The precious blood”, David Alsobrook points out that the
insurmountable value of the blood of Jesus, was demonstrated by the system of
animal sacrifice in the Old Testament. Animals were the livelihood of the
people in Bible land. They were very precious possessions, so that when a
person gave one of His animals as a sin offering, it cost him (or her) quite a
lot. The reading about the sacrifices offered by Solomon and the nation of
Israel during the dedication of the Temple (I Kin 8:62-64) provides a visual of
the enormous cost and bloody mess involved in the process. Yet, it doesn’t even
come close to what happened at the Cross. He continues to say, “redemption was
not cheap and the Cross was not a pretty sight”.
Even the movie “ The Passion” as realistic as it is does not totally portray
the devilish insanity and cruelty of hell itself and the excruciating suffering
of our Precious Savior.
The modern Church must repent for watering down the message of salvation that
leaves out the mentioning of sin and the need of contrition.
God purchased the Church by HIS own blood
Jesus’ blood was not common or
human, nor it could be in order to carry Life in it. (Adam’s blood carries
death). So from whom did Jesus get His blood?
Our Savior did not get his blood from Mary, like many believe. Dott. M.R.
DeHaan, in his book titled “The Chemistry Of The Blood” states that “the
mother provides the fetus with the nutritive elements …but all the blood
which forms in it, is formed in the embryo itself. From the time of
conception to the time of birth of the infant, no one single drop of blood ever
passes from mother to child”.
Later he writes:
“ …yet it is only after the sperm has
entered the ovum and a fetus begins to develop that blood appears.”
We know that every child is born with the blood type of his or her father, but
Jesus had no earthly father, so His blood came from God, even as the Bible tells
us in Acts 20:28:
“Therefore take heed to yourselves
and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to
shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”
(Emphasis added).
Note: the pronoun “HIS” refers to the noun: GOD”.
Yet, God is a Spirit and spirits have no blood because they don’t have a body.
The birth of Jesus was a miracle.
To gain an understanding of this great miracle we need to go back to creation.
What happened there?
1.
The miracle of creation
Gen 1:2-3
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of
the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (Emphasis added).
When the miracle of creation started, the Spirit moved and
God spoke the words “let there be light”.
The Spirit and the Word are both involved. In verse
26 “God said”, (here is the Word again), “let us make man...” then in
Gen.2: 7 we read: “and the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became
a living soul.” (Emphasis added).
The breath of God is His Spirit. The breath put
something in Adam that made him alive. It had to be blood because “the life of
the flesh is in the blood. In fact, life is possible because the
blood carries the oxygen from the lungs to every cell of the body and the body
lives. Humans need breath to live, but do not live because they have
breath; they live because the blood circulates that breath within the body.
The word for ‘life” in the Hebrew is “Nephesh” which means “the breathing one”.
Literally then, the “breathing” (nephesh = life) is in the blood!”
2. The miracle of conception
At the birth of Jesus as well, we see the Word (Rhema) and
the Spirit being active in the creative miracle of conception in the womb of the
virgin Mary.
In Luke 1:30-31 the Angel came to Mary with God’s WORD:
“... Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shall
conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS.
Then in verse 35 of the same chapter, we read of the Spirit overshadowing Mary:
“and the angel …said
unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Emphasis added).
Now the Word or the Rhema (Promise) of God is the seed, as
Jesus told His disciples in the parable of the sower (Luke 8:10-11). It is
interesting that the word “seed” in many New Testament passages is the Greek
word “sperma” (see Mark 12:20; Luke 20:28; Gal.3: 16; Rev.12: 17).
The “seed of God” entered Mary’s ovum when she received by
faith the Word spoken to her by the Angel and she said: “… Let it be to
me according to your Word." Luke 1:38
The Blood came into Jesus by the Father when the
Holy Spirit (the Ruach or Breath) overshadowed Mary (Luke 1:35).
Mary provided for Jesus a human body but the blood came
from God. He was both man and God.
The virgin birth was necessary because no drop of human
blood could be in Him. Jesus could take part of Adam’s flesh but not of
his blood, which was sinful.
Heb 2:14 “Inasmuch then as the children have
partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the
same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that
is, the devil” (Emphasis added)
Notice the two verbs highlighted in this passage: the first one “partaken” comes
from the Greek word “KOYNONEHO” which means, “ to share fully”, while the
second one “shared” comes from the Greek word “METECHO” which means “to take
part but not all”.[1]
Note of interest: ancient mythology believed that ICHOR, a
light fluid, flowed in the veins of the gods. This fluid consisted in a
mixture of blood and water. When the roman soldier pierced Jesus’
side, water and blood came out of it. It was then that he cried: “truly
this was the Son of God!” It was uniqueness of Jesus blood that
convinced him that Jesus was the Son of God.
[2]
3.
The miracle of the new birth
The Word and the Spirit are the agents of the new birth
also.
Jesus Himself told Nicodemus that no one can see the
kingdom of God unless he is born again of
water and of the Spirit (John 3:5). The water is the Word (Eph.5:
26 “…That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word”. (Emphasis added) The Word is also the
“seed”, or “sperm” of God, therefore the Apostle Peter declares: “…having
been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible,
through the
word of God which lives and abides forever…Now this is the word
which by the gospel was preached to you. 1 Pet 1:23-25
(Emphasis added).
When a repentant sinner believes the truth of the Gospel
preached, the seed of God’s Word enters his/her heart (womb) and Eternal Life
begins within. With that Life the power of the spotless blood of Jesus is made
available to us to cleanse, sanctify and transform us until we are once again
made into His Image.
[1] The chemistry of the Blood by M.R. DeHaan
[2]The
Power of the precious blood by Gwen Shaw | 
