The Blood of Jesus Christ

Robert Wurtz II

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 (Acts 20:28).

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

(…) conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that 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 (1 Peter 1:17b-19).

I have chosen these three passages to demonstrate how occasionally the Holy Spirit reminds us of a vital truth that Jesus Christ came into the world to give His life, that is to say, pour out His precious blood as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).

Understand that Jesus didn’t come to give “one drop of blood” (as the erroneous lyrics of the song says) because one drop could never redeem us from sin; if it could have, it would have. There would have been no need for Gethsemane or Calvary; a small blood sample would have sufficed. Instead, it was the pouring out of Christ’s life-blood until He was dead that paid the penalty for our sins and propitiated our offended God (Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 4:10).

The blood of Jesus Christ is precious (1 Peter 1:19) because He is precious (1 Peter 2:7). He is the antitype of the tens of thousands of slain spotless lambs in the Old Testament. On countless occasions, and through many formal Temple ceremonies, God reinforced the eternal truth that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). Why? Because the penalty for sin, as we learned in the Garden of Eden, was “dying thou shalt die,” which is the Hebrew word for death (muth), doubled-up for emphasis. This penalty had to be inflicted upon Christ if the sin of Adam was to be reversed and the scales of justice balanced.

Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This reality deals with both the judicial and ceremonial aspects of sin. Not only is humankind guilty of sinning he/she is defiled by sin. My blood, if shed, cannot deal with these problems. Why? Because I am a spotted lamb (so to speak). If I were a sheep, I could never in a million years pass muster with the High Priest at the Temple. I’m shot-through with sin, and my innocence is gone. I’m guilty and have no way to pay the penalty for my own sin, much less anyone else’s. I’m stained with sin, so my blood couldn’t possibly cleanse my own garments (as it were), much less anyone else’s.

Redemption

The concept of redemption in the time of Jesus was linked to their bondage to the Roman Empire. After the Lord’s death on the cross, two disciples (not the twelve) were walking to Emmaus when Jesus joined up with them and asked them why they were sad. Not recognizing Him, they answered, “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). To them, redemption was release from Roman oppression. They had no idea that Jesus did redeem Israel to all who believed, not from the oppression and slavery to Rome, but from the penalty and defilement of sin and our slavery to sin and Satan.

At death, all contracts are off. When Jesus died, He died to sin once (Romans 6:10), and in so doing, His death broke the power of sin to all who are IN HIM. He is dead to Sin and so are we. In the same sense that Adam’s rebellion impacted all who are born in Adam, so too, Jesus Christ, the Last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) impacted all who are born again by being baptized INTO HIM by the Holy Spirit. This is an incredible truth to comprehend. If you and I have received the Holy Spirit, we are no longer in the first Adam we are in the Last Adam (Jesus). The born again should reflect the righteous and holy nature of the Last Adam as surely as the lost reflect the first Adam’s sinful nature.

The blood of Jesus Christ is God-wards in its effects. In 1 Corinthians 6:20 and 7:23, Paul declares that believers “are bought with a price” and buyers have the right of possession. By offering Himself as a propitiation for our sin (the price paid to remove the offense), Jesus Christ freed us from our liability in paying the penalty ourselves (1Corinthians 6:20, 7:23; Galatians 3:13; 2 Peter 2:1; Revelation 5:9, 14:3-4).

Owned by God

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and have obtained salvation, you are no longer your own possession; you belong to God. It is peculiar that the Holy Spirit reminds both people and pastors of this essential truth. Why? Perhaps it’s what Jesus alluded to when He spoke of the owner of the vineyard leaving and returning later to see how things were going—only to return home and find the stewards abusing their fellow servants (Matthew 24:45-51). Indeed, Paul was worried that leaders at Ephesus would forget that the flock belongs to God, bought by the blood of Jesus, and begin acting as if they owned the people.

Whereas we were slaves to sin and Satan, now we’re are slaves to righteousness and Jesus Christ. We are to glorify our owner in our body and spirit. We used to yield our bodily members to sin, now we are to perform God’s will and present our bodily members to Him for His service. This should always be the primary goal of the saints and the stewards (leaders) alike. We should tremble to consider the tremendous price paid to pull us as individuals and as God’s collective people from the bondage of sin and place us/them into the glorious liberty of the children of God. We were destined for a Devil’s hell, but now we have been redeemed. Presenting our bodies to Christ and His service is the only sensible thing to do (Romans 12:1f).

If the Holy Spirit reminds us on several occasions, maybe reminding ourselves with simple repetition would help? What if we write it down a thousand times each on a blackboard someplace:

I belong to Christ

I belong to Christ

I belong to Christ

And then follow up

The saints belong to Christ

The saints belong to Christ

The saints belong to Christ

What an incredible price that was paid! Not a king’s ransom, nor all the gold in Fort Knox. Not all the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London or the gold and diamond mines of the world. But the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who was the only lamb without spot and blemish. He was the only one in all the ages worthy to give His life as a ransom for many.