Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Blood of Sprinkling


But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24, NKJV).

Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. “So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. (Genesis 4:8-11, NKJV).

And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. (Exodus 24:6, NKJV).

And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.” (Exodus 24:8, NKJV).

‘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.’ (Leviticus 17:11, NKJV).

Abel's blood was shed at the beginning of human history and marked the rapid decline of humanity from perfection to sin. It spoke of condemnation and guilt, crying out a curse upon not only Cain, but all mankind.

Blood is a complex and marvelous liquid organ necessary for life. It is the hallmark of mortality, central to human and animal existence. To denote something as the "lifeblood" of something else is to speak of that something's essence, without which it would not be the thing that it is.

God designed human mortal life so that blood is synonymous with life itself. He then ordained that blood, and blood alone, would atone, or cover over, sin. Without the shedding of blood there is no atonement.

For centuries, ancient Judaism floated upon a sea of sacrificial blood, each sacrifice graphically picturing the horrible consequences of rebellion against the Creator. Each innocent animal slaughtered to pay the temporary price for human sin, from the animal slain to obtain the skins required to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness, to the rituals of the Jewish Law.

All these pointing forward to the ultimate sacrifice of God's own Son that did far more than merely atone for sin. It took away the sin of the whole world.

From that moment forward, no blood sacrifice would ever be required again. For the shedding and sprinkling of Christ's blood on the Cross silenced the cries and curses of Abel's blood, replacing it with the triumphant call of forgiveness and salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The modern world finds these equations primitive expressions of shame and superstition. Many look upon the rituals involved as barbarous and ghastly, congratulating themselves for an enlightened perspective that would never take such transactions with Deity seriously.

How could a God of love, they say, be so heartless and savage and cruel as to require the killing of innocent animals to assuage His tyrannical anger?

But in so thinking, they fail to grasp the incredible mercy these substitutionary deaths entailed. And they fail to comprehend both the authority and holiness of God, Himself. In essence, they deny the very God they presumptuously question, despite any supposed profession of "a belief" in God.

For if God is God, He is who He has revealed Himself to be in Scripture: Creator and Judge. He is the omnipotent Sovereign declaring the end from the beginning, fulfilling the purposes of His will in every aspect of existence. He is, in fact, the very well-spring of existence itself.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us here that rather than demand each sinner's blood to atone (not take away) his or her own sins, God, in unfathomable mercy, grace and love, placed His own beloved and perfect Son on the Cross, to wash clean in His blood an entire planet of rebellious creatures, and to bless, rather than curse. Better things, indeed.

As in most instances, the self-justifying questions the world poses about God and His perfect plan of redemption focuses on the thinnest surface veneer, and not the magnificent substance. God ordained animal slaughter to provide a way for His perfect justice to be satisfied (at least temporarily) without requiring human slaughter

The real question is this: How could a God of perfect righteousness and justice allow sinful humanity to continue to exist AT ALL? And the answer lies in His Son, who was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world.

For those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the judgment of sin has already taken place. The requisite death sentence has already been carried out and the ensuing eternal punishment accomplished on the Cross.

Those who willfully and pridefully reject the Son, will pay the price of their own sin - every thought, word and deed - forever.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Jesus the Mediator


But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24, NKJV).

The Biblical definition of mediator is "one who intervenes between two, either in order to make or restore peace and friendship, or form a compact, or for ratifying a covenant." The Lord Christ aligns with this definition perfectly.

He is the Intercessor, the Divine Representative of man to God and God to man. As High Priest, as He who always lives to make intercession for us, He fulfills, and is the epitome of, that ancient priestly role, established by God before the foundation of the world for precisely that purpose.

And He intervenes in the affairs of men and demons, redeeming the first from the influence and captivity of the second.

And He is the sacrificial barrier between the righteous wrath of a holy God, and the inexorable sinfulness of fallen mankind utterly deserving of that wrath.

On the Cross, He reconciled God to humanity, paying the eternal price of sin in propitiation to an eternal God, restoring the broken fellowship between creature and Creator, making peace, and confirming the new contract between God and His creation - the New Covenant based on faith instead of unattainable performance.

And it is to this selfless Mediator that the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to come, not as criminals (though we surely are), not as penitents (for the price has been paid), but boldly, as beloved children, as siblings and coheirs. 

Without His finished work on the Cross, we would be forever hopeless. Thus, coming to Him in faith is the only means of escape from a destiny befitting our intrinsic evil, yet simultaneously beyond comprehension.

The unbelieving world hates Him. It must, for everything about Him convicts the world of sin, and unequivocally demonstrates the existence of a holy God to whom we are accountable; a God who so loved the world that He sacrificed His Son so that we might escape the wrath He himself will pour out on a rebellious world populated by incorrigibly rebellious subjects.

Our Mediator made possible the abrogation of the old contract between mankind and God, filled with impossible clauses of performance-based life and earned blessing, and in its place, ratified that New Covenant, based solely on faith.

Without that we are all doomed forever to an unthinkable place of punishment that never ends. Without that it would be infinitely better never to have been born.

This truth is utterly repugnant to those who reject Christ. The doctrine of Hell is deemed primitive, unhealthy, depressing, and a deletorious remnant of a less-enlightened archetypal history.

But if it is true, and it must be for God to be who He has revealed Himself to be, then faith in Jesus is the only way of escape.

Jesus is the only hope for an existence filled with banal and senseless evil. His coming again is the only thing that will make right all that is, and has been, so terribly, terribly wrong.

He is the only way of salvation. He is the only one that gives meaning and purpose to the horrors of this life, and provides each one of us with the means to attain beauty from ashes, to make our valley of tears an eternally life-giving spring.

Look around. Look into the past. If mankind is your only hope, then in order to experience any joy at all you must either bury your head deeply in the sands of denial, or cast aside all reason and rationality, and trust that we ourselves have the power to make this world a better place - to so transform the hearts and behavior of our fellow citizens that all propensity for evil is eradicated, or at least, prevented.

History, and the likely course of future events, argues against that hope.

But if the Lord Jesus Christ is your hope, the One who demonstrated His love toward us by taking upon Himself the penalty we so richly deserve, even while we were yet sinners, then despite the sometimes impenetrable darkness of earthly existence, there is joy inexpressible and hope unquenchable.

Not because of us, but because of Him.