PLease find enclosed article-“The Power of the Precious Blood of Jesus” for publication in your magazine. I trust and pray that it will be a great blessing to many, many people.With my best regards, your brother in Christ, Kenneth Korol.
The Power of the Precious Blood of Jesus
1 . Why was the shedding of the Blood of Jesus on the cross so
important:
(a) The Bible says in Heb.9:22. “…and without the shedding of
blood there is no forgiveness. Blood is the only price adequate to
cover payment for sin. ln Ezekiel 18:20 we read, “The soul who sins is
the one who will die…” and in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin
is death…” Sin is so terrible and God who is just and holy could not
ignore it. There had to be consequences- a penalty equal to how
much God hates and detests sin that is destroying the happiness
of His creation. That penalty was death.
(b) ln Leviticus 17:11we read, “For the life of the creature is in
the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for
yourselves on the altar…” The blood symbolized life. When the
animal was killed in the O.T. and its blood sprinkled on the altar it
was an indication to the person offering it that the animal had paid
the price for sin by its very own life.
(c) When the sinner saw the slain lamb and its shed blood he
saw the seriousness of sin. He, realized because of his Jewish
background, that he deserved to die for his own sins but the lamb or
sheep died in his place.
(d) ln 1Cor. 5:7 we read that Christ is our Passover Lamb, “…For
Christ, our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed.” ln John 1:29 John
the Baptist proclaimed, “…Look, the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world.” ln Exodus 12 the Feast of the Passover is
described. After more than four hundred years of bondage in Egypt
God raised up Moses to lead His people, the Children of lsrael out
of bondage into freedom. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt was
detirmined not to let the lsraelites go when Moses confronted him
with the message, “Let my people go.” Moses, in order to let
Pharaoh realize how serious the message was, through God’s
Power and direction called down plagues as judgments on Egypt. Pharaoh
continued to harden his heart after each plaque. The time came for
the tenth and final plaque that would give the Egyptians no other
choice than to let the Children of lsrael go. God was to send His
destroying angel to kill every first born, both men and animals.
Since the lsraelites were also living in Egypt, how would they
escape the destroying Angel? God gave them specific instructions;
to obey God would mean their first born would live. God
commanded that each household(lf any household was to small for
a whole lamb they must share it with their nearest neighbor) would
take a male lamb,one year old and spotless and kill it. They were to
sprinkle some of the blood on the two sides and on the top of the
“door frames of their homes. When the destroying Angel went
throughout the Land He would pass over the homes that had the
blood sprinkled on them. This is where the word, “Passover” comes
from-from the Hebrew, “Pesah” meaning to “Jump past,” “to pass
over” or “to spare” Through this command God was teaching His people obedience as well as blood redemption and thereby preparing them for the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who through the shedding of His blood on the Cross of Calvary would take away the sins of the World.
(e)The Blood of Jesus is precious and important because it is the
Blood of no mere man or prophet but it is the Blood of God. ln Acts
20:28 we read, “…Be shepherds of the church of God, which He
bought with His own blood” and in Heb. 9:14, “How much more ,
then, will the Blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered
Himself unblemished to God…” Andrew Murray in his book, “The
Holiest of All” in his comments on the foregoing verse said, “”The
other element is, that the Eternal Spirit was in the life of the blood. lt
was through the Eternal Spirit He offered Himself. lt was the Word
that became flesh, The Eternal Son of God who was made man. lt
was the life of God that dwelt in Him. That life gave His blood, each
drop of it, an infinite value. The blood of a man is of more worth
than of a sheep. The blood of a king or a great general is counted
of more value than hundreds of common soldiers. The blood of the
son of God!-it is vain for the mind to seek for some expression of its immense value; all we can say is it is His own blood, the precious blood of
the Son Of God! … The Spirit that was in Christ, when He shed the
blood makes us partakers of its power. His victory over sin, His
perfect obedience, His access to the Father,-the soul that fully
knows the cleansing of the blood in its power will know these
blessings too…Let him who would know to… the inexpressible power and blessing the blood each moment can bring in him remember , it was through the Eternal Spirit it was shed.” (The Holiest of All by Andrew Murray, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1960. PP.300-304)
(f) The Blood of Jesus is very important because it is through His
Blood that we overcome the devil. lt is written in Revelations 12:11:
“They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony.-.” We see here that the believers overcame the
devil by witnessing to what the word of God says about the blood
of Jesus. Confessing what God says in His Word is very important.
For example in Heb.3:1 we read: “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” Jesus as our High Priest pleads our case before the court of Heaven.
In Heb. 4:14 we read, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” in Heb. 10:21,23 it is written, “And having a high
priest over the house of God …let us hold fast the confession of our
hope without wavering.” Without wavering means we should never
give up but continually and consistently proclaim what our
testimony is in the face of all opposition. The word “confession”
means to speak the same thing as, i.e., to say the same thing as what God says in His Word. ln overcoming the devil we make
the words of our mouth agree with what the Word of God says, for example,
about the Blood of Jesus.
1. Why is confessing what the Bible says about the blood of Jesus is so important in overcoming the devil?
One of Satan’s primary weapons against us is guilt, the sense of having
failed, the sense of shame because we missed the mark, of having
fallen short and thereby disqualified in coming with boldness into
the presence of God. ln Rev.12:10 we read that the devil is the
accuser of the brethren and who accuses them before God day and
night. The devil is constantly pointing his accusing finger at us and
reminding us of our failures and our weaknesses and blaming us
for sins that God already has forgiven. Our weapon against Him is
God’s Word. Jesus overcame the devil in the wilderness by using
God’s Word. We overcome in the same way. We are admonished
to do this in Psams 107:2, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say
so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the devil.” The following are some verses teaching us what the Word of God say about the Blood of Jesus:
(a) l John 1:7, 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.”
The word, “cleanseth” here is in the tense that means continually cleanseth. lt is not a once and for all experience. The condition for receiving cleansing is walking in the light. How do we walk in the light? We walk in the light by confessing and forsaking our sins. We do not hide them or pretend that they are not there but we allow the Holy Spirit to search our
hearts. lf there is sin there we bring it to the light by confessing it
and then by faith we bring it to the blood of Jesus for cleansing. lf
our sin has affected any other person or persons then we should go
to that person and make restitution wherever necessary and ask his
or her forgiveness. We do not confess our sins generally, for
example by saying, “Please forgive me of all my sins. We
committed our sins individually we ought to confess our sins
individually and call it for what it is. We then know that after we have done this according to the above verse this sin is under the blood and the devil no longer can accuse us concerning it We then use the above verse as our weapon against him as we confess it with our mouth.
(b) Ephesians 1:7,”|n whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”
First of all, we see here that we have redemption through Jesus’s
Blood. Redemption in the Greek (the language the N.T. was
originally translated in) means a loosing away, a liberating,
particularly by paying a price. By the ransom of His own life-the
pouring out of His precious Blood Jesus liberated us from the enemies
that hold the human race in bondage, i.e., sin (Rom.6:6), death
(2Tim1:10), and Satan (Acts 10:38).
Secondly in this verse we read that we have forgiveness of sins through His Blood. Forgiveness from all our sins is a wonderful thing for the
person who receives it but it cost God something to forgive us, it
cost Him the Blood of His Son. Let us appreciate it and repent of
our sins. To repent means to turn around, to turn our back on all
our rebellion, to stop what we were doing wrong and not continue in
our sins. When God forgives us He also chooses to forget (“I, even
l, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and
remembers your sins no more.”ls.43:25) God’s Word also declares
in ls. 1:18, “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow.” though they are red as crimson, they shall be as wool.”
When the devil would accuse us and try and make us believe that
our sin is to great, that we have fallen again and again and
therefore God cannot forgive us then let us remind him of the above verses.
(c)Romans 5:9, “Much more then, now justified by His blood we
shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
To be justified means to be made right. The great question is, “How can a sinful human being be made right with a holy God. lf we could keep the law perfectly we could be holy before God. But how can we who are members of the human race, who are slaves to sin, do this . God in Jesus Christ does for us what we are incapable of doing ourselves. He became man and lived a perfect life and thereby became the perfect sacrifice and substitute
for our sins. At the cross Jesus fulfilled all that righteousness
demanded. His life was given in exchange for ours; his blood paid
the price for our justification. This is why our justification is a work
of God’s grace (Grace can be defined as unmerited favor, unearned
benefit, undeserved kindness)-“For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of
God-not by works so that no one can boast.” (Eph. 2.8,9). All of us
are bankrupt sinners, we deserve Hell and certainly not Heaven.
We cannot contribute anything to our salvation. The Apostle Paul
described God’s wonderful love, mercy and grace with these words
in Eph. 2.4, “But because of His great love for us, God who is rich
in mercy , made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.” Through the
Blood of Jesus we are justified, declared righteous, just as if we
had never sinned. In Is. 61:10 we read these wonderful words: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” Praise God, He has clothed us with His righteousness and does not see our sin any more after we have confessed and forsaken it.
(d) Heb. 13′.12, ” Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify
the people with his own blood suffered without the gate.”
The word “sanctify” means to set apart, to separate, to consecrate. Through the Blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. ln
1Cor.6:19-20 we read, “What know ye not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which ye have of God, and
ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price : therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Thank God that we are made holy, not through our works of righteousness but through the precious blood of Jesus. Now because we are sanctified through the blood of Jesus we can through faith receive the Holy Spirit which is a gift God wants to give to all His children. When the accuser, the devil comes to accuse us and try to make us think that we are not worthy to receive the Holy Spirit we can remind him of the above verse.
(d) Heb. 10:19, “Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus,”
The “holiest” or the Most Holy Place” was the inner sanctuary where the presence of God dwelt.The High Priest came here only once a year to sprinkle the mercy seat with the blood of an innocent animal to make atonement for the sins of the Nation of lsrael. He came with fear and trembling. When Jesus died the veil dividing the Holy Place from the Most
Holy Place was rent in twain from the top to the bottom indicating
that every lost son of Adam could come into the presence of God
the Father through the precious Blood of Jesus. We no longer need
to come with fear, with guilt, or with shame but now we can come
with boldness into the very throne room of our loving Heavenly Father
who lovingly and joyfully welcomes us into His presence.
We can now declare to the devil, the accuser of our souls:” My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed and sanctified by the blood of Jesus. Therefore Satan and demon powers you have no place in me, no power over me, no claim against me. Now on the ground of what the blood of Jesus has done for me, with boldness and authority, I command you in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, leave! leave my life, now!”
Thank God our faith in the blood of Jesus is not an abstract theory but a living reality and we can daily experience its power in our lives. The true story below shows that in Jesus Christ and his precious blood there is an answer to a person’s deepest human need:
Several years ago a great parliament of religions was held in the city of Chicago. Practically every known religion in the world was represented. During one of the sessions, Dr. Joseph Cook, a great preacher from Boston, representing Christianity, suddenly rose to his feet and spoke the following challenging words to the delegates, “I want to introduce to you a woman with a great sorrow. Bloodstains are on her hands, and nothing she has tried will remove them. The blood is that of murder. She has been driven to desperation in her distress. Now is there anything in your religion that will remove her sin and give her peace? A silence fell upon the gathering. Not one in that large crowd replied. Raising his eyes heavenward, Dr. Cook then cried out, “Apostle John, can you tell this woman how to get rid of her awful sin? “ Dr. Cook waited, as of listening for a reply. Then he spoke again, “Listen, The Apostle John speaks from God’s Word, “The blood of Jesus Christ , His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1John 1:7). Not one person broke the silence, the representatives of Eastern religions and Western cults sat dumbfounded. In the face of human need and depravity they had no answer. The Gospel of Jesus Christ alone had the answer. The sin of the human race could only be covered and washed away by the precious blood of Jesus.
If you have not yet received Jesus as your Saviour I encourage you to receive Him today by confessing Him as Lord, confessing your sins, renouncing and forsaking your sins, and then through faith receiving cleansing and forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus.
Written by Kenneth Korol
Words: 2961
Ken korol's Blog 