A Response To A Reader Of Mine
Readers have good comments that are often deserving of a response.
I thought I would share my response to a reader who didn’t believe that God required blood for remission of sin (paraphrase). Usually if one person is confused on a point, there are others as well. Here is what I said, with a couple of points added.
Hello …..
Maybe I didn’t explain clearly enough what I was writing, so I will try again.
When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they had already been warned that “the wages of sin is death”. See Romans 6:23. This was true for them then and true for you and me, today.
Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, came off His throne in heaven down to this earth and pay the price of “death” — so that you and I COULD (doesn’t mean we will) be reconciled to God and gain everlasting, eternal life. (see Dan. 7:27 and Romans 6:23).
The condition to that is that we must:
Accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, who has died the death that we sinners all deserve.
Have FAITH in the BLOOD of Jesus that it has the power to blot out our sins - the sins we have confessed, repented of and turned away from; and
Be obedient God’s law - His commandments; and
Be born again of the Holy Spirit - as Jesus taught Nicodemus.
The whole sacrificial system throughout the Old Testament was to teach our sinful race (thanks to Adam and Eve) the deadly seriousness of SIN, i.e., disobeying God.
Romans 6:23 KJV says: For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus came down to die on our behalf and THEN teach us the truth about salvation.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
~ Romans 6:10
The sacrificial system was all based around the plan of salvation and the restoration of Man to His Creator, through Jesus Christ.
God’s Law is holy and as sacred as Himself. It cannot be changed, and God is no respector of persons. When our first parents sinned in the Garden of Eden, we were ALL doomed. IF Jesus had not come down here to die, in our place, we would still all be doomed.
The ancient sacrificial services through the SANCTUARY SERVICES, is something that most Christians have not studied nor do they fully understand. And most certainly, Satan does NOT want us all to understand this because He knows this IS the path to salvation.
King David said, “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?” Psalm 77:13. David understand the significance of the sanctuary and it applies to us today as much as it did in David’s Day.
Jesus is found in EVERY step through the sanctuary services, starting FIRST at the altar in the courtyard where the little lambs were slain. They all foreshadowed the TRUE MESSIAH (Jesus) who would come to take away the sins of the world. And the death of those pure, perfect, innocent lambs was exactly what Jesus Himself was —- the pure, perfect, innocent Son of God, who ALONE, could fulfill God’s Law, becoming SIN for all of us, to redeem us from our inherited sinful doom, and to restore us back to our ORIGINAL sinless nature.
Only Jesus, God’s own dear, only begotten Son, could do this for us. Even the angels could not do this because they are created beings, like we are. Jesus alone could fulfill this requirement of “death”.
The ATONEMENT for ours confessed, repented of sins can ONLY be done WITH the BLOOD of the TRUE sacrifice, which is Jesus’ own blood.
In the ancient days, Moses and Aaron headed up the symbolic sanctuary services that were a reflection of the TRUE Sanctuary in heaven. (Please study the book of Hebrews). Aaron, was the symbolic typical “High Priest” who atoned for the sins of the repentant people - foreshadowing Jesus, our true HIGH PRIEST, now, in heaven, who is doing the real atonement, now.
When Christians say we are “saved by grace through faith” - ask yourself, “FAITH in WHAT?” That faith is in Jesus’ shed BLOOD to blot out our confessed/repented of SINS so they are remembered no more.
“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood,
and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22).
THE ATONEMENT
If you have studied the ancient “Day of Atonement” services, you will see that Aaron had to do two sacrifices that day, one for the sins of his own and the other for the sins of the people.
Was the atonement completed once the animal was slain? Absolutely NOT!! The atonement NEVER is completed in the court yard where the victim (the animals OR Jesus) is slain.
The Atonement includes the ENTIRE process through the entire sanctuary — going in and going OUT, and especially with the BLOOD being sprinkled on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant by the High Priest at the designated time of the Atonement.
Aaron was the symbolic High Priest initially, while Jesus is our TRUE High Priest now, and is interceding before God on our behalf — pleading for us based on HIS BLOOD that he shed for the remission of our confessed and repented of sins.
I keep stressing our “confessed and repented of sins” - because this is the ONLY way we can start to be restored back to our Father in Heaven (and Jesus Himself) is to have TRUE sorrow for our sins. Our sins MUST be blotted out OR we will lose out on eternal life.
Without the remission of sins (our repentance of sins and Jesus’ blotting out of our sins), we will DIE the eternal death of the wicked, “in their sins” without mercy.
BEING BORN OF THE SPIRIT / SANCTIFICATION
But even after we have confessed and repented of our sins TO GOD, THROUGH Jesus’ name (no man can take this place to accept our confession or repentance), we must ALSO be ‘born of the Holy Spirit’ - as Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3.
Why is this?
It is because even though our sins may be blotted out (with Jesus’ blood), we STILL have sinful natures and tendencies!
Our CHARACTERS are sinful, naturally, and therefore, we MUST be RESTORED back into our ORIGINAL character from when we were created - the same character / image as Jesus Christ.
How is this done? It is by SURRENDERING our WILL to God and asking Him to transform our characters BACK to the same nature of Christ.
This is what being Sanctified is all about. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, personally, private and quietly, done in and with us, day by day, throughout the remainder of our lives here on earth, and will continue even in heaven.
Therefore, we must be SANCTIFIED.
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:17.
And this character transformation (sanctification) is what the Parable of the Wedding Garment is all about, that Jesus told - accessing and gaining that customized purified CHARACTER (for each one of us it is different), that reflects the very image of Jesus Christ. This is sanctification. Without it, we will not be going to heaven. It must start here on earth first.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
It is the Holy Spirit (God’s own Spirit who He gives to Jesus to go throughout the whole world - see Rev. 3:1, 4:5 and 5:6) to work privately and quietly in our daily lives to point out sin (so we can avoid it) and help to overcome sin. This is also exactly what the “eye salve” (spiritual discernment) is all about in the Counsel of the True Witness (Jesus) to all of us, in Rev. 3:18-19.
Jesus told Nicodemus the unless He was ALSO born of the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) Nicodemus would NOT see the Kingdom of God. This also applies to us.
How do we get this and start this? We must SURRENDER our entire WILL to God and then pray and ask for it the “eye salve” (spiritual discernment) the Holy Spirit power to transform our characters. Unless we do this, it won’t happen. God will NEVER force anything on us. So, we must also teach others this same thing, OR we WILL be spewn OUT of God’s mouth - like the rest of the lukewarm Laodiceans. Read Revelation chapter 3.
I hope this has helped some. I encourage you to study the sanctuary services of the Old Testament and learn HOW it applies to our salvation now. There is a lot to it and it is very deep and very beautiful. It is also what Satan does NOT want people to learn about, because in this they WILL be restored back to the image of Jesus and our Father and gain eternal life.