Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Talk Tuesday-The Jesus Series; Why Blood and Sacrifice?

At the beginning of the Jesus Series, we looked at the Fall of Mankind, then we examined the Bible to discover why Jesus was called 'the Lamb of God'. This week we ask, 'Why blood and sacrifice?' Let's start with a bit of history.

After the Fall, sin became rampant. “5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” Genesis 6:5 (NKJV). God destroyed the earth by a flood because of sin, yet He spared Noah and his family because, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God,” Genesis 6:9 (NIV). From the lineage of Noah's son Shem, Abraham was born. God promised Abraham, “I shall make you a great nation, I shall bless you and make your name famous; you are to be a blessing!” Genesis 12:2 (NJB). His son, Isaac, had Jacob. God renamed him Israel. Israel (Jacob) had 12 sons, from these came the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus is from the lineage of Judah, son of Israel. This shows us that despite our sin, God always desired to be in relationship with us.

We first saw how the blood of the lamb on the doorpost caused the Angel of Death to pass over the houses of the Israelites during the 10th plague (Exodus 11 & 12) in Egypt. As they began their journey in wilderness to the Promised Land, “21...the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night,” Exodus 13:21 (NKJV). How could a HOLY GOD exist with a SINFUL people? Through blood and sacrifice.

At Mount Sinai, God made a covenant with them (Exodus 19 to 24), giving them a set of laws to follow and promising to be their God. Sin cannot exist in the presence of God, therefore He made provision for atonement through blood. “11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life,” Leviticus 17:11 (NIV). Join us next week take as we take a deeper look into blood and sacrifice, and see how it applies to JESUS' death on the cross. In the meantime, we leave you with these two scriptures to ponder from the New Testament:

“5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” 1 John 1:5-7 (NKJV).

“1 My children, I am writing this to prevent you from sinning; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the upright. 2 He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins, and not only ours, but also those of the whole world,” 1 John 2:1-2 (NJB).

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