The Blood of Christ (3 sermons)

IMPORTANCE OF BLOOD

1. God created blood and gave it an important role in living creatures as the fluid of life.
   1. It is called lifeblood – blood regarded as essential for life – truth straight from God.
   2. It has many functions, and it carries powerful physical and emotional significance.
   3. It causes some to faint at even the sight of it, and it is a pretty common metaphor.
2. We worry about blood types, blood pressure, blood sugar, blood oxygen levels, blood viscosity, blood donations, blood tests, blood cell counts, blood poisoning, the heart pumping blood, heart arrhythmias, heart attacks, heart transplants, heart valves, etc.
3. When we have a Bible theme like blood, we should not think it merely an aspect God chose from many for illustration, but rather our omniscient God planned it all along; blood was His forethought, not an afterthought (I Peter 1:19-20; Rev 13:8; Gen 9:4-6).
4. It is a terrible tragedy only 200 years ago (1799) that doctors were ignorant enough to bleed President Washington of 40% of his blood in just 21 hours … thus killing him.
5. Think of Washington getting weaker and weaker by blood loss to consider how Jesus felt after no sleep for 36 hours and blood running from many wounds. Read Psalm 22.
6. Blood is a major component of our bodies and our lives from many different angles.
   1. We saw more blood prior to a sanitized, sterilized, and shrink-wrapped generation.
   2. Wounds, surgeries, capital punishment, battles, animal sacrifices, and other forgotten activities made blood a crucial substance and visible matter of concern.
   3. We consider in amazement at childbirth and a new blood type through a placenta.
   4. With a death recently, several saw the pooling of blood as the heart was no longer able to pump it throughout the body, which is a key indicator hospice looks for.
   5. Men fear heart attacks – damaged pump; they fear strokes – brain short of blood.
7. God revealed early, plainly that the life of the flesh is in the blood (Lev 17:10-14).
   1. It is first recorded in the Bible in God’s warning to Noah about blood (Gen 9:4-6).
   2. Eating blood was also condemned by apostles at Jerusalem (Acts 15:19-20,28-29).
   3. We believe the restriction has ended like Noah’s and the Jews’ animal sacrifices.
8. Death is pictured and represented by blood running from punctures of the body, which occurred often with animal slaughter and hand-to-hand combat in battles, and which is used repeatedly in modern movies by expanding blood pools from a gunshot wound.

GOD’S USE OF BLOOD

1. The Bible has a total of 375 uses of blood, with 93 of the uses in the New Testament.
2. God used skins of animals to clothe Adam and Eve, which required blood (Gen 3:21).
3. God required a blood sacrifice of living creatures, which Cain refused (Genesis 4:1-5).
4. Zipporah learned about Jehovah’s bloody religion due to circumcision (Ex 4:24-26).
5. God required Israel to put blood on their houses for Him to pass over (Ex 12:1-51).
6. Israel’s priests used blood often in Moses’ religion (blood is 66 times in Leviticus).
   1. God required Israel to sanctify everything under Moses by blood (Heb 9:18-22).
   2. He required a High Priest before Him annually with blood (Heb 9:7; Lev 16:1-34).
7. Samuel killed a sucking lamb before war with the Philistines to atone (I Samuel 7:9).
8. God dispelled foolish myths by declaring all men have the same blood (Acts 17:26).

OTHER RELIGIONS USE BLOOD

1. Pagan religions have aped and perverted God’s religion of blood sacrifices (Ps 16:4).
2. The prophets of Baal mingled their blood with blood of a bullock (I Kgs 18:26-28).
3. Many other examples of pagan religious use of blood can be found through history.
4. The papists – Catholic pagans – adopted the perverse rite of drinking human blood.
5. They hold the doctrine of transubstantiation, or drinking of Christ’s literal blood.
6. Even when only taking the host (the cracker), they still literally drink His blood.
7. For they believe His body, blood, soul, and divinity truly replace both elements.
8. Satanists, in extreme perversion of God’s religion, will drink animal or human blood.
9. Abaddon and Apollyon, the angel of the bottomless pit, the destroyer of life (blood).

CHRIST’S BLOOD

1. Damned by the weakness of our first mother and the rebellion of our first father, Satan had us condemned to eternal judgment under God’s holy justice and judgment for sin.
2. We read of wounds early in the drama, which foretell the conclusion (Gen 3:15); for though the male seed of the woman bled, it was not fatal; Satan bled fatally by Him.
3. Jesus had to take on a nature compatible with those for whom He died (Heb 2:14-16).
4. God purchased the church by His own blood, by the incarnation of Jesus (Acts 20:28).
5. The great mystery of godliness – God became flesh and blood (I Tim 3:16; Jn 1:14).
6. Jesus sweat as it were great drops of blood, just considering His death (Luke 22:44).
7. Jesus shed innocent blood for our sins as testified by Judas and Pilate (Matt 27:4,24).
8. They punctured His back, head, face, hands, feet, and side to draw forth His blood.
9. The blood of Calvary and what God did there was a witness of the Son (I John 5:6-8).
10. The Jews begged for His blood, were afraid of the guilt for it, and then bled and died miserably for shedding it (Matt 27:25; Acts 5:28; Matthew 23:35; Luke 23:27-31).
11. The Father purchased a bride for His Son by a dowry of blood (Rev 19:6-9; 7:9-14).
12. Paul warned Hebrew believers what backsliding said of Christ’s blood (Heb 10:29).

LEGAL SALVATION IN CHRIST’S BLOOD

1. Jesus, when instituting our communion, said His blood was to remit sins (Matt 26:28).
2. Jesus, instituting our communion, said His blood activated the covenant (Mark 14:24).
3. God’s faith in Christ’s blood and His forebearance covered O.T. sins (Rom 3:24-26).
4. We are justified by His blood, which He ever lives to plead before God (Rom 5:9-10).
5. We are redeemed and forgiven sins by the blood of the Beloved (Eph 1:7; Col 1:14).
6. Peace and reconciliation between God and His people are by His blood (Col 1:19-22).
7. Jesus the great High Priest obtained eternal redemption by His blood (Heb 9:11-12).
8. Learning of that legal transaction purges our consciences to serve Him (Heb 9:13-15).
9. Jesus the great Mediator put the everlasting covenant in force by blood (Heb 9:15-23).
10. The death of Jesus Christ is the blood of the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20-21).
11. We were chosen to this sprinkling of blood by election of God the Father (I Pet 1:2).
12. This precious blood and its redemptive significance should move us (I Peter 1:16-21).
13. Jesus washed us from our sins by His blood to make us kings and priests (Rev 1:5-6).
14. The Spirit shows our Savior as a “Lamb as it had been slain” – blood red (Rev 5:6).
15. This glorious work of redemption is the basis for our worship in heaven (Rev 5:9-10).
16. The righteous in heaven are in robes made white by the Lamb’s blood (Rev 7:14).
17. The martyrs’ victory over Satan is based on the blood of the Lamb (Rev 12:10-11).

PRACTICAL SALVATION IN CHRIST’S BLOOD

1. Drinking the blood of Jesus Christ proves possession of eternal life (John 6:53-56).
2. This is not the Catholic heresy of transubstantiation, or pagan blood drinking.
3. This is not the cannibalism presumed by ignorant and rebellious Jewish hearers.
4. This is not the true and proper practice of the Lord’s supper, which is figurative.
5. This is coming to Christ and believing on Him as God’s Son (Jn 6:29,36,47,64,69).
6. This is most obvious by close comparison of three verses here (John 6:40,47,54).
7. This is participating in Him by faith, which is the evidence of life (I John 5:13).
8. Which none would or could do without sovereign drawing (Jn 6:44-45,65,37-40).
9. The blood of Christ and the knowledge of it unite Jews and Gentiles (Eph 2:11-13).
10. If animal blood sanctified the flesh ceremonially, how much more should the blood of Jesus purge and motivate our consciences to holy living (Heb 9:13-14; I Peter 3:21).
11. Our life with God and church relationship is based on His blood (Hebrews 10:19-25).
12. We should expect horrific judgment, if we neglect the blood of Christ (Heb 10:28-31).
13. We must consider our Lord’s suffering against sin, for we have not bled (Heb 12:4-5).
14. The covenant is based on better sprinkling than Abel faithfully kept (Heb 12:24-25).
15. As animals of atonement, He died without the camp, calling us there (Heb 13:11-13).
16. Spiritual slothfulness by Christians is forgetting the value of their purging (II Pet 1:9).
17. We have the practical forgiveness of our sins as we walk and confess (I John 1:7-9).
18. We are not to sin; but when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father (I John 2:1).
19. We have an incredible standing before God as kings and priests by blood (Rev 1:5-6).

FIVE PHASES OF CHRIST’S BLOOD

1. Eternal phase is God foreordaining Christ’s blood for us (I Pet 1:2,19-20; Rev 13:8).
2. Legal phase is God seeing the blood to redeem us positionally (Heb 9:12; Col 1:20).
3. Vital phase is the power of His bloody death to change our nature (only indirectly).
4. Practical phase is knowledge of His blood altering our consciences (Heb 9:14; 10:22).
5. Final phase is the praise of His blood in eternity for glorifying us (Rev 5:9-10; 13:8).
6. These few references could be multiplied, especially for the legal and practical phases.
7. Much more about five phases of salvation to rightly divide the word of truth … here.

ERRORS ABOUT CHRIST’S BLOOD

1. It is not the fluid or liquid of Jesus’ blood that pays for sins and justifies men to God.
   1. Could He have satisfied the justice of God by giving a pint of it at the blood bank?
   2. Did He have accidents as a child or youth to cause bleeding? Did it work miracles?
   3. Did any angel or person collect any blood from Calvary for any part of salvation?
   4. Is there any receptacle or repository in heaven where His life blood is on display?
   5. Is the preaching of the cross teaching about a wood torture device or Jesus’ death?
   6. Did Paul glory in a wood torture device or in Jesus death by the cross (Gal 6:14)?
   7. We only ask these questions in great sobriety. We want to rightly divide the word.
2. If you do not get this clear in your mind, you may easily fall for heretical superstition.
   1. Mel Gibson told 5000 evangelical pastors a pin prick could have saved humanity.
   2. When Jesus spoke of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, did He mean that?
   3. Along come the Catholics and take the terms literally to justify eating and drinking God, whether drawn from John chapter 6 or from I Corinthians chapters 10 and 11.
   4. Your terminology in speaking or in prayer can be confusing by emphasizing blood.
   5. We are to pray in the name of Jesus, not in the blood of Jesus (thus by His death).
3. The blood, being the life of the flesh, is another way to describe the death of a person.
   1. From Cain and Abel we learn God uses blood for murder of a life (Gen 4:10-11).
   2. God told Noah the relationship of blood to life and evil of murder (Genesis 9:4-6).
   3. Self-defense and capital punishment are referred to as shedding blood (Ex 22:2-3).
   4. Moses required capital punishment for crimes as blood be on them (Lev 20:9,11).
   5. Cities of refugee were to save innocent from the revenger of blood (Num 35:9-34).
   6. David used the word bloodguiltiness to describe his murder of Uriah (Ps 51:14).
   7. David used blood repeatedly for life or murder (Ps 30:9; 72:14; 79:3,10; 106:38).
   8. Consider Proverbs’ use of blood for murder (Proverbs 1:11,16; 6:17; 12:6; 28:17).
   9. Jesus charged that generation with blood going back to Abel (Matthew 23:29-36).
   10. Judas’ confession of betraying the innocent blood meant Jesus’ life (Matt 27:4-6).
   11. Did not our Lord Himself show us to consider His blood symbolic (John 6:53-56)?
   12. Paul and John used blood for life or murder that is clearly seen (Acts 18:6; 20:26; 22:20; Romans 3:15; Eph 6:12; Heb 12:4; Revelation 6:10; 16:6; 17:6; 18:24).
4. We use blood the same way when we use it as a metonym for life, death, or murder.
   1. The OED has for definition 3a, Blood shed; hence, bloodshed, shedding of blood; taking of life, manslaughter, murder, death. [Quotations follow proving the usage].
   2. The OED for definition 3b, Often used in the Bible and theological language for blood shed in sacrifice; esp. the atoning sacrifice of Christ. [Quotations follow].
   3. The OED for definition 3c, The guilt or responsibility of bloodshed. [Quotations].
   4. We can refer to America’s guilt for abortion as guilt for the blood of the innocent.
   5. When we say, He is out for blood, we usually mean a man is looking to kill a man.
   6. When we say, He has blood on his hands, we mean a man is guilty of taking a life.
5. R.B. Thieme, Jr. (1918-2009) and John MacArthur (1939-) were persecuted for their efforts to clarify that it is the death of Jesus that saves; R.B. also confused His death.
   1. Bob Jones, Jr. originally ignited this controversy by calling it heresy in the April 1986 issue of Faith For the Family (a Bob Jones University-sponsored magazine).
   2. Once Fundamentalists, or those with their mentality, get to call someone better than themselves a heretic, the issue will never drop e.g. poor Proctor & Gamble.
   3. So BJU’s World Congress on Fundamentalism in 1986 declared, “The precious Blood is indestructible. It cannot be anything else because of its permanence. The Blood is eternally preserved in Heaven.”
   4. Bob Jones III tried in 1991 to end the slander by his father but without full success.
   5. It is comforting and encouraging to read Charles Spurgeon on the matter – identical to that of John MacArthur and what we believe by the Spirit’s language.
6. A few other thoughts about the relationship or role of our Lord’s blood and His death.
   1. Always remember God explained blood – it is the life of the flesh (Lev 17:11,14).
   2. Jesus had His blood for 33 years. It did not redeem until it was shed – His death.
   3. Jesus likely had His blood back after resurrection along with bones (Luke 24:39).
   4. Jesus’ blood may be emphasized to oppose denial of flesh existence (I John 4:2-3).
   5. Eternal life is a gift given for a person’s name in the book of life of the Lamb
   6. The Lord’s Supper, bread and wine for body and blood, shows death till He comes.
   7. Adam was warned about death; the soul that sins will die; the wages of sin is death.
7. Much more about the controversy and slander of John MacArthur about blood … here.

COMMUNION OF BLOOD

1. Fellowship and communion with the bread and cup at the Lord’s table shows our common union around the Lord Jesus Christ’s body and shed blood (I Cor 10:15-21).
2. His blood of the New Testament is perfectly represented by a glass cup of red wine.
3. We say with Him, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood” (I Cor 11:25), for it represents His precious blood that ratified and put in force the everlasting covenant.
   1. This cup … is His choice to love you from eternity by an everlasting covenant love.
   2. This cup … is His commitment to freely give you all things necessary for salvation.
   3. This cup … is your adoption as God’s own child by His beloved Son dying for you.
   4. This cup … is the proof that I am preparing a place for you and will come for you.
   5. This cup … is the guarantee of future glorification to have a new body like mine.
   6. Many more examples like the above five of benefits of His blood covenant … here.
4. The cup showing His blood witnesses with the Spirit and water of Him (I John 5:6,8).
5. His baptism, and His death, and the Spirit’s testimony declare Him God’s Son.
6. Preaching by the Spirit, water baptism, and the Lord’s supper continue to testify it.
7. Comparing family to marriage, we say, “Blood is thicker than water.” But when we compare His blood to mere family blood, “Blood [His] is thicker than blood [ours].”