Tuesday 27 October 2015

The Power in the Blood



The Power in the Blood

Scripture: Revelation 12 v 11:
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death."

The last words to come out of the mouth of Jesus as He hung dying on the Cross were: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." Was He referring to the Romans under Pontius Pilate who carried out the execution? Their god was Caesar who had the power of life and death over them.

They yielded to the Pharisees who had put Jesus on trial for claiming He was God or even the Son of God. The Pharisees had resorted to subterfuge to capture Jesus. They had bribed Judas Iscariot, one of His followers, with 30 pieces of silver to betray Him.

Or was it the crowd who just a few days earlier had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with cries of Hosanna to the King?  The Pharisees had tried to stop the crowd and their rapturous welcome, but Jesus said to them, if the crowd is silenced even the stones would cry out to welcome Me.

This same crowd had now yelled "Crucify Him" and when, according to custom, one condemned man was released at Passover, they were offered Jesus, they refused Him and chose Barrabas, a murderer, be set free instead.

Was it the disciples, who in His hour of need had deserted Him, leaving Him to His fate? Even Peter who denied knowing Jesus three tImes. Which faction would we belong to if we had been in Jerusalem 2000 years ago? The religious leaders; the frightened disciples; the fickle crowd; the Roman conquerors; the traitor? Because Jesus included all in His appeal to the Father for forgiveness.

The Son of God is the only one who never yielded to temptation. He was sinless. Our God only hears the prayers of those who are already forgiven, and those who are asking for forgiveness. He heard Jesus that day and applied His forgiveness and mercy to all who would believe Jesus is His Son.

Jesus knew that in this world we are subject to situations, forces, events and people over whom we have no control. Its only when we allow Jesus to have control that we get some kind of a clue.

Sin drives us into wild schemes; fantasies; crime; horror; evil and madness. Nothing good comes of it but when we want to be free of sin there is only one way to achieve it. The power in the Blood of Jesus. So as His Blood was pouring out of Him He was triumphant because He knew that it was the only substance on this planet that could cleanse us of all sin and restore our relationship to the Father.

Under the power of sin our will is compromised and our reasoning is faulty. We truly do not know what we are doing. We are "under the influence" and that usually is understood to mean alcohol or drugs but the truth is that we are under the influence of Satan who is a hard and wicked taskmaster.

This means Jesus was speaking for us all when He asked the Father to forgive us because we did not know what we were doing to ourselves, and to Jesus, when we sinned, until we were convicted by the Holy Spirit and cried out in repentance.

Prayer: Father God its only when we are reconciled to You that we begin to understand the power of the Cross and what Jesus did for us as He bled and died. We must let Him change us to be more like Him so others can see Jesus in us and be saved . In Jesus' name. Amen.