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."
Hebrews 13 v 11 - 12: "For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate."
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. But they refused Him and chose Barrabas, a murderer, to 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; sexual perversions, 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.
The life of man is in our blood. When our hearts stop beating the lifeblood stops and we are lifeless. We have no pulse, we stop breathing. Our soul has departed to be joined to our spirit which is already seated in Christ in Heaven. Jesus took our spirits with Him, all dead until we are born again.
John 3 v 3 - 7: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
By dying in our place Jesus gave us the potential, the opportunity, for us to choose life and so come alive in His Body. Adam and Eve made the wrong choice, ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil bringing death to every seed in her womb. They were cast out of God's presence for yielding to sin. And we were cast out with them. Born in sin.
We choose the fruit from the Tree of Life when we become born again. Every church, every sect, every denomination that does not boldly teach and insist on their members being born again is feeding you from the wrong tree and you need to know this. Tradition gets you nowhere. It's on the wrong tree. It cannot cleanse your sin. Only Jesus who shed His Blood for you can give you Life. You have to make a determined choice to receive salvation.
In the Old Testament animals were sacrificed on the altar at the entrance to the Temple. The High Priest on Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, would take a vessel containing the blood of these animals and sprinkle it upon the Ark of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies. Israel would be free of sin for one year.
Whatever happened physically in the Old Testament is now enhanced in the New Testament which God said was a better Covenant with the Jews than the first one. In this New Covenant He was able to cleanse the whole world of sin by one eternal sacrifice of His Son. Jesus was truly God and truly Man, unique in all history. Everyone could be free of sin forever.
Some Jewish people accepted the New Covenant and were blessed with salvation. Many have rejected it but there will come a day when they will all know Jesus as their Messiah. He will never disown them.
In the heart of the Father everything that could be done for the salvation of His rebellious children had been accomplished. It is available to all who believe in Jesus and walk in His ways. The Devil believes in Jesus but he trembles at the sound of His name. The power of His Blood has destroyed Satan's plans over and over.
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. He controls all sinners whether they believe it or not. We only escape his evil clutches when we are cleansed of sin by the power in Jesus' Blood. It is our Father's atomic weapon against sin.
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.
2 Corinthians 4 v 3 - 4: "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
Who is the god of this world? It is Satan who blinds the minds of his subjects to prevent them from seeing the light! When we approach sinners to share our faith in Jesus with them it would be wise to pray that their spiritual blindness be removed so His light can penetrate their darkness.
This renders Satan impotent. This makes him fearful, hateful and an enemy not to be taken lightly. He has hundreds of billions of demons many of them unleashed against humanity to compromise their hopes of salvation through sin, religion, rejection of God.
He hates God's creation and wants to torment Him by abusing, afflicting with diseases, killing or wounding us. Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He is hunting scalps. Our scalps.
Let us apply the Blood of Jesus to our lives and disappoint Satan every day. Shun things that are sinful and walk in love, truth, humility and power. For years I have heard people say "We plead the Blood of Jesus!" I really have no idea why. There is nothing in the Word of God that confirms it. It is certainly not anything that needs us to beg for salvation. All we need do is ask the Father to cleanse us of sin through the shed Blood of Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Heavenly Father 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. Now that we are alive let us reach out to those still dead in their sins. 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.