The Power of the Blood
1 Peter 1:18-23
Many like the French philosopher Voltaire and President John Adams are critical of biblical Christianity calling it a “bloody religion” or "a religion of gore" because of its teachings and emphasis on the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth is that the entire Word of God centers around the doctrine of the Cross of Jesus Christ and the blood that He shed as an atonement for our sin. There is a scarlet thread which runs through the entirety of the Bible teaching this most central truth that there is power in the blood of the Lamb of God. Redemption, forgiveness, sanctification, accessibility, and victory through His blood for those who receive His sovereign grace.
I. The Blood REDEEMS that which is lost
A. 1 Peter 1:18-19 "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot"
B. As a result of man's sin in the garden we have all inherited a sin nature and as Romans 6 tells us all mankind have been under the slavery or bondage of sin. In order to obtain deliverance from the slavery of sin, sin demands that a price be paid. The price or the wage of sin according to Romans 6:23 is death. The price of sin is death. So in order to purchase sinners from the grasp of sin there must be death.
C. Ephesians 1:7a "In Him we have redemption through His blood..."
D. According to God's Word Christ purchased our freedom from the bondage of sin. The word used for redemption in Ephesians 1:7 is apolutrosis, derived from the root word lutroo which was term used when one would buy a slave to set him free. And that is essentially what is the word right here, "In whom we have been purchased to be set free from sin, setting us free to serve God.
E. Not only did Christ pay the price He became the price that would provide us with the deliverance we all so desperately need.
F. Revelation 5:9-10 “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.”
II. The Blood provides the FORGIVENESS of Sin
A. Ephesians 1:7b "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace."
B. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said " Redemption and forgiveness are so put together, as to look as if they were the same thing. Assuredly they are so interlaced and inter-twisted that there is no having the one without the other. Do you ask—"How is it that there should always need to be redemption by blood, in order to the forgiveness of sin?" I call your attention to the expression, "Redemption through his blood." Observe, it is not redemption through his power, it is through his blood. It is not redemption through his love, it is through his blood. This is insisted upon emphatically, since in order to the forgiveness of sins it is redemption through his blood, as you have it over and over again in Scripture. "Without shedding of blood is no remission."
C. 1 John 1:7 " 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.
D. Nothing we can do will ever add to or take away from the work that Christ did on the cross. As the song sings, "What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus!"
E. Hebrews 9:22 teaches us that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of our sins.
F. Matthew 26:28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Remission = the pardon or the letting go of them as if they had never been committed)
III. The Blood SANCTIFIES or sets apart the redeemed as the special possession of God
A. Hebrews 13:12 " Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate."
B. The first and simplest meaning of the word SANCTIFICATION is "separation." That which is taken out of its surroundings, by God's command, and is set aside or separated as His own possession and for His service-that is holy. This does not mean separation from sin only, but from all that is in the world, even from what may be permissible. Sanctification is fellowship with God and His dwelling in us. - Andrew Murray
C. The story is told of a young girl who accepted Christ as her Savior and applied for membership in a local church. "Were you a sinner before you received the Lord Jesus into your Life?" inquired an old deacon. "Yes, sir," she replied. "Well, are you still a sinner?" "To tell you the truth, I feel I'm a greater sinner than ever." "Then what real change have you experienced?" "I don't quite know how to explain it," she said, "except I used to be a sinner running after sin, but now that I am saved. I'm a sinner running from sin!" she was received into the fellowship of the church, and she proved by her consistent life that she was truly converted. - Our Daily Bread
D. Revelation 1:5-6 " To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."
E. Hebrews 10:29-30 "Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' 'says the Lord. And again, 'The Lord will judge His people.' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
IV. The Blood provides ACCESS to throne room of God
A. Ephesians 2:12-14 "...at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation."
B. God, in His sovereign grace, has quickened us (made us alive) with Christ, raised us up, and set us down in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
C. Colossians 1:19-22 "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight."
D. Through the blood of Christ shed on the cross we are no longer alienated and separated from our Creator and Lord rather by His blood we have been reconciled with God the Father.
E. Hebrews 10:19-20 "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,"
F. The Bible declares that on the day that Jesus was crucified on Calvary’s Hill, the curtain in the temple was torn into two from the top to the bottom. Now through the shed blood of Christ, we have direct access to God by “faith” through Jesus Christ.
G. Imagine trying to make an appointment with the president of the United States of America. You telephone the White House, tell them who you are and that you'd like to make an appointment. The questions come thick and fast: "Who are you? Where are you from? What is the nature of your inquiry? Can anyone else help you? He's very busy." "I know he's busy …" But if the president's son calls him, that's not the kind of response he'll get. It will be, "Oh yes, I'll put you right through." His kids can ring up and just say, "Hey, dad, I'll be there in 5 minutes. I'm want to stop in and see you." That's the kind of access we have with God through the Blood of Christ.
V. The Blood assures us of ultimate eternal VICTORY
A. The victory over Satan and all his authority is by the blood of the Lamb.
B. Colossians 2:13-15 "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."
C. On the Cross Christ triumphed over all principalities and powers. In shedding His blood He triumphed over the host of hell. According to one translator the word that is translated triumphed in Colossians 2:15 is a word that describes putting a chain around the neck of your captive and leading him behind you as many victorious Roman conquerors did, indicating that you had won the victory over him. Satan is a defeated enemy.
D. Revelation 12:10-11 "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death."
E. Romans 8:35-39 " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
F. Dr. Sewall, an old Methodist, when dying, shouted aloud the praises of God. His friends said, "Dr. Sewall, do not exert yourself; whisper, doctor, whisper." "Let angels whisper," said he, "but the soul cleansed from sin by the Blood of Christ, a soul redeemed from death and hell, just on the threshold of eternal glory—oh, if I had a voice that would reach from pole to pole, I would proclaim it to all the world: Victory! Victory! through the Blood of the Lamb!" Perhaps we the saints, who are still alive and well, ought to shout out the glorious Gospel more!—Christian Victory.
