But Christ came
as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and
more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with
His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all,
having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of
bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the
unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? And for this
reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of
death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first
covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of
the eternal inheritance.
Hebrews 9:11-15
Jesus came to fulfil and not
destroy the Law (Matthew 5:17). And according to the Law almost all
things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there
is no remission (Hebrews 9:22).
This Law does not originate with
Moses at Mount Sinai - the Mosaic Law. It goes all the way to the
perfect Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned, God made garments
of skin for both of them and clothed them (Gen 3:21). Some innocent
animals were sacrificed and killed. Precious blood of life was shed
for their sins.
Sin is a deadly thing. It caused
mankind heaven. If there was no sin in the Garden, it would be
heaven from Day One! Someone told me that "we are already in heaven
when we received Jesus, even when we sin again and again because
Jesus is full of grace and very forgiving." This is stretching His
grace beyond lawful limits. Too much grace is disgrace, full of
distaste. It is devaluing the precious blood of Jesus and despising
His death. The opposite of grace is disgrace (no law). The opposite
of law is lawlessness (no grace).
The issue at hand is not about
"whether we have sins" but "whether we continue to sin or not to
sin."
What shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any
longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as
were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if
we have been united together in the likeness of His death,
certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the
body of sin might be done away with, that we should no
longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been
freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been
raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion
over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for
all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore
do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that
you should obey it in its lusts. (Romans 6:1-12)
The same
precious Blood of Jesus, which cleansed us from our sins, has the
power to keep us away from our sins. The journey will be finished at
the end of the race. Paul said at the end of his spiritual journey
on earth, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I
have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to
all who have loved His appearing" (2 Tim 4:7-8).
Let us not claim completion till
we have finished running the race of life. Let us not claim heaven
when we are still struggling with hell - when we continue sinning!
If sin is not
deadly, Jesus would not have to come. There will not be a need for
another Garden – the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus would not have to
agonize in praying "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from
Me unless I drink it, Your will be done." (Matthew 26:42)
To die for the sins of the world
is alright with our Lord Jesus. BUT to carry and put on all the sins
of the world on Himself, clothed with our sins, is excruciating
pain! How can the pure Son of God put on sin? And how dare we who
are clean desire to touch it again?
God is coming for a holy Bride
without blemish (Eph 5:27-28), and not saints stained with sins. The
tabernacle of Moses is a place full of blood of the animal
sacrifices. Throughout ages, the sins of man require blood
sacrifices. Without which, there is no remission.
Each time we sin, Jesus had to
pay (atone) for it.
For it
is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy
Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of
the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to
repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of
God, and put Him to an open shame.
(Hebrews 6:4-6)
A person can never understand
how precious and priceless the blood of Jesus is until he has a full
realization of his sin and the death it brings. We need true
conviction. Without this sense of guilt, we will continually play
with sin as our constant playmate. And this playmate is deadly, more deadly than Sars. If we do not want to have
Sars, we should do likewise not wanting to have Sin.
When we are declared Sars-free, we don't want
to have it anymore. Likewise, when the Lord has declared us
Sin-free, let's don't touch it again! We must make a constant choice
not to sin. But at times when we do sin out of ignorance or
otherwise, the Holy Spirit will prompt us and we need to seek His
forgiveness again. This is not a license to sin - it is indeed true
grace in motion.
For when
they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure
through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who
have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they
promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption;
for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into
bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions
of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the
latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it
would have been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy
commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them
according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit,"
and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."
2 Peter 2:18-22
The blood of
Jesus Christ is also called "the blood of the covenant." The Lamb of
God was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8).