UNDER THE BLOOD
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 2, 2021 under 2021 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; May 2, 2021 from Romans 3:21-26
Theme: Because we are made righteous in God’s sight only by faith in the blood of Jesus, we must make sure we are ‘under the blood’.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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One of the most important things we do together as a church family is observe the communion meal. Sadly, for the past year or so, we have not been able to observe it together in person. But we have been able to observe it together ‘online’; and it’s been very important that we did so.
Praise God that, soon, we’ll be able to observe it together ‘in person’ again.
This morning, I’d like for us to spend some time reading from the Scriptures and thinking about this important thing that the Lord Jesus has commanded us to do. Don’t look at this as a formally structured ‘sermon’, but rather more as a time of sharing some devotional thoughts from various portions of God’s word that lead us up to our time in the communion meal.
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A first passage that I would like to read to you is from the Old Testament book of Exodus. It gives us a picture—early on in history—of how important it is that we remember what Jesus has done for us on the cross.
Exodus 12 tells us about the period of time just before the people of Israel were delivered from bondage in Egypt. God had already administered nine plagues on Pharaoh and on the people of Egypt. And now, the tenth one was about to come. It would be the most severe of them all. It would be that He would go out on one particular evening and strike every first-born son in all the land with death.
God wished to protect His people Israel from this horrible judgment. He Himself would provide protection to them from the outpouring of His wrath. But He required that they did something about it. And so; in Exodus 12:1-13, we read these words:
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:1-13).
This was the beginning of one of the most important feasts of the Jewish people—the Passover Feast. It has many connections to the ordinance we observe regularly in the communion meal.
And notice carefully the things the people of Israel were told in this passage. On this particular night, the head of each household was to take for his family a lamb. It was to be a male, and it was to only be about one year old—in its prime, you might say. It was to have no blemishes or imperfections upon it. It must be a perfect lamb. They were to keep it set aside—set apart from the others—for three days. And then on the fourth day—just as the sun went down—they, along with every other family, were to slay their set-apart lamb. They were not to break any of its bones, however. They were not to boil it, or to eat it raw; but rather were to burn it with fire and eat it whole. They were to eat it dressed up as if they were going on a journey—because they actually were. They were about to be delivered from their bondage. And they were to eat it with bitter herbs and in a hurry—because they were in haste to leave.
And the thing I ask you to particularly notice is that they were to take the blood of that lamb and smear it upon the doorposts and lintel of their home—and they were to stay in that home as they ate. When the Lord saw the blood, He would pass over that home in judgment and not strike them with the plague of death. The blood was, you might say, a covering and a protection from God’s just judgment.
God’s dreadful judgment came. And He showed mercy to His people and spared them. But it was nevertheless their responsibility to make sure that they were safely under the protection of the blood of the lamb. They needed to remain under the blood.
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Now; that lamb was given as a picture of what the Lord Jesus would do for us. He was born of the Jewish people. He had no spot or stain or blemish of sin in Him. He was perfect in His obedience to the Father, and He bore no sin of His own. And after three and a half years of His public ministry to the Jewish people—at the very prime of His life—the Jewish people handed Him over to be slain. He was crucified as an offering for sin; but none of His bones were broken. And we can even say that nothing of His death ‘remained’ afterward; because He was raised the third day and did not see corruption.
This picture of Jesus—that is, as our Passover Lamb—is affirmed to us in another passage I’d like to read. It’s found in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. John the Baptist had been preaching about Jesus—that He was the Savior that God had promised to the Jewish people. John had baptized Jesus in the Jordan River; and in John 1:29-34, we read,
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.” And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29-34).
To what degree it was that John the Baptist fully understood what Jesus would then go on to do is for us hard to say. But clearly, he spoke from God and declared definitively to the world that Jesus is Son of God who came to this earth in order to be ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’
It would then be three Passover Feasts later that Jesus would celebrate the feast with the disciples, would declare to them that He offered Himself as the Passover Lamb, and would institute the Lord’s supper to them. And then—at twilight—He went out with them to the garden to be betrayed, then arrested, tried, beaten, and finally crucified for us. His blood would be poured out upon the cross—like the blood of a lamb on the doorposts and lintel of the house.
And just like the ancient people of Israel, we also are saved from the just wrath of God for sin if we are under the covering and protection of that precious blood—the blood of the Lamb. We too must be under the blood.
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That leads us to another passage I would like to share with you. It’s found in Romans 3. This is when it all becomes very personal to us.
The New Testament letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. He wrote it to explain the full message of the gospel to his readers—the message of how a woman or man is made righteous in the sight of God. His treatment of this important subject began in 1:18 by telling us the terrible news that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of all human beings on earth.
Going on through the next three chapters of Romans, Paul proves that each and every one of us stands guilty before our holy Creator God because of our sin. None of us are innocent. God has spoken His good laws and His good commandments to humankind; and we have all broken His commandments and disobeyed His laws. We all stand guilty. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” In Romans 3:19-20, Paul writes;
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:19-20).
We cannot make ourselves righteous in the sight of God by our good deeds according to the law. It’s the law that ends up condemning us to death. Our sins have created a dreadful ‘Grand Canyon’ of guilt that separates us from God; and no amount of ‘good deeds’ that we try to throw into the canyon will ever fill it back up. And God’s just wrath for sin is coming upon the whole world. As a holy God, He cannot ignore it. He must judge it—and He must judge it eternally.
And so, that’s where we all stand. We are under God’s just judicial sentence of death because of our sin. That’s the bad news. But then comes the good news. It’s news that we need to think about as we come this morning to the Lord’s table. The apostle Paul writes, in Romans 3:21-26;
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (vv. 21-26).
What good news this is! It’s a declaration that sinners such as you and me can now be declared righteous in God’s sight. It teaches us that we are made righteous in God’s sight only by faith in the blood of Jesus.
And so; as we come to the table of the Lord, in view of the sure and certain wrath of God for sin, how important it is that we make sure—absolutely sure—that we are under His blood!
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Let’s spend some more time looking at this important passage in detail. First, notice how it tells us about this righteousness from God in terms of …
1. THE REVELATION OF IT.
Paul began by declaring in verse 21, “But now …”; as if to show us that a contrast has occurred. Before, what had been revealed to us was the just wrath of God for your and my sin. We had broken God’s law; and we could, in no way, make ourselves righteous in God’s sight by means of His law. “But now,” by contrast, “the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed …” God offers us a declaration of righteousness in His sight that is available apart from achieving it through the law. And He has now made the way to that declaration of righteousness known to the world.
It’s a way to righteousness that is newly revealed. But it is not new. Paul goes on to say that it was a way “being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets …” Those two words together—’law’ and ‘prophets’—are a way of expressing the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures. This way of righteousness—apart from law—was promised by God long ago. He hinted at it in the Scriptures in Genesis 3:21; when we’re told that—after Adam and Eve sinned—God clothed them in skins. Something had to die in their place; and they were thus ‘covered’ by that atoning death. It was hinted at when King David—in Psalm 51—confessed his horrible sin of adultery and murder; and prayed to God and said;
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin (Psalm 51:2);
and prayed,
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (v. 7).
Hyssop was a plant that was used as a brush to sprinkle and apply the blood of an atoning sacrifice. And so, David was making a clear reference to the application of the blood of a sacrifice offered in his place. This way of righteousness—apart from the law—is also hinted to us in Isaiah 53; when the prophet looked ahead to the promise of the coming of the Christ and said;
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
This new way in which God declares sinners ‘righteous’ in His sight was in God’s heart and in His plan from long ago. But now it is revealed. Paul described it in verse 22 as “even the righteousness of God [that is, that comes from God], through faith in Jesus Christ …”
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So; this way is not hidden. Just as the wrath of God for sin has been revealed, this way of righteousness before God—apart from law—is now also revealed. And Paul then goes on to declare …
2. THE BENEFICIARIES OF IT.
To whom is this ‘way’ made available? As Paul goes on to say in verse 22, it’s “to all and on all who believe.” It’s not something we must earn for ourselves by doing. God has already done it all for us by the sacrifice of His Son on the cross; and now, it is available to all who ‘believe’; and who place their trust in what God has done through His Son on the cross. This too was promised in the Old Testament; because as Habakkuk 2:4 says, “the just [that is, the person declared righteous in the sight of God] shall live by his faith.” Or, as the Bible says of Abraham in Genesis 15:6, “he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”
All may freely become the beneficiaries of this new ‘way’ of righteousness before God by faith, because all are in exactly the same need of His grace. In verse 23, Paul says, “For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God …” Nowadays, people are very eager to focus in on and point out the supposed sins of others on all kinds of levels. But the reality of the situation is that we all equally—no matter the color of our skin, no matter our ethnicity, no matter our gender, no matter our background or experience—stand guilty before God and are deserving of the judicial sentence of death. But the way to complete, 100% righteousness in the sight of God is now available to whoever wishes it—not on the basis of works or good deeds or outward acts of performance according to God’s law, but only on the basis of believing God’s promise concerning Jesus.
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Now; how can this be? How can this way of righteousness before God—apart from the law—be a reality? Paul goes on to tell us …
3. THE MEANS OF IT.
It’s not based on mere ‘whim’ or mere ‘hope’. And it’s definitely not based on God merely choosing to ignore sin; because He can never compromise His own holiness. Rather, it’s based on something that is real, and historical, and that has actual substance in human history. As Paul goes on to tell us in verse 24, we become declared righteous in the sight of God, “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus …”
To be “justified” means that we are legally declared righteous in God’s sight. It doesn’t mean that we become perfect and now no longer sin. Rather, it means that we are ‘declared” legally righteous in God’s sight, and that our sins are no longer held against us. It’s something that is given to us ‘freely’—that is, ‘free of charge’—by God’s grace. We don’t earn it; because we cannot earn it. Rather, it is given to us as a gift. And it is all through ‘the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’.
‘Redemption’ is a word that describes a price that is paid to free someone else. You might think of it as a ‘ransom-price’. Our sins deserved the death penalty before God; and we were on His ‘death row’ for our sins. But He sent His sinless Son to pay the death penalty on our behalf on the cross. He paid the ransom price for us to set us free, and to make it possible for us to be declared ‘not-guilty’—even 100% righteous—in God’s sight. As Paul put it in Ephesians 1:7;
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7).
Paul goes on to say this in verse 25 about Jesus; that He is the one “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith …” A ‘propitiation’ is that which turns away the just wrath of God for sins—that which ‘propitiates’ His wrath and satisfies it. It’s the same word that is used to describe the ‘mercy seat’ which sat atop the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle—where a holy God graciously met with His sinful people as a result of offerings made for sin.
So; in every respect, the way to righteousness before God by faith is a real and substantial thing. It was made possible by means of the sacrifice of Jesus for us on the cross. And now, no other means are available or necessary.
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And finally, notice what Paul tells us about …
4. THE RESULT OF IT.
You see; our sin not only caused a problem for us. It also caused a problem for God. How could it be possible for Him to declare us righteous, and yet Himself still be holy and just? If He punished our sins as we justly deserved, we would be destroyed—eternally separated from Him. But if He chose to ignore our sins, then He Himself would no longer be a holy God.
He solved this problem by sending His sinless Son Jesus to receive the just punishment for our sins in our place. This, as Paul goes on to say in verses 25, was “to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed …”
God did not ignore sin. But by His grace, He—in forbearance—overlooked those sins because He looked ahead to the time when Jesus would pay the full price for them on our behalf. And now, God is able to forgive our sins and still remain holy. This is because He set Jesus forth to be the real, authentic propitiation for our sins, “to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
What a wise, loving, gracious and infinitely holy God our God is! And what a gracious way He has made for us to be declared righteous in His sight—by faith in the shed blood of His Son Jesus. This is something we need to be thinking about when we come to the Lord’s table.
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Now; let me close by reading one more passage. It’s found in Romans 5. Paul wrote;
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation (Romans 5:6-11).
That’s what we celebrate when we come to the Lord’s table. Is that blood applied to the doorposts and lintel of your heart by faith? Make absolutely sure that you are under the blood!
EA
