Nothing But the Blood
Matthew 27
24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
The entire Bible is the outflow of the power of His blood. The world has always hated the Cross of Christ and His Divine sacrifice. Right into the Book of Revelation we see blood powers triumphantly. No one will inhabit the celestial city but those washed in the Blood. Satan is afraid of nothing in religions but the truth of the Blood. It’s the Blood that drives the devil crazy.
Nothing is going to change the present state of our world but the supernatural power of Christ’s blood. Sin is exploding every day and greater bondage is taking a grip on human lives. My heart breaks with the hatred against Godly ministers and people. My own unsaved family cannot stand for me to say one word to them. The captivity of the multitudes are a sad sight to behold. It will grow and only get worse until the power of the Blood is manifested.
Satan will not back off by our screams at him. He recognizes no power but the power of the Blood Offering on Christ’s cross. Remember the devils begging Him when He ministered on earth? They would say things like, “When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.” (Luke 8: 28)
The church is a disaster when it operates in emotions and flesh powers. A highly emotional sermon full of loud words but without great prayer and anointing does nothing for the Kingdom. The power of the Blood, anointed by the Holy Ghost is our strength. Satan cannot defeat the Blood.
Every act of redemption, from the day of Adam until we inherit a new heaven and a new earth, is wrought by the Blood of Jesus Christ. Every miracle of healing and life, every act of soul saving power, every deliverance over demons and devils, every miracle of supplying needs and changing circumstance or altering a life for the glory of Jesus’ kingdom is a victory of His shed blood as an atonement before God His father. The greatest need of the people of God in every generation is to understand, claim, and totally trust in the precious blood of Jesus Christ as our confidence and victory.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Lev. 17:11) “The power of that blood in its many effects is nothing less than the eternal power of God Himself. What a glorious thought for everyone who desires to experience the full power of the blood.” (Murray, The Power of the Blood of Jesus, p.27)
“To plead the Blood of Jesus is to confess to God that we are depending wholly on His mercy. Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to the cross we cling. When we plead the Blood of Jesus, it immediately pleads for us, because it is SPEAKING BLOOD. It speaks mercy from the mercy seat in Heaven where Jesus is seated with His Father. This is why we plead the Blood of Jesus.” (Whyte, The Power of the Blood, p. 32) When the Blood of Jesus speaks, the Holy Spirit and the word of God agree. When the Holy Spirit speaks, the Blood of Jesus and the Word of God agree. When the Word of God speaks, the Blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit will agree. “And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” (1 John 5:8) It is as though, when the Spirit, the Word, or the Blood of Jesus acts or speaks, God’s glory on earth shouts, “Amen!” They never act independently. There is perfect agreement. The Church needs no power or authority outside of this power. It is our glorious victory. God does not anoint personalities, plans, campaigns, church structures, policies, or theologies. He anoints His Word and its truth as they are declared by His servants. When our lives are free of self and all our selfish plans/schemes and we are filled with His Holy Spirit, the anointing becomes a natural occurrence. You not need to pray for the anointing when the plan is God’s plan, it already has His anointing. The great and sometimes lengthy prayers are for the purpose of helping you and I to find His plan and His will. God does nothing in His kingdom that is not first done in someone’s prayer closet. But those great times of intercession are for us, not Him. Prayer is where we prepare, it is where we find grace to totally submit, and it is where we get the directions for our action. After a prayer is finished, we move by His authority (the Blood, Word, and Spirit) Nothing is impossible within His will when the believer has reached this level of total surrender, humility, and dependence.
Acts 20
28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
All life is in the Blood
The physical life of man is in his blood and the spiritual life of man is in Jesus’ blood. Absolutely all human life is in the blood, both physically and spiritually. When the blood drains from a body, the soul immediately departs. There is no life in that body without the blood. It’s a glorious mystery beyond our understanding how our creator has blood the keeper and resident of all flesh’s life. Life that is resident in the blood has an open door into God’s fellowship by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Just as our life is in our blood, His life was in His blood and by sacrificing it He has created an eternal blood offering on the mercy seat before the Father. That blood sacrifice has atoned for complete redemption of the soul and life for any person that will cast away all other confidence. He alone can save, because He alone offered spotless, uncontaminated blood as an offering before man and God.
Religion, be it called Christian or Hindu or New age, is totally helpless to redeem men in the absence of the blood. These religions may dress up the flesh, teach self-esteem until mankind struts like a peacock, or teach the “power in the tongue” causing individuals to hype themselves into a state of positive thing, but the soul is still a wilderness, far from God. At some point, all such religious humanism will come crashing down on the heads of those who follow it. Any religion, regardless of its proponents, that is not totally dependent on the “cross death of Jesus” for its power and victory is a false gospel. Any reduction of the total victory of Jesus Christ in His death is false. Jesus triumphantly declares, “It is finished.” My friends, His death did it all for us. Our place is to submit, trust, and obey what he has provided.
His Resurrection is by the Authority Established in His Blood Offering
Jesus Christ was buried in a tomb while His Spirit descended into Abraham’s bosom (the abode of the righteous dead) After three triumphant days among the First Testament Saints and after taking possession of the powers of death, He arose from the dead. What was the power of His resurrection? Kenneth Copeland teaches that Jesus Christ quoted scripture while He had become a demoniac in the judgment of Hell-fire and by His “Words of faith” was born again and resurrected. This is nothing less than cult heresy. Jesus arose from the dead by the power of His own blood sacrifice. Look at Hebrews 13:20. “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” The basis of all life and victory over the power of sin is Jesus’ blood and even the father recognized this in the raising of Jesus Christ’s body from the dead. Very clearly the scripture states, “that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus… through the blood.” What a testimony the father gives to the victory of His son’s death.
The heavenly Father is a perfect judge that always acts judiciously. Death was the results of sin and Jesus became sin in a vicarious manner. The resurrection of an individual from death to possess an eternal body was impossible prior to Calvary. Jesus’ death as our sacrifice for all of sin’s bondage, including death, was complete. His resurrection settled forever that the blood, shed on the cross, not only saves from sin, it saves from eternal death. The total effect of sin has been answered and reversed by the blood. We shall live forever if we live by His blood.
1 Corinthians 10
16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
Andrew Murray, the great author, states, “It was through the virtue of the blood that God raised up Jesus from the dead. God’s almighty power was not exerted to raise Jesus from the dead or apart from the blood. He came to earth as surety and bearer of the sin of mankind. It was through the shedding of the blood alone that He had the right, as man, to rise again and obtain eternal life through resurrection. His blood had satisfied the law and righteousness of God. By so doing, He had overcome the power of sin and brought it to naught. So, also, death was defeated, as its sting, sin, had been removed; and the devil also was defeated, who had the power of death, having now lost all right over Him and us. His blood had destroyed the power of death, the devil and hell: the blood of Jesus has opened the grave.” (Murray, The Power of the Blood of Jesus, p.30)
I love that statement, “the blood of Jesus has opened the grave.” No wonder the scripture states, “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” (Matt. 27:51-53)
Please note that these graves opened up when He died on the cross, not after He rose. The graves were actually open for three days and nights before the saints in them arose, following Jesus’ resurrection. This truth forever settles the power of His blood over death and the grave.
Living Under the Claims of His Blood
The Lord of our life, Jesus Christ, wants to teach us how to claim His blood. It’s the greatest privilege in the world to be saved from sin by the blood of Jesus. But notice, what is called religion today in most churches is nothing but religious humanism. The Bible is used as a good example to follow. Jesus was the Son of God, so people are taught to believe that fact; and then because they believe, they are called Christians. The gospel of Jesus Christ is tremendously more than the above.
When an individual becomes conscious of their sin and experiences the guilt that always comes with true conviction; the message of Jesus’ blood, along with His cleansing and forgiveness, is a glorious message. No wonder the true gospel is called, “The Glorious Gospel.” A sin-sick soul finds absolute joy in the power of His blood to wash their soul perfectly pure. It does not matter how deep the sin or how repulsive the life this individual has followed, one breathtaking moment of experiencing the power of the blood and that life is transformed. No person who has not been taught the power of the blood will likely experience the “New Birth.” It is impossible to be saved without faith in the blood of Jesus to wash the sinner clean.
The “New Born” Christian
Praise the Lord, now you are a new creature. The sun shines like it has never shone before. The faces of your former enemies are now beautiful. You are indeed a new creature. “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17)
Do not stop depending on the blood now. The church has many Christians that are still babies after many years, because someone did not teach them to live by the blood after they were saved by it. The new man is kept by the blood, sanctified daily by the blood, and raised into resurrected living by constantly triumphing through the blood. It is a blood covenant highway from the moment of salvation to the day of glorification. The very moment you trust in your good works, your clean life, your love for His word, or the church is the moment your joy will begin to wane. Weakness in your soul and spiritual life will reduce you to a religious form if you forget to trust only in the blood. As great as His Word and Holy Spirit are, they cannot act in your life apart from the blood.
Hebrews 10
19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21 And having an high priest over the house of God;
22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Pleading the Blood of Jesus
This is a marvelous term that has fallen into misunderstanding and has been rejected by the church world. The word “plead” or “pleading” is a great judicial term. Often you hear about someone here in America “pleading the fifth.” This is simply standing by the fifth article in the bill of rights. It stated, among other things, the right to not witness against oneself. To “plead the blood of Jesus” is simply to stand on all the rights and privileges that His blood has provided. It is to hide yourself in Him and claim His death as your hiding place. When you, by faith, plead His blood, you are making Him alone your protection and hope. Satan is a declared enemy. He will badger you all the days of your life. We are taught in scripture to “Neither give place to the Devil.” (Eph. 4:27) “Resist the Devil, and He will flee from you.” (James 4:7)But, how do we resist Him? Certainly, He has no fear of us. We resist by committing ourselves to the blood covenant, whose protection is ours in the Lord. When you are under the blood-covenant, you cannot be destroyed by the enemy.
Living Under the Blood Covenant
The Holy Bible was sealed by a blood sacrifice. It is a blood secured book. Your covenant with the Lord is secured by blood. Any act of worship or time of prayer that is not offered by claiming the blood will merit you nothing. The Old-Testament priests dared not enter the Holy of Holies without a blood offering. The Son of God has placed His blood on the mercy seat. He is seated at the Father’s right hand. We sit with Him in Heavenly places by faith. Every request, every need, every act of ministry to others, every prayer to break demonic powers, to heal the sick or save a sin-sick soul is a request before God on the merits of the cross and the blood sacrifice. The moment you move past your flesh and flesh-filled life and start living under the blood-covenant of Jesus Christ, you will be transformed. The blood of Jesus is our only plea, our only hope, and our only need.