Self-Righteousness Will Leave a Multitude Left Behind
Our present church world is full of unconverted souls that live remarkable lives of good works and religious activities.
These dear people have established their own standards and righteousness but have little regard for the strict standards of Bible holiness. They consider the Bible old and outdated. Some even will declare the Bible as the ancient pathway but believe modern interpretation to be superior. The new translators have reinterpreted major truth that also confuses many readers.
The infallible Bible does not allow private interpretation of truth. Jesus plainly stated that not a jot or tittle will pass away. Not a word in the Scriptures can be ignored or reinterpreted. The Old Testament is just as pure as the New Testament. We do not really have two Testaments but two covenants of one Testament. One covenant is pre-Calvary and the other covenant post-Calvary. The life of godliness lived by the converted person delights in both covenants and counts every Scripture as divine.
Let’s try to understand the power of the Blood to purify our souls. Apostle Paul said by revelation from the Holy Ghost, “this cup is the new testament in my blood…” (I Corinthians 11-25b) every truth in our new testament is in the atonement… One of the greatest truths in human experience and Biblical revelation is the power and authority of the blood of Jesus Christ. It is the heart and soul of the Word of God. From Genesis to Revelation, there is no cleansing or remission of sin without blood. God the Father hath ordained that by blood and blood alone can a man or woman enter into His presence. No soul will spend eternity in the presence of the Heavenly Trinity and the holy angels that has not found purity by the power of Jesus’ blood. What an awesome truth!
There is a multitude of people who have joined the church, been baptized in water, paid tithes, worked in the church, even dedicated their lives to church activities, but have never been made white in the “blood of the Lamb”. Eternity will reveal this multitude lost, lost, lost forever in a Christ-less Hell and eternal damnation unless somehow we can reach them with the message of the blood sacrifice. Every “born again” believer must be a messenger of the gospel, telling the good news of our purchase by the blood. We were lost, but He rescued us from sin and damnation by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Being “born again” has become a generic term for being religious or joining the church. The real meaning relates to the sacrifice of blood that creates a new creature with a new personality and mindset. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The New Testament is a completed expression of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20)
The sacrifice of blood in the Old or First Testament was effective because of the absolute certainty of Christ’s sacrifice. The man or woman who offered a blood sacrifice was positionally cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, but was consigned to Upper Sheol at death. At Jesus’ death He went into Paradise or Sheol to guarantee the positional cleansing of Old Testament saints and to complete the promises contained in the law and the prophets. Such action as Jesus took to fulfill the old promises should establish forever that there is no cleansing without blood. The New Testament is in the blood. Without the offering of His sinless blood, the Old and New Testaments would be no better than a dictionary or a novel. Its very life, authority, beauty, or power, is in the vicarious sacrifice of His blood.
He actually died by His own volition and by the divine act of His Father. No one could kill Him. He could not have even died had He not made the choice to die. Without sin, death does not exist and certainly has no power. Jesus was sanctified and sent into the world. “Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10:36)
His conception was without the Adamic sin transfer because the Holy Ghost was God’s agent to beget the Father’s only begotten Son. What a picture of the triune God as the Spirit came upon Mary to implant in her the seed of God by which the Son of God was born the Son of man. His death was impossible until the Father pleased to offer Him as a sacrifice.
God, the Father, offered His own Son as a sacrifice for our transgressions. The Jews or the Romans did not kill Him. Yes, they tried and made a show of their rejection, but it was our sins, all of our sins, which was the cause of His crucifixion. Isaiah settled this fact long before His death occurred. In the great Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53, he established that the whole plan was the Father’s plan. Listen as he proclaims this truth. “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:9-11)
The Father bruised His own sinless Son in His form of man that a human sacrifice of blood might be offered for the human family. It’s the ultimate sacrifice and its power cannot be defeated by the host of hell.
The Word of God declares in several unique ways how precious this blood is to Him and His creation. Communion: Apostle Paul spoke of the “communion” of His blood. When faith is manifest in the blood, something unique occurs in the human heart. We actually have communion with the Father and the Son in a life-changing fellowship. “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?” (1 Corinthians 10:16)
Blood of the New Testament: Mark’s gospel declared that the Blood of Jesus Christ was the “blood of the New Testament.” It is not just salvation from the guilt of sin that is offered in the blood, but every promise and provision of the New Testament is a product of the blood. Our daily walk in the Holy Scripture is an experience in the finished work of the cross. Every victory, every encounter, every need, every moment of sunshine must be lived in a relationship covered by his blood. “Nothing But The Blood” is a true song of the church. “And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.” (Mark 14:24)
Justification: “Justification” from the guilt of sin is only by His blood. We are hopelessly bound in our guilt both by inheritance through Adam and our own unclean heart. Neither the nature of our inherited sins nor the guilt of our committed sins can be removed from our eternal record without the blood. Justification by the blood renders your heart free of guilt and righteous before God. His record of your deeds of sin is totally canceled and never remembered against you again. “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:9)
Purchase: All of creation was sold out to the devil by Adam in the garden. The human dilemma is that we are members of a world where Satan is the god and our citizenship is to sin and captivity. Jesus came to “purchase” us back to the Father and the price was in blood alone. No other ransom would secure our pardon. “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.” (Acts 20:28)
Redemption: Another great term is “redemption”. It identifies our condition before the blood is received in salvation. We were lost, lost forever and hopelessly on our way to eternal condemnation. Sin is a horrible thing and the consequences cannot be escaped unless someone redeems us. Jesus Christ by His blood has done just that for anyone willing to trust Him alone. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” (Ephesians 1:7)
“Pure and White in the Blood of the Lamb!” There is probably no term in Scripture more breathtaking than this statement. Sin is dark, destructive, and demonic. It eats like a cancer and has no pity on its victim. A person in sin will show the continuing effect of the vileness of this dark force in complete discord with all of God’s creation. The blood will actually make a soul white in pure form. “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:14) “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.” (Revelation 12:11)
The blood of Jesus Christ is just as effective and powerful today as it was immediately after His death. There is not one ounce of reduction that has occurred in the cleansing and redeeming authority of the blood. The blood sacrifice has endured more attacks within and without the church than any other Biblical truth. Satan knows that to destroy or weaken the concept of His shed blood is to defeat every other truth in the Bible also. Nothing in Scripture is worth the paper it is printed on if there is no sacrifice of blood. A sacrifice offered nearly two thousand years ago, must be more than the death of a man even though He was a God-man. Yes, His death was sufficient to redeem every soul standing in the presence of Calvary, but that blood can still do the same for all of us far removed in time and space. What happened? Jesus Christ not only died on the cross, but He entered into the Holy Place of the divine sanctuary and offered that blood upon God’s eternal altar.
Listen to Apostle Paul state this great truth. “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:11-14) He spoke of His body as a tabernacle when His disciples were marveling at the physical Jewish temple. He said that if the temple (His body) be destroyed He would raise it up in three days. There appears to be some connection between His body as a tabernacle of the Holy Ghost and the Heavenly Holy of Holies.
Whether He actually went into the Heavenly temple before the mercy seat is not extremely important because He Himself is a type and fulfillment to us of that very mercy seat. John said that in his writing of I John. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2) John called Him the propitiation or the mercy seat for cleansing and forgiveness of sin. I actually believe that His words to Mary Magdalene in the garden were an indication of His first act after He was resurrected. He must ascend to His Father, untouched by defiled hands and unaided by powers outside His own divine enablement. In His Father’s presence and in the Holy Temple, of which the earthly tabernacle and temple was but a pattern, He must offer His blood on the eternal altar. Nothing in heaven is touched by decay, age, or weakness; therefore, His blood is the same today and forever. He said to Mary Magdalene, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and [to] my God, and your God.” (John 20:17)
There is nothing as breathtaking as His divine blood. The Scripture is clear that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” (I Corinthians 15:50) Both unredeemed flesh and physical blood is part of our earthly experience, but will be left behind when we enter into eternal life. The Son of God, divine in all His person became the Son of man, both divine and physical. The blood He shed was divine blood, but also human blood free of all Adamic depravity. The reason Jesus was called the second Adam was because of the similarity of their physical nature. Before Adam fell he was without the nature of sin and Jesus became a man without the nature of sin. The divine and physical blood of Jesus Christ offered without spot to God was vicarious enough to reverse the effect of Adam’s disobedience.
This great truth lies at the heart of Genesis and is why to deny the book of Genesis as a literal book is paramount to attacking the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God required a physical blood offering — made divine by the life of the Spirit — to cancel the physical disobedience of the first Adam. The task has been accomplished. Apostle Paul said, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:10-14) There is no salvation apart from the physical death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Neither does that death require anything added on our part. It cannot be earned, administered by another, strengthened by human hand or defeated by satanic powers. Jesus did not go to Hell (Upper Sheol) in defeat, but in victory. When He said, “It is finished,” (John 19:30) it was finished. No wonder Satan tried to keep Jesus from the cross.
The devil did not plan the cross of Jesus Christ. In fact, he labored intently to stop the process before it occurred. In the wilderness he appeared with great paranormal powers to deter the path toward Calvary. Satan’s temptations were all geared to turning Christ away from the cross. Remember, “Cast yourself down from the temple,” which would result, in Satan’s mind, in premature death or premature glory. Then Satan suggested worshiping himself and letting him give the Son of man the glory of the nations. Later, Satan had a mob try to kill Him at Nazareth. Then Satan created a storm on the Sea of Galilee that the disciples thought was going to destroy all of them. There was probably a plot to kill Him in the garden. The Jewish leaders sought to silence Him on several occasions.
The devil wanted Jesus dead anyway but by a cross. He remembered too well the brazen serpent hanging on a cross pole before the children of Israel that had been bitten by poison serpents. The prince of this world hated the cross before it happened even as He does today. Listen to Jesus identify this evil fallen prince. “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” (John 14:30) This was before the cross and clearly removes Satan from the plan of crucifixion. It was the Father that sacrificed His Son so that His blood might be the final and finished plan of redemption.
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SuperCounters
Bill Scudder
There are also those self righteousness people that believe that they have been saved by grace but that their works of righteousness will keep them saved. We are saved by grace and grace alone. Not of works of righteousness, lest any man would boast. I believe in Holiness but not because it will get you into heaven but because that is how a Christian should live his life. And not the kind of so-called holiness of how short or how long your hair should be or if a women can wear makeup or not or how long her skirt should be or you become unsaved. The kind of stuff that is preached in some so-called “Holiness” church’s.
Bill Scudder
OK, since you delete anything I say against self righteous saved by works salvation I will unsubscribe. I have seen that kind of preaching chase young people away and not have anything to do with God.
Jane
Very Dear Bro. Joseph. Your Saturday blog about the Blood of Christ is soooo excellent. Truly I am blessed to be receiving your email. Thank you.
Maranatha
Jane James
Leslie
Concerning George’s Bible Study Group. How could any true Christian find no problem with taking the Blood out of Scripture. That is frightening and almost stupid!!!