But you have come to… … the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. – Hebrews 12:22-24.

Last week, we learnt why the blood of Jesus is called the blood of sprinkling and the important place that the blood occupies in Heaven. Let’s now look at what is it that the blood of Jesus speaks and how it is better than was the blood of Abel speaks.

The blood of Abel vs the blood of Jesus

First, let’s look at the difference between the blood of Jesus and the blood of Abel. The blood of Abel cried out for vengeance on the murderer. It invoked punishment on Cain’s sin as a result of which Cain becomes a restless wanderer on hardened earth from which he could not reap the fruits of his labour. The punishment was a lifelong sentence of a non-achieving life. (Learn more the consequences of sin here.) The blood of Jesus, on the other hand, cries out for mercy on sinners. While this is true, it is an oversimplification. There is more to what the blood of Jesus speaks.

The blood of Jesus doesn’t merely intercede; it also instructs.

The blood of Jesus does not only intercede for mercy on our behalf, it also instructs us. Let’s look at parts of verse 24 and 25 to understand this great truth.  “… the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks”. The phrase ‘do not refuse Him who speaks’ becomes meaningless, if the blood merely intercedes to God the Father. It makes sense only when we understand that it is speaking to us and that we should not refuse the instruction that it gives. (Learn more about how Jesus and His blood are one here.)

Many Christians recognise the fact that the blood of Jesus doesn’t merely intercede, but also instructs.  They believe that the blood of Jesus and the blood of Abel speaks similar things.

Obedience to God: Cain was rebellious; he didn’t want follow the path that God showed, he wanted to do it his way. Instead of going to God on God’s terms, his rebellious attitude made him go on his own terms. (Watch a video about going one’s own way here.) Abel, however, lived in obedience to God. His parents, Adam and Eve, would have taught both Cain and Abel about God, about sin, and about the shedding of blood as atonement for sin. (Learn more about atonement here.) Abel faithfully obeyed by bringing an animal sacrifice as offering to God. People believe that just like Abel, Jesus too lived in obedience to God’s will; in fact, Jesus was better in His obedience that He was willing to obey even to the point of death. They believe that Jesus’ obedience was perfect, and therefore better than Abel’s.

Unashamed faith: Abel was living with his brother Cain whose rebellious attitude led him to a lifestyle of disobedience. We can imagine, that being the elder brother with his own way of thinking, Cain would have teased and taunted Abel about his faith. And in the midst of such an attitude and lifestyle, Abel unashamedly followed and professed his faith. The Bible says that Abel’s blood, though he died, speaks about his faith. People believe that Jesus’ blood does the same in a louder and clearer manner.

Self-sacrifice: Abel was a shepherd. Shepherds have the nature of self-sacrifice; they would protect their sheep at any cost. Abel was a good shepherd. Jesus is also called the ‘good shepherd’. He was willing to sacrifice His own life for us, His sheep. What Abel did, Jesus did better; He is the ultimate self-sacrifice.

While all the above are true, and Jesus’ blood surely speaks to us about obedience, faith and self-sacrifice, it speaks much more. Some people believe that Jesus’ blood spoke what Abel’s blood spoke in a better, more perfect way. But the Bible says that the blood of Jesus speaks better things than the blood of Abel, not the same things in a better way.

What does the blood of Jesus say?

THE BLOOD OF JESUS SAYS THAT YOU ARE RIGHTEOUS

Paul says – But you have come to Mount Zion. – Hebrews 12:22. In the previous verses, he talks about the Old Testament believers going to Mount Sinai, where they were terrified by the presence of God. That was where they received the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were designed such that no one could fulfil them, the purpose being that man should understand that he is a sinner and that he needs a saviour. But the Old Testament people understood it in a legalistic manner and focussed on the actions of sin that the commandments warns against; they did not consider sin in the heart and thought level. If we go by Jesus’ sermon on the Mount, we will realise that by a look you can commit adultery, by a thought, murder and by a desire, theft. The Ten Commandment were given so that man could understand that ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’. Any thought that is contrary to God’s perfect righteousness is sin. (Learn more about sin here.) The purpose of the Ten Commandments was to condemn constantly. They were to deal with the condemnation by offering sacrifices for atonement, in the process of which they were supposed to realise that they were sinners and they needed God.

But under the new covenant, Paul says that they were no longer going to Mount Sinai where they received condemnation, but they had come to Mount Zion where they received righteousness. Today we receive a message, not of condemnation, but of justification. The blood of Jesus says that we are righteousness, washed by the blood of the Lamb, that our sins are remembered no more and that we are accepted of God. The blood of Abel could not say any of this; only the blood of Jesus could. The blood of Jesus says that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The blood of Jesus says that we have received the ‘gift of righteousness’.

THE BLOOD OF JESUS SPEAKS A JOYFUL MESSAGE

The blood of Jesus speaks a joyful message that tells the guilty that they are now the beloved of God. What is Christian preaching? – Listening to the voice of the blood of Jesus that speaks from God’s presence and speaking it forth to the world. Christian message should align with the message of the blood of Jesus that speaks better things than the blood of Abel. But sometimes, preachers just condemn and criticise the congregation. Nobody is perfect; we all, preacher and listener alike, have imperfections and we live only by the grace of God. The Holy Spirit through the Word, is changing us and working in us. So no one is in a position to condemn another. Our preaching should be that no matter how unworthy, no matter how great a sinner a person may be, that God is good and faithful, gracious and forgiving and He gave His own son for our sins.

Jesus’ sermons were not religious and legalistic, they were compassionate. The Sermon on the Mount is a loving and caring message that tells us not to worry about their food, drink and clothing; instead to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things would be given to them, for the Heavenly Father know our needs. We see another example of His grace and mercy when the Pharisees condemned the woman caught in adultery. They legally and legalistically quoted Moses and expected Jesus to accuse her as well. If there was anyone in the gathering that could have cast stones on her, it was Jesus; he was the most righteous, sinless son of God. Yet He graciously forgives her saying, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Instead of a message of condemnation, it was a message of joy. In another instance, after Jesus preached, a woman in the crowd says, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that gave you suck”. Good Christian peaching that speaks the same message as spoken by the blood of Jesus will receive a similar response of blessing and joy. People will say “God bless you. I’m thankful that you are a preacher. Thanks for sharing the truth of the gospel.”  But when preachers speak contrary to the what the blood of Jesus speaks, they will elicit an opposite kind of response, “Woe to you”.

THE BLOOD OF JESUS GIVES YOU VICTORY OVER SATAN

… 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…

The job of the devil is to accuse and condemn the believer day and night. Jesus has put and end to that condemnation. The believer can overcome satan by understanding the work of the shed blood of Jesus on the Cross. You can have absolute victory over satan by claiming the blood of Jesus, believing and speaking what the blood of Jesus has done, and standing on what the blood of Jesus has done. (Learn more about this here.)

THE BLOOD OF JESUS SPEAKS PRESERVATION, CONFIRMATION, PURIFICATION, SANCTIFICATION, AND ACCEPTANCE AND ACCESS

We already learnt what the blood of sprinkling typified in the Old Testament. The blood sprinkled on their doorways on the Passover gave them preservation from death. The blood of Jesus offers us the same preservation. The blood covenant gives us confirmation of God’s promises. The blood of Jesus not only forgives past sins, but also purifies us from sin every day of our life and gives us power to live victoriously over sin. By the blood of Jesus, we are sanctified and set apart for His purposes. The blood of Jesus makes us acceptable by our Holy God and gives us bold access into His presence. (Learn more about these five attributes here.)

THE BLOOD OF JESUS SPEAKS HOLINESS AND LOVE, JUSTICE AND GRACE, TRUTH AND MERCY

The blood of Jesus combines holiness and love, justice and grace, truth and mercy. If we look at only the holiness of God, we as sinful humans, can never approach Him. But because He’s also love, He makes a provision for us to approach Him. He does not waiver off His principles; instead He send His own son to fulfill His law of atonement for our sins. That shows us His love for us. Similarly, God’s justice implies that we should bear the full consequence of sin – death. Instead, because He is gracious to us, He made Jesus bear the consequence.  Similarly, we need not choose between truth and mercy; it is both truth and mercy that have caused Jesus to shed His blood on the cross for us to give us eternal life.

Do not refuse Him who speaks. – Hebrews 12:25

Don’t neglect to listen to what the blood of Jesus says. Listen to it  because it strengthens and emboldens you. It empowers your faith and makes you lift up your head. Guilt and condemnation take away your peace of mind and prevent you from having a close relationship with God. Are you enjoying yourself? Are you at peace?  Are you able to rejoice in God for what He has done? Do you believe that God has forgiven your sins? If you really believe in the power of the blood of Jesus, you will have peace, joy and victory. That is why this truth is important. The more you go into this truth about the blood of Jesus, the more your head will lift up. There is nothing to hang your head in shame about. You have every reason to lift up your head, because Jesus is your saviour.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01

Message Summary by AFT Team

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. – Hebrews 12:22-24.

The blood that Jesus shed on the Cross is referred to as ‘the blood of sprinkling’. Over the previous several weeks, we have learnt much about the blood of Jesus. Let’s now look at this particular term ‘the blood of sprinkling’ that describes the blood of Jesus, and what it means to us today.

Historical background and context

When we read the epistles, we get an idea of the sermons of the early church; these writings were taught to the new believers of Christ. When we read the epistles we must understand that there is a definite purpose to writing it, a context – perhaps a situation to be addressed or a problem to be solved. The book of Hebrews was written to the 1^st century Christian church. It was written to the Jews who had now accepted Christ. They were persecuted by other Jews; they were tormented that they had left their grand, old Jewish religion with its wonderful rituals and tradition to follow this man called Jesus Christ who could not even save himself from an inglorious death. The Jews had angelic visitations, the Ten Commandments, an elaborate system of sacrifice, high priesthood, great rituals, traditions, feasts and celebrations, great leaders like Moses, Abraham, and many such wonderful things. Why would they leave all this and follow this man Christ? So the author of Hebrews writes it to encourage Christians that the new covenant that they had was much superior to the old covenant that the Jews were trying to reconvert them to. The first 2 chapters teach that Jesus is greater than angels. The 3^rd chapter speaks about how Jesus is greater than Moses. Chapter 4 says that one can go boldly to the throne of grace, and obtain grace and mercy in the time of need. Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7  are about how Jesus is better than Aaron; He is of the order of Melchizedek, not of Aaronic order. Chapters 8 and 9 teach us that Jesus is better than the law. Chapter 10 has encouragement to new Christian believers.  Chapter 11 speaks about faith heroes. Chapter 12 has comparisons between the new covenant people and the old covenant people in the way they approached God.  Chapter 13 has parting instructions and a promise that God never leaves nor forsakes them.

With this background and context in mind, let’s delve into Hebrews 12:22-24. 

The important place occupied by the blood of Jesus

It gives us a description of heaven. The author of Hebrews calls it by three names – Mount Zion, the city of the living God and heavenly Jerusalem.  The groups of people who are present there are numerous angels, New Testament saints referred to as the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, and Old Testament saints referred to as the spirits of just men made perfect. He then tells us that three other entities are present in the inner most sanctum, God’s throne – God, the judge of all, Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling. The blood of Jesus is present in the inner most sanctum, alongside God the father and Jesus. It is given the most important place in heaven.

The New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant

The author of Hebrews compares the old covenant believer’s encounter with God to the new covenant believer’s approach to God. In the Old Testament times, they went to Sinai. It was a place filled with darkness, out nowhere in the wilderness. The New Testament believer worships in Mount Zion, the city of God. It is like a modern metropolis with people of all colour, race and creed worshiping God in oneness and unity. Whereas the Old Testament believer had to go through rigorous experiences if he wanted to become a Jew, the New Testament church is a welcoming place to everyone. In the Old Testament encounter, the trumpets were sounded, the earth shook, the heavens dropped and Mount Sinai moved. When God spoke, it was such a terrorising experience that people begged Moses to ask God to stop speaking. When the New Testament believer approaches God, he goes boldly into God’s presence and freely worships Him. Today, all around the world, people worship God and enjoy His presence; they listen the word of God and they hear from Him. In the Old Testament, angels were set to guard the garden of Eden to prevent man from entering it. But under the new covenant, angels are ministering spirits to people.

Hebrews 12:23 says God, the judge of all, is present in Heaven. It may be terrorising to some to think of facing God as judge, to face death and condemnation. But a believer need not fear; his judgement is already over and he has accepted eternal life. The judgement for a believer is not whether he will go to heaven or hell; it is when he gets rewarded for his works on earth. (Read more here) Moreover, as believers, we understand that the judge is our heavenly Father, who sent His only Son to take our place and our punishment, and die on the Cross. Verse 24 says that Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant is present in heaven. The new covenant has certain features that were missing in the old covenant; the new covenant is an improvement on the old covenant. The new covenant has Jesus as the sacrifice, the fulfilment of many prophecies. The new covenant has Jesus as the High Priest; the old covenant high priest was merely a foreshadow. Under the new covenant, it is the blood of Jesus that is shed as the one-time atonement for the sins of the world, whereas under the old covenant the blood of animals had to be shed continually.  The believer under the new covenant has the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that the old covenant believer did not have. When we compare the old and new covenants, we must understand that they are not exclusive and different. It’s not the that the old covenant was cancelled and an entirely new one has come in its place. The new covenant is inclusive of the old covenant; it has all the wonderful things of the old covenant plus some more wonderful things. The old covenant offered the blessing of Abraham only to the children of Abraham, but the new covenant makes the blessing of Abraham and all the blessing that we receive in and through Jesus available to everyone.

So as you read below about the blood of sprinkling in the old and new testaments, please rest assured that as a new testament believer living under the new covenant, that all of those provisions, both old and new, are available to you.

Blood of sprinkling in the old covenant

Since this letter was written to Jewish converts, when author refers to the blood of Jesus as the ‘blood of sprinkling’, they immediately and without doubt know what it meant. It meant many things under the old covenant:

PRESERVATION The blood of sprinkling meant preservation. On the day of the Passover, the blood of the lamb was sprinkled upon the doorways (the doorposts and lintels) of the Israelite houses; this prevented the angel of death from entering their houses. The first born of Egyptian homes died that night. But the blood of sprinkling preserved the Israelites.

CONFIRMATION When blood is shed as the confirmation of a covenant, it is called a blood covenant. Let’s look at a present day illustration to understand it better. Now anyone can write a document. But the document is not valid unless it is registered with a government office. When a government official accepts it and stamps it, it become registered and has legal value. Then the terms and conditions stated in the document have to be followed. Similarly, the blood was used as a stamp or seal in a blood covenant. It meant that both parties had a legal obligation to fulfil the covenant. The blood covenant that God made with us seals and confirms to us that God will do everything that He has promised.

PURIFICATION We have already learnt that the blood of sprinkling offers both purification and cleansing. The blood offers us forgiveness for our sins; when we sin, we merely commit the act of disobeying God’s words. But more importantly, we realise that sin is not just an act, but an ever-pervasive polluter, constantly polluting our minds. Just like dust pollutes and dirties every thing that it touches, sin is in the air and it continuously pollutes our emotions, will, thoughts and imaginations. Old testament cleansing procedures teach us about the constant pollution of sin and that we must be cleansed from it. For ex, a person who came in touch with a  dead body would have to undergo purification procedures before coming to God’s presence. (Read detailed blog here).

SANCTIFICATION Sanctification is the process by which someone or something is separated or set apart for a particular use. When a person was made priest, he was sanctified by a certain procedure – blood was applied to his eyes, legs, fingers, toes and so on. By doing this, they were declaring that every part of this person who was being consecrated to God must belong to God completely, all parts of him.

ACCEPTANCE AND ACCESS Sin separated God and man, since God is holy and man is sinful; so God could not accept man. When the blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies as atonement for sin, sins are forgiven and God is able to accept man. Then they could have access to God and worship Him.

Blood of sprinkling in the new covenant

THE BLOOD OF JESUS IS CENTRAL TO THE GOSPEL

The blood of Jesus is central to the Gospel. That is why it is given an important and prominent place. It is in heaven, in the presence of God, in the throne room, alongside God and Jesus. Without the blood of Jesus, there is no preservation, confirmation, purification, sanctification, acceptance and access to God. Without the blood of Jesus, we cannot even approach God. We also learn that the blood is central to the gospel from the book of Revelation. In the first chapter, Jesus says that He is He who lives; He was dead but is now alive and will live forever more. If that is so, why is He constantly referred to as the Lamb of God, which was a single incident that took place way back 2000 years ago? Revelation says that He is forever referred to as the Lamb of God. He is the Lamb of God before the foundations of the world, and He is the Lamb of God for all eternity. In the past and the present and future, He is called the Lamb of God to show us that that one instance of His shedding the blood and dying on the Cross in central and essential to the gospel. Everything that we believe is hinged on the blood of Jesus.

THE BLOOD AND JESUS ARE ONE

Let’s look at parts of verse 24 and 25 to understand this great truth.  “…the blood of sprinkling…  …See that you do not refuse Him who speaks”. The passage says that we have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and the ‘blood of sprinkling that speaks’, and then goes on to say that we must not refuse ‘Him who speaks’. The question that arises is – is it the blood speaking or Jesus speaking? Well, both are speaking, and they are one and the same. Jesus and His work on the cross can never be separated. Jesus and His blood are not different entities. Some people like to take the blood out of the gospel, because they fear that it sounds gory. They try not to preach about the cross and the blood. They try to just focus only on how Jesus was a good man who taught good things and went about doing good and healing people. If we take the blood of Jesus out of the equation, there is no forgiveness of sin, no cleansing from sin; there is no hope. Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse us and transform us. It gives us peace and hope. That is why Paul does not say that he preached Christ; he says he preached ‘Christ crucified’.

We believe in Christ crucified, not Christ without crucifixion, not Christ without shedding of blood, not Christ without dying on the cross. WE BELIEVE IN CHRIST CRUCIFIED.

THE BLOOD OF JESUS SPEAKS

The blood of Jesus is the voice of the new covenant. When the blood of Jesus speaks, it is not terrifying like the voice of God in the old covenant. It speaks good things, things that are better than those spoken by the blood of Abel.

• The blood of Jesus tells us to observe the evil of sin. Sin is not without consequences; it brings death. Jesus did not die for His sins; He was sinless. He died for the sins of the world. The consequence of sin is what sent Jesus to die on the cross. People encourage one another to sin thinking that sin has no consequences, and that they can get away with sinning. But the blood of Jesus tells us otherwise. It shows us clearly the evil and tragic consequences of sin. The only way out of it is to accept Jesus.

• The blood of Jesus tells us that God is righteous and just. He decreed that the wages of sin is death. And He did not change His decree, even when it was His own sinless son that was going to face the consequence. He went ahead and let Jesus suffer the consequences of sin and die for our sins, because He is just and will keep His word.

The blood of Jesus is speaking blood; it speaks constantly. It speaks to the people through the preacher. If it didn’t speak, it would be a dumb gospel. We could go further and say that it would be a dummy gospel, one with no use. It could not offer forgiveness of sins and cleansing from sin. It could offer neither hope nor comfort nor healing. It could not offer transformation to people. If churches fail to preach the power of the blood of Jesus, they would become useless and powerless. However, because the blood of Jesus speaks, the gospel is powerful. When we infuse what we teach with the blood of Jesus, there is power to change and to renew, there is power to transform the worst person in the world to the best person in the world.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01

Message Summary by AFT Team

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 – 1 John 1:7

We have already learnt about how the blood of Jesus offers us forgiveness of sins (Read blog here). This week, we are going to see how the blood of Jesus offers us cleansing from sin. Forgiveness and cleansing are two different things. Forgiveness of sin is about Jesus being offered as atonement for our sins; it is a one-time event that happens when we first come to Jesus for salvation. Cleansing from sin, on the other hand, is a continuous process that happens in the life of a believer; John wrote the above verse to believers in the church.

POLLUTION OF SIN

Sin is a constant polluter. It comes at us relentlessly. It like living a dusty place. No matter how much you may try to insulate your house, close the windows and clean regularly, dust finds a way into your house and settles on all the things in your house. Similarly, the sins of the world constantly try to settle in your mind. The pollution of sin affects every single person. You may not go out and commit an act of sin, but you are prone to the pollution of sin. The blood of Jesus does not only offer us forgiveness of sin, it also offers us cleansing from the pollution of sin.

Cleansing in the Old Testament

In order to understand how the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, we have to understand cleansing as taught in the Old testament. The cleansing procedures detailed in the Old Testament are a foreshadowing and teaching about sin, and salvation and cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ. When a person wanted to come to God, he had to do two things. The first thing was – He had to bring to the temple a sin offering as atonement for sin. God is holy; man is a sinner. The wages of sin is death; therefore, the atonement meant for sin is the shedding of blood. (Read blog here). Man sacrificed an animal, killed it and shed its blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat as his sin offering. The second thing is cleansing. Cleansing is taught in Leviticus chapters 13 and 14 and Numbers chapter 19. When a person encountered certain situations, he had to undergo a cleansing procedure, before he could enter God’s presence. Death was considered unclean, because it is associated with sin. And in order to teach man that sin is unclean, and that he has to be purified, God gave them elaborate procedures of cleansing. Similarly, there are elaborate procedures for cleansing for leprosy as well. Leprosy was deadly in those days. A person considered leprous had to be quarantined for many days, after which he would be checked. Then he had to bathe himself, and bring two birds. One of the birds had to be killed, and he had to be cleansed by putting the blood on the ears, the legs and hands and so on. This is to say that the pollution of sin enters man through various means – what he sees, hears, touches and has access to.

How can we say that these procedures in the Old Testament are about the pollution of sin and the consequent constant cleansing of the blood of Jesus? 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? – Hebrews 9:13,14. This verse refers to the cleaning procedures used in the Old Testament saying that if the blood of bulls and goats can cleanse, how much more can the sinless blood of Jesus cleanse our conscience so that we can serve God. So we understand that all these cleansing procedures were given to teach man that he needs the cleansing blood of Jesus. Make note that it was written to believers, people who had already accepted Jesus as saviour.

The Psalmist’s understanding of the pollution of sin

Let’s look at Psalm 51 to better understand the pollution of sin and the need for cleansing. We know that David had committed two sins, both adultery and murder. And this psalm is an expression of his remorse. He clearly talks about two issues: his two sins, and the pollution of sin that he finds difficult to escape from. He asks for forgiveness for these two particular sins, and then he asks for cleansing from the pollution of sin.

FORGIVE ME MY SINS

Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. I acknowledge my transgressions.

He asks for forgiveness of his acts of sins – adultery and murder.

I WAS BROUGHT FORTH IN INIQUITY

I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Here he talks about how sin nature is in him right from conception. It was a part of him even before He was born. He entered into the word with sin embedded in his personality, heart and mind. David understands that the filth and defilement of sin has been carried on right from Adam into every person born in this earth.

YOU DESIRE TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS

You desire truth in the inward parts.

David recognised the difference between an act of sin and  the pollution of sin in the heart of man. Sin arises at the very heart of man in his thoughts. No one can say that they have no sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. – 1 John 1:8,10. Even though a person may not commit blatant acts of sin, sin is in him. This verse is addressed to believers forbidding them to say that they had no sin in them, and if they did, they were liars.

PURGE ME WITH HYSSOP AND I SHALL BE CLEAN

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

We previously learnt that during the Passover, the Israelites were instructed to dip a hyssop plant in the blood of a lamb and smear it on the entrance (the lintels and doorposts) of their house to prevent death from entering.(Read blog here). In Leviticus 13 and 14 and Numbers 19 also, the people are instructed to dip the hyssop in the blood of the sacrificial animal and sprinkle it. David, of course, knew all these cleansing  procedures and asks God to purge and cleanse him from sin. He asks God to wash and cleanse him of his sins.

CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

We can see here that David realises that his heart is not clean; there is sin in his intentions, desires, thoughts, imagination, understanding and decisions.  So he asks God for a clean heart. What an amazing revelation he has had in the midst of his sins and the problems he was undergoing at that time – he realises that the problem is his heart. He asks for a new heart so that he can have a new life.

Cleansing in the New Testament

Jesus shed His blood on the Cross, not just for the atonement of our sins, but also to provide for us constant cleansing from sin. The work of the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us as we live amidst the pollution of sin in this world.

Jesus says in the sermon on the Mount – Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God – Matthew 5:8. Paul writes to Timothy – Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. – 1 Tim 1:5. Paul says that the whole essence of the Ten Commandments is love. The people under the old covenant could not fulfil the commandment because their heart was wrong; there was no love. When sin pollutes, there his no real love and thereby no good conscience and no real faith. And therefore, no fulfilment of the commandment. The people under the new covenant have this new ability to follow the commandment, because God gives us a new heart. He takes away the heart of stone and gives a new, pliable heart that will obey and walk in the ways of God.

Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. – Titus 2:14 . (To know about ‘good works’, read blog here). Paul talks here about the reason why Jesus died – that He might save and redeem us from sin, and cleanse and purify us; to keep us for Himself as His own special people, fervent and committed for good works. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. – 2 Corinthians 7:1. Paul is writing here to believers saying that since we are the inheritors of the promises of God, that we should cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of sin that affects our flesh and spirit.

How does cleansing happen?

THE BLOOD OF JESUS CLEANSES OUR CONSCIENCE

Hebrews 9:14 says that  the blood of Jesus cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Dead works are works that are done without faith in God and without the power of God, for any purpose other than to glorify and please God. Our conscience is cleansed from dead works so that we can serve God by living for Him. In order to grasp how the blood of Jesus cleanses our conscience, we must first know how the conscience works. In one way, it works like an alarm. As soon as you do something wrong, it makes a loud noise and alerts us. God has put the conscience in man, in order to caution him from doing wrong. It also makes you feel good when you do something right. Another way in which the conscience works is that it bears witness to our relationship with God. If our relationship with Him is right and God is pleased with us, then our conscience knows it and is at rest. When our relationship with God is wrong, it warns us. Whenever we sin, our conscience condemns us.  The pollution of sin in this world is so powerful and pervasive, that it somehow pollutes us. That means our conscience would constantly condemn us. But the power of the blood of Jesus is so much more powerful that it cleanses our conscience and quietens it. If not, we would live in constant condemnation and failure. But now, through the blood Jesus, our conscience is purified so that there need not be even a moment of separation between God and us.

THE BLOOD OF JESUS CLEANSES OUR HEART

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. – Hebrews 10:22 The blood of Jesus cleanses our heart so that we can go to God boldly without hesitation or fear. Some people don’t go to God because their conscience condemns them; they feel unworthy and unclean. But when the conscience and the heart are cleansed, one can approach God in full assurance of faith. When the conscience says, “You got a few things wrong”, the blood of Jesus says ‘It has been cleansed, come into my presence.” While the conscience is an important part of the heart, there are parts of the heart that are equally important – imaginations, thoughts, desires, wishes, intentions and understanding. These are also cleansed by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. Everything that is sprinkled by the blood of Jesus is holy. When the heart is holy, our actions are holy as well.

How to appropriate cleansing from sin

The very next verse says – Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. – Hebrews 10:22. Hold fast your confession that not only has the price been paid for your sin on the cross of Calvary, it is also the powerful instrument that God uses today to keep you clean from the pollution of sin, so that you can serve the living God and live for God successfully in this world. Use the tongue as hyssop and sprinkle the blood of Jesus on your life by your words.

AN EVER-FLOWING FOUNTAIN

In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. – Zechariah 13:1. Notice that two issues are mentioned here – sin and uncleanness. And the provision to deal with it is a fountain of the blood of Jesus. It not a tap that has to opened and closed for limited amounts of time. It is not rationed. It is an open and continuously flowing fountain of blood that purifies and cleanses us. All we have to do is stay under it. We stay under the fountain of the blood of Jesus by believing in our heart and confessing with our mouth. And this fountain will cleanse us of our sins and uncleanness.

Why doesn’t every believer experience the cleansing of the blood of Jesus?

– They do not know. Most believers know that they have forgiveness of sin when they come to Jesus. They know that the price for their sin has been paid by the death of Jesus on the Cross. But they have not been taught and they do not know that they can have constant cleansing from sin through the blood. They simply do not know that the blood of Jesus is a powerful instrument used to cleanse them and continuously keep them holy.

– They do not have a desire. Some people think that the cleansing of the blood of Jesus, as with many other promises of God, will get fulfilled only after they die and go to heaven. So they do not ask or desire for the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. They think that a pure heart is possible only in heaven. But Paul and Timothy tell us that without a pure heart, we cannot serve God successfully here on earth. We can have a pure heart only when the blood of Jesus cleanses us from impurities and the pollution of sin.

– They do not have a willingness to separate themselves from sin. Some people like some sins and some uncleanness. They are not eager to get rid of their sins, they prefer to wallow in it.

– They do not have faith. Without faith, nothing is possible. If there is doubt in your heart regarding the power of the blood of Jesus to cleanse you from sin, you cannot avail of it.

The power of the blood of Jesus is available to redeemed child of God. If you have been bought by the blood, the provision of constant cleansing from sin is accessible to you for all your lifetime. The cleansing power of the blood of Jesus is more potent than the polluting power of sin.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01

Message Summary by AFT Team

The blood of our Saviour solves not just spiritual and physical problems, but also emotional problems. Last week, we explored how Jesus took away our shame. Now we’re going to look at rejection, a tool that Satan will use to build a gulf between you and God – a place where you can lose yourself and your godly identity. Imagine!

Just as God does not want His people to live in sin and shame, He does not want us to remain in a state of rejection, which can make one feel worthless, unloved and unwanted. He provides a way for all to throw off the shackles of this crippling emotion and enjoy the victory and freedom that God’s love provides.

We love Him because He first loved us. – 1 John 4:19. Some translations omit the word ‘Him’ and say – We love because He first loved us. We can give love only when we receive God’s love. When a person has not experienced God’s love, they find it difficult to love God, themselves and others. When we accept God’s love, only then can we love ourselves and others. Emotional healing happens only when we accept God’s love and learn to accept what that love can do for us.

What is rejection?

Rejection occurs when someone is not accepted or not even considered. It can be described as a sense of feeling unwanted and unloved. Feelings of rejection can increase anger, anxiety, depression, jealousy and sadness. There are untold millions in our world who feel unwanted and unloved. Society is one of the great rejecters and the spirit of rejection covers all life situations and all types of relationships.  There are many reasons for rejection.

Sometimes, it starts even before a person is born. When parents regret an unplanned pregnancy, it can result in a feeling of rejection for the child. Even while the child is the womb, it can sense what the parent is feeling, and it gets deeply imprinted with a feeling of rejection. While most children may not face rejection before birth, many face rejection as they grow up. One of the saddest things in society is to see a child who is unwanted and unloved – rejected based on a physical or mental difference. They may have a physical or mental disability or inability. Or they may just be different from those around them. People despise and look down upon such children. And because of this, they face unimaginable life challenges. Whatever the reason for rejection, children can sense when they are scorned. Occasionally they overcome this rejection, but sometimes they succumb to this state, ending up feeling worthless in a society focused on perfection and success.

Have you ever felt rejected in a personal relationship? It is emotionally draining and can be extremely painful.  Where did it all go wrong? Failure in marriage also leads to a deep sense of rejection. The feeling of rejection from one with whom you share your life is particularly personal and it can be messy. But things don’t have to stay that way. Even in these painful situations, God knows. You may feel like no one understands and there is no hope. Israel had similar issues in failure, but there was hope. The prophet Isaiah likens Israel’s relationship with God to marital life in Isaiah 54:6 For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused,” says your God.

God understood what Israel was going through. He understood the emotions that go with rejection and the situations that relay rejection. Isaiah points to a woman forsaken, grieved in spirit and a youthful spouse refused. Rejection is painful. God does not want anyone to live in a state of hurt and rejection. He sent Jesus to redeem us from these emotions, giving us the opportunity to have a wonderfully abundant life no matter our situation.

Jesus was rejected

We cannot forget that Jesus was socially rejected on many fronts.  He was rejected by His family, His community, the people at the cross and His heavenly Father. This rejection was prophesied in Isaiah 53:3 – He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Let’s look closer at the rejected Jesus.

REJECTED BY HIS OWN

Jesus was rejected by His own community. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. John 1:11. Just imagine being rejected by your friends and acquaintances in a place where you grew up. In essence, Jesus’ community turned its back on Him.

REJECTED BY HIS FAMILY  

He became as a stranger to His own family. His family knew Him like no other. However, He was now a stranger to them. They thought He had lost His mind. They did not know this Jesus. I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children. – Psalm 69:8. 

REJECTED AT THE CROSS BY PEOPLE

The mockery and rejection at the cross reached new levels as taunts and insults were hurled at a silent Jesus. You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour; My adversaries are all before You. – Psalm 69:19. He did not return any insults. His spirit was silent, bearing this for all of humanity. He was ridiculed, brought low and shamed, but He bore it all, even when the mockers shook their heads and implied that His trust in God was misplaced.

But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.

All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”   Psalm 22:6-8

Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Matt 27:41- 43

When Jesus called out to the Father saying “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”, bystanders used His cry against Him and mocked Him. They thought He was calling on the prophet Elijah to come save Him. “Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” Matt 27:47. While they stood there, they continued their taunts and teasing, saying “Let him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save him.” They had witnessed Him saving others, and now they teased that He was unable to save Himself.

REJECTED AT THE CROSS BY THE FATHER GOD

Jesus had been with the Father God from the beginning. But the Father God did not answer Him now. Where was God? With the agonizing weight of the world’s sins on His shoulders, in His final hours Jesus uttered a cry of dereliction—a cry of one who has been forsaken.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  Matthew 27:46.

Have you ever known someone who lost their spouse after many years? It can be heart breaking as the survivor tries to go on alone. The survivor is accustomed to a partnership…someone to talk to. Someone to pray with. Now that relationship is no more and in sorrow they cry because their loved one has passed away. Think about the sadness of this condition. Now consider Jesus – He was with God right from the beginning of time, before the earth was created. He is the eternal son of God, one who had never been separated from His heavenly father God. Even while on earth, He was always communing with the Father—going off by Himself to pray and ask for guidance. Jesus was dedicated to prayer and sometimes he would pray for long periods. At Lazarus’ grave, He said “Father, I thank you because you always hear my prayer.” Jesus was in constant communion with the Father. And now, for the first time, we read that the Father God didn’t answer Him; God was silent. Why? God rejected Him because He was holy but Jesus had become sin, carrying the sins of the world.

Jesus died of a broken heart

On the one hand, the people around Jesus were mocking and reproaching Him, on the other hand, the Father God refused to answer Him and turned His face away. He was facing utter rejection. And that’s when He died. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Matt 27:50. He actually died earlier than was physically expected by crucifixion. So when the soldiers came to break His legs to hasten His death, they found that He was already dead. Joseph of Arimathea, went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus to prepare it for burial. Pilate could not believe that Jesus was already dead so he summoned the centurion to verify that Jesus had indeed been dead for some time. Only then he released Jesus’ body for burial. This shows us that Jesus did not die a slow, natural death, He died of a broken heart. Bible scholars say that Jesus died of a ruptured heart. His heart literally burst from the agony and the pain of rejection at the Cross; He died of a broken heart. Reproach has broken my heart, And I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none. – Psalm 69:20.

What a sorrowful death! We can never understand the pain and agony of Jesus’ death on Calvary. He died of a broken heart burdened with our sins, with no one to comfort Him. There was no one to take pity. No one to pray with Him to share the weight which He bore for humanity. He found no shoulder upon which to cry. Both man and God rejected Him in His last moments. Jesus died with mockery ringing in His ears, and rejection tearing at His heart.

The veil of rejection was torn

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split… – Matthew 27: 51

People may have thought that Jesus’ death was unremarkable, but then something remarkable happened… something that would shake the world. As our saviour breathed His last breath on the cross, the veil of the temple in Jerusalem was torn from top to bottom. In the temple, there was a sacred place that was off limits to everyone but the high priest. The place was separated by a thick curtain known as the “veil”. This most holy place or holy of Holies was where people believed that God resided. It was treated with the utmost reverence – common man could never see it, the High priest could enter it only after atoning for his own sins and the sins of the people, and even he entered it at the risk of losing his life. The veil signified that sinful man could never enter our Holy God’s presence.

When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn and the earth began to shake. Rocks split. Graves opened. It didn’t take long for people to realize that Jesus death was no ordinary death. This was God’s beloved son who had died for the sins of mankind. His death was significant and brought new life to the world. The veil shielding the Holy place tore to signify that man was now no longer rejected, he could boldly enter God’s presence. The veil didn’t tear by itself, it was much too thick, some say about four inches. It was God’s doing. Because Jesus was rejected, man was now accepted by God. The way to approach God was now open to everyone.

We are highly favoured

In Ephesians 1:3-6 Paul explains that all of our spiritual blessings have been achieved through Jesus’ death on the cross. We were chosen and now we are accepted in the “beloved.”

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. – Ephesians 1:3-6

Let’s look at the phrase – ‘made us accepted in the Beloved’. In the margin of my Bible, ‘made’ is denoted as ‘bestowed grace (favour) upon us’. ‘Accepted’ means ‘to be shown grace’. Paul uses the same term “accepted” that is also used in Luke 1:28 in reference to Mary finding out that she would bear the son of God. In this instance, ‘made accepted’ is translated as ‘highly favoured’. We are not just accepted by God, we are highly favoured of God. What a wonder and a privilege!

That day on the cross did something wonderful for us.  We were unworthy, ashamed to face God, but Jesus died and opened up a new future for us. Even in our imperfections, God sees fit to love us and favour us.  We who were separated from God because of sin, rejected because of our sin, are now accepted because of Jesus Christ. We are highly favoured and brought closer to God through the cross. The cross tells us daily that we are blessed to walk freely in victory and joy. We are wanted. We are loved. We are accepted. We are highly favoured.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01

Message Summary by AFT Team

We have been exploring the depths of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We learnt about the wonderful exchange – on the cross, God exchanged everything that was good in Jesus for everything that was bad in us – He took our sin and gave us forgiveness (read blog here). He took our sickness and pain and gave us healing (read blog here). He took our unrighteousness and gave us the righteousness of Christ (read blog here). He took away death and gave us abundant life (read blog here). He took our poverty and gave us prosperity (read blog here). Today, we’re going to look into how Jesus took our shame and gave us glory and honour. Because of His loving sacrifice, we no longer bear the burden of shame.

Why did Jesus bear our shame?

…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12:2.

When we use the word ‘disregarding’ in the place of ‘despising’, we understand the above verse better. He underwent extreme shame on the Cross but disregarded it for one purpose – the joy that was set before Him.

What is that joy?

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. – Hebrews 2:10.

The joy that Jesus could see was the joy of being able to bring honour and glory for many. Because He took the shame, we have been given glory. When people hear the term ‘glory,’ heaven comes to mind, but glory doesn’t mean just heaven, it means glory here on earth. When they misunderstand glory for heaven, they think that Jesus underwent shame to give us salvation and take us to heaven. But to give us salvation and take us to heaven, all He had to do was die as penalty for our sins. And He did that. That would have been enough. Why specifically did He have to bear shame? So that we could have glory and honour.

But who are we that we should be blessed by such honour? Let’s consider the words of the Psalmist David in Psalm 8:3-4. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? Look at the heavens, the sun, moon and stars; we are small in the great scheme of things, but God is always thinking about us, His mind is full of us. Let’s read further –You have crowned him with glory and honour. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet. Man’s place is right at the top, he is meant to be above only, and not be beneath. But man lost it all at the fall. Jesus endured shame on the Cross, so that He could experience the joy of restoring man to his original place of glory and honour.

How did Jesus bear our shame?

To understand how Jesus bore our shame, we have to understand Old Testament prophecies and how the writers of the New Testament referred to them. Peter says in 1 Peter 10:10-12 that the Spirit was in the prophets as they prophesied about Christ centuries before His birth. It was revealed through them, but not to them; it was prophesied for later generations. During his sermon on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:22-28, Peter quotes and explains that Psalm 16:8–11 written by David is actually about Jesus. Similarly, when we read portions of Psalm 69, we understand that it is not David who is speaking, but Jesus speaking through David. Now let us go through the Scriptures with this perception to learn how Jesus bore our shame.

We cannot talk about crucifixion without referring to Isaiah 53, one of the most moving prophecies about the suffering of the Son of God. Verse three says “He was despised and rejected by men.” He endured the insults and taunts hurled at Him as He was dying. He bore it all and forgave His tormentors. He knew that this torment was not the end of the story. He knew there was something else – that there was joy through His gift of glory and honour to man.

CRUCIFIXION – THE MOST DESPICABLE FORM OF PUNISHMENT

There was no death more shameful than crucifixion. It was the lowest form and most painful punishment in the first century for the most debased criminals. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, underwent the shame of the most despised form of punishment for our sake.

He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isaiah 53:3)

Jesus endured the hostile crowds that followed Him during that lonely climb to Calvary. Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be despised and rejected. That He would know the depths of sorrow and grief as no one else. We turned away and didn’t want to see him as the Son of God and Saviour of all humanity. Perhaps because He was put to death like a criminal, those who once followed Him and listened to His message turned away, their faith in deliverance from Roman rule shaken. He had saved others, but could not save Himself – they thought. But they were looking for a different salvation. Not the kind that Jesus came to bring to us. So, they rejected Him, cursed Him and turned away.

JESUS WAS TREATED WITH REPROACH AND SHAME

Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Shame has covered my face. – Psalm 69:7. One of the signs of shame is that a person wants to cover and hide their face; they cannot look up, they cannot look at others in the eye. Jesus, the blameless Son of God, bore the overwhelming shame of all mankind, so much so that He felt like covering His face.

JESUS WAS SINKING UNDER THE WEIGHT OF SIN

Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire,

Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. – Psalm 69:1, 2. The burden of sin weighed heavily on our Lord’s shoulders. He was sinking deeper in the slimy filthiness of the world’s sins.

JESUS WAS HATED WITHOUT CAUSE

Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head;

They are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully;

Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it. – Psalm 69:4.

But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ – John 15:25.

Jesus had committed no crime and the Roman authorities could find no reason to crucify Him. He had done nothing but good works and many followed Him. However, those who hated Him for no reason clamoured for execution.

JESUS WAS REJECTED BY HIS OWN FAMILY

I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children (Psalm 69:8)

But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” – Mark 3:21.

His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For even His brothers did not believe in Him. – John 7:3-5

While His family had witnessed His power many times, they were at once impressed and skeptical. On the one hand they thought he had lost His mind, but then, they challenged Him that if He wanted to be known, why didn’t He do things with more fanfare. They didn’t understand.

JESUS WAS REPROACHED FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING

Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. – Psalm 69:9.

Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten me up.” – John 2:17.

Jesus was consumed by zeal, hurt and anger at what He saw happening at the temple with those who sold the animals for sacrifice. Instead of being a place of worship, the temple had been turned into a money making exchange that served to exploit worshippers. But when He did the right thing and challenged it, they reproached Him for it.

JESUS WAS INSULTED

They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (Psalm 69:21)

They gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. (Matt 27:34)

Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. (Matthew 27:48)

On the cross, Jesus said He was thirsty. Their response was not to bring Him water, but to bring something absolutely undrinkable as further insult. Instead of providing something to quench His thirst, they insulted Him by offering vinegar/sour wine mixed with a bitter herb.

JESUS WAS STRIPPED NAKED

They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots. – Psalm 22:18.

Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: “They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.” – Matt 27:35.

God’s son, who came to redeem the sins of the world was stripped of His clothing as the Roman soldiers cast lots to determine who would get what. Nakedness is the ultimate humiliation. It causes extreme shame to the person. The creator of heaven and earth hung on the Cross disregarding that utmost shame of nakedness, so that He could give us glory and honour.

Shame makes you hide your face

Shame makes us hide our face. When we feel shame, there is a tendency to hide or look away, not wanting to face others with our shame. In trying to reason why Job was experiencing misery, Job’s friend, Zophar reasoned that if Job had done nothing wrong, he should be able to hold up his head without fear. (Job 11:14, 15).

When you overcome shame, you can look at God’s face

For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say, ‘Exaltation will come!’ Then He will save the humble person. He will even deliver one who is not innocent; Yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands.” – Job 22:26-30. When you humble yourself and get right with God, there is no shame, you can turn your face to God and seek His mercy and grace. There is no reason to continue in a state of shame. When you release the shame and sense of condemnation, you are able to communicate freely with God in your prayer life.

When you overcome shame and turn your face to God, good things happen.

– Whatever you declare happens.
– Whatever you ask, you get.
– You shall decree and it shall get established.
– When they cast you down, you shall speak exaltation.
– Your prayers shall be heard by God.

God rescued us from eternal shame

Adam and Eve were living the good life until they disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Once they tasted that fruit, they became aware of good and evil. Adam and Eve felt the burden of shame, condemnation and guilt as soon as they sinned. Man felt so shameful, so much so that he hid from God. The shame of sin caused him to shy away from God’s presence.

Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. – Genesis 3:21-24.

Finally, God sent them out of the Garden of Eden and they could not ever return. The reason God drove out Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and prevented them from eating the tree of life was because He does not want people to live forever in sin, condemnation, shame and defeat. But even from the beginning, God had a wonderful plan to restore man – to send His son to die on the Cross and take away man’s sin and shame. Sin, condemnation, shame and defeat are eliminated by the blood of Jesus. You can be delivered when you put your faith and belief in the one who came to redeem you. You can be free. You can throw off shame and lift your face to the Almighty. You can have freedom, liberty and victory in your life because of what Jesus did for you on the Cross.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01

Message Summary by AFT Team

Many Christians believe that poverty is a virtue and that prosperity is evil. But what does the Bible say? For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. – 2 Corinthians 8:9. God wants us to be rich and prosperous. So for our sakes, He became poor on the Cross. I have spoken earlier (message available here) about how Jesus did not live in poverty during His life here on the earth, but became poor only on the Cross. He was rich enough to have a treasurer; He was rich enough that this treasurer was often tempted to steal from His moneybag. Poverty is a bad thing; the effects of poverty are terrible, it makes people suffer. The Bible does not teach that poverty is virtuous. 

Is poverty from God?

Poverty was not created by God; it entered man’s life only after the fall. Poverty is a curse. When man fell into sin, God pronounced judgement upon him. All the areas of their life would be affected – marriage, family and finances. Let’s look at how it affects man’s financial life – The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow. – Genesis 3:17 -19. The work of his hands was affected. His work environment was affected – the ground was cursed; thorns and thistles that he did not plant would grow. He would struggle in painful labour to scrape a living out of the ground. He would work much but earn little. He would sweat and toil. Poverty is a curse that comes as a result of disobedience. Deuteronomy verses 15 – 68 detail the curses that would come upon the Israelites if they disobeyed God and poverty is one among those curses. However, verses 1 – 15 contain the blessings of obedience, and prosperity is among the blessings: … And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl… …The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you… …And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. The blessing of God gives prosperity.

What is poverty?

Let us read verse 47 to understand what poverty is – Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything. They did not serve God with joy when they had plenty, therefore they were going to suffer poverty. What is poverty? It is hunger, thirst, nakedness, and need of everything. When a person is unable to buy and eat healthy food, unable to drink water, unable to afford decent clothing, and when he faces lack and insufficiency in everything – that is poverty.

How did Jesus deal with poverty?

Jesus dealt with every above description of poverty at the Cross. He was hungry. He had not eating anything from the previous night. He had been beaten up and tortured. He carried the heavy cross up the hill of Golgotha. He was hungry the whole day. He was thirsty. He said He was thirsty. But they did not even give Him water to satisfy His thirst. He was naked. They stripped His clothes off Him. Though He had clothing that was so rare and expensive that the soldiers played a game of dice to see who would win it, He hung naked. He hung on the Cross in need of everything – in need of food, water and clothes. Jesus, almighty God, the creator of heaven and earth, hung hungry, thirsty, naked and in need. This is what Paul is referring to when he says, He became poor so that we may become rich. Jesus did not merely endure poverty on the Cross, He exhausted it. It’s not that He bore 90% of our poverty and that we have to bear the remaining 10%. He altogether, wholly and completely, in all respects exhausted poverty on the Cross for our sakes, so that we might become rich. Poverty is one of the curses of sin that Jesus bore on the Cross dying an agonising and horrible death, so that we need not suffer from it.

Jesus bore our poverty on the Cross, so that we might be rich. So what level of prosperity should we live in? Generally there are four levels of finances that people live in.

THE ‘NOT ENOUGH’ LEVEL

Many people would have been at this level at some point in their lives. I think most of us know what it is to be at this level, and it is an unpleasant. You need a hundred rupees, but you have only around thirty rupees. There is always lack and insufficiency in every area of life. This can be compared to the life of the Israelites as slaves in Egypt. Let’s see what happened to them. They were slaves living in abject, miserable poverty. God delivered them with a mighty hand. He did amazing miracles. He performed signs and wonders and had promised to take them to a land flowing with milk and honey. But all along the way, they complained and said that they would have preferred being in Egypt as slaves. They were so used to that level of ‘not enough’, that they did not want a land flowing with milk and honey. Many Christians are in that mentality; they are so used to living in lack and want, that they do not want a life of prosperity and blessing.

THE ‘JUST ENOUGH’ LEVEL

The just enough level is considered as virtuous by many Christians. They say you must not have one cent or paisa more than you need; even a little excess is unrighteous. The believers of this level often refer to the journey in the wilderness and manna as a model for provision. They believe that God will give just the day’s provision and no more, and that we should neither desire not seek to have more. Every day God will provide miraculously. While I do believe that God miraculously provided manna for a while, I don’t believe that it was His will. His will was to take them to Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. Miracles may be necessary during a certain stage in a believer’s life. But it’s not for the whole journey. It’s not the destination. God’s will was to lead them to the Promised Land, where their barns would be filled with plenty and their vats would overflow. As Christians, we ought to be careful not to get sidetracked into believing that our whole life is the wilderness. We should not settle down there; we have to journey to the Promised Land. Miracles are good, but blessings are better. Living in blessing is total empowerment.

THE ‘MORE THAN ENOUGH’ LEVEL

…Let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. – Ephesians 4:28. Paul is addressing the new Christians in the church of Ephesus. He says that those who used to steal, must repent and start working. And what does he say is the purpose of working? He says ‘Work, so that you may give to those in need’, not ‘Work, so that you may pay your rent, buy yourself food and clothing and meet your own needs’. The definition of work here is that one may earn more than enough; one may earn and meet one’s own needs and also have an excess of provision, and therefore can meet the need of others.  Some Christians don’t want to believe in prosperity, therefore they are unable to help others. They are unable to meet the needs of others as God asks them to.

THE ‘MUCH MORE THAN ENOUGH’ LEVEL

This is the Promised Land level. God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. – 2 Corinthians 9:8. In the Greek language, the word ‘all’ occurs 5 times in this verse. God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you, always (at all times) having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every (all) good works.  We must also make note of words like ‘abound’, ‘abundance’ and ‘all sufficiency’. God wants us to have abundance for every good work.

Good works

Let us see what ‘good works’ means. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10. Paul says that we are God’s workmanship, created (born-again) in Jesus Christ for the purpose of doing good works. God prepared these good works that we must do much in advance before we knew Him, even before the world was created. These good works are His plan and purpose for our lives. There are many good deeds that can be done on this earth, but there are particular things that God has purposed for every single person. That is what is mentioned as ‘good works’ in this verse, not just about any good deed. Before we knew God, we went about doing whatever we wished. We may have done many good deeds as well. But once we get to know Jesus as our Saviour, and we have a relationship with Him, He shows us His specific plan and purpose for our life, He tells us the particular good works that He wants us to do. God has saved us so that we may fulfil His plan. What are the good works that He has planned for you? He makes His grace abound towards you, so that you, at all times, may have all sufficiency in all things, and an abundance for the good works that God has called you for.

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. – 1 Corinthians 3:9-15. Paul is talking about both his and others’ ministry. He says that he laid the foundation, the only foundation on which any sound building must be built, Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to say that on this foundation of Jesus, every man builds something. A person may build using different material – gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw. On the day of judgement, the fire will decide the worth of the building. A building that is made of wood, hay or straw will not stand; it will be burnt. A building made of gold, silver or precious stone will stand. Some people may do a lot of good deeds, but if they don’t do the specific good works that God has called them for, it is like a building of wood, hay and straw. Their work will be burnt and destroyed. But those who do the good works that God purposed for them are like those who build of lasting material of gold, silver and precious stones – they will receive a reward.

We need to be in the ‘much more than enough’ level to do what God has called us to do. We may be small with a small vision or no vision at all. But when we know God and have a relationship with Him, He gives us a big vision. He makes us think big, beyond our level of ability. To fulfil that vision, we need to be in the ‘much more than enough’ financial level. The meaning of prosperity is that God provides for you sufficiently, financially and otherwise, so that you may fulfil His purpose for your life.

What are you going to take to heaven?

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on… …that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them. – Revelation 14:13. Christians often say, “Why do you need riches prosperity? You’re not going to take it to heaven. Why do you need to build a house? You’re going to live in heaven!” Yes! we are going to take our gold, silver and precious stones to heaven. Not our literal gold, silver and precious stones, but what Paul refers to as our good works. Those are the works that will not burn in judgement. Those works will earn a reward. That is what John also says in the verse above that the good works follow those who die in the Lord. Prosperity and riches are a tool that we use in order to do the good works that God called us for. We use prosperity for God’s purposes. And when we die and go to heaven, the good works that we did (using prosperity as a tool) will follow us. That is why God blesses a person with prosperity, that is why He bore the curse of poverty on the Cross – so that we might become rich and do good works.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01

Message Summary by AFT Team

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. – John 10:10.

We have been studying about the power of the blood of Jesus and discovering that we need to know what the Bible teaches about that power in order to walk in victory. Jesus says that He came to give us life, and to have it in abundance. So let’s learn about what ‘abundant life’ means. Through His blood, shed on the cross, Jesus made it possible for all of humanity to share in this abundant life. He took away our sins, which only leads to death.

What we deserve VS What we receive

Justice VS Mercy

We might ask for justice here on earth in our daily transactions, but standing before God’s throne, we need mercy. What is the difference between justice and mercy?  Justice is the quality of being fair or getting what one deserves. Mercy is compassionate treatment, a blessing of divine favour. While our sins put us in a position where we deserve death (justice), we receive life abundantly (mercy) as children of God. Our sins are not remembered and God does not keep a record of our transgressions.  Aren’t you glad God chose to give us mercy instead of calling us to account for every sin we have committed?  He is a merciful God who sent His son to redeem us and bring abundant life. What did we do to deserve a gift such as this? Nothing. We did nothing to deserve such a gift and neither can we ever repay this debt that was paid on the cross. We were all sinners and death was the judgment, but we receive the grace of God – the abundant life through faith. This unexpected gift is something that we did not earn. It is something that we don’t deserve.  If we received what we deserved, we would be dead. Instead of giving us what we deserve, God grants us mercy, He gives us life.

THE MEANING OF ‘NEPHESH’ LIFE

In order to understand ‘abundant life’, we have to first understand what ‘life’ means. The Hebrew root word for life is ‘nephesh’, which can be translated as a soul, life or person.

In Genesis 2:7 we read that God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. After God made the heavens and the earth, he made man. God created man from the dust of the earth. With God’s breath, man became a living soul. When God breathed life into us, we became living souls. The blood that flows through our veins gives us life. ‘Nephesh’ is the word used here to denote ‘breath of life’. Adam became nephesh – a person, a living soul.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. – Leviticus 17:11. Here too the words ‘life’ and ‘soul’ are from the word ‘nephesh’. We learn from this verse that the blood has life or soul contained in it. God ordained that this life/soul must be the sacrificial blood poured out on the altar and makes atonement for our life. However, the sacrifices as mentioned in the Old Testament were only a temporary atonement for sin. When the old law was put away, animal sacrifices were no longer the atonement for sin. Jesus sacrificed His own life, His nephesh as atonement for our sins.

He poured out His soul unto death – Isaiah 53:12. The word ‘nephesh’ is used here to mean ‘soul’. Jesus literally poured out His soul unto death. We saw that life is in the blood and that life also means ‘soul’. The Bible’s account of the crucifixion reminds us that Jesus gave it all for us. They beat Him with whips with attached metal hooks that tore the flesh off His body. His body appeared like a ploughed field. Blood poured out of Him. They put a crown of thorns on His head, and pressed it and beat Him on it, so blood was flowing from the head as well. The soldiers finally came and pierced His side, and blood and water flowed from there also. He was completely spent. He poured out His blood, His soul, His life, His nephesh. As the figurative sacrificial lamb, Jesus bore the sins of all of us and poured out his soul unto death.

HOW CAN ONE MAN’S LIFE ATONE FOR THE SINS OF ALL MANKIND? 

We see that Jesus poured out His soul for us. But is that enough for all of humanity? Exodus 21:23-25 says But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. According to the “life for life” principle, a debt was considered paid with an equal exchange.  That was justice – an even exchange for the damage. How can the soul of just one man become atonement for all of mankind’s sins?

The life that was poured out at the cross of Calvary is no ordinary life. It is the life of God Himself, the creator of heaven and earth. In the beginning was the word, the word was God, and the word became flesh. God became flesh. So the life of Jesus was no mere human life, it was God’s life. The blood that flowed in His veins was God’s own blood, not the blood of His parents. (We’ve already learnt about the value of the blood of Jesus here). It was the life and blood of God, which is infinitely more valuable than all of creation.

We’ve learned that in the Old Testament, animal sacrifices atoned for man’s sins and reconciled us to God.  According to the Law of Moses, sins were atoned through shedding an animal’s life blood. When a sacrificial animal was killed, the blood was poured on the altar thus cancelling the sin. We read in I Kings 8 that Solomon sacrificed 120,000 sheep and 20,000 oxen. At the first Passover in Egypt, the blood of about 1,25,000 to 2,50,000 lambs was shed. Sacrifices at the temple went on all day, from morning to evening. There were so many sacrificial animals; they could not be counted and their blood ran like a river. And yet, all that blood was not enough to pay for our sins.

The blood of Jesus, however, being infinitely more valuable than the blood of all these sacrificial animals, is the just atonement for the sins of mankind. That is why John the Baptist said of Jesus “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” All the millions of lambs could not atone for sin, but with Jesus there was just one sacrifice needed to cancel them. He was ‘the Lamb of God’. And His blood offered just atonement for the sins of all mankind.

The Old Testament had constant reminders of sin; sacrifices were offered throughout the day. Many animals were sacrificed. But when the old law was put away, animal sacrifices were no longer the atonement for sin. Under the New Covenant, thanks to the perfect sacrifice, the blood and the life of Jesus, God says that He has forgotten our sins. He does not remember our sins. It took the blood of just one man, only one sacrifice to take away the sins of the world—the Lamb of God—and that was enough. His was the only blood, the only life that was capable of atoning for the sins of all humanity. It was more than enough and we can never pay what we owe! This is mercy!

ABUNDANT REDEMPTION

Is the blood of Jesus enough for all of my sins?

Is the blood of Jesus enough for the sins of all mankind?

O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption. – Psalm 103:7

With God, there is mercy and abundant redemption in the blood of Jesus. What does ‘abundant redemption’ mean? It means that when God paid the price through the blood of Jesus, He not only paid what was due, but He overpaid.

No matter how much we may have sinned, He cleanses us. Not only has He cleansed us of our past sins, He is continually cleansing us, because there is no shortage of redemption. He has overpaid. There is more than enough redemption. And not just for one person, it is sufficient for all mankind. This one’s person’s life and blood is adequate payment for the sins of all men. The price He paid is more than enough to last through the ages; there’s enough redemption in the blood of Jesus to redeem the whole human race.

Charles Wesley captured the spirit of that blessed sacrifice in the beloved hymn “Arise, My Soul Arise.”  One of the lines goes like this: The Spirit answers to the blood, and tells me I am born of God. This is a powerful statement. Let’s try to understand what it means. Hebrews 12:22-24 provides a picture of heavenly Jerusalem (link) and says that the shed blood that Jesus speaks a stronger word than the blood of Abel. The blood that Jesus shed is not calling for vengeance, but for mercy! Remember, Satan wants us to feel eternally guilty and to stay away from the face of God, but the blood says something – we are born of God and we have been redeemed. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:14-16. The spirit of God is within us and answers to the blood of Jesus and bears witness that we are the children of God.

HOW TO APPROPRIATE ABUNDANT LIFE

As Jesus talked to the crowds about appropriating the abundant life, he talked about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. – John 6:53-56

Of course there was astonishment. What was He saying? Was He talking about literally eating human flesh and drinking human blood? No! He was talking about appropriating abundant life. Jesus was saying that if they did not believe in His sacrifice at the cross, if they did not believe that His body was broken for them and His blood was shed for them, if they did not accept Him as their saviour, as the atonement for their sins, then they had no life in them. They were alive in the biological sense of the word, but they would not have abundant life. Only by believing and receiving what the blood of Jesus has done, can we have the abundant life God promised.

Just like water is used for both cleansing purposes and drinking, the blood of Jesus also both cleanses and quenches. We have to drink of it to appropriate its benefits. We have to drink of it to receive abundant life. What is drinking? When we listen to a good speaker, we say, “I’m drinking it in”. It means we are taking it in. Drinking the blood of Jesus means that we are taking it in, appreciating it, grasping, understanding and receiving what it means, and believing that it indeed gives abundant life.

When we have communion, we testify to our Christian belief in Jesus and His ultimate sacrifice. We are symbolically partaking of the life that flowed through His body – drinking it all in and gaining the strength that comes from the cross, knowing what Jesus has done. Fill your hearts with praise for what Christ did on the cross for you. The abundant life that Jesus gives nourishes us. That is where we find the spiritual strength to fight the devil.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01

Message Summary by AFT Team

For many believers, guilt is a weapon the devil uses to cause failure. When you live with a guilt conscience, nothing works in your spiritual life – your prayers don’t work, you don’t feel like reading the Bible, you don’t even feel like praying because guilt brings doubt and condemnation – “Will God answer my prayer? Will God bless me? Am I worthy to receive God’s blessing? I am not up to the mark. What is the use of going to church? What is the use of hearing the word? What is the use of praying? After all I have sinned; I am guilty!”

The Bible says in Revelation 12:10 that the devil is the accuser of the brethren day and night. Guilt is one of the major weapons that the devil uses. Satan first tries to prevent you from knowing Christ as your Saviour. But once you put your faith in Jesus, Satan takes another route. He couldn’t stop you from getting saved; now he wants to stop you from succeeding in your spiritual life.

What is Righteousness?

Righteousness is the ability to stand before God without any guilt, condemnation or inferiority. Righteousness solves the problem of guilt – there is boldness and confidence, and your prayers are successful. John says that this is the confidence that we have in God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us and we know that we have the petition that we desired of Him. In prayer, the most important thing is confidence. And the same John says in his epistles, if your heart condemns you, everything fails. Knowing the truth about righteousness is the only way you can win the battle of guilt.

There is a big difference between  ‘sin’ and ‘sins’. ‘Sins’ in the plural, are our wrongdoings. When Jesus died on the cross, He bore the penalty for our sins, and that is good. ‘Sin’ in the singular is the evil power or nature that resides in us. Ever since Adam sinned, this nature became the nature of man. Sin and iniquity have become a part of us. As long as the power of sin remains and dominates man, just relieving him of the penalty of sins is inadequate, because he continues to sin. That is why what happened on the cross is important – Jesus did not merely pay the penalty for man’s sins, He also delivered man from the power of sin.

In Romans 6, Paul explains that we are delivered from the power of sin and that we are in a new and wonderful position that God has brought us to – not only are we delivered from the penalty of our sins and the power of sin, we are also given something wonderful – righteousness.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. – 2 Corinthians 5:21

God made Him sin – How?

JESUS BECAME OUR SIN OFFERING

What does Paul mean by saying ‘God made Jesus to be sin for us’? How can Jesus be made sin? Paul is referring to Isaiah 53:10 – Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him He has put Him to grief. When you 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. In the phrase ‘you make his soul an offering for sin’, what is the offering for sin that Isaiah is talking about? The Old Testament contains many illustrations of animal sacrifices. Leviticus chapters 4 and 5 talks about sin offerings. We have already learnt that the only atonement for sins is the shedding of blood. Sin offering is when a man who has sinned offers an animal as a sacrifice for the atonement of his sins. When he sacrificed the animal, he would lay his hands upon the animal and confess his sins over the animal. This is called ‘identification’. The man’s sins are transferred to the animal symbolically. It became his substitute; it would die instead of him. Isaiah says that God made Jesus a sin offering for us. Using the phrase ‘sin offering’ instead of ‘sin’ in Corinthians 5:21 helps us better understand what Paul said – God made Jesus who knew no sin, to be sin offering for us. Just like the animal that the Old Testament sinner sacrificed, Jesus is innocent. And similar to it, our sins are transferred to Jesus; He died in our place.

Let’s further examine that prophecy by Isaiah. When you make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed – when Jesus was made a sin offering, a whole new generation of righteous people would rise. He shall prolong His days – He would live forever in eternity. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand – the will of God would be done thus. He shall see the labour of His soul and be satisfied – what Jesus did on the Cross is called the ‘work of salvation’; He worked for our salvation and He would be satisfied with His work, because it would fulfil the purpose for which He did it – to save us. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many – by knowing Christ and what He has done, by accepting Him and His work of salvation, by believing and receiving Him as one’s own saviour, many would be justified and made righteous.

God made Him sin – Why?

WE BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD 

When we put our sins upon Jesus, He became our sin offering. But it did not stop with that. Something more happened – He put His righteousness upon us. In God’s sight, we are as righteous as the son of God. Isn’t that unbelievable and wonderful? God sees us as righteous, not because we are righteous but because we have been given Jesus’ righteousness. Sometimes, people misunderstand this as ‘forensic righteousness’, a legal and rhetorical righteousness, not real righteousness. But the Bible doesn’t say ’that we may treated as the righteousness of God’ or ‘that we may considered as the righteousness of God’; it says ‘that we may become the righteousness of God’. Righteousness is a gift; it has been given to us. Romans 5 says that those who receive this ‘gift of righteousness’ will reign and rule in life through this one man, Jesus Christ.

God calls us righteous. He calls the things that were not as if they were. He called Abram Abraham, meaning  the father of many nations, even before his wife had conceived. A year after God called him Abraham, his child was born. When we put a child in school, we don’t start off telling him, ‘You are stupid and unintelligent’. We starting calling him clever and bright and we gradually work with him towards achieving it. Similarly, God doesn’t start off calling us sinners; instead He calls us righteous. Therefore, we have to believe in this God-given righteousness and call ourselves righteous; only then will be able to live a righteous life. A mentality of righteousness leads us to a life of righteousness.

WRAPPED IN THE ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

The Bible tells us to put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. ‘Put on’ as one would put on oneself a piece of clothing. When we dress well, we conduct ourselves with dignity. We would not sit on a dirty chair or on a dustbin. However, if we are dressed without care for appearance or cleanliness, we would sit in any place, probably on a dirty chair or even on the pavement. Similarly, when we put on the mentality of righteousness, we would not wallow in the mud of sin.

Let’s us consider another illustration to understand it better. When a little girl wear clothes that look like adults’ clothing say, her mother’s saree, she somehow transforms into her mother. She talks and walks like mother; her voice, tone and her gestures change. Just like her behaviour changes on just wearing her mother’s saree, we change when we put on the new man made in righteousness and holiness.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. – Isaiah 61:10

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God. Why does Isaiah say ‘I will greatly rejoice’ and in the very next sentence say, ‘my soul shall be joyful’? Isn’t it enough to say, ‘I rejoice’? Why does he describe his joy in so many phrases. In the Hebrew language, it reads, “I will rejoice, rejoicing”. The verse that follows explain the reason for his joy. He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. God clothes us in garments of salvation. If that was all he did, then that itself would be more than sufficient; salvation from sins is a great and wonderful thing. Salvation has saved us from the penalty of our sins and power of sin. But God goes one step further –  He covers us with robes of righteousness. A robe is a piece of clothing that is worn over and above garments; it covers a person. One modern translation says – He has wrapped me with the robe of righteousness.

When God wraps us with the robe of righteousness, Satan, the accuser, who is prowling around us, is unable to find sin in us. He looks at us from all angles, eager to find fault in us. But since we are wrapped in the robe of righteousness, all he can see is only the righteousness of Jesus. We are saved from the constant accusation of the evil one. God has not only given us salvation from sins, He has given us His own righteousness. What a wonderful thing! No wonder then that we would greatly rejoice and rejoice rejoicing!

CONDEMN THE CONDEMNATION

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,” says the Lord – Isaiah 54:17

No weapon formed against you shall prosper. Guilt is a weapon that the devil often uses. But God says that that weapon will not work against you. Every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. The Bible does not say that God will condemn; it says ‘you’ shall condemn the tongue that raises against you in judgement. When satan brings guilt and condemnation against you, you shall condemn it. Do not expect God to condemn it. It is your job to condemn the condemnation that satan brings against you. How do you condemn the condemnation? We saw earlier how the saints of God defeated the accuser – by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. You can condemn the condemnation by speaking what the word of God says about what the blood of Jesus has done. Since you stand not on your own righteousness, but on the righteousness of Christ that has been given to you, you can boldly tell satan that he has no authority to condemn you. Since you are wrapped in a God-given robe of righteousness, he cannot see any sin in you. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit – Romans 8:1. There is ‘now’ no condemnation – the word ‘now’ means that that it is true for every present moment, not just for past sins.

To be free from condemnation, we have to be clear about the difference between ‘conviction’ and ‘condemnation’. Conviction comes from the Holy Spirit; when we commit a sin, He gently convinces us that it is wrong and helps us to repent. It is like when we gently scold a child when he makes a mistake. Condemnation on the other hand, is a feeling of guilt that continues to remain even after you have repented and done reparation for the mistake. Condemnation never lets you forgive yourself. It is from the devil. When you know this difference, you will be able to condemn the condemnation of the devil.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. The right to condemn the condemnation is the birthright and inheritance of every believer. It is not just for pastors or preachers, it is for every believer. And it is not a rare privilege, but your inheritance, your right. Their righteousness is from Me. Your righteousness is from God Himself. So stand boldly upon it and defeat the accusation with the word of God.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01

Message Summary by AFT Team

JESUS BORE WHAT?

He bore our infirmities and sicknesses.

Isaiah 53:4 says Surely He has borne our griefs and sorrows. The two Hebrew words used here – ‘griefs and sorrows’ has been translated in 19 other places in the Bible as ‘sickness and pain’, referring to a physical condition. The phrase in Isaiah 53 along has been translated vaguely as griefs and sorrows. So when people read this, they do not get a sense of the reality of physical healing from sickness, infirmity and pain. The result of Jesus bearing our sickness and pain by His striped is that we are healed. Surely He has borne our griefs… …and by His stripes we are healed. The way that these phrases ought to be understood is ‘Jesus bore our sickness and pain by His stripes as a result of which healing was obtained for us’. He was wounded physically so that we may be healed physically.

Scripture interprets Scripture

Since we are not experts of the Hebrew language, let’s go to another method to ascertain that it is indeed physical sickness and pain that this verse in the book of Isaiah is referring to. There is a principle of Bible interpretation that says ‘Scripture interprets Scripture’. Not everyone can understand Greek or Hebrew, so this principle helps the common man understand the Bible better. When you don’t understand something well, go to another place in the Bible where it is mentioned to understand it better. This is particularly true of Old Testament verses; read New Testament passages where it is mentioned or quoted and you will be able to interpret it correctly.

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” – Matthew 8:16, 17

Matthew had a unique way of presenting the gospel; he would state an incident from the life and ministry of Jesus and then say that it happened in order to fulfil a particular prophecy. We see that in the above verse as well. He says that Jesus healed the physical sickness of people so that He might fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah saying “Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses”. But where in the Old Testament does Isaiah say that the Messiah would bear our infirmities and sicknesses? Isaiah only says ‘He bore our griefs and sorrows’. Everyone agrees that it is this verse of Isaiah that Matthew is referring to; there is no dispute on that. Matthew however says ‘infirmities and pain’. Matthew, a Jew, who knew Hebrew (not English or Tamil) understood that Isaiah was indeed prophesying that the Messiah would bear our ‘infirmities and sickness’. And he connects the prophecy to the event of Jesus healing the people of their physical sickness. We must consider that Matthew not only knew Hebrew, but also that he is a Spirit-inspired writer of the gospel. The Holy Spirit Himself is saying that Jesus bore our physical sicknesses so that we may be healed.

WHO BORE OUR SICKNESSES?

Surely He, He Himself!

Isaiah uses the phrase ‘Surely He’ in the verse.  Surely – Isaiah uses the word ‘surely’ here to emphasise ‘what’ Jesus did on the Cross. He – In Hebrew grammar, there is no necessity to use the pronoun ‘He’, because it is part of the word. But Isaiah uses the pronoun ‘He‘ to emphasise ‘who’ did it. So we see that there is a double emphasis here – ‘Surely’ and ‘He’. Isaiah uses the double emphasis ‘surely He’ to denote the importance of what he is prophesying – Jesus, the son of God Himself, bore our sickness and pain. Matthew also uses double emphasis to denote that Jesus bore our physical infirmities. Matthew uses the phrase ‘He Himself’. He could have just said, “He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses”, but he used the extra emphasis “Himself”.

These two writers of the Bible use the double emphasis to highlight the significance of the person who bore it. It was not just somebody. Just some person cannot bear another person’s sickness and pain. And even if they could, they would not have been able to do a complete job. But when Jesus Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses, it ensures us that the job is complete and finished. Jesus, the appointed redeemer, the Messiah, the son of God took it upon Himself to bear our sicknesses and pain, so that we need not bear it anymore. We are healed.

Peter also quotes Isaiah’s prophecy. Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 1 Peter 2:22-24. Peter uses the same phrase as Matthew – ‘who Himself’ while referring to Jesus, thereby laying emphasis on the person of Jesus. Peter says that Jesus himself bore our sins and its consequences on His body on the Cross (the tree), by whose stripes we were healed. Since sickness was one of the consequences that Jesus bore on the Cross, we now no longer have to bear it. That is why Peter says ‘by His striped we were healed’.

SALVATION INCLUDES HEALING

‘Sozo’ is a Greek word used to denote ‘salvation’; and it means not merely ‘forgiveness of sin’, but has a broader meaning to include healing, safety, deliverance, preservation and wellness. Let’s look at some of the instances that the word ‘Sozo’ is mentioned and what it includes.

Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed. – Luke 8:35, 36. The word used here is ‘sozo’. Salvation includes deliverance from the evil one. It includes deliverance in mind and body. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. – 2 Timothy 4:17, 18. Paul uses the word ‘sozo’ here to mean preservation. The devil goes around seeking to devour and destroy through persecution and troubling circumstances, but Paul here says that God ‘preserved’ him. Salvation includes  preservation; it is one of the blessings of the blood of Jesus.

Let’s go to instances in the Bible where ‘sozo’ means healing.

In Matthew’s gospel, we see the incident of the woman with the flow of blood for 12 years getting healed by touching the garment of Jesus. Jesus told her, “Your faith has made you well.” – Matthew 9:22. The word used here for ‘made you well’ comes from the Greek word ‘Sozo’. In fact, in the Tamil Bible says “Your faith has saved you.” In saving her, Jesus also healed her. Healing is included in salvation.

Let’s look at another incident. Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well. – Mark 6:56. They were ‘made well’; here again, ‘sozo’ is used to mean ‘healing’ or ‘wellness’.

Let’s look at one more incident.  And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” – Acts 4:7. The religious authorities asked Peter and John by what name they healed the man? And in replying, they say that there is no other name by which a person can be saved. They talk about ‘healing’, but the apostles reply about ‘salvation’. Here too, the word ‘sozo’ is used. And that is because salvation includes healing. 

HOW TO APPROPRIATE HEALING

Through the Holy Spirit

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you – Romans 8:11

In the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit descended upon certain men at certain times to prophesy or to perform mighty miracles. But under the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit indwells in the believer. He is the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, who gave life to the lifeless body of Jesus. Does the Holy Spirit give life? Let’s look at the first instance that it happened – the Holy Spirit gave life to the first man ever created. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. – Genesis 2:7. At the beginning, God made the body of man with the dust of the ground. The Holy Spirit gave life to the body of Adam by breathing into him. The clay body of Adam became a living and functioning body because of what the Holy Spirit did. Let’s go back further. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. – Genesis 1:1,2. When the Spirit of God hovers, something wonderful is about to happen. And we see that at creation. When the Spirit hovered and God spoke light, there was light. Whatever God spoke came into being because of the Holy Spirit. Out of the chaos, void and darkness came a wonderful and beautiful earth because of the work of the Holy Spirit as God spoke. The Holy Spirit makes God’s word come into being.

Paul refers to this Holy Spirit – the same Spirit who made a harmonious earth out of nothingness, the same Spirit who breathed life into the clay body of Adam, the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead; this same Holy Spirit dwells in you and gives life to your mortal bodies.  He dwells ‘in’ you. The Healer is ‘in’ you. You don’t have to seek a minister of God or pray over a bottle of oil to get healed. Such measures may be necessary for those who are new in faith. But when you understand that this same Holy Spirit dwells in you, when you realise that the Healer is in you, you can appropriate your healing yourself.

With the word of God

He sent His word and healed them. – Psalm 107:20.

God heals by sending His word.

My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. – Proverbs 4:20-22.

Find them:

Find what? Find the word of God. Today you found that Isaiah says that Jesus bore your infirmities, sicknesses, diseases and pain. You found that none other than Jesus Himself bore your physical ailments.

4 ways to find:

• Pay attention to God’s words
• Turn your ear to His sayings
• Do not let God’s word out of your sight
• Guard them deep within your heart

You have to search in order to find the word of God. Search for God’s word. Read and listen to resources that teach His word. Go to a church that teaches you the word of God. Search for them. And then you will find them. And when you find the word of God, what happens?

The result of finding:

They are life and health to all your flesh. When you search for the word of God and you find them, you are able to understand that healing is indeed yours and you will be able to appropriate healing, health and wellbeing in your life.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01

Message Summary by AFT Team

One of the most important passages that talks about the Cross and what the blood of Jesus has done for us is Isaiah 53:4-6. This passage is about forgiveness of sin and healing. Last week, we saw some truths about the forgiveness of sin. This week let’s study further about forgiveness of sin.

The Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all – Isaiah 53:6

The modern translation of the word ‘iniquity’ is ‘rebellion’. Adam’s sin in the garden of Eden was rebellion. It’s an attitude that says, “I don’t have to do what God wants me to do. I can do whatever I want.” The Hebrew word for ‘iniquity’ means ‘sin and the consequences of sin’. When Isaiah says that God laid upon Jesus the ‘iniquity’ of us all, he means that God laid on Jesus not just our sins, but also the terrible consequences of sin.

INIQUITY

Let’s read about Cain to understand that clearer. 

When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. – Genesis 4:12- 15

The word ‘punishment’ in verse 13 is the same word used in Isaiah 53:6 for ‘iniquity’. So it means to say that the Lord laid on Jesus the punishment of us all. What is this punishment that Cain found ‘greater than he could bear’? 

The consequences of sin

– When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. His work would not be completely fruitful. The yield of his crop would be reduced; he would labour much but earn little. The punishment made his work difficult.

– A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth. A vagabond is a person who has wanders from place to place without a certain direction. He became aimless and purposeless. His life had no God-given direction. Even today, many people live their lives without a sense of God-given purpose.

– My punishment is greater than I can bear… …I shall be hidden from Your face. This is the saddest part of the punishment – that Cain would no longer see God’s face. Beholding God’s face was a big thing for Jews. It was spoken as a blessing in those days and is still spoken today as benediction in churches. “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24. The phrases ‘make His face shine’ and ‘lift His countenance’ means that the Lord is showing His favour upon you. It meant that they were under God’s watch and care, and that He was looking our for them. They were provided for and protected. They had God’s help every step of the way. No wonder that Cain felt that his punishment was great when he realised that he would be hidden from God’s face; He had lost God’s favour. This consequence of sin is terrible – it means that a person has to live by his own strength. The Bible however says Rely not on your own strength, but trust in the Lord. Doing things one own way in one’s own strength leads only to failure and disappointment.

– It will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me. This shows that he lives in fear of being killed. He was living in constant fear.

The devil tricks people into sinning, by convincing them that there are no consequences to sin. But sin comes as a complete package – sin, punishment, and consequences. The consequences of sin are unhappiness, restlessness, shame, guilt, sickness, failure in work, failure in marriage, lack of peace, poverty, and many other things. God’s favour is no longer available.

But God in His infinite mercy shows a way out for Cain – the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. This is God’s mercy. He offers protection even to the sinner Cain. That’s what is called ‘common grace’. Common grace is available for everybody, including sinners. It is available owing to God’s mercy. ‘Special grace’ however is available only for the redeemed, for those who believe and accept what Jesus has done. Special grace is when we accept that God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all.

INHERITANCE

We will understand forgiveness of sin better when we understand these particular two names of Jesus and what it means to our spiritual inheritance.

The Last Adam

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. – 1 Corinthians 15:45

All human-beings belong to the Adamic race. Every single one of us could be referred to as Adam, since we’re all his descendants. However, why was Jesus called the ‘last’ Adam? There have been so many people that were born after Jesus, and many more will be born in future as well.  Jesus was just ‘one more’ Adam, why does the Bible call him the ‘last’?

When Adam sinned, what happened to him happened to entire humanity. He was the representative human who plunged the entire human race into sin and its consequences. It has passed down from generation to generation. We have all inherited sin and its horrible consequences from Adam. Sin nature is present even from birth in every single person. Try as he might, man is unable to get rid of sin. It is impossible for man to escape sin. But on the Cross God made it possible to break that link. Jesus became the last Adam, because God put on Him the ‘iniquity of all mankind’. Adam passed on the evil inheritance of sin and its consequences to all mankind. Jesus was the last to take on that evil inheritance from Adam. On the Cross, that evil inheritance and sin’s deadly link was cut off. That is why Jesus is the last Adam.

The Second Man

The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. – 1 Corinthians 15:47

When Jesus died, as the last Adam, sin and all its consequences were buried with Him. When He rose again, He rose as the ‘second man’. The first man was Adam. Through Adam, we inherited sin and it’s consequences. We were the seeds of Adam. The second man is Jesus. When we put our faith in Him, we are the seeds of Jesus. We now belong to a new line, a new inheritance. Peter explains this clearly – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you – 1 Peter 1:3. He says that we are begotten again, meaning born again. What are we born again to? When we are in the Adamic inheritance, we are born in sin.  But when we believe in Jesus, we are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are born again to a new inheritance that is undefiled, incorruptible and does not fade away. We are born to a new life. We are a new creation.

Jesus is the last Adam and the second man in whom we are born again.

Paul has this in mind when he talks about Christ being the head of the church.

Which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. – Ephesians 1:19 – 22

God put all things under the feet of Jesus, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, His body. In human birth, the head comes out first, followed by the body. Similarly, Jesus, the head, came first. We the church, the body follow Him.

Jesus is the last Adam. Jesus is the second man. We follow after Jesus, not after Adam. We inherit from Jesus, not from Adam. Jesus is the head, we are the body.

DISFIGURATION

We already saw that the definition of sin is man thinking that he can function independent of God and that he can do it his way. This can be described in one word, ‘rebellion’. That was what Adam did in the garden of Eden, he rebelled. In Isaiah 1, we see a picture of rebellion of the people of Israel.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me. – Isaiah 1:2. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. – Isaiah 1:5,6

This image of rebellion here has a physical description. And a horrible one at that – wounds and bruises, open, festering, running sores – untended, unwashed and unbandaged. The Tamil Bible describes it as sores whose pus had not been pressed out and cleaned. God describes the rebellious life they lived as a deplorable physical condition.

The disfiguration of our iniquity transferred to Jesus

We see a similar description in Isaiah 52:14. But this time, the physical description is about Jesus. Let’s read a few versions to get a real picture.

His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. – Isaiah 52:14 (NKJV)

His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. – Isaiah 52:14 (ESV)

His face was so disfigured; he seemed hardly human, from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man. – Isaiah 52:14 (NLT)

He didn’t even look human— ruined face, disfigured beyond recognition. – Isaiah 52:14 (Message)

His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness. – Isaiah 52:14 (NIV)

Jesus was entirely disfigured that you couldn’t say that it was actually a human being hanging on that Cross. He was deformed beyond imagination. It didn’t look like what was hanging there belonged to the human race. He was like a piece of meat was hanging from the Cross – wounded from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet; his appearance was extremely marred; His flesh was hanging because they beat Him with whips with attached metal hooks that tore the flesh off His body. His body appeared like a ploughed field. They put a crown of thorns on His head, and pressed it and beat Him on it, so blood was flowing from the head as well. All this for our rebellion.

The first passage describes the rebellion of Israel as a physical abomination. God took that and applied it on Jesus on the Cross. Jesus was made like that, because of our rebellion. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Owing to sin, our life became ugly, stinking, and unbearably bad from head to toe. Sin and its evil consequences made us appear utterly disfigured, an anathema. But Jesus that hung on the cross became like us, bore our sin and all its evil consequences so that we can look good today. He did it so that we can be blessed today in our spirit, soul and body. Jesus became like us, so that we could become like Jesus. We have His wonderful nature through the new birth. We now have a beautiful and new life.

REDEMPTION

Paul says In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. – Ephesians 1:7. Paul looks at the Cross, the blood of Jesus that was shed, and the work that was done on the cross and says, “In him we have redemption”. Redemption was a significant concept among the Jews. Within their society, a person may have to become the redeemer for another person. They called it the ‘kinsman redeemer’. If you remember, this was the subject of a Christmas message a couple of years ago (available here). If a person was in debt and forced to go into slavery, the closest relative (kinsman) would pay off his debts and redeem him. If a man died without children, his brother (or the closest relative, if there was no brother) had to marry the widow in order to give her a son so that the land and property of the dead man would go his descendants, and that the inheritance would continue. A kinsman redeemer also had to avenge blood, in case of such wrongdoing. So being a kinsman redeemer was a great obligation and responsibility.

To be a kinsman redeemer, one had to be closest relative of the affected person. Jesus is our kinsman redeemer. How does Jesus, the son of God become our closest relative? By taking on human flesh and becoming one of us. He became like us in order to redeem us. He paid the price that we could not pay. The price for sin was the shedding of innocent blood. And since we could not pay it, Jesus, our kinsman redeemer paid it in our stead. Not only did He redeem us, He also avenged us. Satan destroyed the human race and is the root-cause of all evil. Jesus triumphed over him and made a public show of it. He defeated satan and gave us authority over him.

Jesus paid the highest price and redeemed us. He bought us, not so that He could enslave us, but to set us free. He set us free from slavery to sin and satan, and that is redemption. Redemption is the forgiveness of sin. Redemption is freedom from slavery to sin.

Other links

• Watch the video of the whole message
• Start here with blog post of Volume 01