skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Here are my comments from a discussion list on blood.
I’m not sure where you are going with this but I agree that blood has always been important to God. We live in a sanitized civilization where the impact (and connection) with blood is minimized… bloodless capital punishment, low profile abattoirs, bloodless surgeries, etc.
I’ve always thought about it like this… every crime (sin) against God carries the death penalty… sometimes immediate and sometimes delayed. In the Mosaic law some (not all) crimes could appease God with the substitution of animal blood. Animal blood, of course, isn’t the proper payment for human sin. It is limited in what it can achieve. The proper payment for crimes against God is human blood. The blood of the criminal.
Then God makes the blood of Christ available to us. It is like an overpayment for our sins and has such value that it can pay for the crimes of all of humanity past, present and future. It also has the ability to cleanse our consciouses.
Of course the question is why? At this point I like to fold in Ephesians 5, Christ wanting a pure, virginal bride (in regards to sin).
God wants a relationship with a pure people. He makes the down payment of the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the initiating point. With that head start, we strive to grow into the very stature of Jesus Christ by conquering sin (and the desire to sin) in our lives and become the pure bride and completely fitted soldier in God’s army.
I’ve been watching re-enactments on Netflix of the heroics of “Medal of Honor” winners. They are very emotional and very inspiring. One of the commentators said this,
“Once you cross the line that you are not going to survive anyway, then you are enabled to achieve incredible acts of heroism.”
I’ve heard that sentiment before, they quit fighting for themselves and were just fighting to help their fellow soldiers survive. True sacrificial living on behalf of others.
Christian soldiers have a completely different mindset… I cannot be killed therefore I’m totally unafraid of what might happen to me (on earth) and am therefore completely free to testify about the Lord Jesus Christ to anyone who will listen.
In fact, that was exactly the mindset of the early Christian Martyrs. Today you hear of Christians going into places like North Korea, Iran, China, etc. and you wonder… have they lost their minds? No they haven’t, the bravest soldiers go where they are needed the most and understand that their “Medal of Honor” awaits them in Heaven.
When I was a kid my parents were big into gardening. We never could afford one but my dream was to own a Troybilt Horse tiller. Now that I’m advanced in years I’ve realized that dream and have owned about ten of them. Right now I have three in my shop and a few more in pieces. You see if I can find them for about $200 I buy them, work on them and sell them for about $400 (new ones cost $2000). It’s fun for me to bring an old piece of equipment back to life.
The easiest thing to work on are the engines. Those old tillers usually have gummed up carburetors that are easy enough to fix. The worst thing to deal with is taking off the wheel. They are usually rusted on and locked up tight. Sometimes you can get them off with an impact wrench and a little pressure. Sometimes you have to add a little heat. Sometimes you have to use a wheel puller which you have to be careful with as I have ruined a few wheels exerting more pressure than the metal can withstand. Other times you need to soak them in diesel. Right now I have one that’s been soaking in diesel for a year and I can finally get it to turn but not enough to get it off… yet.
Getting a sinner to turn from his sin and commit to Jesus Christ is kind of like getting those wheels off those old tillers. It always, always takes some effort. Sometimes it takes a little bit of effort and sometimes it takes a lot of effort. It kind of depends on how long that wheel has been stuck on that axel. Sometimes if you’re in a hurry and impatient you can ruin a wheel. You have to look for the signs and that takes experience. You might have to take that wheel puller off and let some diesel work on it for awhile.
God’s Word is kind of like diesel. Once you add diesel to the equation it’s working 24 hours a day… slowly and sometimes imperceptibly breaking down that rust.
I’ve known godly women who were married to scoundrels whose patience in well doing softened a heart that most thought would never soften.
The best kind of oil for penetrating an old hard heart is the oil that demonstrates the best of Christian living… a tender compassionate heart. The oil that forgives when one is not deserving of forgiveness. The oil that loves the unloveable. If you use that kind of oil and be patient and long suffering you might just be able to get that old wheel (sinner) to turn.
