Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

We wear them as jewelry, have them tattooed on our bodies, we place them in our churches and more; there are crosses everywhere.  Sanitized, glittering and precious to us are the crosses with which we surround ourselves.  The almost 2000 years since Christ hung on a cross have removed the horrid spectacle of Roman crucifixion.  There was nothing praiseworthy of the Roman cross, only fear and revulsion.  Once a person was condemned to die on a cross there was no appeal, no loopholes, no hope of survival for the guilty.  Yet the need for the cross for the salvation of mankind, those who would believe in the gospel of Christ, was necessary.  We needed the sinless Lamb of God to die on the cross so that we, the condemned – and all our guilt — could be redeemed and set free by His vicarious sacrifice. 

As the image of the cross has been sanitized and now widely worn, many have sanitized the church of the concept of the “blood of Jesus.”  Salvation has been reduced to good works, good efforts and good intentions.  The idea of the seriousness of sin has morphed into “someone else’s fault,” bad judgment, bad environment, and correctable mistakes.  So what would be the need of blood anyway; and it is so old fashioned and messy.  Yet sin is messy; it is not self-correcting; it is willful rebellion.  

Hebrews 9:22 is clear that without the shedding of blood there is no remission — forgiveness — of sin.  This economy of the cost of sin is not for us to determine, but the God against whom the sin has been committed.  “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son.”  God is the One against whom sin has been committed, and He is the One who has made a way for us to be forgiven.

The words of the old hymn ask us, “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?  Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?  Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?  Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?  Are you washed in the blood, in the sound cleansing blood of the Lamb?  Are your garments spotless:  Are they white as snow?  Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”  Let the words of this song, and other songs about the blood of the Savior permeate your mind, hearts and vocal cords as we prepare for Easter/Resurrection Sunday!

Pressing on…

Ron Tipton, Senior Pastor