Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18-19
The verses here in 1 Peter that talks about our redemption through the blood of Christ are the safety deposit box of the saved. In it the saved keeps his most valuable possession. If you open that safety deposit box you will not find gold bullion, but rather the precious blood of Christ. He created us, he cares for us, and he bled for us. What a wonderful savior is Jesus, my Lord!
There have been verbal and written assaults in the last century on the precious blood of Christ. Some theologians would say that the precious blood of Christ doesn’t really mean what it says. My whole eternity hangs on my trust in the precious blood of Christ. My life and salvation hinge on the precious blood of Christ. Is the blood so important? It’s precious.
1991-03-17 The Importance of the Precious Blood
1) Blood is Life. Your skin is not your life.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood Leviticus 17:11
The physicians long ago bled men. Why? They didn’t believe the Bible. When someone was in trouble physically you don’t draw blood out of them. That is the worst thing to do. The blood has white cells. It is the white cells that are needed for healing.
2) Man’s blood is corrupt. Blood is needed to make atonement for the human being. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. We’ve got corrupt blood and that blood is going to make us eventually die. The reason the blood is corrupt is when Adam sinned his blood was corrupted and he passed on the blood to every other human being. All have the blood of Adam except for Jesus Christ.
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth Acts 17:26
The reason Jesus Christ doesn’t have the blood of Adam is because the father is the one that initiates the blood in the new born baby. That comes from the father and not the mother. Christ got his flesh from his mother, and he got his blood from God. Christ’s blood is incorruptible. Our blood is corruptible.
3) Blood and sin are intertwined.
Without shedding of blood is no remission of sin. Hebrews 9:22
If there is sin there is only one thing that will take away sin – it is the shedding of blood. The Old Testament Israelite brought an animal sacrifice to the temple or the tabernacle. The Israelite placed his hand on the head of the lamb. By this he is saying, “I have sinned – I should die, but you are dying in my stead.” The innocent lamb’s throat is cut and blood is collected from the throat in a vessel. Why is blood so important? It is mentioned in the Bible some seven hundred times. Why should anyone play down the importance of the blood?
4) Blood was the Passover.
When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Exodus 12:13
Blood was not just shed. It was not just the death of an animal for Passover, but the blood was collected and it was applied. It was sprinkled on the doorpost. It was not just that an animal died that provided safety for the child or the firstborn. When God saw the blood visibly smeared on the casing of the door, on the two sides and the top, safety was assured. It was a visible sign of blood.
There were many offerings a Jew could bring before God, but it was not just the animal offering – it was the blood. With the sin offering blood was sprinkled seven times before the veil. With the trespass offering blood was sprinkled on the altar. With the burnt offering blood was sprinkled around about the altar and upon the altar. With the peace offering blood was sprinkled on the altar. With the great Day of Atonement the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat seven times. Blood was the center of God’s Old Testament offering system visibly sprinkling of blood. This should cause us to see the extreme importance of blood.
5) Christ – one complete sacrifice.
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Hebrews 10:11-14
Can you see why it is called the precious blood of Christ? Verse 11 tells us that the priests were ministering and they kept offering the same sacrifice – one bloody sacrifice after another. It was impossible for those sacrifices to take away sin. You say, “Why did they offer those sacrifices?” They were a type of a greater sacrifice to come. There might have been a billion sacrifices given, all of which could never take away sin, but it said that Jesus one sacrifice was sufficient to take away sin forever. All sacrificing was done and he sat down because the work was over. It was finished. Why is the blood so precious? Because Jesus is precious to the father and he shed his holy blood in place of the sinners blood. Our blood is corruptible. His is incorruptible.
The moment you die your blood is the first thing that rapidly decays. Christ blood would never decay. It was the only thing that the holy father would accept as being a substitute in place of our corruptible blood. His blood did what all the rest of the sacrifices could not do. It was what could satisfy God’s justice. He alone could satisfy the father on our behalf.
6) Christ’s blood is multi-effectual
a) We are redeemed by his blood. Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14
It takes a ransom to get you to heaven and the reason it takes a ransom is that from the time you’re born you belong to sin and Satan. You are captured by sin and you can’t help sinning because of it and you will sin from the day you’re born. You will sin all your life whether you like it or whether you don’t.
We are redeemed. Being redeemed is to be released on receipt of a ransom. Jesus blood paid the ransom. It gave the receipt to the Holy Father that released you from the grip of sin and Satan forever. We are bought back from the grip of sin that Satan holds on us.
b) We are justified by his blood. Romans 5:9
What is justification? It means you’re ruled innocent in God’s courtroom. What can be better than to be pronounced innocent? You are not only purchased out of the sin market, redeemed and placed in God’s family, but you are declared innocent of all sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are justified by his blood.
c) We are sanctified by his blood. What does this mean? It means set apart for God.
We are set apart by the blood of Christ. Not only that, but we are washed by the blood the Word of God says in Revelation. Isn’t it good to be clean all over from the dirtiness of sin?
Redemption by the blood buys us out of the pit. Justification by the blood makes us innocent of all offenses. Washing makes us clean so we feel good and sanctification sets us as special to God. Christ’s blood is multi-effectual, but only through faith. You do not get all the effects and benefits of Christ’s blood because you were born into the human family. You only get it by trusting. The Bible says it’s through faith in his blood that we receive all of those good effects as told in Romans 3:25
It is not sufficient for a person to say “I believe in God, I’m all right and I’ll probably go to heaven.” That would not save him. For the Israelite at Passover he could not say “The animal is dead. The death of an animal is sufficient to believe in and therefore the angel will pass over and not kill the firstborn.” That was not sufficient. He must apply the blood to the doorpost so that when God saw the visible evidence of the blood he would pass over. It is not sufficient for a person to say “I believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world.” That will not save you. It is not until you apply the blood by faith to the doorpost of your heart that you’re saved.
7) Christ’s blood is presently powerful.
We speak of the blood of Christ not only in the past tense of what it did on Calvary, but the blood of Christ is still powerful and effective today.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 10:19
Today it gives us access to God so that when you have things in your life that you’ve got to go to the Lord for you can go into the courts of heaven and you can speak personally to the God of heaven. Why? You have access by the blood of Jesus.
Today it gives us cleaning of our recent sins – John 1:9. It cleanses us of the last sin that you did – the sins that you did today and the sins that you did yesterday. The Bible says that if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness – 1 John 1:7.
Today it gives assurance of everlasting life – Hebrews 13:20. Every time we partake of the Lord’s Supper it gives us sweet communion with Jesus Christ the righteous. We are told we have the blood of an everlasting covenant. A covenant is a contract. A contract in our day is usually signed by two different individuals that both agree to do their part. It is binding. It is not something you lie your way out of. God made a covenant with Abraham. God told Abraham to divide the animal in half. They would lay the bloody animal on each of it’s sides. The two men making the covenant would walk together between the split sides signifying that there was a blood covenant that was irreversible. When God made the covenant with Abraham, Abraham did not walk through. God passed through. The reason God passed through was because God was making a covenant that would never be broken, because man had nothing to do with it.
A greater covenant has been made by the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that is called an everlasting covenant. It is everlasting that what Jesus did to save your soul on the cross by shedding his blood. God has stamped his contract that never will be broken. We have assurance that when we put faith in Christ we have a covenant with God that is based on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why it is the precious blood of Christ. Can we speak too highly of his blood? Can we think too sentimentally of his blood? His blood is precious, because his blood did what nothing else could do for my soul and for my eternity. Every sinner dies in his sin a captive to his sin, but Jesus took our place and he gave his blood. We are not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. He deserves our highest praise. We cannot speak and magnify Jesus and his blood too much for he created, he cares, and he bled.
Faithful Pastor 