FREEDOM IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS!

A church deacon recently confessed a horrible sin to his family and church community… After giving a description of what he’d done, he commented, “I know there’s a price to pay for this sin now… And that price is death…”

Not only was his heart broken over what he had done… He also knew that the effect on his friends and family would be devastating… And yet, overshadowing his regret or remorse was fear…(Reverent fear is what is needed)

Proverbs 1: 7, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline…

He had become afraid of God in the wrong way, believing that the sovereign Lord of the universe was now “out to get him…” Listen, no matter what you have done, God is not out to get you in a bad way, but in a good way… He wants to save you from Hell…”

Romans 6:23 clearly states, “The wages of sin is death...” But this sorrowful young man had overlooked the all-important second half of the verse: “But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord...”

If our heavenly Father gives us a gift, we can trust He will never take it away… It becomes ours to keep… That’s what a gift is! We did nothing to deserve it… So, we can do nothing to lose it… It all rests on God’s initiative… But, a greater theological principle is at work here...Paid in Full principle!

If the believer’s sin after salvation could require death—or any form of punishment— then Jesus’ sacrifice was insufficient… However, the Bible tells us Jesus’ death was wholly sufficient and a once-for-all payment of mankind’s sin-debt… (Hebrews 7:25-27)

Either Jesus’ blood does cover our sins, or it doesn’t… There’s no middle ground… The Holy Spirit, Christ’s words, and Scripture’s testimony clearly state that it does…

Jesus took on Himself every bit of our sin— past, present, and future... Our sinless Savior suddenly and painfully felt the burden of guilt, the weight of a tarnished soul, and a wretched separation from His Father…

He suffered the injustice of dying for our sin to reconcile God’s holiness and our imperfection…

Jesus was the Father’s servant…He agreed to a payment plan that made Him a sacrifice…
HOW TO KEEP FROM BEING A SLAVE!
To receive the benefit of the Lord's sacrifice, and be freed from slavery to sin, you need only to ask His forgiveness and receive Him into your life… Then you, too, can know the servant, Jesus, as Savior and Lord!

ABOUT THE BLOOD:

Unless you work in a medical field or a related profession, you probably aren’t very comfortable around blood…

Perhaps for that reason, many churches have erased any mention of Jesus’ crucifixion from their worship… But the shedding of blood is essential to the Christian faith—without a sacrifice, no person can have a relationship with God…

In Jesus’ day, the presence of blood was common to daily life… For one thing, if the family served meat… Meal preparation often included the slaughter of a live animal…(no ice)

In addition, blood was an essential aspect of sacrificial worship; God made the redemption system clear so that even small children could understand the connection between shed blood and freedom from sin...

According to Mosaic Law, for God’s holiness to be satisfied, the blood of an unblemished animal was required as the payment for a person’s sin…
God also wanted His followers to understand that sin brought terrible consequences and resulted in death…

Illustration: Sin Separates, and brings death, relationship, family.

The first fatality or causality in Scripture was the beast whose skin covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness (Gen. 3:21)…Sin caused this animals death…

In later times, whenever an Israelite brought the priests a lamb or a pair of doves, he recognized that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23...

Since the death of one animal did not pay for all sins, the system of sacrifice was continual…had to keep killing animals over and over again…
What Jesus did on the cross, however, was a once-and-for-all blood sacrifice… (1 Peter 3:18, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit…)

No doubt that was a new and difficult concept for the disciples to grasp…us to!

The Cross-

To some, the cross may seem like an odd religious symbol… It does, after all, carry the same meaning as an electric chair or a hangman’s noose—death… Yet this gruesome form of Roman torture stands at the heart of Christianity…

The Cross-is an authentic badge of our faith…

You, see, the Father so loved us that His Son Jesus died on our behalf… (John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”)…

Sin had carved a great gulf between God and man that nothing but the cross could navigate…

Man could not save himself from wrongdoing, and our heavenly Father could not condone sin… The wonder of the cross is that it displayed both His love and His holiness…

At one moment in time, the Father’s hatred of sin and His unfailing compassion for sinners blended together in the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ…

When you consider the cross and the pain that accompanied it—from nails, thorns, whips, and bloodshed to mockery—think of the overwhelming love of God…

Because the Father loves you, Christ died for you and rose again…

He saves all who trust Him for forgiveness of sin and reserves a place in eternity for every believer… That is the love of God displayed through the cross…

How We Benefit

Because of the blood Christ shed at Calvary, believers enjoy the eternal rewards of these central truths:

#1 Eternal Freedom
Forgiveness… You and I can be forgiven, not simply because God is merciful, but because Christ went to the cross and shed His blood for me and for you…

Eph. 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding”…

Salvation is not something we earn through good deeds or bargain for in exchange for promising to improve…

Our sin is forgiven, as the wrath of God was fully vented on His own Son at the cross... Even God’s punishment for sinful behavior is motivated by compassion…

Seeking forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus Christ is the beginning of real freedom…

Redemption… Literally, this refers to a transaction in which some item or person is exchanged for payment on a debt… To redeem means to buy back…

Spiritually, it indicates the price that Jesus paid on the cross to free every person from slavery to sin… To “redeem” us, Christ paid the debt we owed—His shed blood paid the penalty of death and ransomed us from sin and evil…

We have been delivered from the kingdom of Satan and placed into The Kingdom of God…

No matter how moral we are before accepting the gift of salvation; our nature is sinful… (Rom. 3:23, All have sinned)…

Jesus went to the cross for the primary purpose of purchasing us from a life of slavery to sin…When we accept His payment to buy us back from the slavery of sin; we begin the journey of spiritual freedom…

Justification… This term, which means the act of declaring someone righteous in the eyes of God, is made possible only by the crucifixion…

Through Jesus, the believer’s past, present, and future sins are totally washed away (Eph. 1:7-8)… What’s more, all guilt is removed and replaced with the righteousness of the Savior…

Christ’s death released us from the sentence of death, and by God’s grace, we are no longer guilty before Him…

God is holy and must punish sin… Because Christ shed His blood in our place, the Father not only forgives our sin but also declares us righteous (Rom. 5:17)…

We call this process “justification...” It simply means, “Just as if I had never sinned…”

Romans 5:9 says, “Having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him…”

Even though you and I may not always act like it, we are declared holy in God’s eyes…

Reconciliation… This describes the act of restoring harmony between humanity and the Father... The cross made a permanent change possible between a holy God and formerly separated, sinful humanity… Once enemies, God and man are now friends…

When a married couple separates, they occasionally reunite… We call that process reconciliation… This human example provides a good picture of one part of salvation...

Scripture says, “It was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Christ, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:19-20)…

This happens only in response to God’s call—no one is saved by his or her own initiative…God always makes the first move in our reconciliation…

Sanctification… This word is defined as the life-long maturing process that begins when a person trusts in the Savior

(Heb. 13:12, Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate…)

A believer is set apart from the rest of humanity for the purpose of becoming Christ-like…

Through discipleship, testing, and teaching, God “drains out” our old-selves and pumps the life of Jesus into our hearts and lives…

As grateful as we are for the blood Christ shed on the cross, you and I can be even more thankful that our Savior didn’t stay there… He not only paid the price for our transgressions—He rose again! And because He rose again, we also shall rise again to eternal freedom in Heaven with all redeemed people, in the Holy Presence of God…

Jesus’ sacrifice made it possible for us to enjoy the wonderful delight of union with Christ and also to experience the abundant life He promised…

Point to Remember: Eternal freedom cannot be bought or earned…Jesus paid it all… The price for our freedom has been bought and paid for in full by the shed blood of Christ on Calvary’s Cross…

When we accept His payment for our sin, the moment we do that, our eternal freedom starts right then, right here on earth and will extend forever into eternity…

Conclusion: We see today that the price has been paid in full to purchase our freedom…We do not need to be a slave to sin…We are a slave to whatever masters us…

Jesus paid it all so we could stand justified before God…

Do not follow after men because men will often lead you into slavery, but follow Christ Jesus who will lead you into freedom…

Do what He says and become who He wants you to be…

For God’s glory!

Eternal freedom is found in no one else but Jesus…
In Jesus name…Amen.

Rev. Robert N. Graves, Sr.

Fisherman for Christ