Randall Netmaker Gospel Singer
THE BLOOD OF CHRIST:
MANKIND’S ONLY HOPE!
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
“For Christ sent
me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the CROSS
OF CHRIST should be made of none effect.
For the PREACHING OF THE CROSS is to
them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of
God. But we preach CHRIST CRUCIFIED,
unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them
which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God.” (1 Cor. 1: 17, 18, 23, 24)
For many years,
the Christian Church has presented the claims of Jesus Christ to be able to
save lost souls, heal the sick and liberate the suffering and wounded granting Eternal
Life, on the basis of His shed blood, vicarious death and glorious
resurrection.
With gusto and
great fervour, saints of God have preached the Word and written songs,
proclaiming the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ to break every fetter
and to set the captives free. Hallelujah!
In his book, ‘The Cruciality of the Cross’ Dr. Henry
Mabie writes: “The Greek word used by Paul in 1 Cor.1: 18, is Logos...” not preaching
but “the subject matter of preaching; with the very essence of that which was
to be preached; with the Logos of the Cross, which constituted a rationale,
it’s Divine reason, a reason which…he declares to be the wisdom of God. This
‘Logos of the Cross’ is conceived by Paul to be the key which unlocks the
riddle of the universe, solves all mysteries and reconciles all things.”
A SUBJECT MATTER SO MAGNANIMOUS!
The sacrificial
death of the incarnated (God in human flesh) Son of God to redeem the world, is
a subject matter so powerful, so magnanimous and so incomprehensible that
mortal man can only stand in holy awe at its immensity, enormity and grandiose
love that we are left speechless!
The blood of Jesus
Christ which He freely gave for sinful, rebellious and hell-bound, guilty
sinners, purges our consciences from all guilt, delivers us from the power of
sin and liberates us from Satan and his evil kingdom, for time and eternity!
And as Dr. Henry
Mabie states: “This Logos of the Cross
is conceived by Paul to be the key which unlocks the riddle of the universe,
solves all mysteries and reconciles all things.”
I agree one hundred per cent with that analysis and
commentary - which is the greatest I have ever heard - but still doesn’t even
begin to cover the eternal consequences of the incarnation, passion, death and
resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord, Creator and God!
St. Paul came
closer when He wrote: “But as it is
written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart
of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” (1
Cor.2: 9)
How helpless we are
without His indwelling presence and yet how strong when He is moving within us
by His awesome power. How amazing that the God of Heaven and Ruler of the
Universe would deign to identify Himself with mere earthlings and to dwell
within us.
It has been said that truth is stranger
than fiction. It is difficult to understand why so many have
been blinded by Satan and coerced into rejecting Jesus Christ, Who gives
Eternal Life freely to all who humble themselves and receive Him as Lord and
Saviour!
That men and women endowed with a free
will would choose to follow a murderous Liar, manipulating Deceiver and the
despicable Enemy of God down the broad road that leads to perdition and Hell is
an enigma of the very worst kind! How is it possible that thinking individuals
made in the image of God, could become so deceived?
GOD'S ABSOLUTE
INTEGRITY!
And yet, Almighty God in His absolute
integrity and fairness and knowing the wickedness and cunning of the defrocked
and fallen Lucifer, still created our first parents Adam and Eve and placed
them in Eden's Garden with a free will to follow good and reject evil!
After their disastrous fall by committing
high treason against their Creator and God, the love of our Heavenly Father
drove them out of Eden so they would not partake of the fruit on the Tree of
Life and live forever in their sins!
In His great mercy, God made a way of
escape from their sins and the snare of the Devil, through the sacrificial
system which pointed to Christ. In passing judgement on the serpent as an
accomplice of Satan, He laid out His great plan of salvation which had been
hidden in His heart from before the foundation of the world.
He said: "I will put enmity
between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her SEED
(Christ); It shall bruise (crush) thy head, and thou bruise His heel."
(Gen 3:15)
This is what we call in theology, the 'Law
of the First Mention'! The first mention is of the Deliverer Whom
God would send to crush Satan's head. The second is the Virgin Birth
of the Deliverer. He is called the SEED of the woman!
God's only begotten Son would be incarnated (God in human flesh) to emancipate
Adam's fallen race through the sacrifice of Himself, to meet the demands of
divine justice in payment for our sins!
How could anyone with a natural mind, if
not inspired by the Holy Spirit, be able to digest these amazing truths? The
Bible clearly states: “But the natural man receives not the things of the
Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor.2: 14)
There is a vast difference between the
carnal and the spiritual man. And because we have not allowed the Liar any
place in us, we can truthfully and boldly declare that God is omnipotent (all
powerful), omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (everywhere present at once).
We know that God's Word is incomprehensible
(unknowable) and that Jesus Christ is TRUE GOD from eternity and TRUE MAN
through His incarnation (born of a virgin) and the Only Saviour of the world.
A
NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST JESUS!
St. Paul
was not a believer in Jesus Christ at first. He was a blatant blasphemer,
injurious and a hater of believers in Christ. That all changed when he met
JESUS on the Damascus Road. (Acts 9, 22 and 26).
He
stated: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old
things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of
God, Who hath RECONCILED us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation.
"That
is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. Now then we are AMBASSADORS for Christ, as though God did
beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to
God." (2 Cor.5:17-20)
Again he stated:
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes
of this world knew for had they known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of Glory." (1 Cor. 2: 7, 8)
Here is the real reason so many reject
the Saviour Jesus Christ: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His
Only Begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
"For God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He
that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of
God.
"And this is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hates the light that his
deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." (John 3: 16-21)
THE CASE FOR CHRIST OUR
LORD!
Loudly and triumphantly, I make the case
for Christ! There is no-one like Him. He is the One and Only Saviour of the
world. He is the Great Physician Who heals us from all our sorrows, problems,
sins and diseases! He baptizes believers with the Holy Spirit and Fire!
The Bible says: "He came unto His
own and His own received Him not. But as many as received, to them gave He
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." (John
1: 11, 12)
Believe on Him today and He will give you
the power to become His ADOPTED CHILD: "Grace be to you, and peace,
from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Heavenly places in Christ.
"According as He hath chosen us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love:
"Having predestinated us unto the ADOPTION of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the
good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He
hath made us ACCEPTED in the Beloved." (Eph.1:2-11)
JESUS
OUR HIGH PRIEST & INTERCESSOR!
"But this Man, because He continues
ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to SAVE them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make
intercession for them." (Heb. 7: 25)
JESUS OUR SUBSTITUTE: "For such an high
priest became us, Who is Holy, Harmless, Undefiled, separate from sinners, and
made higher hat the heavens. Who needs not daily, as those high priests, to
offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people: for this
He did once, when He offered up Himself." (/Heb.7: 26, 27)
JESUS' ENDLESS LIFE: "For that after the
similitude of Melchisedec there arises another priest, Who is made, not after
the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an ENDLESS LIFE. For He
testifies, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec."
(Heb. 7: 15-17)
Jesus
Christ declared: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.
"And
He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the First and
the Last: I am He that Lives and was dead; and behold, I AM ALIVE forevermore,
Amen; and have the keys of Hell and of Death." (Rev. 1: 8, 17, 18)
JESUS IS MY LIFE: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can
ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the
Vine, ye are the branches:
"He
that abides in Me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: For without Me,
ye can do NOTHING. If ye abide in Me, and My
words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto
you."
(John 15: 4-7)
Again our
Lord promised: "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. At
that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and YE in ME,
and I in YOU. He that hath My commandments and keeps
them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father,
and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep
My words: and My Father will love him and we will come unto him, and make our
abode with him." (John 14: 18-20, 21, 23).
"I
am the LIVING BREAD which came down from Heaven: if any man eat
of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
"Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in
you. Whoso eats My flesh and drinks my blood, hath eternal life; and I will
raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is
drink indeed.
"He
that eats My flesh and drinks My blood, dwells in ME and I in him. As the Living
Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats Me shall live by
Me. This is the BREAD which came down from Heaven: not as your
fathers did eat manna and are dead: he that eats of this bread shall live
forever." (John 6: 51-58)
After
stating that to receive Eternal Life we must eat His flesh and drink His blood,
Jesus clearly emphasized that He was speaking about the spiritual experience of
becoming ONE with Him and the Heavenly Father, through the Holy Spirit.
He was NOT advocating eating His
actual physical flesh and drinking His physical blood. It was an analogy of the
nearness, closeness and oneness of Jesus Christ to His Children through the new
Birth!
It is
drawing strength and life from Him Who purchased our Redemption by His atoning
work through His intense suffering and vicarious death on the cross.
"He
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The
chastisement for our peace was upon Him and with His STRIPES we are
healed." (Is. 53: 4.5)
Our Lord
Jesus said: "It is the spirit that quickens (makes life); the FLESH
profits NOTHING; the words that I speak into you, they are
spirit and they are life." (John 6: 63)
MYSTERY OF
CHRIST IN US!
This is
the great Mystery that was revealed to St. Paul through the Holy Spirit,
namely, Christ entering into the very innermost being of believers at the time
of conversion to Jesus Christ!
He said: "Even
the Mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made
manifest to His saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this Mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU,
the Hope of Glory." (Col.1: 26, 27)
When we
received Christ as personal Saviour, He took up His abode in our hearts and lives!
By Jesus Christ living within us through the blessed Holy Spirit we
automatically receive His life within our being! He gives us His life because
He is the Creator and the Life giver! We draw His life into ourselves by
becoming a part of Him, as He enters our lives with His Holy Spirit!
Through
our union with Jesus Christ we are protected from the power of Darkness which
is seeking to envelope the world. The Blood of Jesus Christ is the only solvent
that is able to wash sinners from the filth, stench and corruption - both
spiritually and physically - that is Satan's signature plan and strategy! Christ's Victory is Satan's Defeat and our
Liberty!
St. Paul
states: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are
Above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things
Above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your LIFE IS HID
with CHRIST IN GOD. When Christ WHO IS OUR LIFE shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory.
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and
covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh
on the children of disobedience."
Jesus
spoke of the 'PROMISE OF THE FATHER' to His disciples before His
departure to Heaven. He was referring to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon
His band of followers, who would comprise the Church (called out ones) which He
would build.
The HOLY
BIBLE says: "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He
that believeth on Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water.
"But
this He spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for
the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 7:37-39)
What an
honour to be filled with God, the Blessed Holy Spirit! To be called by the Holy
Spirit, saved by the precious BLOOD of Jesus Christ and filled with that
Holy Spirit of Promise and be led by His nail scarred hand!
The great
Apostle to the Gentiles stated: "For in Him (Christ) we live,
and move, and have our being..." (Acts 17: 28)
JESUS IS MY
AGAPE LOVE!
Jesus
said: "As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in
My love If ye keep y commandments, ye shall ABIDE IN MY LOVE;
even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.
"These things have I spoken unto you, that My JOY may remain in you, and that
your JOY might be full. This is My
commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you." (John 15: 9-12).
St. Paul
testified: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but CHRIST LIVETH IN ME: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I
live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for
me." (Gal.2: 20)
St John
declared: "Ye are of God little children, and have overcome them (evil
spirits): because Greater is He that is IN YOU, than he that
is in the world." (1 John 4: 4). Greater is Jesus Christ Who
purchased our forgiveness, peace, joy, healing and abundant life through His
death on the Cross.
He ABIDES within us
together with the blessed Holy Spirit, Who leads us and gives us the wisdom,
strength and power of the Risen Jesus Christ to show forth the love, mercy and
grace of God to a lost and dying world!
Christ's Victory is Satan's Defeat and our Liberty! Amen.
