Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - Kansas City, Missouri, United States - "Cleansed By His Blood" Friday, 23 January 2015 - Scripture: Hebrews 9:11-22

Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - Kansas City, Missouri, United States - "Cleansed By His Blood" Friday, 23 January 2015 - Scripture: Hebrews 9:11 Christ came as the high priest of the good things that are now here.[a] He also went into a much better tent that wasn’t made by humans and that doesn’t belong to this world. 12 Then Christ went once for all into the most holy place and freed us from sin forever. He did this by offering his own blood instead of the blood of goats and bulls.
13 According to the Law of Moses, those people who become unclean are not fit to worship God. Yet they will be considered clean, if they are sprinkled with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a sacrificed calf. 14 But Christ was sinless, and he offered himself as an eternal and spiritual sacrifice to God. That’s why his blood is much more powerful and makes our[b] consciences clear. Now we can serve the living God and no longer do things that lead to death.
15 Christ died to rescue those who had sinned and broken the old agreement. Now he brings his chosen ones a new agreement with its guarantee of God’s eternal blessings! 16 In fact, making an agreement of this kind is like writing a will. This is because the one who makes the will must die before it is of any use. 17 In other words, a will doesn’t go into effect as long as the one who made it is still alive.
18 Blood was also used[c] to put the first agreement into effect. 19 Moses told the people all that the Law said they must do. Then he used red wool and a hyssop plant to sprinkle the people and the book of the Law with the blood of bulls and goats[d] and with water. 20 He told the people, “With this blood God makes his agreement with you.” 21 Moses also sprinkled blood on the tent and on everything else that was used in worship. 22 The Law says that almost everything must be sprinkled with blood, and no sins can be forgiven unless blood is offered.[Footnotes:
9.11 that are now here: Some manuscripts have “that were coming.”
9.14 our: Some manuscripts have “your,” and others have “their.”
9.18 Blood was also used: Or “There also had to be a death.”
9.19 blood of bulls and goats: Some manuscripts do not have “and goats.”]
"Cleansed By His Blood" by Phil Pinckard
When death occurs, heirs often produce a will to prove their rights to any inheritance from the deceased. The writer of Hebrews explains: “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15). The first covenant was only effective with blood: “He took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people” (Hebrews 9:19). Proof of our salvation is not provided with the blood of calves, but with the precious blood of Christ!
In John’s Gospel we read of another type of will: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). John Wesley wrote: “By salvation I mean . . . a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity; a recovery of the divine nature.”*[* W. Stephen Gunter, The Quotable Mr. Wesley, Atlanta: Candler School of Theology, Emory University, 2003, 47.]
Hymn for Today: "PRECIOUS BLOOD" by  MacLeod Wylie and by Ira D. Sankey, James McGranahan & George Stebbins
"The precious blood of Christ."[1 Peter 1:19]

1. The blood has always precious been,

’Tis precious now to me;

Through it alone my soul has rest,

From fear and doubt set free.

Refrain:

Oh, wondrous is the crimson tide

Which from my Savior flowed,

And still in Heav’n my song shall be,

The precious, precious, blood.

2. I will remember now no more,

God’s faithful Word has said,

The follies and the sins of him

For whom My Son has bled.

Refrain:

Oh, wondrous is the crimson tide

Which from my Savior flowed,

And still in Heav’n my song shall be,

The precious, precious, blood.

3. Not all my well-remembered sins

Can startle or dismay;

The precious blood atones for all

And bears my guilt away.

Refrain:

Oh, wondrous is the crimson tide

Which from my Savior flowed,

And still in Heav’n my song shall be,

The precious, precious, blood.

4. Perhaps this feeble frame of mine

Will soon in sickness lie,

But resting on the precious blood

How peacefully I’ll die.

Refrain:

Oh, wondrous is the crimson tide

Which from my Savior flowed,

And still in Heav’n my song shall be,

The precious, precious, blood.

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