Category Archives: Gospel

The Power Of The Cross – We Have Life Through His Blood

Gospel, , , , ,

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

WE HAVE LIFE THROUGH HIS BLOOD

Never cross swords with Jesus! The Pharisees tried it and always came off second best. The amazing thing was, though, that every time Jesus engaged them in debate, He said something profound and unforgettable. Like the time they tackled Him about His declaration that He was the bread of life. Once again they demanded a sign. Refusing to recognise that He was their Messiah, they kept harping on the same thing: “Give us a sign. Give us a sign.”

Jesus insisted that He had given them sign after sign but it made no difference. They were not convinced and they demanded yet another sign. Moses gave them bread of heaven. That was a sign that he was a prophet from God. What would Jesus give them? He startled them by declaring that Moses’ manna was not the real bread from heaven. He was!

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6: 51)

That shook them. He must be joking! What did He mean? Was He advocating cannibalism? Of course not! Then He said something even more explicit.

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.’ (John 6: 53-54)

Jesus was a Hebrew. He thought and spoke like a Hebrew. He was not talking about literally eating His flesh but about what eating does. We eat food to nourish our bodies. Eating food keeps us alive. When we stop eating, we die.

Jesus spoke of His flesh and blood as nourishment, obviously not for our bodies but for our spirits. He was referring to His broken body and poured out blood given willingly as a sacrifice for sin for the whole world. To eat His flesh and drink His blood implied believing the truth of the meaning of His sacrifice. Faith in what He did for them would bring them back to life because they were dead in their sins.

Jesus was referring back to a statement in the Old Testament that explained why blood was so significant. Long before the discoveries of science and medicine, God made clear in His Word what we know to be true today. The life is in the blood.

“So says Leviticus 17:11. Everyone knows that we must have enough blood flowing around our body or else our bodily functions deteriorate and we die. Yet for a long time the exact function of blood was little understood. In what ways has modern science shown Leviticus 17:11 to be true?

Blood is fundamental to the function of every cell of every component in our bodies. Cells need food to survive, grow, repair themselves and to fulfill their specific functions, and, to reproduce. Cellular food is transported in blood to provide energy for all the cells’ needs. As humans are multicellular organisms, having separate specialized organs with highly sophisticated functions, transport and communication between these structures is essential.”

http://creation.com/life-is-in-the-blood (- retrieved October 2015)

We all know that, when the body is depleted of blood, the organs cease to function and the body dies. Without blood, there is no life.

Jesus used this analogy to explain that His blood, not flowing in His body but poured out through His broken flesh, provides life for the inner being when it is taken in by faith. Sin killed the spirit of the first pair and, since that moment, death came upon every one of their descendants because we have all sinned.

But Jesus declared the good news that His life, poured out on the cross by the shedding of His blood, has given us life, not just physical but eternal life.

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness, reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5: 17)

And this life is given to us as a free gift! Just as we take in food to sustain our physical lives, so we take in by faith the blood of Jesus which gives us and sustains our eternal life. Jesus said to Martha:

‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ (John 11: 25)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

The Power Of The Cross – Our Consciences Cleansed From Dead Works

Gospel, , ,

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

 OUR CONSCIENCES CLEANSED FROM DEAD WORKS

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ who, through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God. (Heb. 9: 13-14)

“The law of God given to Moses is a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that the Israelites’ behaviour reflected their status as God’s chosen people. It encompasses moral behaviour, their position as a godly example to other nations, and systematic procedures for acknowledging God’s holiness and mankind’s sinfulness. In an attempt to better understand the purpose of these laws, Jews and Christians categorize them. This has led to the distinction between moral law, ceremonial law, and judicial law.”

http://www.gotquestions.org/ceremonial-law.html (- retrieved October 2015)

According to the writer to the Hebrews, the sacrifices prescribed in the Mosaic Law could do no more than remove their guilt for transgressing the ceremonial law. Let’s look at an example. A woman has a baby – which involves the shedding of blood. There is nothing morally wrong with giving birth but, because she bled, she became ceremonially unclean because the shedding of blood was contrary to God’s perfection. She, therefore, was obligated to offer a sacrifice to remove her ceremonial impurity.

All the animal sacrifices prescribed for every condition and every transgression in the old covenant served one of two purposes; firstly, they covered ceremonial guilt but could not change the status of the worshipper. No matter how many sacrifices they offered, they could not approach God except through a priest who was their designated mediator, because of sin. Secondly, they reminded the worshipper of the barrier of sin that separated him from a holy God.

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. . . But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sin. (Heb. 10: 1; 3)

Animal sacrifices were a foreshadowing of something much better that was to come.

What are the “acts that lead to death”, to which the writer refers? Sin can be both the things we do, say or even think that transgress God’s absolute perfection and the so-called “good works” we do to try to gain God’s favour. In His mercy God intervened to change our status before Him by sending His own Son to take our place. He came under judgment for our sin and paid our debt by submitting to death although He had no guilt of His own.

Jesus was born of a human mother, but He was not conceived by a human father but by the Holy Spirit. He became the “last Adam”, without sin, but subject to our human condition in a fallen world so that he could prove His love for the Father as a son by living in perfect submission and obedience to Him. After 33 years of sinless living, He gave up His life by being executed on the cross – condemned as a criminal, but not guilty.

His death became an atoning sacrifice for all people, for all sin, for all time. He is the only human being who ever died as punishment for sin He did not commit, qualifying Him to be the Saviour of the world.

The human problem is that we are not only guilty of transgressing God’s laws and His holy nature, but we are also guilty of believing that we can balance our sin by doing “good works” which we think will satisfy God’s justice. How can a murderer hope to make amends for his crime by doing community service for a prescribed length of time? No amount of “doing good”will make up for taking a life. The law demands appropriate punishment for the crime. But we apply that kind of cock-eyed thinking to God!

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are as filthy rags . . . (Isa. 64: 6)

God demands the death of the sinner and no amount of “community service” will take away the guilt of our sin. The problem is that we are already dead because sin has killed us. So it’s not a case of balancing our bad deeds with good deeds. No amount of good deeds will bring us back to life.

But, because of His love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions . . . (Eph. 2: 4)

We have been declared “not guilty” because our debt has been paid and our sentence carried out by Jesus. We now have a clean conscience and a clean slate and can approach the Father acceptably because we have peace with God (Rom. 5: 1)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

The Power Of The Cross – We Have Been Justified By His Blood

Gospel, , ,

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

WE HAVE BEEN JUSTIFIED BY HIS BLOOD

When Adam and Eve chose to believe the devil’s lies over God’s truth, little did they know just how much damage they would do to themselves and to the human race by their choice. We have already examined a number of aspects of their lives that went wrong, that they passed on to the human race, and that needed the intervention of God to put right. They became slaves to sin; they were estranged from God, they lost their oneness and fellowship with Him; they were guilty and condemned to death and under God’s wrath – and so we can go on.

Without divine intervention, they were doomed to be separated from God forever, in the torment of knowing what could have been had they but heeded the Father’s instruction. Guilt, shame and fear would drive their consciences day and night, living in the terrible regret of “if only”. Even if people refuse to own their guilt or understand the reason for their torment, is that not what puts many a person in a psychiatric hospital?

In the wisdom that the Holy Spirit gave him, Paul had the answer that everyone desperately needs to hear.

Since we now have been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him. (Rom 5: 9)

What does “justified” mean? In the simplest legal terms it means to be declared, “Not guilty”. But how can God do that seeing that we are all guilty of transgressing His laws?

Let’s look at it this way. Say you are accused of a committing a crime. You are arrested and put in prison awaiting trial. All the evidence is gathered and the trial date is set. You have a defence lawyer whose task is to prove that you are not guilty, while the prosecutor’s job is to secure a “guilty” verdict based on the indisputable evidence that you did it. It is his job to see that you get the punishment you deserve if you are found guilty.

Both sides present their evidence and their conclusions, and it is now up to the judge or the jury to decide whether the evidence is conclusive enough for them to reach a verdict. All the forensic and circumstantial evidence points to you. In the end, your guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt. The judge passes sentence and you are fined an appropriate sum of money or sent to prison as an appropriate punishment. You have been proven guilty and there is nothing you can do about it. The law has spoken. You must serve your sentence without complaint.

But what if the judge is your father? What if you have an older brother who loves you so much that he chooses to take your punishment for you? He steps up to the judge and pays the fine, or he takes your place in the prison cell so that you can go free. What if he chooses to be executed in your place so that you do not have to die?

Are you still guilty of your crime? No, because you have been “justified”. You were guilty – you were sentenced – but the sentence has been carried out by your brother. Your father, the judge, is satisfied that the crime has been paid for. He can declare you “Not guilty” because it is illegal to demand punishment for the same crime twice.

That is exactly what Jesus did to secure our release from guilt. God decreed that the appropriate punishment for transgressing His laws was death. He gave the first pair one command – “Don’t eat the fruit of that one tree.” Why? Was it because the fruit of that tree was poisonous? No (and, by the way, the Bible does not say that it was an apple tree). It was a simple test to determine the reality of Adam’s love for God. Jesus said:

If you love me, keep my commands. (John 14: 15)

Adam was deceived because he believed that God was withholding something good from him. Satan’s trap was very subtle. God created man in His image – he was like God in his nature so that he could have fellowship with Him. Satan suggested that he needed something different to be like God – the right to independence; the right to make his own rules. What he did not tell Adam was that he aspired to be Lord and, if Adam listened to him rather than to God, it would prove that he was, in fact, in charge.

Adam fell for his lie, disregarded God’s instruction and brought the whole superstructure of God’s intention crashing down on his head. Only another man, made in the likeness of the first Adam, without sin, could set it all right by willing to be sentenced in Adam’s place. He did it and we are now free – justified; declared not guilty.

There is a consequence to Jesus’ obedience to the Father. Paul said: How much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him.

We were not only saved from death, but God’s wrath against sin was satisfied. He is no longer angry with the sinner. We are now the objects of His favour. Did you get that? He is no longer angry with anyone – not even those who reject Him and refuse to obey the truth.

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5: 8)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

The Power Of The Cross – They Overcame Him By The Blood

Gospel, , , ,

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

THEY OVERCAME HIM BY THE BLOOD

Spiritual warfare is big on the agenda of Christians today. Many “weird and wonderful” teachings abound about spiritual warfare – most of which originate from the Old Testament, as though the death of Jesus means nothing when it comes to the devil.

People do prayer walks and Jericho marches; we are taught to identify the principalities and powers that hold countries or regions in their power (the “Jezebel spirit” is a big one); we have to identify and pull down altars; we must “bind” the evil spirits and “take authority” over them; we must “loose” the power of God and we must “pray against” whatever it is that we must pray against!

Now all of this sounds very “spiritual”. It gives us something to do when we are discouraged by the situations and circumstances around us. We feel better when we have done “spiritual warfare”, even if nothing changes. We do it again and again in the hopes that it will eventually “take” and give us immunity – like a measles vaccine!

But where in the world do we see the apostles doing this in the New Testament? Even Jesus, who should have known better than anyone else how to do spiritual warfare, didn’t do all this stuff. After all, wasn’t the devil after Him? The most Jesus ever did was to send His disciples ahead of Him into the villages and towns where He was to go, not to do prayer walks and Jericho marches, but to proclaim and demonstrate the presence of the kingdom of God. It was the reality of God’s presence and power in the person of Jesus, not their ritualistic prayer efforts that sent the devil and his squatters packing.

Another glaring problem lies in the fact that we don’t understand how God works. When stuff happens in our lives, we blame the devil and go to “war” against him. We are “under attack”, so we declare, almost triumphantly as though being “under attack” somehow makes us important in Satan’s eyes. We must be a threat to him, or he wouldn’t “attack” us!

But that is not what the Bible says.

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined – and everyone underdoes discipline – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all . . . They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness.  (Heb. 12: 7-8; 10)

Satan may be responsible for the hardship, but God uses it for our good. So why fight the devil? James and Peter said that we must resist the devil by submitting to God. (James 4: 7; 1 Pet. 5: 8-9)

As a matter of fact, the very hardships we go through, which we so eagerly attribute to the devil, are the evidence of our sonship and the means of God’s grace. If we understood that, would we so enthusiastically launch into spiritual warfare against Satan, using all the tactics we have learned from the self-proclaimed “generals” of spiritual warfare? By doing that, we are actually fighting, not the devil as we may think, but the very means God uses to purify our faith in Him.

Take Peter, for example. Jesus warned him of what was to come and even said that Satan would do it. He promised to pray for him – not that God would get him out of it but keep him through it because there were important lessons Peter had to learn.

Did you notice, for example that Jesus did not pray that God would stop the devil from sifting him. Instead He said, “I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail.” Did you get that? Trials and hardships are not “attacks” from the devil, as though God were powerless to do anything about it. No! They are God’s means of strengthening our faith in Him.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. (! Pet. 1: 6-7)

How do we overcome the devil? Not by fighting him but by trusting in God. What guarantee do we have that we have the right to trust the Father?

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Rev. 12: 11)

It was the cross that made all the difference. Jesus dealt with our sin – the very reason for the devil’s power over us – and He exposed the devil as a liar and a thief. He is not Lord; Jesus is.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8: 31-32)

The devil loves the limelight. He wants to be noticed and he’ll get attention by any means as long as he can take our attention away from Jesus. God gave us weapons – faith and truth, all directing our attention away from the devil and onto the One who gave us the victory by His blood.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

 

 

The Power Of The Cross – Purified By The Blood

Gospel, , , ,

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

PURIFED BY THE BLOOD

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1: 7)

How much truth is encapsulated in this one verse!

First of all, what does it mean to “walk in the light”? Unless we understand the Hebraic thought behind this statement, we will invent our own interpretation and make nonsense of its meaning. To understand it accurately, we must go back to its use in the Old Testament.

“Remember, words used by the New Testament writers were not created in a vacuum. They have their meanings established in the Tanakh. The writers of the New Testament do not spend time defining words or phrases to the reader. The meaning of the terms are assumed. Assumed from where? The Scriptures. So let’s see how the New Testament dictionary defines light.

Psalm 119:105 – Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Psalm 119:130 – The entrance of thy words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.

Proverbs 6:23 – For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

“This would be the dictionary of the New Testament writers. Their understanding of the words they used came from the Scriptures they already had. When the Bereans were commended in Acts 17:11, it was because they went back to the Tanakh to verify everything that was being taught by these early disciples. Why? Reason number one is because that is all they had. The New Testament had not yet been penned. Reason number two is because the Hebrew people had been taught for centuries that if someone does not speak according to the law and the testimony there is no light in them. So, when the New Testament writers, especially Yeshua‘, used the term light, they used it in a way that was already understood. Let’s go over a few New Testament verses again. This time we will see them in their proper context.

John 8:12 – I am the light of the world …” (i.e. I am the words of ’Elohiym.)

Matthew 5:14-16 – Ye are the light of the world …” (i.e. Now you are the words of ’Elohiym.)

Matthew 5:16 – Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (i.e. Proclaim and DO the words of ’Elohiym, so that the world can see who you are and glorify Him).

http://www.wildbranch.org/teachings/lessons/lesson4.html (-retrieved October 2015)

We have established that to walk in the light means to live our lives in obedience to the Word of God. It stands to reason that, if we are all walking in the light, we will be in harmony with one another. The Greek word, for fellowship is koinonia. It means having things in common or being in harmony, communion.

Firstly, to have fellowship with one another, we must be in fellowship with the Father, which He brought about by redeeming us from slavery to sin and reconciling us to Himself through the blood of Jesus.

Secondly, Jesus made peace though His blood, bringing Jew and Gentile together into one family, creating a new race which is characterised by spiritual birth rather than by natural human birth and condition. We are citizens, first of all, of the kingdom of God which takes precedence over citizenship in the land of our birth.

Thirdly, obedience to Jesus as Lord and to the Word of God brings us together as one. Fellowship with the Father and with His Son, and fellowship with one another is the evidence of a spiritual cleansing by the blood of Jesus. God promises to purify us when we acknowledge our sin, and to keep us pure when we live in harmony with Him and with one another.

The word for “purify” is in the present continuous tense. It implies a continuous action, something like a windscreen wiper that continually wipes the rain off the windscreen. Cleansing by the blood of Jesus is not a once-off action but a perpetual washing as we live in obedience to His word. It cleanses us from our impure intentions, attitudes, motives and failures to be perfect.

Hallelujah! This lifts the burden of trying to live up to God’s perfection because we are already perfect in Christ. Our job is to keep our eyes on Jesus and His job is to keep us clean and pure by His blood.

What do we have in common? We have a common Father, a common Lord, a common Holy Spirit, a common citizenship, a common salvation, a common hope, a common purpose, a common destiny and a common destination, and even common resources because we are one family.

This is the power of the cross!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?