Tag Archives: blood

The Power Of The Cross – Purified By The Blood

October 17, 2015Gospelblood, fellowship, light, purifies, walkLuella Campbell

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!

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 – Redemption Through His Blood

October 14, 2015Gospelblood, forgiveness, Passover, redemption, sinsLuella Campbell

THE POWER OF THE CROSS – REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD

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. (Eph. 1: 7)

I think this is the best place to start, don’t you? Everything that God has done for us flows from His grace but through the cross. I said yesterday that Jesus foretold the fact but did not give the reasons for His death. It was Paul who received the revelation from the Holy Spirit to explain the depth of meaning that the cross has for us.

Before we go any further, let’s sever, once and for all, the connection between Jesus’ death and Easter with all its pagan trappings. No self-respecting believer in Jesus should ever celebrate Easter (or Christmas, for that matter) because everything Easter and Christmas stand for are an intrusion into the truth.

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people.’ (2 Cor. 6: 16)

The death of Jesus is rooted in the Passover feast. God gave His people seven annual feasts to celebrate, in anticipation, the work of Messiah. Each feast foretold, in picture form, an aspect of what Jesus would do for His people. The first of the annual feasts was Passover which told the story of their redemption from Egypt.

Just as the Israelites were slaves to their cruel taskmasters in Egypt, so the human race was enslaved by the devil when Adam chose to believe his lies over the truth of God. God created the first pair to be one with Him. He made them in His image and filled them with His Spirit (breath) so that they would enjoy fellowship with Him and live in perfect harmony with Him as their Father and with the world in which they lived.

God gave man one gift which put both Him and man at great risk – the gift of choice. Without the freedom to choose, people would be robots, programmed and controlled by their Creator. True freedom involves the right and power to make choices without the control of anyone else, including both God and the devil.

Satan lured Adam and Eve into believing that God had short-changed them; that He had withheld from them something that would be to their benefit, independence. God never intended that freedom to choose would involve freedom to make the rules. The moment they capitulated to the devil, they were hooked. They did not understand that the depth of true freedom lay in their oneness with God, doing His will and living in perfect harmony with Him because only He is truly free – from everything imperfect that enslaves the heart.

They were enslaved to a nature that was corrupted and could no longer serve its purpose – to have fellowship with the Father in the perfection of His untainted nature. They had a new nature, corrupted and evil, and a new master – a cruel taskmaster who drove them through shame, guilt and fear to hate God and to run from Him. They no longer recognised or experienced God as their Father, but they hid from Him because they were afraid of His wrath.

Their imperfection became an impenetrable barrier between God and them. They could not reach Him and He could not reach them. They were enslaved, body, soul and spirit to the devil, and no amount of self-effort could remove the barrier. Even if they tried to be perfect, their past disqualified them from access to Him.

God built into His instructions for living – His Torah – a sacrificial system which would teach His people how serious the problem of sin was, and that the death of a perfect lamb was demanded to pay the debt of sin and free the sinner from his enslavement to the devil. Animal blood was only a picture of redemption. It could never pay the debt God required, but it spoke of one who would come – a perfect Lamb who would be qualified to pay the debt and free the human race from the penalty of death.

Every year, the Israelites celebrated their redemption from slavery in Egypt in anticipation of the one God would send to redeem them from even greater slavery – slavery to the devil.

When Jesus came, they refused to recognise Him or to acknowledge that He was God’s Messiah. He lived the life of a perfect Son before them, but they crucified Him. They did not realise that the very suffering they put Him through, in His life and in His death, qualified Him to be the perfect Lamb that would remove the barrier of sin between them and God and rescue them from slavery to the devil so that they could be restored to fellowship with the Father.

It was Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist, who recognised Him to be that perfect Lamb.

The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’ (John 1: 29)

Through His death, Jesus took sin away and broke its hold over the sinner. Satan can no longer hold us to ransom because the debt has been paid. He no longer has a claim on us. Jesus provides forgiveness for the whole world and for all time. Even the sins that lie in the future are taken care of by His blood.

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2: 2)

This is the power of the cross!

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.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Discipline Versus Punishment

April 13, 2015Bible Studyblood, grow weary, opposition, resistedLuella Campbell

DISCIPLINE VERSUS PUNISHMENT

Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his sons? ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the ones He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as sons.’ (Heb. 12: 3-6).

How important it was for his readers to fix their eyes on Jesus! Like Peter walking on the water, the turbulent circumstances around them caused them to waver and to lose confidence in their Master and in themselves and their resolve and ability to follow Him, no matter what. As His disciples, they knew that their relationship with Him was far closer than mere admirers. To be a disciple was to learn to become just like their rabbi, to live like him and to imitate him in everything he said and did.

By turning away and going back to the yoke – the teaching and way of life – of a lesser rabbi, they were in effect saying that they no longer believed that Jesus was most authoritative rabbi to follow. They were declaring, by their defection, that His life and teachings were no longer authentic for them, and repudiating their right to be called sons of God.

By doing that they had forgotten the reality of who they were. If they regarded the suffering they were undergoing as believers in Jesus as punishment for their sins, they had missed the truth of the radical change that had happened when they believed and received Jesus as their Messiah and Saviour. They were no longer slaves but sons.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8:15).

Slaves had a different relationship to their master from sons. Slaves did not belong in the family. They did not share the name or the inheritance of sons. They lived in fear of punishment if they did not comply with the master’s orders. They could be beaten or even killed if they disobeyed.

‘You are not slaves, but sons’ the writer reminded them. The troubles they were experiencing were not punishment for sin as they might have erroneously viewed them. God has dealt with sin, once and for all, in the death of His Son. The writer had taken pains to explain to them that Jesus’s once-for-all, never-to-be-repeated sacrifice had taken care of sin forever. Unlike the sacrifices of the old covenant which had to be repeated again and again as a reminder of sin, the blood of Jesus had perfected them forever and they were now undergoing the process of being made holy.

Their hardships were not punishment but discipline. Punishment was for slaves; discipline was for sons. Punishment was retribution for doing wrong; discipline was correction to point them towards becoming true sons in their attitudes and behaviour.

How important it is for us to understand what God is doing in our lives when we go through the pain and hardships that don’t make sense and seem to indicate that God is either absent or doesn’t care! “The problem of suffering” has troubled both believers and unbelievers from time immemorial. Books and sermons abound; solutions are offered or denied.

Two facts must never be ignored; we live in and are part of a fallen world – we cannot evade the effects of sin and the suffering which sin brings; we are God’s children – He uses every experience we go through to mould us into the likeness of Jesus.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom.8:28-29).

How else can God reveal the remnants of the old nature in us if He does not allow us to experience the circumstances that trigger our sinful responses? Because we don’t understand what He is doing, we mistrust or blame Him. Instead of growing in grace, we waste the opportunities to imitate Jesus. He endured opposition from sinners because His eye was on the reward. If we keep our eyes on the prize instead of bewailing our suffering, like Jesus we shall endure, persevere and, in the end, inherit God’s promises.

What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love Him – these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit (1 Cor. 2: 9-10).

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

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

No Blood, No Forgiveness

March 21, 2015Bible Studyblood, ceremonies, forgiveness, sprinkled, tabernacleLuella Campbell

NO BLOOD, NO FORGIVENESS

When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant, which God commanded you to keep.’ In the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in the ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:19-22).

Blood as a cleansing agent? Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it! Blood is one of the most difficult stains to get out of fabric. Forensic scientists know that, even after a murder has been committed and the blood cleaned up, the evidence remains. A substance called Luminol, sprayed on the place where blood was spilt, will cause the stains to glow in the dark, revealing the crime that the murderer tried to conceal. Blood spilt by a murderer will still cry out even when the stain has been washed away. It’s a bit like the blood of Abel, isn’t? His blood cried out from the ground for vengeance and God heard.

But blood within the body, both human and animal, serves a different purpose. Blood is vital for life. Without blood, nothing can live. Blood has many functions within the body. It forms an efficient transport system, carrying oxygen and nutrients to the remotest cells in the body. It can flow through tiny tubules no bigger than a hair, its red cells moving in single file to do their work.

Blood also has a unique function as a cleansing agent. Where there is an injury, it rushes cells to the spot to plug the hole, stop the bleeding and transport soldier cells to fight invaders that would move in to contaminate the entire body. Its transport system also does an efficient job of removing waste products from the cells via the lungs and kidneys. A build-up of the waste products of breathing, eating and burning fuel will kill as surely as an assassin’s bullet, without the blood.

But human and animal blood cannot cleanse the soul of the pollution caused by sin. God’s covenant with Israel gave them clear instructions about living God’s way but it also made provision for failure. And fail they would because their hearts were tainted with the rebellious nature of Adam. No amount of self-effort would satisfy God’s perfection. His standard demanded nothing less than perfection. There had to be provision for forgiveness for their sheer inability to live up to His holiness.

Was God being too demanding? Why couldn’t He just lower the standard a little, taking into account their human frailty? He cannot change His own nature and the nature of sin. His solution was to pay the penalty for sin Himself because He is the only one who can measure up to His own standard. How did He do that? He became human in the person of His Son.

Sin demands the payment of blood, but pure blood, unblemished by sin. Of course we understand that blood represents life. The life in is the blood. When blood is shed, life is sacrificed. When the life of a sinless person is given in sacrifice, the demand is met and paves the way for forgiveness.

Animal sacrifices prescribed for forgiveness under the old covenant were a picture of what had already taken place in the eternal realm – Jesus, God’s provision for forgiveness and cleansing to remove sin. The old covenant came into effect through the sprinkling of animal blood, providing ceremonial cleansing from sin. The new covenant came into effect through the sprinkling of Jesus’s blood, providing eternal redemption, the forgiveness of sins, for all sin, for all people, for all time.

How tragic that so many of God’s children have not grasped this truth. When bad things happen in their lives, the accuser cashes in. ‘God is punishing you for this, that or the other that you have done,’ he whispers, and they believe him. Satan is a liar and the father of lies. He can only speak the language of lies. Why listen to him?

God is perfectly just. Even in our human systems of justice, no one can be punished for the same offence twice. Since Jesus has paid for the sin of the whole world, God will never judge His children, not even those who do not acknowledge Him, unless they refuse to accept His forgiveness. How He must grieve that the blood of His Son has been wasted on so many who will not embrace His forgiveness and live in His love!

No blood, no forgiveness! Yes, it is true, but . . . blood has been shed, pure, unblemished human blood, for the forgiveness of sins. All it requires is acknowledgement that I, the sinner, need forgiveness and cleansing for breaking God’s law and from the pollution of my sin, and grateful acceptance of the blood of Jesus that He shed in my place so that I can go free.

Rescued And Redeemed

December 14, 2014Bible Studyblood, forgiven, redeemed, rescuedLuella Campbell

RESCUED AND REDEEMED

For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1: 13, 14)

How easy it is to gloss over these words like reading the newspaper and yet, what wealth and power is to be found in them!

“Rescued!” What does that mean to you? Not much, perhaps, unless you have experienced what it is like to be rescued from danger and possible death. I have never been rescued from a life-threatening situation as far as physical circumstances go, but I have been rescued from a lifestyle that was taking me deeper and deeper into darkness. If you have been involved in habits or addictions that were destroying you, you will understand what I mean.

Jesus rescued us from a situation far more dangerous and deadly even than physical death. What could be more dangerous than facing death? Jesus gives us the answer.

I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear, Fear Him who, after your body has been killed, has the authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him. (Lk. 12: 5)

Because of God’s mercy, Jesus has not only rescued us from death – He has also rescued us from the fear of death.

Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebr. 2: 15)

Jesus not only rescued us from death, i.e. shut out of the presence of God, but He also rescued us from the dominion of darkness which He called “hell” (Lk. 2: 15). What does that mean?

In the Bible, “darkness” often describes the disposition of the devil and all those who are in bondage to him. Darkness is the absence of light. What is the disposition of the devil? God is everything that he is not. God is loving – the devil is not; God is generous – the devil is not; God is merciful – the devil is not; God is pure – the devil is not; and so we can go on. Imagine living in an environment like that – where you are completely ruled forever by and in the company of beings who are everything that God is not!

“Redeemed!” Redemption has to do with slavery. Not only were we in hell and under the dominion of darkness, under the control of an evil being and evil spirits who would completely dominate us forever, but we were also enslaved by him. He had the right to control us because he tricked the first human pair into giving him dominion over them, and all their descendants. We had no option but to serve him because we belonged to him.

The good news is that Jesus redeemed us by paying the redemption price to buy us back and free us from the devil’s dominion. How did He do that? He died our death, and took away the devil’s right to keep us in bondage to death. He paid the ransom price to redeem us so that He could forgive our sin and wipe our slate clean. Satan has no more hold over us because he has nothing more of which to accuse us. We have been freed from his clutches and removed from his power to dominate us ever again.

We have a new Master, Jesus, who is completely unlike our old master. We live under a new King, one who is our Rescuer and Redeemer. He loves us so passionately that He would not leave us to perish in the predicament we landed in because of our sin. He came in person to get us out of slavery and back into His family where we belong.

It is for this reason that we can be a part of the people for whom Paul prayed – filled with the knowledge of His will, bearing fruit, growing in our knowledge of God and full of joyful thanksgiving because of what He has done for us.

Ebenezer Family Church

HE IS RISEN!