On This Day: A Bloody Rejection of a Bloody Jesus

So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. (Matthew 27:24-26)

 

   To call on ourselves the blood of an innocent person about to be murdered is to curse ourselves with the guilt of the crime. To add our children to the mix is to expose how evil-hearted we are to want our children to share in the guilt.

   Horrified?!

   This is what is happening all around us. When people curse themselves by utterly rejecting everything to do with Jesus, they not only show that the blood of their sins is on their own heads, but they deny their children any knowledge of the Savior who sets people free from sin, death, and hell.

   For the rest of this, let me share God’s word because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). As Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)

   The importance of Jesus’ willingly pouring out his blood is because, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). The positive is equally true, that WITH the shedding of blood there IS forgiveness of sins!

   Because Jesus did this, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). The “in him” means this applies only to those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and have been “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

   And here is one expression of the wonderful consequence of being washed clean in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:19-22).

   We are either remaining in that designation of people who curse themselves and their children with the utter rejection of Jesus as Creator, Savior and Lord, or we are receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and drawing near to our Father in heaven with absolute confidence that all our sins have been propitiated (paid for by Christ) and God now receives us as righteous in his sight.

   Folks, as our world invents ways of killing people, death is closer to us all than we would wish. THEREFORE…

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 10:27-28).

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)