“My son, do not forget my teaching,
but keep my commands in your heart,
for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you peace and prosperity.
Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Proverbs 3:1-3
In our youth group last night we spoke about what happens when something dies. We were going over the story of Lazarus and why Martha would say “surely by know he stinks.” If you don’t know the story, it is in John 11. Go give it a read, and I pray God brings you closer to knowing Him through it.
Anyway, we talked about how a dead body stiffens up. Most of us have seen road kill a time or two and can know how a body goes through rigormortis, where the body gets stiff. God started speaking a word over me in that moment. I didn’t get a chance to share it in youth but He has continued to speak it over me this morning so I would like to share it here.
We can say that the body can’t live without oxygen or food or water, but ultimately the body can’t live without blood pumping through it. I am not a medical professional but it makes sense to me that the body’s main goal is to keep pumping blood so that we can breathe and our brains can function and our muscles stay alive and active. The Bible speaks a lot about blood.
In fact, in the Old Testament, blood was highly respected. Why? Because blood is life. When the Bible speaks on forgiveness of sins it is met with the pouring of blood. In the Old Testament that pouring of blood comes from unblemished lambs. In the New Testament the pouring of blood comes from our perfect, unblemished Jesus and He is the final blood that ever has to be poured for our forgiveness of sins.
The wages of sin is death. (Roman 6:23) Sin brings death. Without sin there would be no death. In Jesus, we find eternal life. How? “What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” He washes away our sins because He paid the wages of it once and for all with the pouring of His blood that brought His death. He also resurrected out of death and into eternal life and through Him, someday, we all will ressurect into eternal life if we believe in Him and His work on the cross.
But did you know He even resurrects the living? (Romans 6:5) How? Go back up and read Proverbs 3:1-3. If blood gives life and scripture tells us to write God’s word on the tablet of our heart, knowing that our heart pumps our blood, then that means our hearts will be pumping His word through our veins. Our very character changes through the sanctification that happens by the Spirit testifying to our hearts the truth of His word that we are writing on the tablets of our hearts. It is in our blood! It gives us new, resurrected life!
Ephesians 1:5 tells us that He predestined (decided beforehand) that He would adopt us as His children through Christ. This isn’t a “signing His name on a legal document” kind of adoption. This is a “giving of the blood” adoption. A full adoption. We have been born again through His ressurection. (1 Peter 1:3) It is now His blood that flows through our veins like a stream that will never run dry but will bring eternal life. (John 4:14)
Along with that new blood comes a new heart with new desires. (Ezekile 36:26-27) It is a desire to write His words on our hearts so, now, this new blood is pumping His truth through our veins. Not only have we been saved by His blood but we are being sanctified by it.
This blood gives us new life. New breath. He becomes the daily bread and the living water that we need to keep that blood flowing and giving us that new life. We desire it!
We change not because of our blood but because of His! We are saved not by our works but by His work on the cross and His sanctifying work in us. It is all Him. It has to be Him. Where else would we go? He is the only One with the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)
“The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
‘This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.’
Then he adds:
‘Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.’
And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
Hebrews 10:16-23
“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:5
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