Christians frequently cite the importance of the blood of Jesus especially during this season as we commemorate the death burial and resurrection of our savior all this talk about Jesus blood may seem strange to those who aren't familiar with the New Testament what's so special about the blood of someone who died on a cross 2,000 years ago Dr David K Bernard explains next welcome to Apostolic life in the 21st century a podcast dedicated to helping modern-day Believers live out the teachings of the first century church this podcast is part of the Teaching Ministry of Dr David
K Bernard Dr Bernard has dedicated his life to studying the Bible and helping Believers apply its message to their daily lives in Apostolic life in the 21st century Dr Bernard answers your questions about what the Bible teaches and how those teachings apply to everyday life if you enjoy this podcast we encourage you to check out Dr David K Bernard's books Dr Bernard has written more than 30 books on biblical Theology and Christian Living and Leadership visit Pentecostal publishing.com and search David Bernard for a list of available titles enter promo code dk10 at checkout to save
10% on your order that's Pentecostal publishing.com promo code dk10 to save 10% at checkout at the end of this week we'll be celebrating both Good Friday and Easter and we're going to remember how Jesus died for our sins and we're going to uh celebrate the fact that he rose from the dead and it's very likely that at some point in this week of Celebration we will make reference to probably many references to the blood of Jesus now if you're not familiar with Christianity or its teachings that probably sounds really weird to hear somebody talk about
Jesus blood like it has some kind of magical powers why do Christians make such a big deal out of Jesus blood and why is it so important when we talk about the blood of Jesus we're are actually following what the Bible says but it's important to understand when we say we're saved or we're Redeemed by the blood of Jesus we're talking about a concept uh we're talking about God's Plan of Salvation and let me give you some equivalent terms another term is atonement uh or a sacrifice for sin U the King James uses the word
propitiation which means a sacrifice for of atonement um the Bible uses these terms to describe how that Christ's death um provides our Salvation I would also say the Bible is very clear that the death alone was not sufficient because he died but then he was buried in the Tomb and then he rose again the third day so the resurrection turned death death into light to life defeat into Victory it Vindicated um Jesus it showed that God accepted the sacrifice and so when we say the blood of Jesus that is a shorthand way of saying the
death burial and resurrection of Jesus we see this in 1 Corinthians 15 that the gospel consists of these three essential points the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ we so we can say or sometimes we'll say the cross Capital C we're not really talking about the physical wood but we're talking about what happened at the cross uh and so when we say the blood we're saved by the blood we're saved by the cross we're saved by the atonement we're Saved By The Gospel the full meaning is we're saved by the death burial and resurrection
of Jesus Christ we're not talking about the physical blood as such obviously there was physical blood that had to be shed but let's put it this way uh when Jesus was crucified probably his physical blood spattered on some of the Roman soldiers did that blood save them no even if they had the physical blood of Jesus on their body it didn't save them because it's not just the physical blood it's talking about the real physical Bloodshed the real death but you must have faith and appropriate that that or apply that to your life same way
with the cross some people claim to have splinters of the True Cross and they're displayed in cathedrals in Europe can you pray to that splinter even if it was part of the real cross which I highly doubt does it have any efficacy no it's not the wood so presumably sooner or later that cross was destroyed some pieces of wood may have ended up being used for something else but did that have any magical power or saving power absolutely not but let's go to the scripture so so really what we're talking about is is the God's
Plan of Salvation expressed from Genesis through revelation God created humans to have fellowship with him we broke that Fellowship through sin uh sin separates us from God since God is the source of Life he's the Creator and he's the source of all Grace all goodness every good gift every perfect gift comes from God James chapter 1 says so love joy peace every positive thing we experience is comes from God ultimately so when we humans live in sin we break the fellowship with God because God is Holy he cannot have fellowship with sin so that means
we cut ourselves off from life even though we may physically survive for a few decades eventually we're going to die and then we're going to face an eternity without God and even while we live in this life we're separated from God's presence and his grace so what's the solution to that how can people be saved from that that that physical spiritual and eternal death well according to God's plan he couldn't just ignore it there had to be an atonement so Jesus Christ was the only sinless human being he's the only one who did not deserve
to die for his own sin CU he did not sin when he died in our place when he suffered on the cross when he was placed in the Tomb and his Spirit was in the place of the dead he underwent everything that a sinner would feel I believe in the Lake of Fire that's why he cried out on the cross my God my God why have you forsaken me so he took on the punishment for the sins of the world he paid the price for our sins therefore if we believe in him and we obey
his gospel to use an Old Testament term the blood is applied to our lives where did that come from it came from the Old Testament animal was sacrificed the blood was shed that was seen as an atonement or a substitute or a covering for sin but but as Hebrews explains the blood of animals could not substitute for humans because we're greater than them that was only pointing toward the true sacrifice Jesus Christ he being a true human being a sinless human being the infinite God manifest In the Flesh he could take our place and he
could take the place not only of one person but for all persons and not only for a short time but for all eternity because he's the infinite God so in other words in Jesus Christ the infinite God took on the punishment of our sins and paid for our sins now when when God instituted the Passover for Israel so when Israel was being delivered from bondage in Egypt God sent an angel of death that would go to Every Egyptian household and kill the firstborn and that was done so that they would finally release Israel well that
Death Angel would come to Jew the Israelite households too but God said kill a lamb and put the blood of the Lamb on the doorpost and when the death angel sees the blood it will know you are a Believer it will pass over your house and not visit your house so it's therefore it's called the Passover so the blood was literally applied that Passover Lamb is signifies Jesus Christ it's a type and foreshadowing so just as the ancient Israelites had to apply the blood of the Lamb on their doorpost in order to escape the Judgment
of death so we must apply the blood of Jesus Christ to our lives now that does not mean a physical dobbing but it means and Hebrews 11 explains it's by faith so just as Israel kept the Passover and they were delivered so we live by faith today how is the blood applied to our lives well through the new birth experience through repentance of sin water baptism in the name ofes Jesus Christ receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost uh let me give you scripture for this to show you how this all fits together in Romans
3:21 um but now the righteousness of God apart from faith is revealed being Witness by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ so here's the key this is how we apply the blood today through faith to all and on all who believe for there's no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in
his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed uh to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ so here God here the Bible is saying even the people of the Old Testament God had previously just skipped their sins it seemed like he was ignoring them but he wasn't he was waiting because the price would finally be paid by Jesus Christ now how's it happened it's through faith of course by faith that leads us to the New
Birth experience but that's another subject but what you see here he uses the term propitiation a sacrifice of atonement so that's the language of the temple so just as a worshipper brought a lamb to be sacrific at the temple to cover their sins so Jesus by dying on the cross becomes the sacrifice for our sins by his blood then it also used the language of redemption just as you go a person was sold into slavery to pay a debt a Kinsman could go and pay money to redeem that slave out of his bondage so Jesus
by his death by his blood redeems us from bondage so those are two different analogies and then it says you're Justified you're counted as righteous that's like going into a courtroom even though you're guilty and the judge says we're going to Pardon you and we're going to treat you as if you never sinned we're going to set you free so the the um sacrifice of Jesus Christ is is represented in the terms of the the courtroom you're justified in the terms of the temple uh God you the blood of Jesus is your propitiation or sacrifice
of atonement in terms of the slave market uh Jesus has redeemed us so all these are different ways of describing the death burial and the resurrection but it does include the resurrection as of already mentioned because here in the same book Romans 4:25 it says who was delivered up speaking of Jesus for our because of our offences and was raised because of our justification so just the death alone wouldn't have been enough it required the resurrection of Jesus Christ to finish the work just like for us we must repent die to sin be baptized be
buried with Christ but we must also receive the new life through receiving the Holy Spirit and then one more passage that I would like to use to tie this together in First Peter chapter 1 verse 18 knowing that you are not redeemed with corrupt able things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot so we're Redeemed by the blood of Jesus but again it's the spiritual work because if I jump down to verse 22
since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the Brethren love one another firly with a pure heart having been born again not of corruptible seed but Incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides forever so we're saved by the blood of Jesus but how does that work when we believe the message the preaching we obey it and we receive the new birth experience which includes the holy spirit so it all ties in there together preaching the blood of Jesus also leads us to preaching the
new birth experience thank you for listening to this episode of apostolic life in the 21st century if you enjoy this podcast please take a moment to give us a review on Apple podcasts Spotify or your favorite podcast app we also appreciate it when you share Apostolic life in the 21st century with a friend or family member and make plans to join us again next time as we look at how the Bible applies to Everyday Life
