In the last post, I mentioned that Jesus bled in seven distinct places- bringing a more complete redemption than we may have thought. You see, we are redeemed by the blood. So, everywhere Jesus spilled His blood He actually purchased some degree of freedom for us.
Look at the chart at the right and you’ll see what I’m talking about (we’ll talk about what all this might mean in a few more posts… we’ll build to it).
As I studied the subject, I began to see that there are rumblings of this all throughout the Bible, this idea that Jesus didn’t just bleed in one place but bled in multiple places. It’s as if Scripture reference after Scripture reference pointed to the fact that Jesus would bleed in this way- bringing total redemption / freedom to His people.
For instance, “the first occurrence of the shedding of blood was in the Garden of Eden when God sacrificed an animal or animals to provide a covering for humanity’s shame” (Mary Baxter, The Power of the Blood).
Whereas they made coverings of fig leaves for themselves, God provided them tunics from animals- by the shedding of blood. It all pointed to the fact that whereas man could not atone for his own shortcomings or cover his own sin in his own effort, the Lord would vigorously do for man what man could not do for himself by blood sacrifice.
This is interesting on many levels. We know that Adam and Eve hid themselves from the Lord after their sin. However, the Lord still came walking to meet with them in the cool of the day- as He had on all other days before that point. He was still seeking fellowship with them in their fallen state (see Genesis 3:8f.).
I have been told more than once that God couldn’t have anything to do with them because they were stained by sin. That’s not what the Bible shows, though. Rather, the Bible shows that God removed them from the Garden so that they would not eat of the Tree of Life and live in a state of sin forever (see Genesis 3:22). He followed them out of the Garden, apparently, because He continued revealing Himself to their sons, Cain and Abel, speaking to them audibly and clearly. They lived in His presence (Genesis 5:1).
As well, we understand that all sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed to Jesus as their ultimate fulfillment. Well, one author draws attention to another parallel here that goes deeper than just “that sacrifice points to Jesus.” He pointed at that the priest used to sprinkle virtually everything with blood seven times (see Leviticus 4:17, 14:7, 16:14, 16:19; Numbers 19:4) (Bob Sorge, Power of the Blood).
What’s the point? Sin didn’t break fellowship with God. It almost sounds heretical to say that, I know. Maybe you’ve even kept yourself far from God- or even church- because you’ve believed that lie. No, sin didn’t break fellowship with God. Rather, though sin was not part of God’s plan for us, sin became the platform that unleashed the greatest display of His love… the blood.
I couldn’t agree more!
Preachers say, when you sin “you cannot hear God’s voice”
well, God spoke to Cain after He murdered Abel.
long before we sin. God created the Sheep.
even while yet we were sinners, God’s grace has been there all along.
nothing caught God by surprise.
Sin didn’t break our fellowship with God,
but where sin abounds, grace super abounds
sin became an instrumental to show forth
God’s amazing Love, Grace – Jesus.
grace and peace
Thanks for your feedback. Yes, the entire thing sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Almost as if we can’t accept that what God actually does IS WHAT HE ACTUALLY DOES.
yes.. sometimes the things of Heaven are too good to be true here on earth. but we understand them because we are not of this world.
grace and peace
Pingback: the words of a heretic (on language, myth, shame, & propaganda) « JRFibonacci's blog: partnering with reality