Post Easter Blog

Okay, so this post comes a day late, but I don't have Internet at home anymore...... I honestly don't think that I can write an entire blog about Good Friday without writing another one about the significance of the Resurrection. They just go hand-in-hand. You can't have one without the other. If Jesus never died, He could never have been raised. And if He had never been raised, then we have no hope. If you put yourself in the place of the Disciples, can you imagine what they were feeling when Jesus was crucified? All their hopes were dashed. I'm sure they thought it was all over. There was nothing further to look forward to. Jesus was dead! But we know the rest of the story and we know that Jesus is no longer dead! The grave could not hold Him! His resurrection completes the other half of His story. If He died and was never raised, we would be like the Disciples with no hope. But, as my friend (and now roommate), Shannon, said in an e-mail, "We know that Sunday is coming!! The resurrection is coming! Our hope is not in Jesus’ death but in his resurrection. The power of the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in those who believe in Christ. What hope we have! Sunday is coming!!!" She continues to say that no matter what we face, we know that "these difficulties are temporary just like Christ’s death." What a magnificent thing to grasp. We have hope and life through Jesus! Let the children sing a song of liberation. The God of our salvation set us free. Death, where is thy sting? The curse of sin is broken. The empty tomb stands open, come and see! He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah! Alive! Praise and glory to the Lamb. He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah! Alive forever, Amen! Let my heart sing out, for Christ, the One and only. So powerful and holy rescued me. Death won't hurt me now because He has redeemed me. No grave will ever keep me from my King! I'm alive, alive, alive, hallelujah! Alive! praise and glory to the Lamb. He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah! Alive forever, Amen! Worthy is the Lamb, worthy of our praise- Worthy is the One who has overcome the grave- Let the people dance, let the people sing- Worthy is the mighty King!!

A New Blood Covenant

"Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission (forgiveness) of sin."

Hebrews 9:22

As "Good Friday" reminds us, today is the day that Jesus was brutally crucified. Some wonder why this was the way God chose to deliver us. Why would He require Jesus to die? To show His power when Jesus was raised from the dead three days later? Yes. To provide a way for us to come straight to Him instead of through a priest? Yes. To show us He loved us so very very much? Yes. But this day, Good Friday, means so much more than just remembering what Jesus went through. This day had to happen. Jesus had to die. It was God's covenant to us. A New Covenant. A Blood Covenant. Let's go back several chapters in the Bible to the story of Abraham. Genesis 15 shows us the story of the covenant that the Lord made with Abraham. If you don't know much about Abraham, the big thing to know is that the Lord promised him many descendants, in fact, a whole nation of descendants (and promised land to those descendants as well). To make this promise a covenant, the Lord had Abraham take several animals and split them down the middle and lay them out on the ground. The Lord then passed a "smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves" to seal the covenant. It's kind of gross to think about, but can you imagine the amount of blood there was to do this? Why did The Lord want it to be a blood covenant? I think that He wanted Abraham to know that this was serious business. That He fully intended to keep His covenant to Abraham. Anytime that an animal was killed in those days, it was a sacrificial thing. It was significant. So fast forward back to the day Jesus died. Why did God choose Jesus' death to be the way by which we are saved? He wanted us to have a Blood Covenant with Him. He really means business when He says that Jesus died so that we may live. Jesus died - and went to Hell for three days - in our place. We have a Blood Covenant with God that says we will not go to Hell if we believe that Jesus went for us and was resurrected three days later. Jesus was the Ultimate Sacrifice. Not only was this a Blood Covenant between us and the Lord, it was also a New Covenant. Before Jesus died for us, the earthly presence of the Lord was hidden behind a veil in the Temple. Only certain high priests were allowed into the presence of God. At the very moment Jesus died, the veil was torn from top to bottom (signifying that the Lord tore the veil, not man), so that from then on, anyone can be in the presence of God. Jesus not only was the Ultimate Sacrifice, but He made it possible for us to go directly to God instead of through a priest. The New Blood Covenant. It is still with a burdened heart and heaviness that I write about this, remembering all that Jesus went through and His eventual death. But the Lord really impressed it upon me that Good Friday had to happen the way that it did. It was the only way our sins could be covered and the only way that we could enter into Covenant with God. I do not say any of this to diminish the fact that Jesus is no longer dead, but was raised from the dead and is Alive....I just feel an extraordinary significance about Good Friday....."Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission." Nothing but the blood of JESUS!! What can wash away my sin? What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh! precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see. For my cleansing this my plea Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone. Naught of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Now by this I’ll overcome. Now by this I’ll reach my home. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Glory! Glory! This I sing. All my praise for this I bring. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.