"Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." Heb 9:22b
There are few more shocking statements in the Bible.
A person who cares about people but is unfamiliar with the Bible or Biblical concepts would see such a statement as barbaric or savage. It is a concept polite society shuns.
That little statement has so much embedded in it. Authority, responsibility, finality and the dread that anyone who has ever done something terrible that they can't undo has ever felt. If forgiveness is needed then in God's economy no excuse will buy you out of it... no compromise. Holiness by definition is uncompromising.
The smallest sin caused us as individuals and a race to turn a corner of no return.
When Adam and Eve realized that a sweet little animal that was nothing but a kind companion to them before was lying dead and lifeless so that they could be warm and clothed how their hearts must have sunk so much lower. Paradise was really lost. A flaming sword kept them from what was and would never be again.
Oh, The Blood of God. What precious blood was shed for you and me. What shock and agony to think about it... to really let it sink in. It is truly the highest price paid for anything and it's sacrifice will never be matched.
You can't call it forgiveness unless it happened at the cross. If you boil the first statement down that is what we find. Everything else is sentimentality or convenience of some kind. Our sins small and great have been brought there and there was at one time a slaughter that dealt will them forever. That truth sets us free when it hits us and sinks in. But, then as time passes and we replay the event we realize in was not just my burden... the individual sins of every person were dumped on that place.
All sin... the contractor who cheated me, the driver that cut me off, the murderer, the molester, the ignorant person... even the kindly old grandmother that looks like she would never hurt a fly. Every fault and every blunder has to it's record the blood of the innocent Savior.
My consciousness of sin is changed... transformed by that reality. Too high a price has been paid for me to look at myself and see a terrible person. Even that is removed and paid for. We now have a place apart from self to put sin. It is the cross.
If I impute sin to others I am not in God's will. Because blood was shed for those sins they must be and have been forgiven. The brutal decree has become freedom. Any other method still leaves a residue of some kind. This way leaves none.
Unforgiveness of all kinds is crucifying Christ afresh (see Heb 6:6). It will be a dead area that the Spirit of God can not fellowship with. Our God is the God of the living not the dead.
Jesus was once crucified but is now alive and has cast all that garbage into the sea of His forgetfulness.
If sin consciousness is removed from relationships we can have fresh living ones filled with humor and joy. Nothing needs to get in the way of loving ourselves and others. A way has been made for that to happen. We as individuals can enter into that dynamic.
Having found this method it is the one I am determined to employ. Transgression is brought mentally to the cross and reckoned to be paid for. That is thinking with God. That is my freedom.
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