How Much More?

This has been a great study... the parallels between the ashes of the sin offering and the blood of Jesus Christ.

"For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." - Hebrews 9:13-14 ESV

"Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh water shall be added in a vessel. Then a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone, or the slain or the dead or the grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean." - Numbers 19:16-19 ESV

Those ashes were the inflammable residue of the sin offering. It was what could not be taken away... even by fire. Those ashes mixed in water and applied cleanses a person legally and physically.

Jesus' blood is alive. His life could not be taken from Him. He did not die from His wounds. He gave His life and His blood is living blood.

If dead ashes could cleanse the body 'how much more' can living eternal blood cleanse our conscience from 'dead works'?

Jesus blood washed us once at our salvation then again and again in our mind to stop us from 'working' for God's approval. We are made clean because we come in contact with the cleansing agent. We don't earn it.

1 John 1:8-9 ESV - "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

A Hebrew person could stumble into a grave yard and be made unclean through no fault of their own. They would need to have that water sprinkled on them again and again.

We have a once and for all eternal sacrifice that is living and has become a remedy for our mind, heart and soul. That blood 'experienced' our sin when all of the sins of the human race were placed on Jesus.

Hebrews 12:24 ESV - "...and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."

Abels blood cried for vengeance but Jesus' blood enables forgiveness. It makes a claim that sin has been paid for and proclaims freedom.

How much more? Yes, so much more!

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Spider Webs And Cornerstones

I have this visualization of deception being like a spider web. It has no real foundation that holds it up. The spider connects the threads to objects and builds something. I think all of us have 'connected the dots' only to find out that we were wrong about the conclusions we came to.

"For precept [must be] upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [and] there a little:" - Isaiah 28:10 KJV

Truth is like this.

"But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [and] there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken." - Isaiah 28:13 KJV

The trap is also like this. People build line upon line but get snared in their own thoughts. They paint themselves into a corner.

"Then He looked at them and said, "What then is this that is written: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone'? "Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."" - Luke 20:17-18 NKJV

Jesus said this. He was talking about Himself. He Is a foundational truth. He Is like the Sun. He Is a light that illuminates other things. If we reject foundational truths our thinking won't be grounded. It will hang it the air like a gossamer creation.

People search and search but sometimes they have already rejected their provision. They have rejected the 'corner stone' and it has halted their progress.

Jesus has become my touchstone. He Is real. If what I think about myself deviates from what He says I am wrong. He has a perspective on relationships, history and many other subjects. We can read the red letters in a red letter edition of the Bible and see what He said to get a foundation to build on and our thought will not be a snare. We can be 'ministers of reconciliation' if we think with God.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," - Philippians 2:5 NKJV

"Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you." - Philippians 3:15 NKJV

Read the red letters with me. They will comfort and ground you.

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