Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” – Exodus 24:8 (NIV)
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. – Matthew 26:28 (NIV)
When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” – Hebrews 9:19-20 (NIV)
Blood dripped down from the cross. Droplets of shed blood hit the soil. Many had bled there before. Countless slain criminals had hung above the earth and died there, soaking the ground with blood. However, something appeared different that day.
The man hanging among the thieves was innocent. He had been tried in a religious court that had refused to accept His message. He had put up little defense against their accusations. Even when they handed Him over to the Romans, He stood in silence as He faced His inevitable death sentence. He said little as He endured the cruel beatings from the Roman soldiers. He had offered no resistance when they forced Him to march with His cross through the streets. Even as He hung upon the cross, the few words that He offered were mumbled as he neared death.
He had been called Rabbi. John the Baptist had called Him the Lamb of God. Some had said that He was the Christ (the Anointed One). He was even called the Messiah by others. Yet, some mistook Him for one of the prophets like Elijah or Jeremiah.
No matter what He was called. He hung high above the ground and shed His blood for the salvation of the world. Nothing would ever be the same once His blood was shed. No one who called on His name and believed His message would not have the new covenant presented through His shed blood and slain body.
And that day was the preparation,
and the sabbath drew on.
– Luke 23:54 (KJV)
What Moses had offered in the wilderness was hardly anything close to what Jesus offered on Calvary’s cross. Jesus bore all of our grief and sorrow for our sake. Jesus offered a covenant that Moses could only imitate at that point. Moses could only offer a ceremonial sprinkling of the blood for the covenant. Jesus offered a prophetic and redemptive covenant that showed the power of God through His shed blood. Souls are saved continually through what Jesus offered as a supreme sacrifice on that day.
Do not believe the naysayers. Do not accept the lies and the misunderstandings. The blood of Jesus still saves. The blood of the Lord paid the price for our sins for our salvation. He stood in and paid the penalty for our wrongdoing, for our transgressions and infirmities.
Let the covering of the blood continue to work on you. Let the blood remind you of His sacrificial love. Never forget that the blood of the slain Savior who suffered for sakes soak into your soul like it once soaked into the soil of Golgotha. Let the image of that blood settle into your spirit and keep you close to Him in this new covenant. Hold dear to Him as your Lord and savior, for His blood still has power.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh:
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
– Hebrews 9:13 (NASB)
But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins,
he sat down at the right hand of God.
– Hebrews 10:12 (NIV)
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