Lesson Two
Book D
BLOOD – WORKS OR GRACE
Most Christians recognise that blood has a major part to play in the gospel and Bible as a whole. They sing about it, talk about it, wash in it and plead it. Christians know the blood is significant, although many do not have a clue as to why.
To gain an understanding of the importance of blood, we need to go back to the book of Genesis.
Genesis 2:17 – "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die"
God is the sustainer of life. Sin is a choice against God. Therefore sin is a choice against life. Such a choice, by simple definition, brings death.
Romans 5:2 – "Death came to all men because all men sinned".
Sin contains death, and the committing of sin releases death. Death is not the punishment of sin; death is the consequence of sin for it is, by definition, a choice against God who is life.
When man sinned, he died spiritually. God did not see the act and then kill him as a punishment. Death was simply the consequence of his choice. This fact reveals why forgiveness is not enough. A man who disobeys a clear instruction not to point a loaded gun at his own head and pull the trigger needs more than forgiveness from the one who told him not to do it. The one who instructed and commanded him could forgive the man his sin, but that would do nothing for the state of the man lying on the floor with a fatal bullet hole through his brain! The man may be forgiven well enough, but what he needs is a resurrection of life, as it is only life that can counteract death – not forgiveness.
This is precisely what happened to man. Man disobeyed God and spiritually shot himself in the head, through sin, which released death. God is rich in mercy, he is love and love is quick to forgive sin. But man needed more than the forgiveness of God; he needed the resurrecting life of God.
Man attempts to deal with death
Man attempted to deal with his spiritual death in two ways, and these two ways have set the pattern ever since.
Romans 1:25 – "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie". Romans 1: 28 – "They did not like to retain God in their knowledge".
Mankind has attempted to deal with death by adopting atheism, a denial of life.
The second way man attempted to deal with death was to try and cover it by the work of his own hands. They attempted to improve their condition through self-effort. These are the religious and; morally fervent people of Romans 2 who would not even consider being seen in public without their fig leaves on!
God’s dealing with the Heathen
Genesis 3:9 – "The Lord God called to Adam and said Where are you?"
God cam looking for man, revealing himself to him in an unmistakable way. Man could no longer persist in his atheism, except by wilful choice.
John 16: 8-9 – "And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin…because they do not believe on Me".
Atheism, a denial of spiritual life in order to prevent facing up to spiritual death, is a choice. Only when a man freely resists the conviction of the Holy Spirit can he be truly atheist. Such a one God has given over to a debased mind (Romans 2:28)
God’s Dealing with the Religious
God has never been impressed with fig leaves as an antidote to death! He looked at Adam and Eve in their fig leave suits and said, "Get those stupid things off!" God knows that there is nothing in a fig leaf that can do any good. All the fig leaves of mans best effort will only cover up the problem and temporarily hide it from sight. Death remains beneath the outer respectability.
Both the atheist, who has done away with God and who acts out his death, and the fig-leave-wearing religious, who has done away with death in order to act like God, are both equally deceived. God demands that the atheist acknowledges His presence, and that the religious strips off his fig leave so that both can come to the understanding, in the light of both the reality of God and the reality of sin that "There is no difference; all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". (Romans 3:23)
God’s dealing with death
God knows that the only way to counteract death is with life – not by denial or self-effort. He knew that life needed to be released into the Earth. And so there is the shedding of blood.
The reason for bloodshed is simple. Most people know the scripture, which states that without the shedding of blood there is not remission of sin. (Hebrews 9:22); but most people think this is God demanding vengeance before he is willing to forgive. This is simply not the case. God has a much more practical reason for needing blood shed, as found in Leviticus.
Leviticus 17:11-14 – "For the life of the flesh is in the blood…. its blood sustains its life".
God understood that as death is released by sin, so life is released by blood. Sin contains death and blood contains life. Therefore to counteract sin and death there must be blood shed to release life. This is why blood is at the basis of every covenant, for it is life that man so desperately needs.
The first innocent sacrificed – Genesis 3:21
God responded to the problem of death by causing an innocent animal to be sacrificed in order to clothe the man and ensure his survival. The purpose of this was as follows:-
The offerings of Cain and Abel – Genesis 4:1-7
Cain approached God with an offering which was not acceptable. He came with the fruit of his own labours, the produce of a cursed ground, farmed and harvested by his own blood, sweat and tears. It represented his own best efforts to please God. God rejected the offering, not because God is against fresh fruit or vegetarians, but because the offering represented a work of the flesh.
Abel was spiritually no better than Cain; like Cain he was a farmer. Yet his offering was acceptable and found favour with God because it spoke of the coming Christ.
Hebrews 11:4 – By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
Abel’s sacrifice was a "witness" which testified to the provision of a lamb of God who would become a curse and collect our wage so that we could receive his blessing. It spoke of Christ, our Witness, who declares us righteous through His blood.
The opportunity to enter into Blood Covenant was open to both brothers. But to enter, man had to swallow pride and recognise that life was not a reward for good behaviour, but a free gift made available by God through his provision of an innocent other.
How was Abraham justified?
Romans 4:2-4 – If Abraham was justified by works, he has something of which to boast, but not before God..
Had Abraham tried to approach God by works, he would have ended up with a debt of death. But because he "believed God" would provide a sacrifice (c.f. Genesis 22:8) righteousness and life was accounted to him.
How was David justified?
Romans 4:5-8 – David……describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works.
David too recognised that righteousness and life were a free gift, not the result of works.
The purpose of the law and the sacrifices
It has been suggested that during the Old Testament, it was a person’s ability to keep a clean sheet with God that brought salvation. The examples of Abel, Abraham and David should dispel this idea. But then the question must be asked, "What was the purpose of the Law?"
Galatians 3:24 – The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
Paul tells us that the Law was holy, just and good. It spelt out in unambiguous terms what perfection was, and as it was instigated by Almighty God, it was not up for discussion or repeal.
Romans 7:7 – I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said "You shall not covet".
The law made it clear what were the standards of God. Tied in with the keeping of the law were the promises of provision, victory, success and health.
The first 14 verses of Deuteronomy 28 declare the blessings of God which are available to the man who keeps the whole law in every detail: It shall come to pass if you diligently obey to observe carefully all his commands…..
The promises sound great! The trouble is, to get them one had to keep the law perfectly in every detail. Man was to recognise the abundance of the glory of God, but then recognise his own inability to attain it. The law taught him "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God".
From verse 15 onwards in Deuteronomy 28 there is a list of curses which will come upon the person who fails in any point to keep the whole law. It shall come to pass if you do not obey…..to observe carefully all his commands…all these curses shall come upon you…
The curses sounded terrible! And to receive all of them, man just had to slip up on one single point of the perfect law. The task was impossible and showed the sinful man that "The wages of sin is death".
Presented with so stark a reality, man was forced to look outside of himself for a saviour whose blessings could be received through simple faith.
If the law was a tutor to show us the need for a life giving saviour, then the system of blood sacrifices which God also instigated at this time testified to God’s plan and intention to provide man with the bleeding, life giving sacrificial Christ.
The blood of the Old Testament sacrifices could not take away sin and return man to life (Heb 10:4). What they did do thought was testify to the blood of Jesus which was able to replace sin and death with cleansing and more importantly, life.
Hebrews 9:11-12 – But Christ came as high priest…. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
It is the blood of Jesus which has the life giving ability to "perfect forever those who are being sanctified" (Heb 10:14). In other words, the life blood of Jesus cleansed and perfected the spirit of man, purging it of death and replacing it with life…something no fig leaf or animal blood could ever do!
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship…" (Ephesians 4:8-10)
QUESTIONS
With the easy questions, it is necessary to decide, on the basis of the course notes and scripture, whether each statement is true or false.
The hard questions require fuller written answers and are designed for the more academically able student.
Attempts should be made to answer these questions from memory, the Bible and understanding of the subject, rather than by simply looking up the answer from the course text.
QUESTIONS FOR THIS SECTION
Lesson 2
