Blood of Jesus Christ 1
By Dr. Derek Thomas
It's a great joy to be with dear, dear friends of mine whom I've been privileged to know now for some years, but more especially yet to be speaking on the blood of Jesus Christ. I was thinking just a few minutes ago, do we really mean what we were singing? The imagery of a fountain filled with blood. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Just allow your imagination for a second to think of that.
The imagery goes on in that hymn to speak of a stream that flows from the wounds of Christ, a stream of crimson tide. I was reminded as I was singing of that awful description by Josephus who isn't always to believed, but when he describes Passover in Jerusalem in the first century, and coming from the western side of Mt. Zion down that side, coming from a gully from within the temple precinct itself, all those lambs that were sacrificed, thousands of them, and a stream of blood flowing down that western side of Mt. Zion and into the Valley of Hinnom below. Even as, I think, Josephus was given to exaggeration, even if he is exaggerating, even if it's only partially true, what a sight that would be. And it's at the heart of the cross. It's at the very heart of the cross.
Now I want to read to you from Romans 3.
"Then what advantage has the Jew, or what is the value of circumcision? March in every way to begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the articles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means. Let God be true, though everyone were a liar. As it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? I speak in a human way. By no means! For then law, for then how could God judge the world? But if through my life, God's truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come as some people slanderously charge us with saying? There condemnation is just. What then are we Jews any better off? No, not at all! For we have already charged that Jews ;and Greeks are under sin as it is written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good! Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Amen, and may God add His blessing to the reading of His holy, inerrant Word.
