Nothing But the Blood

[JustBecause]

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Nothing But the Blood
Alan Riley

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.  1 John 1:7 (NIV)

When you are a child, you can get some pretty wacky ideas about things in church.  I remember I thought the men who walked up and down the aisles before and sometimes during the service were called the "hushers."  I suspect that was because they were always having to tell me to be quiet.

The line in the Doxology (that we sang at the end of the service in my church every week) that goes "Praise, all creatures here below" I thought was "Praise all preachers, here we go..." so that was what I sang.  Made sense to me... the preacher was finished and we were about to go.

And I got really confused when we would sing "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone." I could not figure out why we were singing about a cross-eyed bear in church (the line actually says, "The consecrated Cross I'd bear, till death shall set me free...")

Seriously, I remember as a child wondering why we sang and talked so much about blood.  Blood was pretty yucky, and I was thoroughly and completely confused when I heard about wonder-working blood and asking, Are you washed in the blood? Later I came to understand that without the shedding of blood there was no forgiveness of sin, and that Jesus' blood had paid that price for my sin once and for all. 

Sometimes grown ups have a problem with blood, too.  A while back a "modern" translation of the Bible came out that took out those "yucky" references to the blood of Jesus, replacing it with the word "death."  The translators reasoned that was more acceptable to today's modern man.

Now I am all for most anything that will help us to communicate more effectively with people who are not yet Christians, but the blood of Jesus is an essential concept in Christianity.

In Ephesians 2:13 we are told the blood of Jesus brings us near to God. The book of Hebrews says the blood of Jesus gives us confidence to enter the Holy Place (10:19), and it makes us holy (13:12).

When Jesus went to wash His disciple's feet, proud Peter would have none of it, telling Jesus He would never wash his feet.  Jesus said, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."  Peter immediately said, "Then, Lord, don't just wash my feet, but my head and hands as well." (John 13:6-9)

Sometimes we are like Peter, too proud, too sophisticated, too cultured to accept God's way.  If that is the case, Jesus is saying to you, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."

Not just my feet Lord, wash all of me.




Rev. Alan Riley is the Director of Web Operations for Streaming Faith and serves as the Managing Editor of StreamingFaith.com.  He is an ordained Baptist Minister and a frequent contributor to the Streaming Faith Daily Devotional.  His personal blog can be found at www.alansblog.com