
…knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Pet 1:18-19 ESV)
The temptation to worship and serve the god of silver and gold is a strong one. The god of money whispers into our ears, “Serve me, and I will give you the mansion of your dreams. Serve me and you will have the best doctors to care for you. Serve me and you will drink from the fountain of the finest pleasures in this world.” Yet, we all know, that there are things all the silver and gold in the world cannot buy. Money can buy a house, but not a home. Money can buy friends, but not love. Money can buy a church building and food for ten thousand orphans… but one thing it cannot buy, is peace with God—the forgiveness of our sins! A billion dollars in your bank account to spend over 80 years of life is absolutely worthless if it can do nothing to save your soul from the eternal fires of hell.
But not so with the blood of Christ! The blood of Christ cannot buy you a house, a meal, nor even a jacket to protect you from the cold. Yet, the blood of Christ is infinitely more valuable than all the money in the world! For it ALONE—nothing else—can pay for our sins and give us everlasting peace with God!
The Israelites whom God called out of Egypt into the wilderness understood the absolute necessity of having peace with God. The thick veil and cloth curtains of the tabernacle served as a daily reminder that though God lived in their midst, he was holy. And without this separation from their sinfulness, every single one of them would be dead. Numbers 28 tell us just how vividly the people were constantly reminded of the horrific nature of their terminal disease of sin. Every single day, a lamb was slaughtered and burned in the morning and another again in the evening. God’s people could never forget that whether they were awake or asleep, that they only lived because another had died in their place. Perhaps walking by the tabernacle, you would hear the little lamb crying, “Baa, baa,” only to have its voice instantly cut off as the priest’s knife slashed through its throat. And as the severed artery spurted out blood into its windpipe, the little creature would gasp and gurgle as it drowned in its own blood—and died. And you would think to yourself, “Little lamb. You did not die because you were an evil creature or because you had sinned. You were spotless and innocent. Little lamb, you died to remind me of the infinite offense of my own sin against a holy God whose eyes are too pure to look on evil!”
Now, every day two lambs were slaughtered. Every Sabbath, two additional lambs were slaughtered. On the first day of every month, seven additional lambs were slaughtered, and so on. In total, 1,084 lambs were slaughtered publicly every year—not including all the lambs that were killed to atone for the individual sins of the people. Never was there a year, month, week or even a SINGLE DAY, when the people of God did not have a reminder of their need to be cleansed of their sins. There must be blood! For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. How dreadful is sin! So vile, so monstrous, so horrid, despicable that it cannot be washed away with the strongest chemicals on the planet—only, the blood of Christ.
How precious then is the blood of Christ! More valuable than the blood of a thousand lambs or goats and bulls that can never take away sins. Yet, our Jesus, by his death on the cross offered once and for all, a single sacrifice for sins, and then sat down at the right hand of God!
It is FINISHED! It is FINISHED! Christ has paid for all my sins! Hallelujah, death is vanquished, Jesus blood has pardoned me!
Christian, do you remember your horror at sin when God opened your eyes to see the immense magnitude of your crimes against him? Do you identify with the old hymns that says, “Behold the man upon a cross, my sin—MY SIN—upon his shoulders. Ashamed I hear my mocking voice, call out among the scoffers. It was my sin—MY SIN—sin that held him there, not nails, until God’s plan to redeem was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished.”
How precious is the blood of Christ that brings us peace with God! I am no longer a slave to sin. I am no longer a criminal sitting on eternal Death Row. The precious blood of Christ covers me so completely that the destroying angel of the Exodus will look at me and say, “I see no enemy here deserving of death. Only a child of God, purchased by the blood of God’s one and only Son.” I am child of the king. I have a palace waiting for me in heaven. I have a future in the King’s shining land where I will eat with saints from all the ages forever. I have an eternity of perfect happiness and bliss in the New Garden of Eden, where I will walk with my Lord and Savior day by day in the cool of his garden. And there, I will sing his praises forever, with unending joy in my heart, even as I hold the nail-scarred hands that paid my ransom.
Brothers and sisters, a fountain of our own tears of regret for our own sins cannot save us. The greatest sacrificial acts of love done for others cannot save us. The best sermons preached in the name of God in this world cannot save us. The only thing that can save us, is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And for his shed blood on Calvary’s cross, we give him the highest praise.
Article by: Samuel Chua