Why Are You Afraid Of The Blood?

Have you watched “The Passion Of The Christ,” lately? Surely you have not bought into the smear campaign that Hollywood and the unbelieving world wrought against “The Passion,” with the idea that it is “just too violent to watch….oh, how could they have shown so much blood…oh, my, I just can’t watch it!”

Why are you so afraid of the blood? It is the BLOOD of Jesus Christ which has paid the penalty for our sin, and makes it possible for us to be reconciled to God! When I see the blood, I am overwhelmed with gratefulness, with amazement, with joy, and with humility that Jesus Christ shed that blood, bore that pain, endured the shame of the Cross…for me. Jesus commanded us to remember Him this way – remember the Blood that He shed, and the Body that was broken for you and for me. Let us not be afraid of it, but humbled, grateful, and deeply aware of the great, high price that He paid for you and for me by shedding that precious, beautiful, ruby-red blood!

You may not understand it all, and neither do I, but let me ask you this – have you tried? Are you seeking the Truth? Have you asked God to help you understand what the Cross is really all about? Have you read the Bible, or read the accounts of the crucifixion of Christ yourself, or are you just going on what you have heard other people say? I challenge you to READ GOD’S WORD…find out for yourself what the Scripture tells us about our need for a Saviour!

We had a great need; we owed a great debt. Jesus paid the price, according to God’s Law, and God said He was pleased with Jesus, and the sacrifice that He made. Jesus was perfect and sinless. That is why He is called the spotless Lamb of God – sent like a perfect, innocent lamb to the slaughter. God has said that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin! (Hebrews 9:22) That precious blood paid the price for my sin, and makes it possible for me to KNOW that when my body dies, my spirit, my soul, will live forever with Him in eternity.

I have hope for the future, and am not afraid of the blood…and I am not afraid to die, because those of us who believe in Jesus, and have repented of our sin, and accepted Him as Lord and Savior will spend eternity with Him. Consider the following:

• Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die…” (John 11:25-26)

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• Jesus said, “He who hears My Word, and believes in Him Who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24)

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• Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in...”

• Romans 10:8-10, “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

• ⁴⁸ He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. (John 12:48)

• “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ³⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? ³⁷ Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

• ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Easter, 2011

It’s time for you to wake up, friend – arise, come out of the darkness, tear away the shadows – you must realize that Jesus Christ is a Real Person; He really lived on earth, and was crucified in the manner described in “The Passion Of The Christ. He was resurrected from the dead, with more than 500 witnesses who attested to this fact – that they saw Him ALIVE! You can choose not to believe it if you want to, but your unbelief does not change the facts, nor does it change God’s love for you. He has said that it is not His desire that ANYONE should perish, but that all men should come to repentance – that includes you. (2 Peter 3:9)

You say, “Oh, but that movie made it seem worse than it really was, because it couldn’t have really been that violent…” Why not? Lashing, whipping, beating a man ‘til He was unrecognizable couldn’t have happened? In Isaiah 52:14, the Scripture says that His appearance and His “form” were “marred more than any man,” more than the “sons of men.” In other words, no one had ever been so cruelly beaten as was He.

Consider this prophecy, made by Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus ever lived…

Isaiah 53

"1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty, That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth;

Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,

So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away;

And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

10 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.

12Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors."

What will it take for you to believe? When you will accept that you cannot live your life the way you want to, and still have forgiveness of sin, and the hope of eternity? Don’t you want to be free? Don’t you want to have true peace in your life?

Do you understand that if you have not given your heart to the Lord Jesus, that Satan, the enemy, has taken you captive, and has a plan, a will for your life? (2 Timothy 2:26) You are walking in the will of Satan willingly if you are not following Jesus. You are blinded, and you cannot see Truth. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Jesus said that those who reject Him reject God Who sent Him.

Jesus said in Mark 8:34-38,

I beg you to open the door of your heart and let Jesus come in. Don’t be ashamed of Him…don’t be afraid of His blood…receive His forgiveness, accept His Lordship, and allow Him to save you…let His blood do the work that it was meant to do. Let Him cleanse your heart and life of all unrighteousness, and be made right with God. He loves you so.

Amy Stockwell