Graphic: Blausen.com staff (2014). "Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014". WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436.
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” - Hebrews 9:22
Every function of creation points to the center of God's truth. The body teaches us lessons about how the Body of Christ functions in the exercise of spiritual gifts and ministry.
Every relationship can be a type of our relationship with God because that is the primary relationship in our lives. Marriage, friendship, family, and fatherhood all expound upon God’s ways with people.
Even sub-creation, the work of God through the hands of men, can teach us the lessons of life as when Jesus turned the water to wine.
Nothing remains the same when God enters in.
The lesson is that God enters into every situation to manifest His presence and to transform and demonstrate His truth. Often, there is a grand and mysterious paradox.
The men and women of Jesus' day did not understand how it was true, but they knew that the life of the body was in the blood.
Throughout their history, the Jews observed that with the shedding of blood came death. But they practiced an ethic that grievous sins must be atoned for by the shedding of blood, life for life. When they realized that all sin before God was grievous, they needed a means of worship and sacrifice whereby sins could be atoned and sinners could still live.
God provided the blood of the lamb as a worshipful sacrifice and as a reminder that unless God enters in, there is no forgiveness of sin.
Sinful men and women can be forgiven.
The slate upon which the balances of our lives are weighed can be cleaned and we can be acquitted of that for which we are guilty. There were not enough sheep in Israel, or the entire world to make this possible, however.
Even this sacrifice was a type pointing to a deeper truth.
The unfolding drama of revelation introduced the Incarnate Son of God as the Lamb. And the paradox of was and is that the loss of blood introduced the giving of life through the loss of life.
Without the sacrifice of Jesus, there is no remission. In worship, we confront the glorious mysteries of transformation and open our lives to the continuing manifestation of God's power among us.
Let us worship.
