The Blood of the Lamb

Revelation 12:10-11: “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

Believers in Christ will not deny that the primary purpose of existence of the Church in the world is to witness to the saving grace of God in forgiving and cleansing the sins of all who come to believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour. A fundamental element of the Christian faith is the power of the blood of Christ to cleanse of all sin and unrighteousness. But the Holy Spirit often leads us into situations where we must confront the reality of whether we believe the Gospel we preach.

We show great zeal in going about telling sinners about the cleansing power of the blood and the mercy and grace of God to forgive them of their sins, forget their past, and make them completely new creatures. Then these sinners follow us to our church meetings only to hear us excuse our own ongoing vices as though by just joining a church and professing Christianity we obtain divine license to do the same things we ask them to repent of and told them the blood of Christ would cleanse them from. But that’s not all. And this is the issue being highlighted in this message.

If they stay around it does not take them long for the sinners we invite to join our churches to discover by the comments they hear us whisper about one another and the snobbery they see in our regards for one another that the cleansing of the blood is not all that significant in qualifying one for regards of trust and respect or recommendations for offices in the church. It becomes obvious to them that one’s faultless past and high social regards remain primary qualifications for treatments of respect and assignment to offices in the church rather than the cleansing of sinners by the blood of Lamb. In other words, to many professing Christians today, the ugly sinful past of others is never washed away by the blood of Lamb and buried in the sea of forgetfulness.

One night in a church service a young woman felt the tug of God at her heart. She responded to God's call and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. The young woman had a very rough past, involving alcohol, drugs, and prostitution. But, the change in her was evident. As time went on she became a faithful member of the church. She eventually became involved in the ministry, teaching young children.

It was not very long until this faithful young woman had caught the eye and heart of the pastor's son. The relationship grew and they began to make wedding plans. This is when the problems began. You see, about one half of the church did not think that a woman with a past such as hers was suitable for a pastor's son. The church began to argue and fight about the matter. So they decided to have a meeting. As the people made their arguments and tensions increased, the meeting was getting completely out of hand. The young woman became very upset about all the things being brought up about her past.

As she began to cry the pastor's son stood to speak. He could not bear the pain it was causing his wife to be. He began to speak and his statement was this: "My fiancée's past is not what is on trial here. What you are questioning is the ability of the blood of Jesus to wash away sin. Today you have put the blood of Jesus on trial. So, does it wash away sin or not?"

The whole church began to weep as they realized that they had been slandering the blood of the Lamb of God. Too often, even as Christians, we bring up the past and use it as a weapon against our brothers and sisters. Forgiveness is a very foundational part of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. If the blood of Jesus does not cleanse the other person completely then it cannot cleanse us completely. If that is the case, then we are all in a lot of trouble.

When we dig up again the buried past of other Christians, snob them because of their past reputation, or even hold them in suspicion because of unfounded accusations, we are demonstrating our scepticism about the cleansing power of the Blood of the Lamb. In addition, we are joining with the devil “the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night.” We are warned in Hebrews 10:29: “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?”