Jesus' Blood

“In that day you will sing: “I will praise you, O Lord! You were angry with me, but not anymore. Now you comfort me. See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation! In that wonderful day you will sing: “Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is! Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things. Make known his praise around the world. Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy! For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you.””
Isaiah 12:1-6 NLT

Isaiah 12 commences with “in that day”, a reference once again to the time when the Messiah will return. The exact date was unknown to Isaiah, but he could see that the “day of the Lord” would come. When the Lord arrived, the people would be in a place where they would understand that they had been punished for their sin, His anger being expressed through the death, destruction, and exile of His people. In fact, they composed a song to the Lord, a song of praise summarising that they had moved from a time of God’s anger through to the acknowledgement of his salvation. They would once again trust in Him without fear and instead declare, “The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory”. But there is another verse to the song, in which they would “Tell the nations what he has done”. To Abraham, God said, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). God confirmed His promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:18, “And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me”. It was always God’s intention, when He blessed Abraham, that the blessing would eventually extend to all people everywhere through the Jews.

Paul made the connection between Abraham and the salvation of the nations in Galatians 3:8, “What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you””. Just to make sure there was no misunderstanding, he continued in Galatians 3:16, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds’, meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed’, meaning one person, who is Christ”.

The “fountain of salvation”. What a wonderful phrase describing God’s grace and promise of eternal life to all who believed in Him and His Son, Jesus, who was the “seed” referred to by Paul. Jesus is considered the “fountain of salvation” because He is the ultimate source of spiritual life, offering the “living water” described in the Bible that quenches spiritual thirst forever. Through His teachings, sacrificial death, and resurrection, He provided forgiveness for sins and eternal life to all who believe. We know, of course, John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”. But a “fountain”? To the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, Jesus said, “… If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). In reply to some more questions from the woman, “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life’” (John 4:13-14).

John recorded that Jesus attended the Feast of Tabernacles incognito, and we read, “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them’” (John 7:37-38). John helpfully then made the connection between the “living water” and the Holy Spirit in the next verse, “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified”.

The Holy Spirit is indeed a “fountain” of God’s provision, being without limit and guaranteeing God’s gift of salvation. Ephesians 1:13-14, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory”.

So for us pilgrims, the gift of salvation comes from a fountain of blessings, love, grace, and so much more that originates in the heart of God. Jesus came to save the world, and that He did, on a Roman cross, leaving behind Him an empty tomb on His day of resurrection. But God’s plan started so much earlier, right back in Genesis. Having to expel Adam from the Garden must have broken God’s heart, but He had a plan, and we pilgrims are a part of it. We are in the period between Christ’s first and second coming, enjoying the fruits of the “fountain of salvation”, and we tell others about it as well. There is an old hymn, written by William Cowper in 1771, “There is a fountain filled with blood / Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; / And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, / Lose all their guilty stains”. Let’s never forget the words as we go into the day ahead, saved by His love and grace.

Dear Lord Jesus. You are the fountain of salvation, who promises us eternal life one day with You. Thank You for Your willingness to die for each one of us, supplying a fountain of spiritual blood forever. Amen.

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.”
Romans 3:23-26 NLT

Paul wrote “people are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood“. We know of course of the historical fact that Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross at a place called Calvary, just outside Jerusalem. And we know as well that although Jesus could have called upon sufficient forces to save Him, He instead chose to die in that way, sacrificing Himself for the benefit of mankind. But why this mention of His blood? To find out more about this we have to turn to Hebrews 9, which clearly explains the importance of blood. In Hebrews 9:22, we read, “In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness”. Of course, we can claim that we are living in a new dispensation, the New Covenant through Jesus. But there is still an important connection with the Old Covenant emphasis on blood.

For the High Priest to be able to attain God’s presence, blood had to be offered for the forgiveness of sins. We read in Hebrews 9:7, “But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance”. Something significant had to happen to allow the contact with God, and this was the shedding of an animal’s blood.

We read in Hebrews 9:11-12 that Jesus is now our High Priest. “So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever“. But we can’t stop there. The writer to the Hebrews continued, “Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins” (Hebrews 9:13-14).

Jesus willingly offered Himself at Calvary, so that His blood could once and for all time, become the offering that God demands for our redemption. Through Jesus’ blood we can attain the righteousness that meets “God’s glorious standard“. And through faith in God’s free gift of grace, sealed for all eternity by Jesus’ blood, we have our salvation to look forward to on the day that Jesus returns. “God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus”.

We pilgrims, of course, believe in Jesus. It is more than believing that Jesus came to this world. The devil and his minions all believe that. It is the belief that Jesus not only came to this planet to die at Calvary. It is believing that through His shed blood there we have redemption for our sins. Such a belief is life-changing. But what do those in our families believe? Or our friends and neighbours? once again, I encourage us all to share what Jesus did for us at Calvary. It’s too important a gift not to.

Dear Lord. How can we thank You enough. You faced into a terrible death for me and my fellow pilgrim brothers and sisters. We are so grateful. Amen.

The Fountain of Salvation: A Biblical Perspective

Christ’s Blood