Two thousand years ago Pilate, stood before the crowd, washed his hands and declared “I am innocent of the blood of this just man.” But was he? In fact, were any of us?
One of the marks of growing in grace is our seeing our part in the heinous crime of executing the Son of God. It was our vile sin that put him on the cross. We, therefore, have our share of guilt in the dark events that culminated that day at Calvary.
That’s the bad news! Now for some good news --even though we don’t deserve it, the believer’s crimes against God have been cancelled and all charges against us have been dropped. This is pure and righteous grace. Christ died for our sins as the willing and chosen substitute for His people. He has taken responsibility for us. His blood cleanses us from all sin.
It is the blood that assures us of both our guilt and acquittal. Our guilt is assured because, at the cross, our substitute died in our place. That we needed a substitute to die for us proves our guilt. However, our acquittal is equally assured because, at the cross, this same substitute poured out His precious blood and declared us not guilty. Faith sees and rests upon this. As the hymn writer said,
“My faith has found a resting place Not in device or creed I’ll trust the ever-living one His wounds for me shall plead.
I need no other argument, I need no other plea, It is enough that Jesus died And that He died for me”
In the Old Testament the shedding of blood for sin was always done as a sacrifice. So it is that Christ Jesus poured out His own blood in one magnificent sacrificial offering in order that we would go free. There are now no possible charges that can be made against us.
Just think of how the blood of Christ changes things. For example, the blood makes all priests redundant for priests cannot cleanse sin,—only the blood of Christ can do that. Furthermore, the blood makes all our striving and performing to earn the forgiveness of God entirely un-necessary. It is the blood of Jesus, not our performance, that cleanses us from all sin. Because of the blood we learn that our personal obedience does not bring us to God. While it is true that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), nowhere does the Bible tell us that the wages of our obedience is eternal life.
As we walk in the gospel we grow in our understanding of that one great sacrifice of Calvary and our part in executing the Son of God. Furthermore, it is equally through the same gospel that we learn about our sin being entirely gone.
Continual exposure to the gospel teaches us both our depravity and God’s glorious grace. It is the gospel, applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit that teaches us to shun and turn from our sins. We once were separated from God by our sins, but we are now separated unto Him by the shed blood of Jesus. The blood has cleansed us from the defilement of sin and has set us apart unto God to serve, love and worship Him. This is why the blood of Christ is so precious. It has separated us from the world of sin, legalism and dead works and has brought us into the Holy of Holies where He sustains and renews us continually.
And that’s the Gospel Truth!