Not according to the essential
doctrine of the blood atonement…
Many a
religious person would argue their own piety apart from the blood atonement of
Jesus Christ. The Lord God on the other hand says that our good deeds are as
filthy rags to a holy God. (Isaiah 64:6) This means that our attempt on our
part to outwardly cover up inward sins through outward religious deeds is like
trying to heal a leprous person by adorning them with a contaminated garment.
Defiled clothing cannot heal disease neither can outward religion cleanse a
sinful heart.
Why the
blood of Christ then? What significance can ones man’s blood hold? The answer
lies in the fact that His blood is without blemish because Jesus Christ is the
God-Man (Untainted by the sin that corrupts every other person) The Blood of
Jesus is sinless and so it meets the standard of holy God. (1 Peter 1:18-19) Jesus’
blood was counted worthy to pay the ransom of those who would believe upon the
Lamb of God. (John 1:29) It’s like this: God’s perfect justice demands the
death penalty for sinners and the only one qualified to bear the penalty and
not be castigated to hell is Jesus Christ because He is sinless. (Hebrews 9:22)
No other human being who ever lived is sinless (Rom 3:23) and putting our faith
in Jesus Christ credits our unrighteousness
(our sin) to him and credits his righteousness (Jesus’ sinlessness) to us. (2
Corinthians 5:21)
What advice
do I have for you if you are a religious person who thinks they are justified
(Right in God’s sight) by doing good deeds apart from the shed blood of Jesus
Christ? Please recognize that you grossly underestimate the severity of your
sin and how much the true God is intolerant of your sin and how much you
overestimate the outward religious ceremonies you perform are to pacify God’s
anger towards your sin. (Rom 1:18) Think of sin as a small dose of arsenic in a
pure glass of drinking water. You may say: it’s just a tiny bit of poison
compared to the volume of clean water but the tiny bit of poison is enough to
kill you if you drink it. No matter how much faith you have in the pure
drinking water, it is still deadly because of the arsenic. So it is with our good
deeds… No matter how hard we try to live right in God’s sight apart from His
Son Jesus’ shed blood, our polluted religious efforts fall short to appease
holy God and we end up dying in our sin and being castigated to hell for
eternity. Please consider my plea! No amount of pride or self righteousness is
worth facing an angry God at the judgement! (Hebrews 10:31) Take the safe path
(John 14:6) and put your faith in Jesus Christ while you still have breath in
your lungs and a heartbeat. (John 3:16)
16 For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life.
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