John 19:34-35a (Jer) One of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water. This is the evidence of one who saw it.Rev 5:9 (Jer) ... with your blood you bought men for God.
How Much Are You Worth?
Sandy Gregory's Car Parable: If I offer a car for sale, which I think is worth 7K, and offers are made ranging from 2K to 9K, how much is the car worth? The 7K that I think it's worth? The "low-ball" offer of 2K? No. The car is worth what the highest bidder is willing to pay in the open market. People are "traded" in a spiritual and eternal market. We are not worth what we happen to think, or any "low-ball" offer. We are worth what the highest bidder will pay. The highest bidder is God, and the price-tag is the Cross. God looked out across the eternal ages and said, "I'll take that one, even though the price is steep!" Our worth is established once and for all, and can never change or diminish. God has made the ultimate offer and paid the highest price. Matthew 10:29-31 (NIV) "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father... So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."1 Peter 1:18-19 (Phi) For you must realize that you have been ransomed from the futile way of living passed on to you by your traditions, but not by any money payment of this passing world. No, the price was, in fact, the life blood of Christ, the unblemished and unstained lamb of sacrifice.
1 Cor 7:23a (Phi) You have been redeemed, at tremendous cost.
"SOLD"
NIV Study Notes: "'Redemption' is a word taken from the slave market; the basic idea is that of obtaining release by payment of a ransom." 1 Cor 7:23 (Jer) You have all been bought and paid for.John 19:30 (NEB) Jesus took the wine and said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and died.
Bible Knowledge Commentary: Tetelestai is the word in Greek translated here 'it is finished'. Papyri receipts for taxes have been recovered with the Greek word tetelestai written across them, meaning 'paid in full'. We Are God's Possession
Imagine yourself in a sweatshirt with a giant red SOLD written across it. "Sorry, no more offers being accepted!" SOLD to the highest bidder. Revelation 1:5b (JNT) To him, the one who loves us, who has freed us from our sins at the cost of his blood.
Since Jesus has purchased us with his blood, we should recognize the fact that we are no longer in control of our lives. We have been bought, and are now under the Lordship of our new Master. 1 Cor 7:23a (Liv) You have been bought and paid for by Christ, so you belong to him.1 Cor 6:19 (Phi) You are not the owner of your own body.
1 Cor 6:19b-20a (NIV) You are not your own; you were bought with a price.
1 Cor 6:19b-20a (Jer) You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for.
Bought For What?
1 Cor 6:18-20 (NEB) Shun fornication. Every other sin that a man can commit is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a shrine of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is God's gift to you? You do not belong to yourselves; you were bought at a price. Then honor God in your body.
Titus 2:14 (NIV) [Jesus Christ,] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Rev 5:9-10 (NIV) And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."
Eph 1:13-14 (NIV) ... In him, when you believed, you were marked 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.
Rev 12:11 (TEB) Our brothers won the victory over [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the truth which they proclaimed; and they were willing to give up their lives and die.
Rom 14:8 (Jer) If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord, so that alive or dead we belong to the Lord.
We Belong to The Lord
Rom 6:20-22 (Jer) When you were slaves to sin, you felt no obligation to righteousness, and what did you get from this? Nothing but experiences that now make you blush, since that sort of behavior ends in death. Now, however, you have been set free from sin, you have been made slaves of God, and you get a reward leading to your sanctification and ending in eternal life.
Rom 6:23 (Phi) Sin PAYS its servants: the wage is death. But God GIVES to those who serve him, his free gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Keep in Mind the Price Tag!
Rom 3:24-25 (NIV) [For all] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.
Col 1:14 (Liv) ... who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins.
Acts 20:28 (Liv) "And now beware! Be sure that you feed and shepherd God's flock--the church, purchased with his blood--for the Holy Spirit is holding you responsible as overseers.
Eph 1:7 (NIV) In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
Heb 10:29 (TEB) What, then, of the man who despises the Son of God? Who treats as a cheap thing the blood of God's covenant which cleansed him from sin? Who insults the Spirit of grace? Just think how much worse is the punishment he will deserve!
Protected By The Blood
Ex 12:7,12-13 (NIV) "... they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs... On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."
Rom 5:9 (Wey) If, therefore, we have now been pronounced free from guilt through His blood, much more shall we be delivered from God's wrath through Him.
Purchased Under What Contract?
A new contract (agreement or covenant) "redeems" us from our previous master, the Law and sin. Ex 24:8 (NIV) Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."Jer 31:31,34 (NIV) "The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel... For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
Isaiah 53:5 (NIV) He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
1 Pet 2:24-25 (NIV) He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Heb 8:13 (NIV) By calling this covenant "new", he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Cleansing Blood
Heb 9:15-22 (Phi) Christ is consequently the administrator of an entirely new agreement, having the power, by virtue of his death, to redeem transgressions committed under the first agreement... For, as in the case of a will, the agreement is only valid after death. While the testator [the person named in the will] lives, a will has no legal power. And indeed we find that even the first agreement of God's will was not put into force without the shedding of blood... "This is the blood of the agreement God makes with you." And you will find that in the Law almost all cleansing is made by means of blood; it implies again and again "No shedding of blood, no remission of sin."
Life In The Blood
Lev 17:11a (NIV) For the life of a creature is in the blood.
Which is more "real" and permanent: the world we see or the spiritual world? What mystery are we participating in, what truth is being revealed in the Communion elements? John 6:41-60 (Phi) At this, the Jews started grumbling at him... "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose parents we know? How can he now say that 'I have come down from Heaven'?"... Jesus answered and said, "I myself am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate manna in the desert, AND THEY DIED!... The bread which I give you is my own body, and I shall give it for the life of the world." This led to a fierce argument among the Jews, some of them saying, "How can this man give us his body to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Unless you do eat the body of the Son of Man and drink his blood, I assure you that you are not really living at all. The man who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up when the last day comes. For my body is real food, and my blood is real drink." ...Many of his disciples heard him say these things and commented, "This is a hard teaching indeed; who could accept that?"Mat 26:27,28 (Phi) "Drink this, all of you, for it is my blood, the blood of the new agreement shed to set many free from their sins."
Mark 14:24 (TEB) Jesus said, "This is my blood which is poured out for many, my blood which seals God's covenant."
Luke 22:20 (JNT) "This cup is the New Covenant, ratified by my blood, which is being poured out for you."
1 Cor 11:25 (NIV) "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
1 Cor 10:16 (NIV) Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
The Result: Near God
Col 1:19-23a (NIV) For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation, if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.
Heb 9:12,14 (NIV) He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption... How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Job 33:28 (NIV) He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light.
1 John 1:7 (NIV) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.
Heb 10:22 (Phi) Let us draw near [to God] with true hearts and fullest confidence, knowing that our inmost souls have been purified by the sprinkling of his blood just as our bodies are cleansed by the washing of clean water.
Eph 2:13 (Phi) But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off are brought near through the shedding of Christ's blood.
Heb 12:24 (Phi) You have drawn near to God, the judge of all, to the souls of good men made perfect, and to Jesus, mediator of a new agreement, to that cleansing blood which tells a better story than the blood of Abel.
