His Own Blood

11/12/13                           Eduardo, Jose                          30’s

Wretch that I am, how could I even dare to think I am forgiven for my many sins against our most holy Creator, much less be confident in that forgiveness?  Yet I am, but not because of any good I have done or could be, but rather in what Christ has done and in who He is – Son of the Most High God; Creator, not creation.  How could I presume to add to or take away from anything He is or has done on our behalf? This is what I talked about with Eduardo and Jose, two off-duty Jehovah’s Witnesses I happened to reach out to at a McDonald’s yesterday.  As usual, their training teaches them to deny all scripture references that point to the divinity of Christ, and to insist that He is rather the first angel created by God and through whom all else was created.  They insisted it is Jesus’ perfection, not His divine nature, that makes Him a worthy sacrifice to satisfy God’s perfect justice in regard to the penalty for our sin, so I countered by saying “if that were true, then another perfect creation, say, a spotless ram or a goat, could atone for our sins.  But our sins against an infinitely holy and worthy God require an infinite punishment, or an infinitely worthy sacrifice on our behalf, one on the level of Creator God Himself, not merely a created thing.” Because of this, Eduardo and Jose had to admit they won’t know until the final judgment whether they will obtain salvation, they must keep on doing good works never really knowing if they have “done enough”.  But the penalty has been paid, we have been bought with an infinite price; as Acts 20:28 says, we are “the church of God, which he bought with his own blood”.  The next verse goes on to say what happens when we don’t acknowledge this truth, that “savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.”  (29-30) We are surrounded by false teachers.  My church is currently in a sermon series based on 2 Timothy, in which Paul is constantly warning young Timothy to be on guard against false teachings.  How much more false teaching do we face today, now that they have had time to develop?  There are those outside the church – Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims, evolution, secularism; and those within the church – from works-based legalism (repentance without faith) to prosperity preachers (faith without repentance)  Because of this, I really relate to what Paul wrote next in verse 31: “So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”