Yesterday Pastor Steve wrote a blog on preparing ourselves for Easter. He offers four excellent suggestions, all of which you can read here:
              http://stevesquires.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/preparing-for-easter/
One of the things he has challenged us to do was “to make time”. To make time to reflect on the work of Christ accomplished on the Cross. As I read his blog, I was reminded that this past Sunday had been Palm Sunday & Communion. This morning, I read the portion of Scripture in which Jesus explains that He is the living bread of life.Â
“At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves. Anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me, and I in him.” (John 6: 52-56 HCSB).
We are told in Scripture, that upon hearing it, they were shocked to the point of stating:
“Therefore, when many of His disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard! Who can accept it?” (verse 60).
All along they had been told, “Don’t eat the blood. The life is in the blood.” Here was Christ, stating something so different, so difficult. How difficult was it?
“From that moment many of His disciples turned back and no longer accompanied Him.” (verse 66).Â
                    It was difficult enough to cause many to turn away.
Yet what Christ was stating, in effect, was this: “Let my life, my blood, flow inside of you.” In his book, “The Chemistry of the Blood”. M.R. DeHaan writes this:
To redeem the dead sinner, life must be again imparted. The only remedy for death is life. This life is in the blood, so a blood must be furnished which is sinless & incorruptible. Now none of Adam’s race could do this. For in Adam all died. All have sinned & come short. The angels could not furnish that blood for they are spirit beings & have neither flesh nor blood. There was only one, yes only One, who could furnish that blood: the virgin-born Son of God, with a human body, but sinless supernatural blood….death can only be banished by life. A blood transfusion must be performed & provided….the greatest of all transfusions is performed, when a poor sinner, dead in trespasses & in sins, is transfused by the blood of Christ the moment he believes.
All have sinned & fallen short of the glory of God. All of us. Today may I remember that I am…
“…..justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood.”                 (Romans 3:23-25 NIV).
            Yes, life is IN the blood. The blood of Jesus which He shed on the Cross.
