Revelation Chapter One, In His Blood

Revelation 1:5c To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

The conclusion of verse 5 is an excellent swan song for the train of thought John had built in this passage alone. Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. When He died, mankind died with Him. Man will not be judged as to whether or not we have sinned; all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23.

No, mankind will be judged based upon the relationship we have with the Savior. If we have a relationship with Jesus, we are saved. If we do not, we remain damned, John 3:18, 36. What is this relationship? We must believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and believing this we will have life in His name, 1 John 5:10-13. Christ was from eternity the Word of God. He stepped down from Heaven’s throne to incarnate as a Man, so that as a human being He may represent humanity. As all were represented in Adam, and therefore fell because of his sin, Christ too became a Man that He may undo Adam’s curse and through His own death on the cross offer redemption to Adam’s lost race.

Christianity is not religion. Religion is a man-made self-help program. Whether it incorporates God, a god, gods, or no god, man is the central focus. Religion teaches humanity what we must DO to earn or gain Heaven and/or God’s favor. Christ came to shed absolute light upon the subject. The gospel of God’s grace focuses not on humanity or our accomplishments, but on Jesus Christ and His accomplishment. It is because of who He is, and because of what He has done on our behalf. Hebrews elucidated this point with terrific clarity. Hebrews 7:27 explains that Jesus did not need to offer HImself daily as the priests of the Old Testament did, because their sacrifice was a reminder of sins. Rather, the writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus offered Himself once for all. One time for all people. This single thread of Biblical truth dismantles the Catholic myth of the Mass, and any religious overture that rejects Jesus’ finished work. The Bible makes it clear. Christ cried, “It is finished!” John 19:30. Taken in isolation, this verse may be argued to mean something other than salvation’s accomplishment. But the Holy Spirit, safeguarding the truth for the honest seeker, laid it bare in Hebrews that Jesus died once for all, not to die or be sacrificed again.

This point resumes in Hebrews 9:24. Jesus did not enter a human holy place, but directly into the Father’s presence, and the offering was His own blood, shed for man’s sin. Verse 25 rejects the notion wholesale that Christ would be offered again and again on the altar, saying that would result in His continued suffering since the world’s foundation, Hebrews 9:25, 26. The writer makes it painfully clear that this sacrifice was done not only once for all, but once at the end of the ages. He “put sin away by the sacrifice of Himself,” Hebrews 9:28. The repeated earthly offerings of the priesthood (and by tacit addition, any extra human offerings) were useless in terms of spiritual efficacy; they could not redeem the worshiper, Hebrews 10:1-4. Rome gravely errs here, mistaking Christ’s meritorious death for a payment toward something. Rather it was an exchange. Jesus died so no one else had to. Period. His death satisfied God’s justice and simultaneously revealed God’s love. If every person on earth from Adam to the last person ever born believed and was saved, it would do nothing to exhaust the endless expanse of God’s grace toward us. It is limitless, done one time for all people throughout the ages. To suggest that it must be continued or added to diminishes and corrupts the sacrifice.

God purchased us with His own blood, Acts 20:28. Humanity is separated into two camps: those who belong to Christ and those that do not. Jesus Himself stated it, saying, “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division,” Luke 12:51. His name, and all that is represented in His name, divides. We either belong to Him and are owned by Him, being bought by His precious blood, or we remain under God’s wrath, and are children of wrath. And as Cain persecuted Abel because Cain valued religion and Abel valued God’s word, so too will Christians suffer persecution for His name’s sake. We stand with Jesus, and since we take our stand with the One who shed His blood to die for us, we must naturally oppose what God hates. God hates sin, and what sin has done to His creation. He hates it so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us, John 3:16-18. Either we are separated to Christ through faith, or we are separated from God through sin. There is no middle ground, no moral grey or relativism to hide behind. His love compelled Him to die for us; having been saved from sin and death, and saved to Heaven and glory, He compels us to live for Him, to align our interests with His own, and to seek His kingdom and spread His gospel so that others may share in the boundless love and mercy of the God who bled and died on our behalf.

The prophet, having seen this, wrote, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool,” Isaiah 1:18. The Psalmist adds, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,” Psalm 103:12. So many more verses in Scripture attest to the reality of the finished work of the cross, emblazoned here in this verse with the simple expression, “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” Salvation is all of grace, all of God. Religion pollutes God’s truth; man ignores God’s truth and seeks self-improvement, because the truth damages our sinful pride. And we are exceptionally proud creatures. But today, while today remains, consider God and what He has done for all of us, for you and me. Consider your own estate and how you think you’ll fair when death finds you, and on what basis you pin your hopes. Then consider the veracity of Scripture and the great pains Jesus Christ has taken to demonstrate His love toward us, so that we do not need to hope in vagaries or religious skullduggery. We may know, from God’s own lips, that we immediately have eternal life when we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior. He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead. He is eternal God and Man, our Heavenly Advocate and the only Mediator between God and man, 1 Timothy 2:5, 6. On this Rock our faith may endure, and flourish. All else is sinking sand.