Only A Great God Could Redeem Us From All Iniquity.
Now how did He do this? He did it by the shedding of His Own Blood.
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
We don’t know how much riches He has, but we know it’s more than we can ever count. And we are talking about this Blood redemption from all iniquity . . .
That’s why when we teach the Gospel there in 1st Corinthians 15, the first four verses—we know that He died ‘according to the Scriptures,’ and I mentioned this before and I try to mention it all the time, to emphasize the blood part. Because a lot of people emphasize the death and you don’t need the blood. But according to the Scriptures He died—so for me to go into the Gospels and read how He died—there was the shedding of blood and we know that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. So it’s important to never forget about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ—very important.
When you run into a cold spell with God and you can’t feel His presence, you know that there is something separating you from Him. That is sin! You may not even know what it is. What can we do? I plead the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m not using it like a rabbit’s foot. I believe that there is power in the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe it’s enough to cleanse my consciousness from filthy works of the flesh. It allows me to serve God. To demote it or lower it and say it’s just the death of Christ—you’ve got to watch out. Scripture with Scripture.
“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12).
I’d say that Blood is pretty important. We talk about Old Testament priests and the High Priest once a year, going into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of the Lamb. Jesus did that one time—FINI—His Blood, His Blood. It’s very important to understand that . . . the He redeemed us from all iniquity through His Blood.
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Peter 1:18-19).
How are you redeemed? By the precious Blood of the Lamb, without blemish and without spot. You see how Scripture goes with Scripture? In your mind, if you read your Old Testament enough or you went through Leviticus, you know that that Lamb had to be without blemish and without spot. Think of all the types and figures around Easter time, and you think how that Lamb was prepared—how they watched so many days, how in type the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled everything. And it all started with His baptism, where John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.” And your mind goes all the way back to Genesis where the first Adam and his wife were clothed with those animals, which I believe were lambs. Two of them. And all the way through Scriptures, God requires a lamb.
So now, here we are in 2018, we’re bought with the price He paid — and that was the shedding of His Blood — that precious Blood. That is just amazing to me . . . what He’s done for us.
- He died to redeem us from all iniquity. That’s in relation to the past.
- He redeemed us from the guilt and penalty to sin. That’s in relation to this present.
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3).
Our “sins” . . . plural . . . right? He died to redeem us from all iniquity.
- He redeems us from the power and grips of sin. That is future.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14).
PERIOD! And that is why verse 14 stands alone. No Scripture is of private interpretation. It is a statement of fact! It says that no sin shall have dominion over you.
There’s a lot of things that we drag around that slows us down from serving God. And we get to the point where we say ‘There’s no way I can stop this, I’ll never get over this!’
And then that verse that says . . . “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” — so, what do we need? We need grace. When we are going through something that we can’t stop — we need the grace of God.
Christians are exhorted in the prayers to come boldly before the Throne . . . it’s amazing the things that people think they have to go through to get to that throne. When God says, ‘boldly” that’s what He means. We rush to Him! Flesh is flesh! When sin us bugging you and you fall to it, or whatever it is, it could be gossip or anything. When you’re done doing it, you know it’s sin, because you feel rotten. And you repeat to yourself, “I’m not going to do it again, I’m not going to do it again!” You’re going to put something on your refrigerator, so that every time you see it you say, “I’m not going to do it today, I’m not going to do it today!” And then there’s a weak moment, and you do it today. And you are defeated again, and you feel so bad. I’m just trying to tell you, the Bible says it doesn’t have to have dominion over you.
We are not talking about sinless perfection, but maturing in the Lord some things you ought to be able to have the victory over. And the things that are driving you crazy are the things you need to go to the Lord about. Stop hiding them. Just take them to the Lord. So when I think about we have been redeemed from all iniquity—that’s what it means. Past, being continually delivered in Romans here. And in relation to the future, He will deliver us from the presence of sin that is coming.
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:22-23).
Now, if you were to take this verse and all of a sudden somebody says that the “to wit” here is italicised and doesn’t have to be here—it’s not in most manuscripts—and, therefore, we just put a period after “waiting for the adoption.” Nobody will catch that. Surely they won’t catch that. When you got born again and got saved were you adopted? It’s not a brain-twister. If you know the Scripture, you were adopted. Right? You were adopted.
So the verse said, right here, the verse says “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption” . . . Well, if I’m saved and I’m adopted and I’m joint heirs with Christ—and it stops there—that means, maybe I’m not adopted, yet. I’m waiting for the adoption! What about that? Now that makes a different story now. If I’m waiting for the adoption, somebody can come along and say ‘this is what you have to do while you’re waiting, because you ain’t got it yet. No! The last part of the verse clears everything up. It’s talking about your BODY! You body is not saved yet . . . but it will be . . . future! And there’s many more verses like this.
There is a reason in the last days that so much confusion is going on. If a person doesn’t have a solid biblical address to go to to definitely define his relation with God—that devil can rock your boat! How do we know that? Because Jesus Himself said, “It’s written, It’s written, It’s written” three times when He was tempted by the devil. So the devil will destroy “It’s written, It’s written, It’s written” any way he can. He can’t get rid of it but he sure will eliminate a whole lot of things in our understanding.
It’s important to understand with our salvation that we are saved—but the body is not saved.