PROCLAIMING THE LORD'S DEATH

Five Proclamations of the Blood of Jesus

Main Readings: Luke 4:18-19

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. (1Cor 11:26 NKJV)

But you have come to …  Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel (Heb 12:22-24 NKJV)

Introduction
The blood of Abel, who was killed by his brother, most probably called for vengeance (just recompense, See Gen 4:10-16), which, though in itself not bad, God has reserved for Himself (Heb 10:30). The blood of Jesus however made room for the offender to escape the just consequences of his sin through repentance, and inherit even far more than he had before the fall. Blood is used in the Bible as evidence of death, or life given. God alone gives and has the right to take life.

Under the Old Covenant, for example, when life was wilfully taken without recourse to God, the offender forfeited every right to his own life. When Abel’s life was taken, it was a breach of justice, and God moved to restore justice by cursing Cain, albeit giving even him some grace to repent by not taking his life immediately. Because of his brother’s blood, Cain earned a harsher punishment, in addition to the general punishment for sin imposed when Adam and Eve sinned. If sinful Abel’s blood activated God’s vengeance this way, then one would expect the blood of sinless Jesus Christ to require God’s immediate and ultimate vengeance! What this special blood demanded however was different:

1. He demanded the forgiveness of sins for all who repent and put their faith in God
2. He demanded the inward purification or the removal of the burden/bondage of sin from all who repent
3. He demanded a period of grace (and warning) called today, for the proclamation of the good news in the power of the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth.
4. demanded son-ship, or access to God and eternal life for those who believe
5. He demanded the replacement of the Old Covenant of works with the New Covenant of faith

The Proclamations of the Anointed One, or the One Prepared for Death

Prophecies about Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, were that He “shall be cut off” (Dan 9:26), will have “a body [God has] prepared” as for burial (Heb 10:5 cf. Mt 26:12). The Bible teaches again that the resurrection of Christ is the chief evidence that He is able to deliver on all that was promised of Him (1 Cor 15:14). That is, from His death would come the ultimate benefits God has prepared for humanity, as is captured in the following verse:

 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Lk 4:18-19, RSV)

In other words, He had been prepared to secure all these blessings through His death (Lk 24:46-47)

Proclaiming the Lord’s Death

This means announcing that all that was promised of the Messiah have become available, since by His death He paid the price for making them so. The five key elements of our message therefore must be as follows:

1. Good News to the Poor:  Proclaim the Forgiveness of Sin for All who Repent

While many people have deathbeds, Jesus had a death cross, and while He bled on it, He demanded, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (Lk 23:34).

The Bible teaches that a person stands forgiven of all sin if he puts his faith in Jesus, but becomes liable for sins he continues in. We were like debtors to a great king who were running away from their homeland for he planned to punish all his debtors. While fugitives they heard a proclamation that the king had cancelled all debts. At the moment of the proclamation they were free to return to their homeland, yet they must be careful not to fall into that debt again. Faith is needed to obtain forgiveness, for the fugitive must believe in the proclamation in order to return, and repentance is needed to secure forgiveness (See Lk 24:47, Ac 2:38).

True and total forgiveness of sins leading to purification and transformation of the sinner became possible only through the death of Christ. Anything before and outside that is just maintenance awaiting the reality (See Heb 10:4, 10). Good News: Experience true forgiveness of all your sins, purification and transformation by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ today.

2. Release to the Captives: Proclaim Removal of the Bondage of Sin

The blood of Jesus has rendered sin no more capable of controlling people. As is written in Hebrews,  “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”(9:14)

In the natural scheme of things, we often see how people slip into bondage as the law often takes away the freedom of persons who do not control their passions. Sin is choosing to live for your passions, as if there is no God, or that God’s will does not matter. People who live like this determine the quality of their lives by the amount of pleasure they can get; but they soon find out that their passions are insatiable and they slip into greater bondage of uncontrollable desires. Thus, though even their compromised consciences tell them that there is danger ahead, their wilful ignorance of God renders them helpless as they plod on in increasing waywardness. This is how sin deceives, controls, and delivers a person to punishment.

The blood of Jesus demanded that a person who believes in Him be so cleansed and empowered from within that he wills as God wills and lives as God would. Sinful habits formed earlier then wither and fall away with time, as the person exercises this newfound enablement in God. (See Ro 6:11-13, Gal 5:16). In Christ, you are free to live right again, however far gone in sin you may be. Just look at how Jesus lived and live.

3. Recovering of Sight to the Blind: Proclaim Son-ship - Direct  Access to the Father and Eternal Life 

The first hing to note about this proclamation is that it is not the  healing of the ordinarily visually impaired that the Lord was talking about. Rather, it is the opening of ordinary people's eyes to see and know God in a way that was possible only after His death (See Jer 31:34).  Jesus said of His death that, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” (Jn 12:24 NKJV). This implies that when He was planted through death, out of Him would germinate many children of God, as earlier declared in John 1:12. It is only through the blood (death of Christ) that the way opened for human beings to become children of God.

The writer of Hebrews, putting it in the light of the high priestly role of Jesus, said it is through his death that we have obtained access to the Holiest (Heb 10:19, 20). Matthew’s gospel records the resurrection of some dead saints at the resurrection of Jesus, signifying the reality of Jesus’ promise to give eternal life to all those who come to Him. As and where the Son is so will the other children along with Him be. (Jn 17: 24, Mt 27:52-53, Heb 2:13-15)

The significance of this recovery of sight, or intimate knowledge of God, is that, first, it guarantees us eternal life. Secondly, while still on earth here, we who believe are each granted authority to bring our worship, petitions, and supplications to God at any time from anywhere without recourse to rituals and intermediaries.

It is granted to those who believe in Jesus to know the Unseen and Eternal God, gain access to Him as their Father and inherit eternal life.

4. Liberty to the Oppressed: Proclaim Fulfilment of the Old Covenant in the New.

The turning point of the covenants is the death of Jesus. He told His disciples that from the last Passover feast he had with them, they should always break the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Him (and no longer of the Passover lambs that were killed in setting Israel free from Egypt). This was to be the symbol of the New Covenant in His own blood (See Lk 22:19-20).

God instituted the Old Covenant to regulate Israel’s relationship with Himself. It has 10 central commandments with several applications (which applications, over time, became instruments of oppression in the hands of those who claimed interpretation, See Lk 11:46) It was sealed with the blood of animals that was sprinkled on the Israelites. Many breaches of the Old Covenant could also be atoned for with the blood of animals. It was based on works and measured the people’s ability to obey, and of this Isaiah testified that no one was found blameless (Is 53:6, cf. Ja 2:10)

The New Covenant in the blood of Jesus, however regulates God’s relationship with the entirety of mankind, with the blood of Jesus being the only atoning sacrifice when a breach is acknowledged. It is based on faith in Christ Jesus, and measures how a person avails himself of the grace of God to follow in the steps of Christ.

Strict adherence to especially the penalties under the Old Covenant is therefore no longer necessary for the Jews, and for non-Jews the Old Covenant laws could at best serve only as minimal requirements of God. Rather, the Jews must henceforth discern and acknowledge that the long awaited Messiah had come and they must put their faith in Him.  For, by the grace of God working in the power of the Holy Spirit, believers are equipped not only to fulfil, but to excel the requirements of the law. (Mt 5:17-20, Eph 2:15, Heb 8:13)

Liberty: Whoever believes in Jesus is set free from the immediate penalty of the law, but is inspired and  enabled to live a life far better in morality and grace than what the law required.

5. Acceptable Year of the Lord: Proclaim the Period of Grace and Warning

The concept of grace is apparent in the Bible even before the death of Christ because it is part of the nature of God to be gracious (Ex 34:6). The time frame called grace period however is defined only in relation to the death, second coming of Christ and the Judgment Day (Lk 24: 47, Mt 12:36; 24:12-14; 25:31-46). Whereas the pre-Christ period Scriptures generally taught divine retribution taking place in a person’s lifetime, and even the lifetime of his offspring, Christ’s death ushered in a mitigation of instantaneous divine retribution, deferring it to “the end” or the Judgment Day.

This proclamation has two clear implications: First, those who feel commissioned to enforce God’s wrath must hold their peace and “Let both grow together until the harvest” (Mt 13:30 NKJV cf. Rev 6:9-11). Secondly, warn the unbeliever that the grace period will not last forever, nor is its end predictable, especially by the unsaved. They must therefore “Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near” (Is 55:6 NKJV)

Conclusion

What the blood of Jesus bought for us is so profound in value and overwhelming to our comprehension that we sometimes remain in denial of its full implications. For example, some people saved by Christ would still rather call for vengeance, like the blood of Abel did, than make room for forgiveness like the blood of Christ does. Others fail to exercise their newfound ability to resist temptations to sin. Moreover, not a few so-called believers still shake their heads at the transition from the Old Covenant to the New. Do you make use of your unhindered access to the Holy of Holies, worshipping and laying all your anxieties and failures on the Father for renewed strength? We must warn those still without faith that we are only in a grace period, and they must act urgently to escape the just divine vengeance at the end of the age.