Have We Put the Blood of Jesus on Trial?

We Live Well

Some people serve God out of fear. They are not as concerned with going to heaven as they are with staying out of hell. Yet to them the responsibilities involved in a covenant relationship with God seem staggering, and they think it impossible to live a righteous life before God.

What they don’t realize is that goodness requires a relationship with God. Christians are “supposed” to be good people to be a part of God’s kingdom. But those who discover just how hard it is to be good should not cancel themselves out of any hope of truly pleasing God.

Only God can empower us to live right before Him. Even salvation comes only by God’s grace. It can’t be earned, bought or inherited from our parents, as the Bible proclaims: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:18-19).

The issue of our goodness coming from God is further clarified in that God extends salvation only on the basis of Jesus’ blood. Forgiveness of sin is not arbitrary. It’s not God saying, “OK, since I’m God, I’ll just forget what you’ve done because I know you are sorry.” God’s forgiveness is always based on Jesus having already paid the price for our sin with His blood, as Ephesians 2:13 says: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Once again, this atonement is made possible through the substitutionary blood of Christ shed in His substitutionary death on the cross. So then, we have access to God through Jesus, but that access is granted only on the basis of Christ’s blood. If Christ had died in another manner, such as by hanging or drowning, salvation would have been incomplete because His death did not save us—His blood did!

Numerous verses in Scripture make it clear that only blood can atone for sin. Only by the blood of Jesus can we come to God.

Paul wrote, “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:19-20).

It is easy to think works and good deeds will get us into God’s good graces. But again, the Scriptures are straightforward about this: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

This, of course, doesn’t mean there is nothing to do but sit back and wait for Jesus to come. On the contrary, there is much work to be done in this present world—work to do for God’s kingdom, but not work to do in order to be saved.

Am I saying we can live any way we please because salvation is granted apart from personal righteousness? Not at all. Paul addresses this question quite plainly in his letter to Titus. After affirming salvation is apart from works (Titus 3:5) and then further affirming we are justified by nothing other than grace (v. 7), Paul states that “those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men” (v. 8).

The free gift of salvation and God’s incredible grace must never be seen as an open door to sin. Should anyone ask why, the answer is simple: Sin diminishes joy, peace, happiness, security, authority and boldness before God’s throne. It further opens doors to the influence of demons and ruins a person’s testimony.