Overcoming – Four Principles in Revelation 12 (Part 12)

  

“And they overcame him because the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.” Revelation 12:11.

 

Before we conclude our consideration of the blood of the Lamb, there is one other aspect of the blood of Christ that we ought to ponder, and it is the most important facet of this great mystery; this is God’s complete and total satisfaction with the blood of the Lamb which causes Him to pass over us in judgement and accept us fully and unconditionally as His sons and daughters.

 

Here is a great principle for the follower of Jesus Christ, “I can believe what I think about myself, I can believe what the world thinks about me, I can believe what Satan says about me (remember, he is the “accuser of the brethren”), or I can believe what God thinks about me.”

 

Only one of the above four is reliable and trustworthy, and that is God. People do not need better self-esteem, they need to know God in Jesus Christ, for when Jesus Christ is the ground of our being, the ground of our identity, we will find true and lasting holistic security. When our eyes are on ourselves we have confusion, when they are on Jesus Christ we have security and purpose.

 

In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul calls Christ “our Passover” who has been sacrificed. This is a reference to the first Passover in Egypt in Exodus Chapter 12, which is termed “Yahweh’s Passover” (Ex. 12:11). Along with eating the unblemished lamb, each Israelite household was to apply the blood of the lamb to the two doorposts and the lintel of their houses (Ex. 12:22) and to stay within their houses until morning.

 

“For Yahweh will pass through [the land] to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, Yahweh will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you” (Ex. 12:23).

 

The blood of the Lamb not only speaks to us of deliverance from God’s righteous judgment, but it also speaks to us of our deliverance from the world; for the judgment on Egypt was not only to punish Pharoah and his people for their sins, especially their sin of not releasing the People of God; it was also to effect the deliverance of the People of God so that they might worship the True and Living God and come into the inheritance that He had prepared from them.

 

While the world around us is being judged for its rejection of God, we are safe in Jesus Christ because of His blood – God the Father sees the blood of His Son, the Lamb of God, and judgment passes over us. This is a confidence we can live in, no matter our circumstances (Romans 8:26 – 39).

 

The second dimension of the Father’s complete and total satisfaction with the blood of the Lamb is grounded in the Day of Atonement (Leviticus Chapter 16). This is that Great Day, on the tenth day of the seventh month (Lev. 16:29), when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement before God for the sins of the people. This image is treated extensively in Hebrews chapters 7 – 10, in which we see that the earthly Day of Atonement was a shadow and reflection of the Heavenly Day of Atonement, in which our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, offered Himself as both Priest and Sacrifice.

 

(I must stop and say that this is another example of why we must learn the Scriptures, for only by knowing the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Writings can we come close to understanding and experiencing the depth of the New Testament, especially when we come to books such as Hebrews and Revelation).

 

I love the book of Hebrews with its glorious presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a salvation that purges our consciences of sin (Heb. 9:14; 10:22) and that moves us from a religion of sin-management into the fulness of our sonship in Jesus Christ. A Gospel that invites us, as the People of God, to live in the Holy of Holies – knowing that the veil has been rent asunder in Jesus Christ (Heb. 10:19 – 25)!

 

But, for our present purposes there is only one point I want to make regarding the blood of the Lamb on the Heavenly Day of Atonement, and that is that the blood was offered by the Son to the Father beyond the veil. Yes, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was on display for the world to see, and yet that is not entirely true, for we know that darkness covered the land for three hours. Now this is a mystery, some things we “see” and some things we don’t see; and we can see much and yet not see much. There is a heavenly Tabernacle that required cleansing (Hebrews 9:8 – 23), and in some fashion we are that heavenly Tabernacle (Heb. 10:23) for what requires cleansing except that which has sinned, and who has sinned but Adam’s race, and who did Christ die for but Adam’s race.

 

And yet, the High Priest goes beyond the veil to offer His blood on the Mercy Seat to the Father, and in this sense the offering of the blood is first and foremost a transaction between the Father and the Son – it is beyond us, above us, and yet it touches us – for we are sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb. (I encourage you to spend a few months in Hebrews if you want to drink in this atmosphere – note that I write “months” and not hours, or days, or weeks – it will usually take months to cleanse our deficient thinking and perceptions).

 

This brings me back to the great principle for the follower of Jesus Christ, “I can believe what I think about myself, I can believe what the world thinks about me, I can believe what Satan says about me (remember, he is the “accuser of the brethren”), or I can believe what God thinks about me.”

 

You see, dear friends, what I think or what I feel at any given moment doesn’t really matter, it is what God thinks, it is what God says, that matters. Whether or not I “feel” that my sins are forgiven as the enemy attacks me with doubt doesn’t matter, what the world says about me and my worth doesn’t really matter, and most particularly what I think about my sins being forgiven doesn’t matter – not first and foremost – it must always be what God says that matters – for at the end of life what God declares is that which is and which shall always be. 

The blood of the Lamb was offered to God beyond the veil, in a transaction that we could not, and cannot, witness; and the Father’s declaration that the blood is all – sufficient, and the Son’s declaration that “It is finished,” is what we may confidently trust in and live in; by this knowledge that the blood of the Lamb is all – sufficient we may overcome the enemy.

 

Now obviously in another sense it does matter what we think and feel, in that if we will accept and confess the testimony of God about the blood of the Lamb we will learn to live as overcomers, live in the fulness of Jesus Christ, and be a blessing to others. But the ground of our thinking and feeling and identity must always be God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:16 – 21).

 

“He [God] made Him [Jesus Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of go din Him.” 2 Cor. 5:21.

 

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Romans 5:8 – 10.