“For there is power in the blood of
Calvary to destroy sins more than can be counted even by one from the choir of
heaven. Thou hast given me a hill-side spring that washes clear and white, and
I go as a sinner to its waters, bathing without hindrance in its crystal
streams.”
When I was a lad we sang of the blood of
Jesus. There is Power in the Blood; Are You Washed in the Blood?; When I See
the Blood; There is a Fountain; O the Blood of Jesus. Later Andre Crouch
came along with The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power.
How I love the vibration in my soul when
I sing, “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.” The
music of this hymn communicates reverence, holiness, and commands attention.
When I See the Blood takes us back to the Passover in Exodus
and God’s promise that His judgment will pass over those households with the
blood of a lamb on the lintels of their doors. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul
reminds us that, “Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed for us.” In our
present age of Biblical illiteracy within the professing church, we do not
readily make the connection between the first Passover in Exodus and the
Perfect Passover of the Lamb on the Cross.
About eight years ago I was in a Sunday
school class which was using curriculum from what was supposed to be an
Evangelical denomination, written by a Ph.D. within the denomination. The
lesson was on the Passover in Exodus and there was not one mention of Christ
being our Passover Lamb. I could not believe it. I had to interrupt the
teacher and make the connection between Exodus and Jesus for the class.
What is perhaps worse is that no one
else in the class made the connection, even though most, if not all, of the
people had been professing Christians for decades, many growing up in the
congregation – a congregation which professed to be Bible believing. When I was
a young Christian such ignorance would have been unthinkable in the
congregations I knew.
The story of the Passover and God’s assurance
of mercy remains a comfort to me in Christ, I trust the blood of the holy,
pure, and spotless Lamb of God.
The hymn Are You Washed in the Blood?
begins, “Have you been to Jesus for His cleansing power, are you washed in
the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you
washed in the blood of the Lamb?” This is the question that matters, is it not?
Do we even ask this question anymore?
Do preachers and pastors ask it? Do
elders and deacons ask it? Do professing Christians ask it? We can have all the
group therapy sessions we want on Sunday mornings, sing songs, engage in self-improvement,
have motivational messages – have our coffee bars and our doughnuts and sit in our
seats eating bagels and omelets – but if we aren’t washed in the blood of the
Lamb we are dirty and unclean and under the judgment of God for we have not run
to Jesus for forgiveness and cleansing and new life in Him.
Have we forgotten the deadly seriousness
of sin? Have we glossed over its evil consequences? Have we downplayed the
holiness of God and the utter wickedness of who we are outside of Jesus Christ,
outside of the Cross, outside of being washed in the blood?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb,
in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb?
How I love to sing There is Power in
the Blood. “Would you be free from the burden of sin? There’s power in the
blood, pow’r in the blood, would you o’er evil a victory win? There’s wonderful
pow’r in the blood.”
The evil, of course, is not “out there,”
it is within me and within you. Jesus has broken the power of the evil one “out
there,” we must be washed in the blood and die with Him and be raised with Him
for the evil within us to be broken, there is indeed power in the blood of the
Lamb.
When we gloss over our sin, when we
treat sin as some kind of developmental problem that can be cured with therapy
and self-improvement programs and self-talk and positive reinforcement and developing
a better self-image…we are fools and we are believing the lies of the devil. Only
Jesus Christ and His blood and His Cross can free us from sin and from self,
only the power of Jesus Christ can set us free. Only the blood of Jesus Christ
can wash our sins away.
Another verse says, “Would you do
service to Jesus your King? There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood.
Would you live daily His praises to sing? There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.”
Do we think about doing service to Jesus
today? Are we interested in singing His praises daily? I seldom hear church folks
speak of wanting to serve Jesus. I hear them speak of politics, of the economy,
of sports, of entertainment, of acquiring more and more things, but I seldom
hear anyone speak of serving Jesus Christ, I seldom catch anyone singing about
Jesus Christ.
Friends, we can get caught up in “Christian”
music all we want, but if we ourselves are not singing to Him, if we are not
singing to one another and rejoicing with one another in Him, then we are
deceiving ourselves – we really don’t know what worship is, we don’t know what
true “Praise and Worship music” is, because if it isn’t flowing from our own
hearts and souls then we are substituting what others do for our own koinonia
with Christ.
“Let the word of Christ richly dwell
within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God”
(Colossians 3:16).
If we aren’t doing this as our way of
life in Christ, then something is terribly wrong. If we can’t sing with our
friends, if we can’t share a song with others, something is amiss. What would
happen if no musicians or choirs showed up on Sunday morning? Would we sit like
those who cannot speak? Would we wait for someone else to lead in song? Is this
a game we’re playing, or are we living in service to Jesus our King?
Calvary’s Anthem could also be titled, An Anthem of
the Blood of the Lamb, for indeed it is. The blood of the Lamb flows from
Calvary, from the hands and feet and head and side of Jesus Christ. It flows
from eternity past into time and space, down through the ages, and onward and
upward into eternity future. It is a glorious and mighty river, and the Lamb
beckons us all to be washed in His sacrificial blood, to confess our sins, to
repent (which means to change direction and follow Him), and to live daily for
Him.
“It reaches to the highest mountain, it
flows to the lowest valley. The blood that gives me strength from day to day,
it will never lose its power” (Andre Crouch).
to be continued....
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