Blood of Jesus and Godhead / Trinity - Key Doctrines Series, last part

  We’ll be starting a new series after this one, and we’ll be back on a bit more regular schedule. However, I wanted to cover 2 other key parts in this Key Doctrine series.

You probably know if you lose too much blood, you die, right? Some adults regularly give blood or even platelets so others can live, in fact.

Lev. 18:11 says the life of a thing is in its blood. Yes, over 3,000 years ago, God told us in His Word blood was vital. He knew all about the oxygen it carries, the importance of red and white blood cells, how the heart has to keep beating,e tc..

This is why the Bible says “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.” God’s plan was always to come Himself to die for our sins and rise again. All those lambs before were symbols of Jesus, the “lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”(John 1:29) This is why the blood is so important in Bible doctrine.

It’s not just that Jesus died and rose again. He shed His blood on the cross for us, for the remission (cancelling) of sin.(Mat. 26:28)

Take 1 Pet. 2:24 (“He bore our sins in His body”) and go deeper. We see that His perfect, shed blood was the key. He never sinned, so His blood was perfect. Just like lambs had to be spotless when killed on the night before Passover. The death angel passed over every Jewish house because they had killed the lambs and put the blood on their doorposts. The blood wound up being placed in the shape of a cross.

These lambs are just some of the many types and shadows we see in Scripture. The blood is important because it shows that we, who are imperfect, had to have our sins washed away. This is why we have great hymns like “There Is Power in the Blood” and “Are You Washed In the Bood of the Lamb?”

Now, that might sound a bit gross to some, but that’s why I say, this is digging deeper than just 1 Corn. 15:3-4 (Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried and rose again according to the Scriptures.” Reading Scripture gives us a deeper understanding. It’s like if you play a sport. Take basketball. You might know basics - how to dribble, do a chest pass versus a bounce pass, and how to dunk. You might know a basic defensive rule (look at the chest so you don’t fall for a head fake.) But, as you learn to play more, you can learn different types of offensive plays, how to play better defense, etc..

You are growing in your faith. And, you can always ask us questions.

The other key doctrine I want to mention is the Godhead. Col. 2:9 says In Him (Jesus) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. This is a fancy way of saying Jesus was God in flesh. God is one God who makes Himself known in 3 ways. Just like a man can be one man and be a father, a son, and a brother.

Be careful here, though. There are 2 traps to fall into. One thing to watch out for is, stay far away from any church that teaches 3 separate Gods like the LDS (Mormons.) They even use the word “Godhead” to conceal that. But, God is clearly 1 God.(Deut. 6:4) Jesus is one with the Father .(John 10:30) Jesus made everything and by Him all things consist.(John 1:1-3, Czol. 1:16-17) (The Holy Spirit was also part of Creation – Gen. 1:2, Ps. 33:6) Here is a great video and article on this. https://www.gotquestions.org/is-the-Holy-Spirit-God.html You can go to the Gotquestions.org site for all kinds of good answers, and they even have a great kids’ site at gqkidz.org, plus a site for teens. (412teens.org)

The other trap to avoid is thinking the Spirit isn’t a person. The Holy Spirit is described as a person with all the attributes of one – He can be grieved (Eph. 4:30), can be quenched, which is like being forced to be quiet (1 TGhess. 5:19), has a will (1 Cor. 12:4-7), searches the deep things of God and helps us to do so (1 Cor. 2:10), and has fellowship with believers (2 Cor. 13:14).The Holy Spirit is how God lives in us; in fact the Spirit is our promise from God that He has saved us when we trust Him to do so.(Eph. 1:13-14) We are then sealed with the Spirit, a seal that can’t be broken. Nothing can separate us believers from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38-39)

Some people who grew up in a very strict Catholic home might prefer to use Godhead because it’s the word used in the Bible. However, don’t feel bad if you prefer Trinity. Some Catholics make the Trinity out to be 3 different Gods, also, though not quite like Mormons do. It is also okay to call the Spirit a person, though the Bible uses “manifests.”

It’s easy to see why. The Spirit, unlike a person, doesn’t take on physical form. Jesus is how God revealed Himself in physical form. Inf act, He did this in the Old Testament. Did you ever read about “the Angel of the Lord”? You can tell a Godly angel because they refuse to be worshipped. (Unlike the devil, also known as Lucifer, who demands to be worshipped.) But, when Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, and perhaps a few others I forgot about worship this “Angel of the Lord,” He doesn’t say not to do it. Why? He is God in flesh.

Yes, Jesus appeared before He was born as a baby in Bethlehem. It’s just that He had to be born of a virgin and life a sinless life so He could die for our sins. He was 100% man when He lived on the Earth. He was also 100% God, though. That’s how He coudld rise formt he dead. Isn’t that amazing? That little baby in the stable, because He was, is, and always will be God, was holding up the universe. He did not give up any attributes, He merely chose not to use certain ones, such as when he told Peter he could call down 10,000 angels if He chose. Also, He constantly claimed, “I and my Father are one.” How could He give up any attributes if He was one with the Father? He was God in the flesh, but He was still God.

Let me finish by showing in the Bible ways Jesus shows He is God. This  will be good for the end of this short series on key doctrines. I’ll leave it to you to find these.

1. He fulfilled Old Testament prophecies, like when He told the woman at the well He was Messiah(John 4); one of many spedific ones, He read from Isaiah in the temple, and then closed the book and said, “This day is this prophecy fulfilled.”

2. He claimed to be co-equal with the Father (“I and my Father are one”)

3. He claimed to be the I AM that spoke to Moses (“Before Abraham was, I AM,” which he said to the Pharisees who asked if He had seen Abraham, being less than 50 years old. He does this 7 times in John; the Pharisees knew what He was saying.

4. He claimed Divine authority, such as to forgive and condemn.

5. He claimed uniqueness for Himself, not just for a cause (John 14:6 – “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”)

6. He claimed under oath to be the Christ, the Son of God – Pilate asked if he was, anHe said “thou hast said,” which was the same as saying, “You got it!” today.

What Jesus says, then, is important. By request (some kids/parents respond, you can, too), with school starting, some with masks and some not, I’m staring a series on judging, accepting, and how the Bible says we should treat others as we follow Jesus.