The Blood, The Gospel

   In the days that Jesus walked the earth preaching, the folks listening did not have the New Testament.  They had the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy), the words of the prophets, David's and Samuel's writings (Psalms, Proverbs, etc.).  The Old Testament, essentially.  When Jesus was walking and preaching, they were witnessing the New Testament as we think of it, and so they were witnessing The Gospel, the good tidings of God.  I doubt that anyone sitting on a hillside listening to Jesus preach thought the event would wind up in a written book, much less The Bible.  The Jews and Gentiles listening to Jesus didn't have The Bible, or even A Bible.  They probably didn't have books at home.  The point is that there wasn't a consolidated religious book of the words of God like The Bible that we know and love.

   The Gospel, in the sense of the definitions of the Gospel, is the good tidings of God, especially of the coming and teaching of His Messiah.  For our part we know that Jesus was the culmination of these good tidings, and also that what he taught were the good tidings; or more appropriately, The Good Tidings.  The Gospel is what we talk about when we try to sum up the big important thing that was and is Jesus and his ministry.  The Gospel is the prophecy of his coming, the expectation of his coming, the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and both the salvation and grace and power of what he did.  Much like my friend Sam who loves to talk about the blood of Jesus, I've become a lover of The Blood because the blood of Jesus is the Gospel.

   Jesus says in Luke that "this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."  The new covenant - the promise of grace in salvation, of adoption as a child of God - is in his blood, in The Blood.  Paul says in Ephesians, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace," and then this: "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."  All these things The Blood does and can do.  It heals, it makes new, it seals us as heirs of the Living God in Christ Jesus.  This is the Gospel, the good tidings spoken of by the prophets, admitted to by Jesus, and sealed in his death and Resurrection.  The Blood is the Gospel.

  So let us talk about what is not the Gospel.  Religion is not the Gospel; church is not the Gospel.  Doing-it-right is not the Gospel.  A quiet time is not the Gospel; neither is a bible study, or an accountability partner, or church camp, or a thousand hours of sermons.  And check this out, prepare to be shocked: the Bible is not the Gospel, either.

   I say this without trepidation, but with the assumption that many will reel at this statement.  I don't think that I'm wrong to assume many will reel, because a few years ago I would have reeled, too.  I mean, come on, we refer to the first four books of the New Testament as "the Gospels."  Of course the Bible is the Gospel.  How could it not be the Gospel?  It's the Word of God!

   Well, I will contend that, if you don't agree with me that the Blood is The Gospel, than you will not be able to concede my point that the Bible is not The Gospel.  Because in my view The Blood is everything.  If salvation is in The Blood; if grace is in The Blood; if our covenant with God is in The Blood; if all of these things, which are the good tidings to which all of Creation has looked since The Fall, are not The Gospel, than we don't have a very powerful Gospel.  If the only Gospel we have is the Bible, than the Gospel cannot fulfil it's two requirements: that is is free, and it's for everyone.

   Let me just reiterate that last statement: The Gospel, The Blood, is free and it's for everyone.  These are the characteristics of The Gospel.  Look at what is repeated throughout the New Testament: Jesus died for everyone, and all you have to do to be saved is accept and believe.  The Blood is for everyone, and it is free.

   The Bible, on the other hand, is not available to everyone, and it isn't free.  There are barriers to accessing the Bible;  there are no barriers to accessing The Blood.  Some folks will live their entire lives without reading either the New or Old Testaments, but they will surely have the chance to accept or deny The Blood.  As Paul says in Romans 3:23-24:

[F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

     All have sinned, but all can receive the gift of The Blood.  This is The Gospel, and we see that it's free and it's for everyone.  The Blood of Jesus is the good tidings we should carry to everyone, and not just to the lost.  The Blood doesn't cease to be powerful after we believe and are saved.  Why else would Jesus have told his disciples to repeat the ceremony of the Last Supper?  He told them, "Do this in remembrance of me," because he knew they were bound to forget what The Blood cost him and cost the Father.  He must have known the temptation would spring up to replace The Blood with religion and knowledge.  We don't cease to need The Blood once we're saved by it because The Blood is everything.  It's The Blood that washes us white as snow.  It's The Blood that allows us to enter the Throne Room as children of the Father.  And it's The Blood that is always there to purify us if we will only go back to it.

   Do not make the mistake of elevating anything above The Blood of Jesus, even the Bible.  Know that the Bible is not the fullness of the words of God, because He has not quit speaking to us.  He speaks daily, and He longs to speak to everyone, if only we will listen.  I say this not to bring down the Bible, but to elevate The Blood, and to remind us of what saves.  And I say all of this in the hope that we will elevate The Blood above everything else, because The Blood is everything.  The Bible does not save, church does not save, good works don't save, love doesn't save.  We have been called to all of these things, but it doesn't change the fact that The Blood alone saves.