FRIDAY August 11th
1 Peter 1:17–19
‘And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.’
Continuing from where we left off in our previous devotion, Peter continues with a further and perhaps the most important reason why we should seek to conduct ourselves with fear throughout the time of our exile. It is because we have become what we are, the children of God, because a great cost has been made to redeem us. And we can think of those things in this world that are valuable, such as silver, gold, and diamonds but their value or worth is zero in comparison to the value and preciousness of the blood of Jesus. That’s how we have been redeemed, not by those things or anything else that is temporal or perishable but with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood is like no other blood that had ever flowed through the veins of any human being, for it was blood that was without blemish or spot.
If you were to type into a search engine on the internet (this is what I did to get this information), firstly, what is the most precious commodity on planet earth? The answer would be something that you have probably never heard of (I hadn’t) it is called ‘Antimatter’ a gram of Antimatter would be worth about 80 trillion dollars! Or secondly, what about the most expensive liquid on earth? You would come up with the answer ‘Zolgensma’, one gallon would cost about 1.4 billion dollars, this is a revolutionary drug used to treat a rare neuromuscular disorder.
Now as staggering as these two facts are, those compiling the lists have failed to recognise that 2000 years ago a man called Jesus hung on a Cross at a place called Calvary, just outside the city wall of Jerusalem, during this barbaric act of crucifixion as they plunged a crown of thorns on his head, drove nails through his hands and feet and plunged a spear into his side, his blood was poured out and it would have flowed down, dripping onto the soil of the earth below and the value of that blood is impossible to even estimate as it is imperishable, inestimable and has the power to cleanse men and women of their sin.
Now stop and just consider these things, you and I have been ransomed as Peter calls it from our futile ways which we inherited from our forefathers, and it has taken place because of the precious blood of Christ. Therefore as we consider the inestimable cost involved to redeem us, we should desire to live, conduct ourselves with fear during our time on planet earth knowing that one day we will be standing before God and will have to give an account.
Or is it possible as I have said about those who compiled the list above, that we have failed to recognise the preciousness of the blood of Jesus. And is it possible that God will ask us among other questions when we stand before him, ‘What value did you place on the blood of Jesus?’ Then he will continue, ‘Let’s look and see, for the answer is to be found by the way that you conducted your life’.
Now, I know that this has been a longish devotion but it is well worth a hymn! It is difficult to choose but this is the one I have gone for.
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away:
I do believe, I will believe,
That Jesus died for me!
That on the Cross he shed his blood,
From sin to set me free.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more:
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
W. Cowper CCLI 788682