TUESDAY August 15th
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 our previous devotion, there is another Old Testament example that we will turn to and it is in Exodus 12 at the time when the Children of Israel were about to be delivered from Egypt.
The final instruction that God gave to them through Moses was that they were to take a lamb that was without blemish and to kill it and the blood was to be applied to the doorposts and lintel of their homes and this is what God said ‘I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.’ Exodus 12:12–13.
The shed blood was to be both the means of their protection and their salvation. If we have not already come to appreciate it, we need as those who have been saved to appreciate all that the blood of Jesus should mean to us and appreciate its immense value. It has both saved us and protects us. For without his shed blood we would still be sinners, still in our sin and still heading for an eternity where we would be eternally alienated from God, eternity in the place which has been prepared for all who refuse to accept Jesus as Lord, the place which the Bible calls an eternal lake of fire.
Spend some time today thanking God for sending Jesus and in thanking Jesus that he was willing to come as the Lamb to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Again if you are reading this devotion and you have not yet committed your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I implore you to consider the wonder of God’s love for you that he was willing to send his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ into this world to die for you. This is what the Bible says ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ John 3:16. We will close the audio devotion with a song, here are some of the words for those reading it.
I was a wretch, I remember who I was, I was lost, I was blind
I was running out of time, sin separated
The breach was far too wide
But from the far side of the chasm
You held me in your sight
So You made a way, across the great divide
Left behind Heaven’s throne, to build it here inside
And there at the cross, you paid the debt I owed
Broke my chains, freed my soul, for the first time I had hope
Thank you Jesus for the blood applied
Thank you Jesus, it has washed me white
Thank you Jesus, You have saved my life
Brought me from the darkness into glorious light
You took my place
Laid inside my tomb of sin, You were buried for three days
But then You walked right out again
And now death has no sting, and life has no end
For I have been transformed
By the blood of the Lamb
There is nothing stronger
Than the wonder working power of the blood
The blood
That calls us sons and daughters
We are ransomed by our Father
Through the blood
The blood
Glory to His name
Glory to His name
There to my heart was the blood applied
Glory to His name
Charity Gayle CCLI 788682