Blood of Jesus Bathed and Free

I come from a long line of good people. I truly feel like the wild branch grafted into the Root Nature. I was just never able to successfully live out the character of being GOOD. If I am a frog, a frog I will be. Not that I didn’t give it a valiant try to be other than; I just never could successfully pull it off.  And this has become one of my greatest blessings! So for all the other frogs out there, let me share with you what I’ve found.

Recently I was leveled as I listened to Martha’s series Conquered by the Blood. While the first CD played, tears just flowed down my cheeks. The truth of what she speaks is so staggering. Christianity has become a bloodless religion, leaving many anemic, powerless and guilty. And as one who for so many years wanted to live by restitution, resolution, goodness, merit, and just doing it better…the reality of the Blood of Jesus has set me free.

Sin vs. The Blood of Jesus

There is only one answer to my sinful nature and that’s the Blood of Jesus. The Blood is my only response to any accusation against my person. When Satan comes and accuses me, the Blood of Christ is my reply. Because it’s God’s answer for me, it’s also my answer to Satan. The Blood of Jesus has become my reality, not just an ideology.

This morning, as I’m looking at it, I can see that when the Blood is our only answer, we can literally speak back at the enemy’s assault as if it were not us. Can you imagine? When he accuses me of my past, I can respond to his accusations as if I’m not that person. Though I committed the sin, my present reality is that we are two totally different people. It’s not that I go blasé or blot out the fact, but it’s no longer my reality because of the Blood of Jesus. It’s like he’s talking about someone else.

Cleansed by The Blood of Jesus

I’ve never experienced that before. I have experienced the guilt, shame, and remorse, and with these an emboldened determination to do better. But never have I lived in the reality that the Blood washes it away. So much so that it’s as if Satan was speaking of someone other than myself when he accuses me. That’s what the Blood is intended to do: remove your sin as far as the east is from the west. These two locations are so distant as to be never connected. East is as far from West as I am from my sin. The person who sinned, no longer has sin. No longer is it a part of me! This floors me completely.

He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
Psalm 103:12 (NLT)

It makes me wonder if I’ve just never applied the Blood to my sins before. The reason I have this question is because I sometimes have a residual guilt after applying the Blood. If there is still residual guilt after applying the Blood, I question whether the Blood has been applied at all.

Faith in the Blood

I do know the Blood is accessed through faith. If you don’t have faith in the power of the Blood, have you accessed it at all? If all things from God are received by faith, and the only thing that pleases God is faith, then are we truly living in the reality of the price paid if we fail to have faith in the Blood as the only answer? We are triumphant over the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and not loving our lives unto death. My story is not any less my story, but the things of my story are no longer my reality.

The enemy’s words and accusations of me don’t have the power to wound me when my answer is the Blood. The Blood of Jesus is my only answer. I am freed, atoned for, and justified by the Blood.

I want to live in the reality that my sin is no longer connected to my life. That the Blood of Christ that was shed on the Cross puts distance between my sin and I. I’ve lived in such a state that I’ve put faith in my sinfulness over the power of His Blood. It’s a sin to assign a greater power to my inability rather than valuing His ability. That’s the most shameful of all sins. It’s unbelievable to think that I would refuse to receive the only power of propitiation for my sin and for what—self? This is not a work of disassociation but a work of redemption. Being redeemed is totally different than the disassociated self. Though my sin is as distant from me as the east is from the west, it’s still my story. But it’s one that I’ve been redeemed from, that no longer has the power to shame me because of His Blood.

If I am a frog,
a frog I would be

Until a fair Prince
shed His Blood for me.

And now I am free
and able to see,

That I am a prince,
from the Royalest Tree.