The Blood of Christ

Today's sermon was one of those that spoke to me in so many different levels that it would be hard to verbalise it. I did not even take notes, I was so absorbed in it.

The speaker was Rev Dr Chew Tow Yow and he spoke on the Blood of Christ from Hebrew 9:11-22.

He reminded us of the importance of blood - I think we have been talking about it, singing of it and using the word so much so that its significance is lost on us. We must be made to realise again that blood signifies life, and Scripture has this "trail of blood" beginning from the blood of animals, right up to the blood of Jesus that brings us eternal redemption as well as the blood of the saints, which represents the participation in the blood of Christ. There is a necessity of the blood of Christ because without it there can be no approach to God, no fellowship with God by faith, no enjoyment of God's favour. The blood of Christ is the life of Christ. When we pray for the covering of the blood of Christ, we are in effect asking for the covering of the life of Christ.

In our modern day world, we have lost that in our language and in our daily living. Blood sacrifices are not only not an event, it may even be abhorred. But whatever it is, God has chosen this to be the way to life - i.e. life for life. Only through the blood of Christ, there is reconciliation, cleansing, sanctification, union, victory, life.

The other two things that I have taken home from the sermon are these:

1. If you have followed this blog, you may remember that my mullings and reflection on the mysteries of prayer is almost never-ending. Rev Dr Chew said this, which somewhat settled it for me: prayer is powerful. I may not fully understand it, but there it is, prayer practiced as ordained by God is powerful.

2. When Rev Dr Chew talked about honouring the blood of Christ in our faith and ministries with its suffering and persecution, I began to wonder to myself what about those of us who do not work directly in ministries, but in the secular world so to speak? How can I say that my suffering and persecution that I am receiving from the world is for the Lord and since my work is not directly Gospel-linked, how do I see the suffering and persecution? It dawned on me that regardless of where we work, whether in or out of Christian ministries, we are a product of the work of Christ and we are to exemplify him and imitate him in all we do, and therefore in our Christ-like way of doing things in a non-Christ-like world, we will definitely suffer and be persecuted. Therefore, our suffering and the persecution that we face is because we are Gospel-centered, albeit indirectly. It is our hope that through our living out of the Christian faith, that we can be good witnesses for Christ.

pearlie