THINK TOGETHER
Have you ever tried to hide something bad that you’d done?
READ TOGETHER
Blood can be kind of scary or gross can’t it? Some people can’t stand the sight of blood. For others it may be no big deal.
But for God blood is very important. We know from the Old Testament law that God required a blood sacrifice in order to cover over the people’s sins. When they sinned they had to shed the blood of an animal, a lamb, or a goat, or a cow, or a bird. In the New Testament book of Hebrews it explains it this way:
Hebrews 9:22. without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
No blood. No forgiveness.
But why did God require blood to be shed? Was it because blood is magical or because God just likes it so much?
No. God used blood to symbolize life itself. When the Bible says that there is no forgiveness without “shedding blood,” that just means that something has to die in order for there to be forgiveness of sins. Why? Because the penalty for sin is death. As we learned yesterday, sin is a debt that we owe to God and it is a disease that is killing us from the inside.
So why don’t we offer sacrifices to God anymore? When you go to church on Sunday will you bring a blood sacrifice? Will we all bring animals to offer to God? I hope not. What a mess that would be!
And if we aren’t bringing God sacrifices anymore then how can we know that we are forgiven by God? What do we do when we mess up, or have a bad attitude, or bully someone, or cheat, or lie, or steal, or think we’re better than others? What do we do now when we sin? The Bible says that God requires blood. So what do we do now?
We trust the blood of Jesus!
Jesus shed his own blood for us once for all time. That means that we never have to shed blood again. Not a lamb’s blood or our own. In other words, we don’t have to pay for our own sins. We don’t have to suffer the punishment of spiritual death and separation from God. And when we sin today (yes you will sin today) if we are trusting in Christ alone for forgiveness, his death on the cross, then we don’t have to do anything to pay for our sins. Yes, there might be consequences for what we do with other people, things that naturally happen because we were selfish or disobedient. But with God we can know that he has forgiven us for all time, no matter what, because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Because of Jesus we are forgiven once for all time.
With Jesus we can learn from our mistakes without trying to hide them from God.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Watch Finding Nemo together. Talk about the forgiveness of Marlin for his son, Nemo. Marlin goes after Nemo just like God goes after us seeking to love us and reconcile with us.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus,
You shed your blood on the cross for me. You died for me. You gave me your own life. Help me to trust in you more and more and love you more than I love sinning.
Amen.
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