Hope For The Nations, Lesson 10, Fall 2006

The Bible and the Gospel

  • Luke 24:44-46 –The OLD TESTAMENT points to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
  • The GOSPELS (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) reveal the facts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
  • The New Testament LETTERS explain the meaning of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
    • John 16:12-14 – The Holy Spirit will reveal more after Jesus leaves
      • Ex.: Acts 26:14-18 – Paul is appointed as one who would reveal Jesus

Romans

  • The letter to the ROMANS, written by the apostle Paul –
    • Chapters 1-5 – The power of Jesus’ shed blood.
      • The problem?  Our sins we commit.
      • The solution?  Jesus’ shed blood (Rom. 3:23-26; 5:9).
    • Chapters 6-8 – The power of Jesus’ flesh being crucified.
      • The problem?  Our body of sin – this “factory” that produces our sins.
      • The solution?  The crucifixion of Jesus (Rom. 6:6)
    • (Chapters 9-11 – God’s promises are only for those who believe Jesus, regardless of your nationality)
    • Chapters 12-16 – “one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (12:5).

The BLOOD (Romans 1-5)

  • Sin = disobedience to God (Genesis 3:6; Romans 5:12, 19)
    • 3 EFFECTS of SIN:
      1. GOD-ward – separation between God and man (Gen. 3:9,24)
      2. MAN-ward – creates feeling of guilt and estrangement towards God (Gen. 3:8)
      3. SATAN-ward – gives Satan power over you (Gen. 3:12-14)
    • Genesis 3:21 – Need a covering from shed blood.
  • 3 ANSWERS BY BLOOD:
    1. GOD-ward –
    • Blood brings atonement (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22)
      1. Day of Atonement (Lev. 16; Hebrews 9:7; Romans 5:9-11)
      2. Passover (Exodus 12; Romans 3:23-26)
  • 1 Peter 1:17-19 – redeemed by blood
  • Hebrews 10:14 – perfected by his sacrifice, in God’s eyes
  1. MAN-ward –
    • We are brought near to God by the blood (Ephesians 2:11-13)
    • We continue to draw to God by the means of his blood (Heb. 10:19-22; 12:18-24)
    • Our guilty conscience is cleansed by his blood (Heb. 9:13-14; 10:1-4)
      1. 1 John 1:7-10 – God’s light reveals our darkness, but his blood “cleanses us from every sin”
    • We were purchased as slaves by his blood (1 Corinthians 6:20; Acts 20:28; Romans 6:18)
  2. SATAN-ward – 
  • Satan means “accuser” (see Revelation 12:10)
    • We took on his nature at the fall (Gen. 3:12-13), and could not receive God’s life (Gen. 3:22-24)
  • “Remove the iniquity…in one day” (Zechariah 3:9)
    • Zechariah sees a vision foreshadowing Christ (Zech. 3:8)
    • Zech. 3:1-5 – Satan could no longer accuse, because the Lord defended and gave a new covering
      • Points to the covering made by Jesus’ blood
  • Satan has lost his power to accuse us before God (compare Job 1:6-8 with Luke 10:18 and Revelation 12:7-10)
    • Jesus replaces Satan’s seat of accusation (1 John 2:1-2; Romans 8:31-34)
  • Revelation 12:11 – When Satan accuses us, we must respond with Jesus’ blood

A Final Note on this victory over Satan:

Satan has lost all of his power to accuse people before God, on account of the Blood of Jesus.  He used to be able to point out our sins in the presence of God, but now there is not one sin he can point to that has not been covered by the Blood.

Revelation 12 shows Satan being hurled down from heaven, not allowed there anymore.  But his presence is still very much upon the earth.  Rev. 12:17 shows Satan being enraged with Christians, and reveals that he will constantly attack us.  Even in Gen. 3:15, although Satan’s head will be crushed, he still will be able to strike the heel of the offspring of Jesus.  He has lost all accusations before God because of the Blood, but he still seeks to accuse the conscience of Christians today.

Satan will say to Christians, “You have sinned, and keep on sinning.  You are weak, and God can have nothing more to do with you.”  Immediately, our response is often to look within and self-defend, or to travel into depression and despair.  We try to convince ourselves and Satan that we are strong and can be righteous on our own.  But, as soon as we do this we have lost the battle.  Satan will always win if we try to look for our own righteousness, and ignore the righteousness of Jesus.

In Philippians 3:3, Paul says he puts no confidence in his flesh.  NO confidence.  He has learned that it is not the flesh that will defeat Satan.  In fact, the Serpent feeds off of the dust of the earth (Gen. 3:14).  Since Adam was made of dust, and we are his offspring, we only feed Satan when we live by the flesh and look for victory in our flesh.  Our key is to stop looking at ourselves to defend against Satan, and look instead to Jesus and His finished work.  Hebrews 12:1-2 talks of running the race by “fixing our eyes on Jesus”.  Any runner who looks downward at himself will only trip up and fall.  When Satan accuses us, we must rather point to Jesus’ finished work and the Truth of God’s Word.  When Satan says, “You are weak and sinful and God wants nothing to do with you,” we need to learn to say, “IT IS WRITTEN that Christ’s Blood covers every sin.”  We need to learn to constantly point to Jesus and His work, because His work will never change.  We will always have good and bad days, but Jesus’ work will never change.

A man who is under accusation is a man not trusting in the Blood.  The Blood always speaks in man’s favor.  It answers every unrighteous act we have committed or will commit.  We need to know God’s Word on this matter and stop listening to Satan.  Christ is truly our Advocate, but the accused have sadly sided with the accuser (Satan).  It is God ALONE who can answer Satan’s accusations, by His Blood.  For even Michael the archangel did not try to argue with Satan, but rather said, “The Lord Rebuke you!” (Jude 9).  

We will win against Satan’s accusations if we always answer him with the Blood.  Our faith and obstinacy in the precious Blood silences Satan and puts him to flight (see Romans 8:33-34).  In Revelation 12, when Satan is thrown down from heaven and goes to accuse the Christians, they were able to overcome him using 3 weapons.  The very first weapon they used was the Blood of the Lamb:  “the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.  And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb…” (Rev. 12:10-11).  This is a most precious Truth about the Blood of the Lamb.