Jesus is Alive, I am Alive in Him

Today is a continuation from yesterday's post: Out of the Graveyard. Who is Jesus Christ to me? I shared how I was the walking dead before I came to know and believe in Jesus Christ. He gave me life with technicolor, surround sound, 3 D, vibrant wonder and adventure.

I've been an ardent Bible student for several decades. I well remember back in the eighties calling my learned senior pastor (a former seminary leader; Bible scholar) with a profound question that I had spent weeks studying for a clear answer, "Pastor, why has God never accepted anything but blood for the remission of sin?" He sighed and asked if I'd been digging in the Old Testament again. "Oh, no sir, I've looked from Genesis to Revelations. I've been studying for three weeks and I cannot find anywhere that states that God accepted any sacrifice for sin, but blood."

After a long conversation (don't you know he had a long to do list ? but he patiently talked me through this seeking), he told me I had hit a major truth and with our small minds we cannot fully understand it. But he told me to process through my medical profession knowledge and think how we determine the condition of someone's health...the blood test results. Life is in the blood. So.........first of all as Paul tells us in the Scripture we are dead....dead...dead without the work of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Ephesians 1:7-10
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."

Yesterday we talked about the natural condition of everyone because when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they sold themselves and all who came after them to Satan. With the shedding of His blood, Jesus nullified that act and bought us back from Satan.

Colossians 1:19,20
"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."

No wonder I felt like the walking dead....and of course in Christ I feel alive; because I am!!!

Hebrews 9:14
"How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God." As my pastor showed me I had read correctly that in the Old Testament the blood of goats and bulls were required for the Israelites to be redeemed from their sins. But in this verse I could see that Jesus Christ's blood was the full redemption for my sins, my generational sins from my family and the sins I inherited from Adam and Eve.

So I want to celebrate that I am alive in Christ. I will forever be praising Him, thanking Him, adoring Him, and loving Him for shedding His perfect, clean, life-giving blood on the Cross so that I may live forever.

He's Alive and I am Alive in Him!!! Jesus is my life!