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avflf
Guest
And pray tell, why is the shedding of blood required?
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swplan76
Guest
Essentially the Gospel/goodnews is this:
Return.
…
There is a common word used in both the Old and New Testament - Repent. Another way that this word can be translated is return. In Egypt, the word used when God was calling His people back to Him was, ‘Repent/Return.’ Its as though God was saying, 'Come back to me." As Israel was exiled in Babylon God used the prophets to call his people back, “Repent/Return.”
In both of those situations God’s people were oppressed and they called out, so He responded with an invitation, “Return to me.”
In Jesus time God’s people were in the same situation - oppressed by a foreign army. What does Jesus say, repent/return.
Essentially the message has always been the same (return/repent).
This is the first phrase written in Mark’s Gospel spoken by Jesus:
Mark 1:15
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent (return) and believe the good news.”
Matthew 3:2 presents John preaching in the desert saying,
“Repent (return), for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
After Jesus was tempted by the devil, "From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent (return) for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
For these Jews, they had been raised around the stories of the Old Testament, the vast majority of them would have the first 5 books of the Bible memorized, so when they hear, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near,” they are reminded of the voice of Moses and the prophets (the prophets were later in the old testament, but they would have been familiar with them).
Its like Jesus and John, as they spoke those words, they were also saying, ‘Something is about to happen, that is a lot like the Exodus and a lot like what the prophets wrote about.’ or ‘This is a lot like that.’
The good news (gospel) has always been that Jesus saves… or that God delivers… or that if we call out, He will answer. He has done it in various ways through out human history.
In this age, we are invited to believe in Jesus and be saved. …and essentially we are offered the same invitation as God’s people always have been, “return/repent… come back to me.”
The typical message we call the gospel is: Jesus died for our sins, believe, be baptized and receive forgiveness of your sins. This is the method, not the message.
The message is that once again there is a way for us to return to God. Only this time the invitation is not just open to the Jews. The invitation is open to all of humanity. God is calling all of humanity back to Himself. That is the message of the Gospel.
The power of that message is revealed through the blood and resurrection of Jesus. He is the way that we can receive that message.
Maybe I’m just playing with the basic meaning of the words…
I think its important that, as we grow in Him, we begin to see how the whole Bible is tied together through this good news - God has always been calling us back.
Return.
…
There is a common word used in both the Old and New Testament - Repent. Another way that this word can be translated is return. In Egypt, the word used when God was calling His people back to Him was, ‘Repent/Return.’ Its as though God was saying, 'Come back to me." As Israel was exiled in Babylon God used the prophets to call his people back, “Repent/Return.”
In both of those situations God’s people were oppressed and they called out, so He responded with an invitation, “Return to me.”
In Jesus time God’s people were in the same situation - oppressed by a foreign army. What does Jesus say, repent/return.
Essentially the message has always been the same (return/repent).
This is the first phrase written in Mark’s Gospel spoken by Jesus:
Mark 1:15
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent (return) and believe the good news.”
Matthew 3:2 presents John preaching in the desert saying,
“Repent (return), for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
After Jesus was tempted by the devil, "From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent (return) for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
For these Jews, they had been raised around the stories of the Old Testament, the vast majority of them would have the first 5 books of the Bible memorized, so when they hear, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near,” they are reminded of the voice of Moses and the prophets (the prophets were later in the old testament, but they would have been familiar with them).
Its like Jesus and John, as they spoke those words, they were also saying, ‘Something is about to happen, that is a lot like the Exodus and a lot like what the prophets wrote about.’ or ‘This is a lot like that.’
The good news (gospel) has always been that Jesus saves… or that God delivers… or that if we call out, He will answer. He has done it in various ways through out human history.
In this age, we are invited to believe in Jesus and be saved. …and essentially we are offered the same invitation as God’s people always have been, “return/repent… come back to me.”
The typical message we call the gospel is: Jesus died for our sins, believe, be baptized and receive forgiveness of your sins. This is the method, not the message.
The message is that once again there is a way for us to return to God. Only this time the invitation is not just open to the Jews. The invitation is open to all of humanity. God is calling all of humanity back to Himself. That is the message of the Gospel.
The power of that message is revealed through the blood and resurrection of Jesus. He is the way that we can receive that message.
Maybe I’m just playing with the basic meaning of the words…
I think its important that, as we grow in Him, we begin to see how the whole Bible is tied together through this good news - God has always been calling us back.
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swplan76
Guest
We understand blood.
If someone is cut and begins to bleed in front of us, the seriousness of the matter strikes us. If we are injured and there is no blood, we feel less worried about it, but if we are injured and we bleed, we feel instinctively more worried about the situation. There is significance connected with blood.
If were to look at a dead animal laying on the road what do we look for? What we are hoping not to see is blood. If the animal is dead, that is one that but if it is laying in pool of its own blood, something in us is increasingly disgusted.
Why? With blood comes death (depending on how much blood there is).
We understand blood. We understand how important it is.
God’s people have offered animals as a sacrifice to Him to remind themselves how wrong their sins are against Him.
Hebrews 10:4 says that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins”
1The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.’ "[a] 8First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). 9Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16"This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds."** 17Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”[c] 18And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. 19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Blood is a universal currency.
We all understand how important blood is.
That is why Jesus’ blood was used. If we can imagine it, His blood should be shocking enough to us, to imagine that God would do that for us…
Basically, He is saying, ‘I would do anything for you.’**
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swplan76
Guest
…And this is supposed to be shocking. Shocking enough that we would imagine the blood, even as we drink from the cup and eat the bread… and it should cause a response in us.
If we imagine the moments where we see our own wounds bleeding, or the blood of others, or the blood of animals, …blood immediately sends a powerful message. Instincts of panic, desperation,…
I think we tend to become desensitized, or we choose not to think about what blood means when it comes to Jesus.
Jesus on the cross is a graphic and disturbing image. Should we be looking at something so grotesque? One of the fundamental moments our faith is centered around is His death on the cross. Yes, God wants us to take the moment in. He wants us to imagine it. He doesn’t want us to fill our minds with bloody scenes and be consumed by gore, but He does want us to imagine the real depth and meaning of the blood of Jesus. He provides us with a myriad of moments - most of them of hope, healing, love and rescue… but this one is gory. He wants us to imagine how dirty, terrible and intense it was. He desires this so that we can begin to imagine how intense our response ought to be.
Why did blood need to be shed?
Primarily it opens a way for us to be forgiven. It also put an end to continual blood sacrifice. Jesus bares the weight of all our sin through His blood.
That’s what Jesus’ blood does.
If we imagine the moments where we see our own wounds bleeding, or the blood of others, or the blood of animals, …blood immediately sends a powerful message. Instincts of panic, desperation,…
I think we tend to become desensitized, or we choose not to think about what blood means when it comes to Jesus.
Jesus on the cross is a graphic and disturbing image. Should we be looking at something so grotesque? One of the fundamental moments our faith is centered around is His death on the cross. Yes, God wants us to take the moment in. He wants us to imagine it. He doesn’t want us to fill our minds with bloody scenes and be consumed by gore, but He does want us to imagine the real depth and meaning of the blood of Jesus. He provides us with a myriad of moments - most of them of hope, healing, love and rescue… but this one is gory. He wants us to imagine how dirty, terrible and intense it was. He desires this so that we can begin to imagine how intense our response ought to be.
Why did blood need to be shed?
Primarily it opens a way for us to be forgiven. It also put an end to continual blood sacrifice. Jesus bares the weight of all our sin through His blood.
That’s what Jesus’ blood does.
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Church_Militant
Guest
So…then Jesus was lying when He plainly told everyone, "53] So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
54] he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55] For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56] He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6)
54] he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55] For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56] He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6)
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avflf
Guest
You really sucked this out your thumb
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EdOsiecki
Guest
Hi all, Why the shedding of blood for the forginess of sins? Because that’s God’s plan for salvation. It started with Adam and Eve being reclothed with animals skins, It was put into law in Moses’ time Old T. Lev 17:11,“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar, it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life”. When we carry that same message into the New T. Because of sin, by birth we are doomed to die, but if we want life, only Jesus’ blood will give it to us. When we believe that Jesus shed His blood to atone for our sins, our new life begins right here on earth and it is continued into eternity. Jesus was made (our) sins 2 Cor5:21 in exchange, He gave us His righteousness. Mat 3:11 When water baptized, our pledge of repentance and dying to old life, we are resurrected into a new life which now identifies us with Christ Rom 6:4. “That’s the Gospel” 1Cor 15:2-4 PTL ED
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Mailman
Guest
The saying that Jesus came to “set the captives free” refers more to spiritual freedom from [the bondage of] sin rather than a freedom from physical oppression. After speaking to a number of Jews in the temple, Jesus, addressing those who “believed on him” said: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:30-32). The Jews, not understanding what Jesus meant by making them free, asked: “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?” Jesus set them straight right away by saying: “Verily, verily I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”
The Bible [more specifically the OT] is a book that mainly tells the story of a people especially chosen by God because of one man’s faithfulness, to be separated from all other nations and given the oracles of God in order to “… learn them, and keep, and do them” (Deut. 5:1). It so happened that these people [the nation Israel] was more inclined to disobey God rather than follow His Way, so we often find them punished by God, enduring captivity and oppression by other people. Their story was written and preserved for our learning and admonition (Rom. 15:4; 2 Tim. 3:16). What happened to these peoples of ancient times is an example for us today (1 Cor. 10:6, 11).
Now, since God inspired the writing of this book – and eventually also the books of what later came to be known as the NT – the whole Bible is in fact the very Word of God. It is the written revelation of the Creator God for mankind. Although it reads mostly like a storybook of an ancient people, contained those writings are vital knowledge which everyone needs to know and understand – but knowledge which is not accessible by any natural means. That is why this book tells us that, “there is a way which SEEMETH RIGHT unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).
Without the Bible, we can never understand the lessons of the PAST, the meaning of the PRESENT, and the goal of the FUTURE. Scripture, when properly understood, gives a rational meaning for man’s existence. It can tell us WHAT we are, WHY we are here, WHERE we are going, and HOW we can get there.
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Mailman
Guest
I would have to disagree with you there. The entire message of Jesus is what it plainly says in His Word: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…” (Mark 1:1) – and then it identifies that Gospel message – “… Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God…” (verse 14). The Gospel of the Kingdom is more than just about liberation.
Jesus gave His life so that we might be free FROM THE DEATH PENALTY which we have all incurred due to sin. Jesus died in our stead, paying the penalty for our sin, so that we may not have to die ourselves. He bought our life with His shed blood. Jesus’ life was the price paid for our freedom from that death penalty. That is why the Scriptures say Jesus “came to give his life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).
However, we only enjoy that life after, not before, Christ returns. “Jesus came so that we might have life” does not mean this life that we are living now, but the life after. That is the time when we “have life” – that is, ETERNAL LIFE – “and have it to the full.” That is also the time when the Kingdom would come.
The Scriptures show that Christ’s disciples, even after being taught for 40 days about the Kingdom by Christ Himself, still believed that the Kingdom is yet to come. They also believed that this Kingdom was a literal world-ruling Kingdom to be established on earth, not some ethereal realm set up in the hearts of men. Did they misunderstand Jesus? Not likely.
We are not only to wait, but also PRAY for the Kingdom to come. Jesus said so. “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, THY KINGDOM COME…” We are to pray to the Father for the Kingdom to come precisely because God’s Kingdom has not yet come. Even Jesus’ followers waited for the Kingdom: “Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also WAITED for the kingdom of God…” (Mark 15:43).
In the meantime while waiting for God’s Kingdom to come [only the Father knows when], we need to live a life worthy to enter into that Kingdom. And this does not just involve helping the poor and the oppressed, but keeping ALL of God’s commandments, meaning, living “BY EVERY WORD OF GOD” (Luke 4:4). Our earthly life now would serve as a training ground for our future life in God’s Kingdom.
The Christian in this age lives IN the world but he is not OF it (John 17:14-16), but rather IN it as an ambassador for Christ (II Cor. 5:20). The Christian’s kingdom, or nation, is NOT OF THIS WORLD, since Christ’s is not (John 18:36). With Abraham, the Christian WAITS for a better country, that is, a heavenly country (Heb. 11:16) – the Kingdom of God. And no, we need to appear in the world NOT as a glorious radiant bride, but as a glorious radiant BRIDE-IN-WAITING.
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EdOsiecki
Guest
Was Jesus lying here in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preached the good news to all creation. v16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” He doesn’t say anything about eating His flesh or drinks His blood? Ed O.
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Jerry_Marino
Guest
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn 8 the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
repent people and call on the name of the Lord and you shall be saved!
God bless
repent people and call on the name of the Lord and you shall be saved!
God bless
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davidv
Guest
Is Mark 16:15 the only verse in the Bible?
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EdOsiecki
Guest
Hi david, thanks for your reply. The answer to your question is NO! Here’s two more (1)----- Acts 16:30, the jailor asked how to be saved? v 31 Paul said,“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved----you and your household.” (2)-----Acts 10:44, While Peter was still speaking these words,(gospel), the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. That’s how simple it is to be saved. (A) In order to be saved, sins have to be forgiven. Only God can forgive sin because sin is a transgression against God. (B) Sin has to be atoned for only by blood. (Heb 9:22 without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins also Jesus states Mat 26:28 “This is my blood----which is poured out----for the forgiveness of sins”) Jesus shed His blood at the cross. So when a person believes on Jesus, sin is forgiven and paid for. (C) When a person confesses his/her sins to God, that’s an act of repentance (Mat 3:11) which is what water baptism signifies. To summarize: Just like Jesus states per Mark 16:15 believe on Him and be baptized and we are saved. Rev 1:5 He (Jesus) freed us from our sins by His Blood. Do you agree? ED O.
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QuickCat
Guest
The Lord Jesus Christ, during His earthly ministry, was “sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” Matthew 15:24; Romans 15:8. He proclaimed the “kingdom at hand” and sent the 12 out to preach the same gospel of the kingdom. This “kingdom” is an earthly one with Israel being the “head and not the tail” and the Gentiles serving Israel. It will be set up on earth with the Lord Jesus Christ reigning from Jerusalem while sitting on David’s throne. The 12 did not proclaim the good news of our Lord’s death, burial and resurrection. This was hidden from them. Luke 18:31-34. The good news of the cross was first proclaimed by the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul. The 12 ministered to Israel - see Galatians 2:5-7.
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