A reference was made in his Seedbed Daily Text today by JD Walt to atonement through “the sprinkling of blood” My mind’s eye saw the image of the ancient Hebrews’ doors of their Egyptian “prison cells”, with blood of a lamb sprinkled or brushed across the doorways’ lintels as instructed by God through Moses to avoid impact of the flight of the Angel of Death across the land, killing the firstborn of every household. This is a foreshadowing of the ultimate sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ upon the wood of the cross, his own body there being the “Door” as Jesus spoke in John 10 of being the “gate” or the “door”. BELIEF in his life, his death on the cross, his resurrection is the New Testament corollary to the OBEDIENCE of the children of Abraham shown in sprinkling the blood of the lamb on their doorways. Both acts provide the doorway to life. The Old Testament representation provided protection from death of the body to firstborns of God’s people. The New Testament corollary provides protection from death of the spirit to all who believe in Jesus who IS the Firstborn of the resurrected life and who defeated death for all time to give eternal life to all who come to God through him. Such a beautiful picture….. revealing mirror images of God protecting his people and keeping them “at-one-ment” with himself in life, first in the event of Passover. God brought them out of their suffering whole and with riches of a redemption price paid by their now-defeated Egyptian masters in their Exodus from slavery in the physical. Then in the event of Calvary, our would-be enslaving master, satan, thought he held all the assets and leverage over God’s people, just as Pharoah did. Recognizing Jesus’ purpose as the Messiah satan connived to bet every last treasure and tool at his disposal to thwart Christ’s rescue of God’s people, not realizing that Jesus is God Himself. Jesus suffered in his humanity in solidarity with His creation and took every asset and tool satan threw at him- temptation, scorn, humiliation, being misunderstood, sorrow, pain, betrayal, condemnation, the lure of the material and physical realm, even shame and death on a cross. Jesus Christ took them all. He cleared the table of every treasure and weapon satan thought he had at Calvary, the same way he had cleared the tables in the Temple….. and Jesus became the gate, the doorway, the dry path through the sea, the Guide in the wilderness to freedom for whoever believed on him.
This is why obedience in the Old Testament is “reckoned as righteousness”, equivalent to the New Testament act of belief in Jesus Christ, which reckons us as righteous. If we believe in Jesus and set our feet on the path in the Way of Jesus and set our faces toward the New Jerusalem, we become co-heirs of his righteousness born of his perfect obedience that defeated satan’s tactics and won for us the blessing of being children of God with all the joy of living transcendently in this life and forever with Him.
Such beauty and harmony, such grace and truth, such majesty and glory, such creative originality as God alone can do…..it takes my breath away!