Marked for Salvation: The Blood That Saves
Introduction: The Mark That Spells Safety
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
On this solemn morning, we gather in the shadow of the
cross. We are here to remember, to reflect, and to behold the defining moment
of human history: the death of the Son of God. The prophet Isaiah warned that
the Messiah would have "no form or majesty that we should look at him, and
no beauty that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2). And yet, we cannot
look away. We are drawn to this gruesome Roman instrument of death because we
know, by faith, that it is the throne of our salvation.
Today, I want to focus on a simple but profound
symbol: blood on the doorposts. It is a strange and primitive
image, isn't it? But it is the hinge upon which the story of redemption swings.
To understand what happened at Calvary, we must first go back to a tiny house
in Egypt on the night that changed everything.
I. The Mark of Identity (Exodus 12:7, 12–13)
Imagine the scene. The air in Egypt is thick with dread.
Nine plagues have come and gone, each one a judgment on the gods of Egypt. Now,
Moses has delivered the final warning: there will be a tenth plague—the death
of the firstborn. But God gives His people, the Israelites, a way of escape.
In Exodus 12, we read the instructions. Each household is to
take a lamb—"without blemish," a male, one year old—and slaughter it.
Then, they are to take the blood and do something peculiar. Verse 7 says: "Then
they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the
lintel of the houses in which they eat it."
They weren't just supposed to put the blood inside the
bucket or splash it on the floor. They were to paint it on the entrance, on the
doorposts and the beam above. It was a public declaration. It was a mark of
identity.
And then God makes a stunning promise in verse 13: "The
blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the
blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when
I strike the land of Egypt."
Notice the distinction. God does not say, "When
you feel the blood," or "When you understand the
blood." He says, "When I see the blood." Their
salvation did not depend on their feelings or their perfect understanding. It
depended solely on the objective reality of the blood applied to the door.
Inside that house, they were feasting on the lamb. Outside, there was judgment
and weeping. But that door, marked by the substitute's death, was the dividing
line between wrath and mercy .
This is the gospel in the Old Testament. The lamb dies so
the firstborn can live. The judgment falls on the substitute, so it passes over
the sinner .
II. The Mark of Substitution (Isaiah 53:4–6)
Fast forward a thousand years. The prophet Isaiah, speaking
by the Holy Spirit, looks into the future and sees another Lamb. In Isaiah 53,
we hear the tragic diagnosis of our condition. Verse 6 gives us the bad
news: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every
one—to his own way."
We are the ones who wandered. We are the ones who broke the
covenant. We deserved the judgment. The doorposts of our lives are stained, not
with the blood of a lamb, but with the filth of our own sin: our pride, our
greed, our lust, our indifference to God. And the justice of God demands that
the house of sin must face the destroyer.
But here is the divine exchange, the heart of the gospel.
Look at the rest of the verse: "...and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
The "Him" is the Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ.
God the Father took the burden of our wandering—the guilt, the shame, the
eternal weight of it—and placed it squarely on the shoulders of His Son. Verse
5 tells us why: "But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was
crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace, and with his wounds we are healed" .
The judgment we deserved fell on Him. He was
"pierced" and "crushed" so that we could go free. In Egypt,
the lamb died instead of the firstborn. On Golgotha, Jesus
died instead of us.
III. The Final Mark (John 19:16–37)
Now we arrive at Golgotha. John, the eyewitness, gives us
the details. He wants us to see that Jesus is the fulfillment of that ancient
promise.
Listen to how John describes the end. The soldiers come to
break the legs of the men on the crosses, to hasten their death. But when they
come to Jesus, they find He is already dead. So instead of breaking His bones,
a soldier pierces His side with a spear, and "at once there came
out blood and water" (John 19:34).
John pauses and draws our attention to two specific
fulfillments of Scripture. He says in verses 36 and 37: "For these
things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'Not one of his bones
will be broken.' And again another Scripture says, 'They will look on him whom
they have pierced.'"
Where does that first quote come from? It comes directly
from the instructions for the Passover lamb in Exodus 12:46. Jesus is the true
Passover Lamb . For centuries, the Jewish people had sacrificed lambs and
remembered the night of salvation. They ate the lamb, but the lamb was only a
symbol. Now, the reality has come. John wants us to see that the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world, has been slain. And like the lambs in
Egypt, His bones were unbroken. He died a perfect, complete, and sufficient
sacrifice.
And the piercing? That shows us the cost. That spear thrust
into His side is the final proof that He was really dead, but it also
symbolically opens the fountain of grace. The blood and water have been seen by
many theologians as a picture of the Sacraments—the blood of the Eucharist and
the water of Baptism—flowing from the side of the church's Bridegroom . It
is the proof that the fountain for sin has been opened.
Conclusion: The Blood on the Door of Your Heart
So, what does this mean for us tonight, gathered here in
this sanctuary? It means that the doorposts have been marked once and for all.
On that first Good Friday, God was passing through the land.
But it was not the land of Egypt; it was the land of creation. And the judgment
for sin was poured out. But where was the blood applied? It was applied to the
wood of the cross. Jesus Christ is the door. And the blood is on the doorposts
of the cross.
The question for us is not if the judgment
will come, but where are you standing? Are you standing outside, in
the domain of darkness, trying to weather the storm of God's justice on your
own? Or have you stepped through the door of faith, taking shelter under the
blood of the Lamb?
The blood on the doorposts in Egypt saved the people inside.
They were not saved because they were better Egyptians or because they were
naturally righteous. They were saved because they trusted God's word and stayed
under the blood.
Tonight, the word of God comes to you. Look at the cross.
Look at the pierced hands and feet. Look at the side, flowing with blood and
water. That blood is the sign. It is the mark of salvation. God sees the blood
of His Son, and for those who are in Christ, the wrath of God passes
over them.
You don't have to be afraid of the judgment. You don't have
to wander anymore like a lost sheep. You can come inside. You can be marked for
salvation.
As we leave this service in silence, carry that image with
you. The doorposts of heaven are marked with the blood of the Lamb, and that
door is standing wide open for you. Come in, find shelter, and live.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment