Blood Filter Today I was contemplating the blood of Christ thinking about how important it is in how God perceives us. Without it, I do not even want to know what God’s thoughts are when He looks at sinful man. I was trying to find a piece of artwork to use as an example. Everything has such thick canvasses today that the paint does not bleed through the canvas. But, if you look at a picture that was painted on a thin piece of canvas, you will notice that on the back of the canvas, the paint bleeds through. All you see are these blotches and pathways where one color ends and another color begins. The back of the picture compared to the front of the picture is like night and day, complete opposites. The front of the picture is wonderful and beautiful, maybe even be priceless to you, but if you flip it over, the back of the canvas might not be very attractive or ugly, not something to gaze upon. But that is not how God, our Heavenly Father, sees us. Instead, He sees the entire painting, not just the ugly backside of the painting. He sees beauty because of what Christ has done, and that is the frame of mind I want you to put yourself in. So take the flesh out of it and know that God sees the entire front of that picture, the thing of beauty and value. He does not even try to peak at the back to see what it is like. He is not concerned with that anymore and does not need to see the rear any longer to see the blotches, the splatter, and the interconnecting pathways that really do not paint a beautiful picture. Compare that painting to our lives. The back of the painting with all the imperfections, is the sin our lives, but God is not concerned with it anymore because of what His only begotten Son did. God knows we are sinners, but it does not matter, because of what Christ did at Calvary on the cross. God sees us as beautiful priceless masterpieces. I remember when I was a teenager about 17 years old in the church Faith Center, where there was a youth group. I was kind of a rebellious kid, not a troublemaker, but I had a rebellious mind even though I knew I was saved by grace at this time. In this youth group, they wanted me and a few others to share our testimony about how bad we were and how Jesus saved us from the wretched life we were rescued from, but I had a problem with that. I did share my testimony once and never did it again. Even though the youth pastor asked me several more times, I would not do it because I had the good sense even back then to realize there was no reason to share my past. Why would I share with the congregation, most of whom I did not know, sins from my ugly past? I had not even lived that many years to create that many sins and now I had to share with other people what I was like. It was as if they wanted to create drama for the busy bees sitting in the congregation. For the most part, I thought they were just trying to analyze me to see if I was telling the truth or not, to decide if I really was saved by grace. I hated that. Maybe some of you who grew up around the church have had similar experiences. Why do I have to drag the past into the present? It is not Christian like and it is not scriptural. Paul says “I am the chief of sinners,” but he does not dwell on it. The book of Acts only gives a very brief timeline of what Paul did before he became a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ, but it does not dwell on it. Yet Christians dwell on the past incorporating it into their testimony to convince somebody else that they were bad, but look what happened, so maybe it could happen to you too. I remember telling the youth pastor that I would not do that again. He would still ask me about once a month, and I would still say no. I regretted doing it the first time. Even back then, I knew that if God did not see my sin any longer because of what Christ did, I did not need to confess them in front of everyone else. God had blotted them out of his mind. Christianity has developed stupid traditions that do not make any sense. I use common sense based on what is found in the Scriptures, not man-made doctrines. God is not looking at the back of the painting to see the imperfections, the sins in my life. He just wants to marvel at the beautiful masterpiece. If you feel uncomfortable calling yourself a beautiful masterpiece, then you are insulting God with your self-righteous false humility. It is an insult to God and to His Son, who died on the cross. God looks at us through the sacrifice of his only begotten son, Jesus Christ who died on that cross, and He now sees the beauty because of the Sons blood covering. Although I do it less and less, the more I know concerning the blood of Christ, I know it is just natural to wonder sometimes how God looks upon us, and how he conceives us as a finished work, even though we are in the process of being completed. You might wonder how He can see through our selfish, sinful, imperfect ways and then label us as a precious and valuable prize. There is only one way that happens. I am trying to relay the simple truth of Gods Word. There is only one way He can see us as a valuable prize, a precious masterpiece, and only one way. It is because He uses the filter of the blood of Jesus Christ. You heard me right. He looks at us through the filter of the blood of Jesus Christ. I looked up the definitions for the word ‘filter.’ There are different types of filters. For instance, cameras have filters that change the perspective of the image when you take that picture. However, here is one definition, “The purpose of a filter is to clean out bad particles so that whatever the filter is cleaning will be clean.” The blood of Jesus Christ does that! That is why God uses the filter of the blood of Jesus Christ to look at us, because Christ’s blood cleansed us. It took sin away, and God does not see the sin because of the blood. When God looks at us, He does not see any imperfections, even though I am not perfect, even though I have not been perfected completely, He does not see that. You cannot tell me the blood of Christ is not precious. God no longer sees the imperfections and sins. And if God, because of the blood of His Son, does not see the sins, because it is filtered by the blood of Jesus Christ, then why do I have to stand in front of a bunch of people and tell them how bad I was and all the bad things I have done. Did they just promote themselves to God or better yet, did they just promote themselves better than God? God is not concerned with their past, only they are. Thank God, God sees us through the filter of Jesus’s blood. Our sins, our imperfections cannot be seen through the blood filter. Remember, ‘the purpose of a filter is to clean out bad particles so whatever the filter is cleaning will be clean.’ God looks at us and sees His original intent before sin. That should give us confidence to boldly approach him, because we can. Ephesians 3:12 tells us, “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” This scripture not only encourages us, it says that we can have boldness to approach the Father confidently, and boldly, because in His eyes, we are perfect. Hebrews 10:19 states, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness (in Greek, it is with liberty, with confidence) to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” We no longer bear the evidence or imperfections of sin before Gods eyes. This is not because we act perfectly, not because what we do all the time is always right, and not because we have no sin. It is because God sees us through Jesus’s blood filter, which has made us a perfect thing of beauty and valuable to God forever. That is what the blood filter has done. Let me put this another way; the next time you cut your finger, and it bleeds because you cut yourself deeply, before you rush to clean it or wrap it to wipe away the blood, look closely at the wound. Now please, do not cut yourself on purpose to see if the illustration works, just wait until the next time it happens. But, when you cut yourself deeply, try to look at the wound and you may see something remarkable; you will not see the wound because of the blood covering. Now put that in a spiritual sense of understanding of what Christ has done for us. He has covered us with his blood and our Heavenly Father does not see the ugly wound that sin created. Instead, it is covered in blood and God uses the blood filter Jesus Christ provided to perceive us as a masterpiece through our daily trust and faith in Jesus Christ. I want to finish this chapter with an excerpt written a long time ago that is appropriate. It begins by explaining that we keep the blood covering, “Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all of God’s commandments and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I have never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I have been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is accept [I prefer, ‘acknowledge’] this gift of God with a believing [really, trusting and faithing] heart.” That is all we have to do, and it provides so much. Christ provided the blood filter through the blood He spilled at Calvary that God now uses to perceive us, even though we know we are flawed. That is what Paul so beautifully writes in scripture, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” God sees the painting from the front, and He likes what He sees. He does not need to look at the back and see all that messed up accumulation of colors that make no sense and add no value to the picture. It is precious blood, not only precious for us, but also precious to the Heavenly Father, because now He can commune with us once again. All because of what His only begotten Son was willing to take what we deserved. So now, remember Him as we are commanded to do, as we take these elements and thank Him for creating the masterpiece that His Father now can gazes on, and prize as a valuable piece. Remember Jesus as we take the elements. Copyright 2015 TeachingFaith Ministries Please email us at email@teachingfaith if this has encouraged and strengthened your faith. You can also find all the written sermons at teachingfaith/download-ebooks In 2 Corinthians 9:7 it reads, “God loveth a cheerful giver.” The Greek word for cheerful is Hilaros which means when someone is prompt to do something; they are ready in mind, with a joyful heart. In the Septuagint it also means to cause to shine. Today I am looking for Hilaros Givers who are ready and full of joy for the opportunity to cause others to shine by hearing, learning, and growing in God’s Word. Join with us today and participate as a Hilaros Giver. If you wish to participate use the following link teachingfaith/giving TeachingFaith Write us at TeachingFaith Ministries 5042 Wilshire Blvd. #21452 Los Angeles, CA 90036
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 22:20:21 +0000
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