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A gift cannot be judged by its price. It would not be very polite, if someone gave you a present and you asked how much it cost. When someone gives a present, how can you judge his heart in terms of money? How can we put a price on the gift that God has given us, the tremendous gift of God's eternal forgiveness for our sins? I once watched as an acquaintance gave someone a gift and said, "Compared to what Jesus has done for us, this gift does not amount to 1/1000 or even 1/10,000 as much."
The gift that God has given us today is not the sacrifice of Old Testament times when the blood of a goat or a calf was shed; it is the covenant of the blood that Jesus shed to bring us eternal forgiveness.
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And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when
I smite the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)
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God said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God will consider a person's character, disposition, impression, knowledge, or noble-mindedness, before passing over him.
I hear Thy welcome voice
That calls me, Lord, to Thee
For cleansing in Thy precious blood
That flowed on Calvary...
His blood the witness
Gives within my heart for me...11
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This is something for which to be tremendously grateful. We were sinners who had inherited the blood of Adam, but now, through the blood of Jesus, we have become children of God. The blood of Jesus soaks our consciences. The blood of Adam still flows in our bodies, but the covenant established through the blood of Jesus flows in our consciences. Jesus' own priceless body was torn, and thus He has bought us with
His blood.
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Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:12-14)
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The precious blood of Jesus has cleansed us. I sometimes meet people who have written out their last will and testimony. Such a will has no effect while that person is still alive. If a rich man contacts his attorney and makes a will, leaving some of his wealth to his country, some of it to his children, and some of it to his local community, even if he makes a record of his will on video tape, that will is of no effect as long as the man is still alive. The will only comes into effect when the person who wrote it dies. In the same way, all of God's plan and His promise to forgive our sins had already been completed, but it was only when Jesus died that it all came into effect. Those who believe this promise that has been given to us come to live under the blessing of eternal forgiveness.
11 Lewis Hartsough (1828-1919),
I Hear Thy Welcome Voice, 1872
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