Lev. 17:11 says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. So it was necessary that Jesus not only die, but that He also shed His blood for the atonement of our sins. And by the shedding of His blood we who believe in the atonement sacrifice of the Lamb of God have been forgiven of our sins by that sacrifice, and God remembers them no more, as it is written in Isaiah 43:25, “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.”
What about future sins? Do we just keep on sinning? Absolutely not! For as Peter said, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed,” 1 Peter 2:24. By His blood being shed when He was scourged and when the soldier pierced His side, and by His body undergoing an excruciating death on the cross, we were healed, we were made whole; for through the shedding of His blood Jesus made atonement for our sins, and through the death of His body He made it possible for us to live to righteousness, for He bore our sins in His body.
There are two men, or two creations, Adam, the sinner, and Jesus Christ, the righteous. While in the flesh, having being made in the likeness of men, Jesus was the last Adam. And being in the likeness of Adam, yet without sin, He became the Lamb of God, a perfect sacrifice. And we were crucified with Jesus while He was in the flesh (Romans 6:6), and we were raised up with the resurrected Jesus, the new man, when He ascended to the right hand of the throne of God. We are now the body of the risen Christ.
The Scriptures say, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Our faith is in the sacrifice of Jesus. The last Adam (Jesus) bore the sins of the first Adam and his descendants, of which we belong. He then went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah. This corresponds with baptism for He went there while His body lay in the tomb. After this He was raised from the dead and became a life-giving spirit. “For since by a man (Adam) came death, by a man (Jesus) also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive,“ 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22.
Romans 6:3-7 says, “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self [lit. man, which is the first Adam] was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
Before Christ we were alive to sin, and dead to God. After Christ, when we accepted His sacrifice, He breathed new life into us, and we became dead to sin, and alive to God in Him. We are no longer to participate in the sins of Adam, for, through the sacrifice of Christ, we have died to sin. We are now to participate in the righteousness of Christ, for we have been born anew, through His resurrection, into His righteousness.
May the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ bless those who dwell in the new creation, the body of Christ; and if any still dwell in the old creation, the body of Adam, may He give them eyes to see, and ears to hear.
Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant
jondavidbanks.com 