Love Ran Red (Easter Special ♥️✝️)

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A little girl is seated on the floor of a tiny room; head bowed, scarf drenched in tears and her eyes worn out from all the crying. This tiny room was somewhat special to her. It was there that she got to talk with the One she loved. It was there that she spent hours on end reading the Book. This wasn't just any other Book. The One she loved had Himself written to her a love letter in the pages of that Book. It was through reading that Book that she got to know of His great love and gave herself entirely to Him. 

Now the Book lay on the floor beside her, some pages falling out because of the tantrum she threw while wallowing in her distress. This was meant to be her happy place, but her heart was grieving. She couldn't get herself to utter any words. She was too afraid to look around, too ashamed to look past her misery and upon the One she loved. For about a week, she had not come into this special room because she had missed the mark and felt guilty about it. She could not imagine the look of disappointment on her Father's face...it's why she kept her distance. Much as she finally showed up, she still felt condemned. How could she, filthy as she was, be worthy to be called the daughter of One so Holy?

She knew He was right there, but because of her sin, the walls of shame and guilt seemed to tower around her, keeping her out of sight from Him whom she loved. Her heart was so tightly locked in that she could not get herself to cry out to Him for mercy. Try as she did, there was simply no way over, around or through these walls. They were to her a constant reminder of the uncleanliness of her hands and the impurity of her heart. How could she, wretched as she was, stand before His Holy Presence?

Realizing how helpless she was, she rose to leave the room. Just as she tried to open the door, she noticed one of the pages that had fallen out lying under the door, just about to be blown away. As she picked it she noticed a verse she'd highlighted before. It simply read: Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. That right there was enough to stop her in her tracks. She knew she wanted to be restored, but she just didn't know how. So in distress her heart cried out: But the wall!!

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Isaiah 59:1-3 NIV

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, 

nor his ear too dull to hear.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

For your hands are stained with blood, 

your fingers with guilt. 

Your lips have spoken lies, 

and your tongue mutters wicked things.

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Truth be told, being born again is never a guarantee that we'll become "sin-proof". We may struggle with sin every now and then. Even worse, dealing with the guilt and condemnation that follows closely is quite something. The worst part of it is that it creates some kind of distance between us and God. No one can relate with God the same after having failed Him. The enemy uses this to cause us to withdraw as far as fellowship with God is concerned. The danger in this is that we become even more helpless because we can't in our own ability overcome sin. We're meant to draw near His throne of grace with confidence, and there receive mercy. Why then are we so quick to turn away?

Paul talks of Christ being our High Priest, One who has entered the Most Holy Place where God dwells on our behalf (Hebrews 6:19-20). With that in mind, drawing near to God is no longer on our own accord, because in ourselves we are limited by our sinful flesh. Drawing near to God is through Jesus Christ, the Lamb who has been made perfect for ever. Of Him Scripture says:

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Hebrews 7:25-27 NIV

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 

Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 

Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

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Though in ourselves we are unworthy of drawing near to God and are separated from Him on account of our sin, through Christ our High Priest we have access to God. Through Him we are brought back in the very presence of our Father. Through Him we are reconciled. We no longer have to feel that we have no business with a Holy God because of our sinful nature, but are brought to the understanding that He has made us one with Him.

You might still be wondering, 'What of the wall?'

 

This is something I may not be able to cover exhaustively, so I'll give a few references. The writer of Hebrews explains in detail and with much simplicity the concept of the Blood of Jesus and His sacrifice once and for all in Chapters 7-10. If you tried reading the Bible in a year and got stuck in Leviticus 😅, maybe it's time you read the two concurrently and get to compare the old and the new covenant. 

In a nutshell though, both covenants could only be put into effect by blood. For the old, it was through the blood of goats and calves that the priests entered the outer court, and the high priest entered the Most Holy Place once a year. In the new, Christ entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, and obtained for us eternal redemption. By this we understand that He completely overcame sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and in so doing granted us access to the Most Holy Place. It is only through the shedding of blood that there's forgiveness of sins. It is only through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all that we have been and are being made holy. 

Ephesians 2:11-19 also captures all that with much simplicity. In it Paul was addressing the Gentiles who under the old covenant had no share among God's chosen people. He endeavours to show them that even they could now draw near to God on account of His blood, and that the wall that kept them out had been destroyed on account of the reconciliation at the cross. The very people who were separate from Christ and were excluded from citizenship in Israel now had direct access to God and identified themselves as fellow citizens with God's people and members of His household. To them it was said:

But now in Christ Jesus 

you who once were far away 

have been brought near 

Through The Blood Of Christ.

This I believe is the same understanding we need to overcome whatever accusations the enemy brings our way to make us feel condemned each time we fall. About this Scripture mentions:

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Revelation 12:10-11 NIV

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: 

"Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

They overcame him By The Blood Of The Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

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A worship minister sang a song and said:

I enter the Holy of Holies

I enter through the blood of the Lamb

I enter to worship You only

I enter to worship I am.

What then are we to do? Well I'm glad you asked!

Hebrews 10:19-23 NIV

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place By The Blood Of Jesus, 

by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

Let Us Draw Near To God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, 

for he who promised is faithful.

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The little girl slumped onto the floor, exhausted from all the crying. She knew she wanted to be re-united with the One she loved, but she just didn't know how. On the floor beside her was another random page from the Book. She landed on a passage she'd highlighted and read it silently. For the first time that week, she smiles. Her face beams with gladness as she re-reads that passage:

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."

Now she knows that the One she loves is not mad at her. In any case, He longs to wipe away her tears and to hold her in the warmth of His embrace. Because she believes in His Son, the price for her sin had already been paid. Slowly, the taunts of the Accuser fade away. The walls of guilt and shame begin to crumble. Her heart is slowly awakened to the immense love of the Father and His richness in Mercy. 

She rises from the floor and looks up. No longer does she stand condemned, for she knows she has been forgiven. No longer is she a slave, for she knows she is God's dear child. Her eyes well up with tears of joy as she cries out to Him for the first time after the fall:

"Abba, Father!"

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