The Blood Changed Everything!

Main Thought

When you stand before a judge in a court of law, your opinion of yourself doesn’t matter. What matters is the judge's verdict. Even the most highly trained and respected earthly judges are subject to human weakness and error. Contrast that with the Almighty God. When He judges you, He doesn't just look at the evidence - He reads your innermost thoughts and motives. Yet, knowing everything, He still declares you holy and blameless in His presence.

This is exactly what the Bible declares in Colossians 1:22: “...He has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” The blood of Jesus didn’t just change your past; it fundamentally altered your standing before God and secured your future forever. Why, then, do we so often live as though we are still condemned? We must believe that the blood of Jesus has made us holy and blameless before God. The blood of Jesus changed everything!

Main Passages

“and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”

- Colossians 1:20-22 NLT

“For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.”

- Romans 3:25 NLT

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

- I John 2:1-2 NKJV

“With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.”

- Hebrews 9:12 NLT

Discussion Questions

1. Hebrews 9:12 reminds us that Jesus secured our redemption forever through His own blood. Why is the blood of Jesus more valuable and powerful than any human effort, good works, or any religious accomplishments? How should understanding its value change the way we live?

2. During the Passover, God instructed the Israelites to place blood on their doorposts so the Angel of death would pass over them. What does this teach us about salvation through Jesus Christ? Why is trusting in His blood more important than trusting in our own righteousness?

3. Colossians 1:20-22 declares that through Christ’s blood, we are reconciled to God and can stand before Him holy and blameless. How should this truth change the way we see ourselves, approach God, and deal with guilt and condemnation when we fall short?

Amazing Grace

Main Thought

Almost everyone has heard the classic hymn Amazing Grace. God's grace is His unearned favor and kindness toward us. But what makes grace so amazing?

First, God's grace raises us from death to life. Apart from God, we're spiritually dead: God's life is absent from us, we cannot truly know Him, and we're helpless to change our spiritual condition on our own. By His grace, God makes us alive in Christ. We can be restored to a relationship with Him and experience the life we were created for.

Second, God's grace moves us from earning to receiving. Throughout human history, people have attempted to earn divine favor or prove their own goodness through good deeds. Yet we all fall short of God's holy and perfect standard. Rather than requiring us to earn His favor, God freely offers us salvation as a gift. This gift is made possible through Jesus Christ, who purchased it for us through His death on the cross and resurrection. We can respond to God with an attitude of gratitude instead of guilt.

Finally, God's grace liberates us from slavery to freedom. Apart from God's grace, we're under the power of sin and cannot free ourselves. But through Jesus, we're liberated from sin's dominion and empowered to live transformed lives. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. We’re free to love God, serve others, and walk in the purpose He has prepared for us.

Main Passage

'And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. '

- Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV

'But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.'

- Ephesians 2:4-7 ESV

'For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.'

- Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV

Discussion Questions

1. God’s grace raises us from death to life. In what ways should a life with God be different from a life without Him?

2. God’s grace moves us from earning to receiving. Think about your own relationship with God. Do you relate to Him more from a posture of earning His favor, or from one that has freely received His love? Why would you say so?

3. God’s grace moves us from slavery to sin and selfishness into freedom. How can you live more fully in the freedom that Christ has given you? How can you use that freedom to bless someone else?