My Blood is Not Good Enough

In family worship, we have reading from the book of Ezekiel. There are a lot of deep and awesome truths found in that book, some of which unlock other controversies that we have yet to understand.

Throughout the coming weeks, I will write about the book of Ezekiel based on various points my family members bring out each night. I pray that you will blessed.

There she was. A baby. Abandoned. Bloody. Polluted.

God describes it this way in Ezekiel 16:4-6:

And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

This newborn was unwanted, uncared for. She was left to lie in her mother's blood. She herself was yet innocent; but she suffered for the sins of her parents. "...Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation" (Exodus 34:7).

Quite literally, she was "born in sin, and shapen in iniquity..."

Continue reading, and notice that later on, this little girl becomes polluted with her own blood:

I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. 

Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.

Then washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

Verses 7-9

Is this not the story of every human being since Cain? All of us are born into sin -- not yet sinners ourselves, but made in the image of transgressors (see Genesis 5:3). But at some point, we reach an age of understanding and we make a choice to sin or to obey God. Most of us choose sin and death over obedience and life...

But what is our own blood? Why does our own blood pollute while the blood of even rams and goat cleanses? ^"And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). Confused yet?

Let us examine this carefully. Notice that the girl in Ezekiel 16 is progressing from childhood to womanhood. She is showing the typical signs that accompany puberty in a female. Then appears the tell-tale sign: her menarche. This is "her own blood" which has polluted her yet again. How does the Bible describe this sort of pollution:

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isaiah 64:6).

As we grow in our relationship with God, there is a tendency to depend on ourselves for our daily victories. We feel that we have matured in the faith, and we forget that we are but as little children in understanding. We fail to remember how God has lead us, and we begin to lean on our own righteousnesses. But these goods which we do apart from God and His strength are just filthy rags - menstrual cloths. Our own blood cannot cleanse us.

Case in point: see the professed Christians in  Matthew 7. Hear them cry in surprise and anguish: "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works?"

But these were their own righteousnesses. Filthy rags. They had trusted to their own strength to perform these good works. And though they knew it not, they were polluted in their own blood, unfit to pass through the pearly gates. "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth..." (Revelation 21:27).

Yet there is still hope: for God promises that He will cleanse us from our own blood. He will purify us with His blood. For "almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22).

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 

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 9:11-14

 Will you let Christ cleanse you from your own blood? His blood is good enough.