Robe Dipped in Blood

"He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God."

Revelation 19:13

Today at church we observed Communion together.  We ate of the bread that symbolised the body of Jesus broken for us and drank of the cup that represents the blood of Jesus shed for sinners to provide atonement.  Christ's trial, flogging and crucifixion were all bloody affairs, and He was pulverised beyond recognition as He drank of the bitter cup given Him by His Father out of love for lost sinners.  After Jesus was confirmed dead by a spear driven into His side, His body was removed from the cross, washed, wrapped with spices, and laid in a tomb.  When Jesus rose from the dead days later, He identified Himself to His disciples by the prints of nails in His hands and the mark on His side.  They were not open wounds but scars on a glorified body.

When I heard the passage in Revelation recited recently, I was struck that the robe Jesus wore was dipped in blood that was not His.  Since His crucifixion on Calvary, Jesus has never bled and will never bleed again--though He still retains physical form with flesh and bone (Luke 24:39).  He who is called Faithful and True in righteousness will judge and make war.  The bloody robe He will be adorned with does not hearken back to His sacrifice years ago but will be the blood of His enemies as it is written in Revelation 19:15-16:  "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. ¹⁶ And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."  Jesus has a name no one knows but He Himself, yet He has been revealed to mankind as KING OF KINGS before whom the wise will submit and reverence.

Christians do not bow before Jesus because we are afraid to be trampled in the winepress of God's wrath, but because God has demonstrated His love by taking the punishment on the cross we deserve to pay forever in hell on account of our transgressions.  The wages of sin is death, and everyone who lives long enough in this world will realise all our lives will end in death.  Walk through a graveyard and every person memorialised in that hushed place has a date their lives began and another when it ended.  Jesus does not threaten anyone with death or hell, for we are all heading there due to our sin.  Titus 3:3-7 says, "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. ⁴ But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, ⁵ not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

How awesome it is God has made known to mankind His kindness and love of God through Jesus Christ our Saviour!  Even as Christ's body poured blood on Calvary, so His love has been poured out so all who repent of sin and trust in Jesus can be forgiven, cleansed and born again--justified by God's grace.  Bless the LORD for His Gospel and the cleansing flow provided by grace through faith in Jesus.  We had made our bed with sin and were lying paralysed in it without hope, and God would be justified to let us die and rot there.  Having ascended to the Father in glory, Jesus will one day return and tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God upon sinners, those who have rejected and rebelled against Him, those who wickedly returned evil to God for the good gift of His only begotten Son.  Unless the blood of Jesus has cleansed you of sins, Christ's robe dipped in blood is a sobering revelation--because that blood could be yours.  God's will for you and all people is for us to be among His armies in heaven that follow Him clothed in linen, fine and clean (Rev. 19:14).  By God's grace, the choice is yours.

Where Is God's Honour?

This morning I awakened to the verse running through my mind:  "Where is my honour?"  This prompted me to look up the passage in the Bible, which I found in Malachi 1:6:  "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honour? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? says the LORD of hosts to you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, 'In what way have we despised Your name?'  Through the prophet Malachi, God confronted priests and His people who claimed they honoured God when their actions showed they despised Him--very strong words indeed.  A son honours his father by calling him "sir" and obeying him, but God's people had neglected to give Him basic respect.  A master was reverenced by his servants who knew they would answer to him, yet the priests did not behave as those who would answer to anyone--much less the living God.

Posing rhetorical questions is a repeated technique throughout the book of Malachi, especially in response to God's statements against His people.  When God called out the priests for withholding honour and reverence from Him because they hated Him, they protested.  "In what way have we despised your name?"  I suspect many of the people who brought sacrifices to the priests would have wondered the same thing.  The priests had faithfully served for many years and were upstanding pillars of society.  Priests despising God?  How could this thing be seeing their continual sacrifices to God?  God answered plainly in Malachi 1:7-8:  "You offer defiled food on My altar. But say, 'In what way have we defiled You?' By saying, 'The table of the LORD is contemptible.' ⁸ And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?" says the LORD of hosts."

The priests offered sacrifices morning and evening unto the LORD, and they were to give a burnt offering of a male lamb in the first year without blemish (Numbers 28:3).  God said they had not been faithful to offer sacrifices according to the requirements of the Law of Moses.  They would not say, "God's table is contemptible!" but their actions showed a complete lack of respect for God and reverence for His word by offering the blind, lame and sick on the LORD's altar.  God continued in Malachi 1:13-14:  "You also say, 'Oh, what a weariness!' and you sneer at it," says the LORD of hosts. "And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?" says the LORD. ¹⁴ "But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male, and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished--for I am a great King," says the LORD of hosts, "and My name is to be feared among the nations."  It would be disastrous for a subject to bring a gift to their king they knew was corrupt and blemished.  What was dishonourable to the king would result in greater dishonour to them.  Their very lives might be at risk for such a foolish stunt.  God is more gracious and compassionate than kings of the earth, but let not God's people suppose He is less aware than man!

Seeing Christians are called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices unto God because it is our reasonable service toward the LORD who redeemed us from the corruption of sin and death, the verses in Malachi hit hard.  If priests could offer blemished animals as burnt offerings, we can also offer God scraps of our lives and resources that could not be considered of our firstfruits or our best.  Like the sons of Eli, we may hoard the choicest bits for ourselves and give God the leftovers of our lives, stuff that was heading to the tip anyway.  The sacrifices of God are broken and contrite hearts (Psalm 51:17), yet our hearts can be lifted up with pride and self-righteousness.  Forgive me, LORD God, when I have done as those priests, deceiving myself to think I was honouring you when I was despising you and viewing your service as a weariness.  Create in me a clean heart that gives you my first and best without thoughts of myself, knowing you indeed are the KING OF KINGS who is worthy of all honour, glory and praise.  As it is written in Psalm 19:14, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer."

Receiving and Reward

Receiving Jesus by faith is the best thing anyone could ever do, for it gives God glory and Christ the reward due His suffering.  Being born again is also for our good forever, and it is for the good of the church and world people would be sanctified to be more like Him.  John 1:11-13 says, "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."  Those who will receive or "own" Jesus Christ as Saviour and Son of God He makes His own by redeeming them with His own blood.

The fact Christians have received Christ and have been adopted into the family of God is not a cause for proud arrogance but humility.  When the disciples disputed concerning which of them would be the greatest, Luke 9:46-48 reads:  "And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him, ⁴⁸ and said to them, "Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all will be great."  Fascinating, isn't it, how receiving and accepting a little child in the name of Jesus receives Him, for when we do unto the least we do it unto Him (Matthew 25:40).  In receiving Christ we receive God the Father who sent Him.

There was a time when the disciples tried to prevent children from being brought to Jesus, and we are told in Mark 10:13-16, "But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. ¹⁵ Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." ¹⁶ And He took them up in His arms, put His hands on them, and blessed them."  Jesus did not embrace ministry to adults yet ignore children because of their low social status, but He took them in His arms and blessed them.  The children who came to Him illustrated the willing humility required to receive the kingdom of God, desiring protection, provision and blessing from Jesus.

God will richly reward all who receive Him, and the minds of the disciples must have been reeling after Jesus said in Matthew 10:40-42, "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. ⁴¹ He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. ⁴² And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward."  Jesus established those who receive Him by faith receive the Father, and He also taught those who receive a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward--and the same goes with a righteous man.  When we receive, support and help those who do God's work--one of God's little ones--we receive a reward that aligns with their reward.  We may think a prophet will be more rewarded than one who extends hospitality, but God would see to it one who offered a meal or bed for the night would receive a prophet's reward.

Giving someone a cup of cold water is a relatively insignificant act, but God will reward Christians who receive His people with love and humble service.  Our motivation in receiving a righteous person is not to increase our heavenly reward, for it is rewarding and fulfilling to walk in obedience to Christ today with intent to honour Him.  Seeking a reward aims to exalt ourselves when Jesus leads us to humble ourselves, even dying to self as we take up our cross daily to follow Him.  We consider Jesus who endured such harsh opposition from sinners, and this helps us endure and overcome the opposition our souls face from our own stubborn, selfish flesh by faith in Him.  Having received Christ as Saviour, He opens our hearts to receive others we would have remained closed to.  Fellowship with God and His people (including children!) by faith in Jesus is its own reward we wouldn't trade for the world.

Look to Jesus!

Jesus had a man run up to Him and ask, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  Jesus responded with a question in Mark 10:18:  "So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God."  Jesus did not deny He was good, but if He truly was good (as the man suggested but did not yet believe) He was indeed God.  It is no surprise the Jewish man thought he needed to do something to inherit eternal life, for he had been raised keeping the Law of Moses that gave no certainty of eternal life whatsoever.  Surely something needed to be done, for though he was a son of Abraham the enthusiastic man had no assurance of salvation.  This sounds a bit like the testimony of C.H. Spurgeon who was raised to read the Bible and taught of God, yet needed to wrestle awhile until he submitted his will to God by faith in Christ Jesus.  Spurgeon wrote:

"I can remember the time when my sins first stared me in the face.  I thought myself the most accursed of all men.  I had not committed any very great open transgressions against God; but I recollected that I had been well trained and tutored, and I thought my sins were thus greater than other people's.  I cried to God to have mercy; and I feared that he would not pardon me.  Month after month, I cried to God, and he did not hear me, and I knew not what it was to be saved.  Sometimes I was so weary of the world that I desired to die; but then I recollected that there was a worse world after this, and that it would be an ill matter to rush before my Maker unprepared.  At times I wickedly thought God a most heartless tyrant, because he did not answer my prayer; and then, at others, I thought, "I deserve his displeasure; if he sends me to hell, he will be just."  But I remember the hour when I stepped into a little place of worship, and saw a tall, thin man step into the pulpit:  I have never seen him from that day, and probably never shall, till we meet in heaven.  He opened the Bible and read, with a feeble voice, "Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and beside me there is none else."  Ah! thought I, I am one of the ends of the earth; and then turning round, and fixing his gaze on me, as if he knew me, the minister said, "Look, look, look!  Why, I thought I had a great deal to do, but I found it was only to look.  I thought I had a garment to spin out for myself; but I found that if I looked, Christ would give me a garment.  Look, sinner, that is to be saved.  Look unto him, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved.  That is what the Jews did, when Moses held up the brazen serpent.  He said, "Look!" and they looked.  The serpent might be twisting round them, and they might be nearly dead; but they simply locked, and the moment they looked, the serpent dropped off, and they were healed.  Look to Jesus, sinner.  "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good." (Spurgeon, C.H. (2004) Spurgeon’s sermons: V. 1-2. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. pages 318-319)

There is something every sinner must do to inherit eternal life, and it is to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.  A Philippian jailor asked a similar question to Paul and Silas in Acts 16:30-31:  "And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" ³¹ So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."  We cannot do anything to save ourselves; we can do nothing to inherit eternal life.  It is impossible for us to cleanse ourselves of sin.  But Jesus has done everything for sinners to be redeemed--saved from hell and granted entrance into eternal glory--purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ by the Gospel.  God's word that ministered salvation to Spurgeon by God's grace is extended to every sinner today:  look unto Jesus with faith in Him and be saved.  He has fixed His loving gaze on us sinners, not willing any should perish.  Will you look to Him today for salvation?