The Precious Blood of Jesus

I Peter 1:17-23

Think, if you will, of the most valuable things on earth.  The first things that come to my mind are valuable gems - The Hope Diamond in the Smithsonian Institute, or the Crown Jewels held in the Tower of London, all worth many multiple millions of dollars.  There are some very valuable houses around the world, also worth millions of dollars.  How about a person’s blood?   I don’t think blood typically comes to mind when someone talks about valuable things.  Maybe if one is in need of a life-saving transfusion they might think it is valuable, but otherwise it usually doesn’t make the list.  The Apostle Peter would disagree with you, as he states in our passage for today, and I would like to second his argument.

Our key verses from this passage are verses 18 and 19.  Let me illustrate to you how one person’s blood is more valuable than all the jewels in the world.  That Person is the Lord Jesus Christ.  At one time or another most of us have heard on the news about a kidnapping, and the kidnappers will demand from the family a ransom to be paid in order to get the loved one back.  The more famous or wealthy the family is, the higher the ransom amount usually is.  Over 85 years ago the famous Lindbergh family’s baby son was kidnapped, and the ransom was over 1.3 million dollars in today’s money. They were willing to pay that if they could get their beloved baby back.  For most of us no price would be too high to get a loved one returned.

At the time of the Fall, back in Genesis Chapter 3, Satan took mankind hostage.  What would be the price that he demanded of God for the ransom of our souls?  Gold?  Silver?  Diamonds, rubies and emeralds?  God had those.  Everything precious on the face of the earth God could have used to pay for our ransom.  However, none of those could satisfy the debt created by our sin.  To cover this debt, God had to sacrifice something that was much more valuable.  He had to sacrifice the life of His only Son, Jesus Christ.  Yes, His Blood in exchange for our souls.  God paid that price, too.  The Lord Jesus Christ shed His precious Blood on the cross of Calvary to redeem us from Satan’s hands.  Of course, He rose again three days later, thwarting all of Satan’s plans.

Like I said above, most of us would be willing to pay any amount to ransom a loved one.  But what about someone we didn’t care for, someone who had done us wrong, someone who was our enemy?  Would we willingly pay a hefty price for them?  Mostly likely not!  That is exactly what God did for us, though.  We were His enemies, wretched, filthy sinners, when God redeemed us from Satan’s clutches, and paid the price of the Blood of His Son (Romans 5:6-10).  The most valuable thing in the universe, the Blood of the Son of God, paid the ransom for us.

The death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary was not some last minute, last ditch effort by God to win the battle against Satan.  This was something that had been ordained by God since before creation (vs. 20).  God is omniscient, He knows everything.  This plan of the Lord Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, dying on the cross to pay for our sins, was something decided long before creation.  He thought of each of us long before creation, and loved us enough to decide to die for us to pay for our sins.

There are many people today who take offense when one mentions the Blood of Jesus.  Satan hates the Blood of Jesus, and he has been working for centuries to bring discredit to it in the minds of people.  They think, “Who wants a religion where a bloody sacrifice is needed?”  Or they want a religion where they need to work to be approved by God.  That makes them feel good about themselves.  Either way, the Blood of Jesus is cast aside.  In reality, as we see in this passage, it was the Blood of Jesus, and only that, not gems, gold, or anything else valuable, that could purchase our salvation.

Peter said one thing in this letter that is well worth repeating - in verse 19 he called the Blood of Jesus “precious”.  It is of great value, costly, highly esteemed and beloved.   Is His Blood highly esteemed by us, and beloved?  We should hold it in great value, for it purchased our salvation.