Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Present your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat.

• Deuteronomy 12:27

But that day belongs to the Lord, the Lord Almighty— a day of vengeance, for vengeance on his foes. The sword will devour till it is satisfied, till it has quenched its thirst with blood. For the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will offer sacrifice in the land of the north by the River Euphrates.

• Jeremiah 46:10

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

• Romans 3:25-26

The shedding of blood was important with the Levitical sacrifices.  It pointed to Jesus’ shedding of blood as the atonement for our sins.

The other day, a thought came into my head.  It may have originated from an evil source to shake my confidence, but it was turned in the opposite direction.

If the blood of Jesus washes away our sins and the body of Jesus on the cross contained an average amount of blood for an adult, about 1.5 gallons or about 10 units of blood, how much blood is needed to wash away our sins?

When you look at dirty hands, just the hands, and you are in a situation where water is extremely scarce, a few drops of water are not going to get your hands clean.  But then to wash an entire body?

During the ice storm in February 1994, we lived in northern Mississippi and our power was out for three weeks.  I would cook a meal, or my wife would cook, on the propane grill.  We would also heat water for our baths and to clean the dishes.  We could stretch about the amount of water that would equal the amount of blood in one person’s body to clean one set of dinner dishes and the pots along with four sponge baths.  The boys were both teenagers at the time, so four full grown bodies being washed.

But Jesus died and His blood was sufficient for all people who believe and trust in Him.  How is that possible?

Then it dawned on me that God is infinite.  And in God’s hands, a finite amount of physical blood becomes an infinite amount of spiritual blood to wash away the sins of each person who believes.

This may have never dawned on you to even think about it, but when you are washed by the blood of Jesus, it comes from an infinite source.  With the full one and a half gallons poured over you to cleanse you as white as snow, there is still an infinite supply in reserve.

Do not let any of that infinite supply go to waste.

Accept Jesus as your Savior today.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.