Many different religions are in the world, but they can easily be divided into two kinds only. One kind has for its very foundation the shedding of the blood of Jesus. The other hates the mention of His sacrificial death and what they call "a bloody religion." You can easily test the claims of false religions by this one question: Does it reject the blood of Jesus as the only means of salvation?
Turn to the Bible. There we find, everywhere, faith in the blood of Christ presented as the sole means of salvation. Until Christ shed His blood on the cross, God had ordained that the blood of beasts be shed as a type of Him who was to be God's Lamb.
Just as soon as sin and the curse came into the world, there came also the shedding of blood. The garments wherewith God clothed Adam and Eve were obtained by slaying an animal, by shedding its blood.
Abel's worship was acceptable to God because he came to Him through a bloody sacrifice. Man's approach to God is, throughout Scripture, shown to be possible only by means of shed blood.
Do you ask why this is so? It is because sin—lawlessness—is against God. It is rebellion against Him. It is the breaking of His commands, and is contrary to Him. David had to say: "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done evil in Thy sight.”
It is plain then, that sin being against God, salvation from the curse it has brought upon man must be from God, and in God's own appointed way. God has only one way) of salvation, and that is by the shedding of blood. His justice and His holiness demand it.
No matter how pleasing to you any other way may appear, you will not find in it any salvation which, in the Day of Judgment, will enable you to stand before God in peace. Every religion which has ignored the blood of Christ will in that day be proved to be false. Their adherents will find themselves still in their sins, and therefore under condemnation.
To save the sinner, Christ had to take the sinner's place and bear the guilt of his sin. He did this. He bore fully God's wrath against sin. He shed His blood as God's Lamb and man's Substitute on Calvary. He suffered for our sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
Thank God, this is all done, all finished, and there is remission. Forgiveness is offered to every repentant sinner. God is ready to forgive. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Blessed, glorious message to a lost, guilty world of sinners!
Reader, have you bowed at the feet of Jesus in heartfelt repentance for your life of sin? Have you gazed adoringly upon Him as, upon the cross, He was shedding His precious blood for your salvation?
He is rich or poor according to what he is—not according to what he has.
The least of Christ is better than the greatest abundance of the earth.