Noun or Verb?

 

My dreams are often nonsense and I wake up laughing. The dream I had last night was like that. A woman kept asking people to answer a riddle with a verb instead of a noun. This dream ran through my mind when I read several hundred words in my devotional about the blood of Christ, ending with this statement: “Nothing is more practical, more important, or more delightful to the people of God than the blood, the precious, effectual, cleansing, redeeming blood of Christ.”

The dream made me think: is the blood (noun) what is stressed here, or is it the verb — Jesus died that all these benefits would be mine?

The reading begins with telling how those who heard the gospel and “When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.’ ” (Acts 11:18)

In English, the dictionaries say ‘repentance’ is a noun. In Greek, the dictionaries affirm it as a verb, an action word. I don’t think this is a riddle. It seems that all the verses quoted about the blood of Christ are using this noun as a euphemism for the verb that Jesus died for my sin, an action that is a riddle to those who are blinded by their sin.

The idea of atoning blood is first suggested in Genesis when God killed an animal to provide skins to cover Adam and Eve. Then His people were commanded to kill a lamb so the angel of death would pass over them when He destroyed the firstborn in Egypt. His law said “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.” (Exodus 12:1–14) And the NT often points to the blood of Christ as vital to forgiveness, how God purchased His people and justified them. It says we were bought with a price, brought near to God, and can walk in His light because of the blood that cleanses us from all sin.

While the Bible clearly says that through Christ, God “reconciled to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20) these statements all refer to one action — the death of Jesus Christ which is identified by words about His shed blood. And He did it for us:

He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:12–14)
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:10–14)
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh…” (Hebrews 10:19–20)

We have victory over Satan because Jesus took our place: “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Revelation 12:11) and because He has cleansed us, we “have washed (our) robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:14)

PRAY: Jesus, Your actions on my behalf made possible all things: repentance, forgiveness, redemption, justification, cleansing, victory — a page of positives… including the grace and enablement to obey, love, reject self and sin, go out, share, and more action verbs. And You remind me of all this with a silly little dream and the rich language of Your Word. Oh, what a wonder You are!!