In the beginning, Adam and Eve did not struggle with being right before God. They lived in perfect peace and harmony with God before sin entered into the world. They lived without a conscious awareness of sin or wrong. It was paradise until sin entered, and then the man and the woman hid themselves from God. In shame and failure, they attempted to cover themselves. Sin brought immediate and terrible consequences and trouble. Their failure and sin brought a deep sense of condemnation and uncleanliness before God. Adam and Eve knew they had sinned and needed covering and cleansing. Nothing they did could cover or cleanse their sins. They were separated and hid from God and the blessing they had enjoyed.
In mercy God came down and provided the first sacrifice to cover their nakedness and shame.
It is amazing to watch how quickly sin brought death and pain to the world. Within one generation the first murder took place and the conscience of man became stained and unclean.
By the time Noah came on the scene, the condition of man’s heart had degraded tremendously.
Every evil was being practiced and imagined. Their sin against God was so great that it brought about the destruction of humanity. In mercy, God came down and provided escape for Noah and his family.
God came down to the people of Israel in the wilderness.
What they saw and heard amazed them. They beheld the glory of God and trembled in His presence and when they heard God’s voice. They realized they were unholy and unclean in God’s presence. In mercy, God’s Law demonstrated how to live right before a holy and righteous God. Romans 8:3 tells us “the Law of God was good, but the flesh was weak.” We all know that weakness of the flesh. Even when our spirit wants to do what is right, the flesh is weak.
Job was making a confession before God in prayer.
In Job 14:1 Job told God, “Man who is born of woman is of few day and full of trouble.”Then in verse 4 Job confessed, Job 14:4 NKJV Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one! In Job 25:4 NKJV Bildad the Shuhite asked: “How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?
In verse 6, Bildad compared man to a maggot or worm. He was confessing our common weaknesses and sins. When God came down to Job, He provided relief, cleansing and healing. God’s coming down was the answer for Job’s pain and situation.
God intervened when He came down and gave guidelines for living right.
God kept telling people how to be cleansed and forgiven. He showed them the path to blessing, atonement and cleansing. Through mercy and great grace, God provided an altar and sacrifice for atonement, covering and cleansing. From the giving of the Law until Christ, that atonement for sins was made by the shedding of blood. With great glory, God would come down and accept the yearly sacrifices for atonement and cleansing of sins.
In mercy, God continued offering help to make us clean in His sight.
God came to them in Jerusalem.
After the temple was erected, the people sang and made music with cymbals, stringed instruments and harps.
2 Chronicles 5:11-14 “When they made one sound in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord saying: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever,” that the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,… for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.”
God came to them.
God’s presence was so powerful that the priest could not minister for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. In that moment, the people cried out with great praise, “God is good and His mercy endures forever.” God confirmed His mercy to them when He came down in their midst.
God came to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in the fiery furnace.
The fourth Man in the fire brought them out to safety.
God came to Daniel in the lions den.
With God’s protection Daniel was kept and protected.
God came to Ezekiel.
Ezekiel caught a glimpse of the glory of God, (Ezekiel 1:27-28). When God came to Ezekiel, he was not able to stand. He fell on his face in the presence of God.
God told Ezekiel, “I am sending you to a rebellious nation that has transgressed against Me.” Ezekiel was to speak God’s words to them and give them the opportunity for grace, mercy and cleansing.
Ezekiel 44:23 NKJV …Teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
We all have struggled with this. God was coming down to help His people.
The Prophet Habakkuk looked back to the time God came down on Mount Sinai.
Habakkuk 3:3–6 ESV His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from His hand; and there He veiled His power. Before Him went pestilence, and plague followed at His heels. He stood and measured the earth; He looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.
Habakkuk said when God came down, the “mountains saw you and trembled and the sun and moon stood still.”
Habakkuk 3:13 ESV He said, “You have come for the salvation of Your people, for the deliverance and victory of Your anointed people.”
When David recognized his sin and need, he wanted to be restored by God’s salvation.
Psalm 51:7-11 NLT Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
David knew that offering sacrifice and burnt offering was not enough. The external offering and sacrifices would not do. He would gladly do that, but he knew something had to change on the inside.
He needed God’s help and presence in his life.
He knew outward cleansing could never take away his guilt, shame and condemnation that was inside. He needed a change on the inside. He needed the Holy Spirit to come and remain in him.
What can take away the inner stain and defilement of sin?
What can cleanse away the guilt and shame of a sinful conscience?
David knew that his only hope and help came from the Lord.
Let me show you how God intervenes in our lives.
Throughout time and the history of mankind, the only solution for guilt, shame and sin came from God. In great mercy and grace, God offered cleansing from sin and healing for the brokenhearted.
Jesus declared a message that shows how He came to intervene in our lives.
When Jesus came into the world, He said, “Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me — To do Your will, O God,” (Hebrews 10:5-7).
Luke 4:18–19 NKJV “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Of all of the mercy and grace that God has given, only the blood of Jesus Christ is able to cleanse from our sin.
Jesus Christ is God’s method of intervention in our lives.
1 John 1:7 NKJV The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
This is the basic and only solution for all our need. There is power in the blood of Jesus to cleanse from all sin. The blood of Jesus Christ still works to provide cleansing and forgiveness. The blood of Jesus provides access to the Father and help for our need. The blood of Jesus provides necessary relief and help. Jesus came to redeem you unto God by His precious blood.
Revelation reveals a declaration of the praise of the redeemed.
Revelation 1:5-6 NKJV …To Him Who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
The blood of Jesus washes us from our sins. His blood has made us clean.
Revelation 7 shows a great multitude which no one could number standing before the throne of God and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes.
With palm branches in their hands, they cried aloud “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” One in heaven asked, “Who are these arrayed in white robes?”
Revelation 7:14 NKJV These are the ones who …washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation 5:9 NKJV For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation…
The blood of Jesus is still powerful to cleanse from sins.
Through His finished work on the cross, you can find cleansing and forgiveness.
Jeremiah 31:34 NKJV For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
Hebrews 8:12 NKJV For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
How can God do that?
Why would He forgive our sins and cleanse us?
Romans 5:6 NKJV For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:8 NKJV But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God came down in the person and work of Christ to redeem and save you from your sin. In love, Christ reaches down to where you are and lifts you up. His forgiveness and cleansing provide healing for the deepest hurts in your life.
The blood of Jesus Christ is still powerful.
Today, we are covered and cleansed by His blood. By His blood, we are made clean before the Father. God has more grace for you. Consider how God intervened in love to provide cleansing, forgiveness, and healing. God has demonstrated this love toward you — Christ died for you.
