Ch. 670 - Saved. Sanctified.

For a little over five weeks now I have worn a red bracelet on my left wrist. It is simply a length of red embroidery floss that I wound around my wrist four or five times before tying a knot. The day after I was baptized I had done the same thing, but the color of the floss was green. It symbolized the "new life" I had been baptized into. The red symbolizes the blood of Jesus with which I have been sanctified. The green bracelet fell off after one week. Right after it did, I tied on the red floss. It has not come off my wrist since I tied it on. I like this. Even though I am in this new life, in regards to my time on earth, this life is finite. It won't last. I couldn't have told you whether my life was going to end with the falling off of that first bracelet. But I can, indeed, tell you that our time on earth is short. Yet because of what Jesus did, I have life eternal.

I mean, we have been sanctified by Jesus’ blood. He came as a Sacrifice for our sins, a spotless Lamb, to save man. Yet MAN, after arresting and questioning Him, “decided” to put Him to death. When Jesus was being tried, Pilate, a man of authority, claimed Jesus a righteous Man. Pilate said to the Jews he was innocent of His blood; the people boldly accepted the responsibility for His blood. They were reckless in doing so, because they did not, I’m assuming, consider the consequences that would wait for them if He truly was the Son of God – which He is. The irony of the situation astounds me. Denial of the Truth leads to sin and separation from God. Yet we have the opportunity to be made clean with His blood that He shed for us. What a gift. Eternity awaits us.


'But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" asked the governor. "Barabbas," they answered. "What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" Pilate asked. They all answered, "Crucify him!" "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!" All the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!" '
[Matthew 27:20-25]