The blood of the Lamb is so powerful, that even death itself was transformed and renewed as Jesus passed through. Let’s start this journey in Exodus.
Exodus 33:21-23 says that God will indeed show Moses His glory. However, first he sticks him in a cave, covers it with His hand, walks by, and then lets Moses see only His back. It seems odd to me that God would go through all this trouble of setting Moses up safely, if all God needed to do to spare him was turn His back to Moses. It makes sense however, when we look at the original Hebrew.
The word, “back” meant something a little more in the original Hebrew. In Hebrew, the word used for “back” means, “where one has been,” or, “a previous position.” While my translation may be a little rough, this is the general meaning that was intended to be conveyed. So what does this mean? It means that God’s glory is so incredibly powerful, so immensely potent, so magnificent, that Moses could only see where God’s glory had been. The mark His glory leaves behind is strong enough to blind. When we look at the Exodus, it was God’s glory that followed the Israelites, not God manifesting as a cloud. The cloud was there to conceal the glory of the Lord lest the people set eyes on Him. God is spirit, and so in His true state is too powerful to behold. This is where Jesus comes in.
The word put on flesh and dwelt among us, He gave His life as a ransom for many. Jesus also brought God’s glory here to earth. In a very real and practical way; it would be difficult to have a relationship with your earthly father if you could not even look at His face right? You would never even be able to tell if He even was your earthly father, without being able to actually see his face. Well Jesus came to tear the veil, to become a bridge of life between us and the Father who loves us. We were blind, so caught in sin we could not even behold His face. We never knew Him! Then Jesus came. He embodied all of God’s glory, and His glory tabernacled among us. We could see His face, and hence forth, have a real and intimate relationship!
See Jesus acted as a prism. God’s glory was too bright to look at directly, and we could not see all of its wonder through our blindness. But Jesus refracted the glory, and spread it out on us in a spectrum we could see. We could now witness God’s glory in all of its colors head on; through miracles, teaching, healing, and love so strong He would be crucified for us. The blood of the Lamb is so powerful, that even death itself was transformed and renewed.
We can have a relationship with God because Jesus bore our sins and wiped us clean. We have inherited His righteousness. Remember, righteousness in the biblical context is to be renewed to your original purpose, to do what you where made to do and to be made new. With Jesus, we are now able to fulfill our true purpose of a worshipful relationship with our Heavenly Father. We have been restored to our original purpose. So what does this have to do with our old enemy called death?
Death was a result of the fall, not part of the original grand design. As a result of the fall, we are now born into sin, and it infects this world through and through. Death was born of sin itself, and was therefore also born into it as we were. But what if death could receive righteousness as well? What if death itself could be transformed? Well I am here to suggest it has.
See when Jesus passed through death and came out the other side, the only one to ever be resurrected to never die again, death was bathed in the renewing righteous blood as well. It now has a new purpose. Death is no longer the end, it is no longer the enemy; instead, death has become a portal to everlasting life! Death is no longer permanent, it no longer ends us; instead it has been transformed, and shines through the prism as a portal to the Father, no longer a pit from which we cannot climb.
The sacrifice if King Jesus was so powerful, that even death was transformed. Jesus is our prism for glory.
