Necessary Blood 3

By R.C. Sproul

If we're going to understand why the blood atonement is necessary, we have to understand two things. 

First of all we have to understand who God is, and second of all, we have to understand who we are.  I would say the two greatest problems in theology that haunts the church today are these two.  We don't know who God is.  We don't know who we are.  We have lost a true understanding of the sinfulness of sin. 

You hear the preachers on television.  They declare to their audience God loves you unconditionally.  Now what does a pagan hear when a preacher says to him, God loves you unconditionally.  Well, the pagan understands that to mean that God is so loving that this kingdom of Heaven is like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, that God loves me just as exactly and as precisely as I am.  He imposes no conditions upon our relationships.  I can sin all I want, and at the end of the day be at ease in Zion, resting on the unconditional love of God.

Beloved, the Bible tells us there are ways in which God loves us.  That's true.  He loves everybody.  That's true.  Yet the Bible also tells us that God abhors us because of our sin, and that He is too holy than to even look upon our sin.  What is it that that is so sinful about sin?  Briefly, three ways, the three major ways in which Scriptures explain the nature of sin to us are these. 

First of all, sin involves enmity and results in alienation between the creator and the creature.

Again, many years ago...you know, the older you get, the more you reminisce about what happened many years ago... I was asked to speak at a university to the atheist club.  I don't know why in the world they wanted me to address them, and that night I said to them, part of my work in ministry is to do the work of apologetics and try to provide intellectual answers to intellectual questions and if time permits after our meeting tonight, I'll be happy to do that, but since our time is limited, let me just put my cards on the table and say to you that I don't think I need to take the time to argue for the existence of God.  I think you already know very well that God exists. 

The Apostle Paul is speaking the truth when he tells us that God has revealed Himself manifestly to every one of us so clearly that you can't miss it, so clearly that you are without excuse and in one excuse, you'll never be able to plead when you stand before Him at the end of your life is the excuse of ignorance.  I said, your problem is not that you don't know that God exists.  Your problem is that you hate Him.  You don't even want Him in your thinking.  You can't stand the thought because there's no greater barrier to your freedom than His sovereign power and His law.