Have you ever wondered how something that happened over 2,000 years ago can forgive a sin you committed this morning? Or how Jesus could tell people "your sins are forgiven" before He had even gone to the cross?

To answer that, I want to show you a simple picture. When I taught this, I drew it on my whiteboard, and I believe it will help you understand what kind of life you've received as a Christian and how you can walk in it.

Picture Eternity as a Line

Imagine a long line with no beginning and no end. That's eternity, in terms of time. It's endless.

At the very beginning of that line is God Himself. He was never created. He's the Creator of all things, but nobody made Him. He made all things.

Somewhere along that line, there is a definite beginning of man, and that is Adam, the first man God created. After Adam come the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then Moses, the judges, David and the prophets, all the way to Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. After about 400 silent years, the New Testament opens with Joseph and Mary, and then Jesus comes.

And then, roughly AD 33, Jesus dies on the cross at Calvary and His blood is shed.

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7, KJV).

Forgiveness of sins is one of the things His blood made available.

This Blood Is Not Like Any Other Blood

When you kill an animal and spill its blood, the effect of that blood stays wherever it falls. At most, it drains away into the gutter, and that's the end of it.

Before Jesus came, people tried to atone for their sins with the blood of animals: rams, sheep, goats. But that never dealt with the problem of sin. Hebrews 10 tells us Jesus dealt with it once and for all:

"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10, KJV).

So when His blood was shed, it didn't just drop on one point in time. It went backwards and it went forwards, and it covered the whole of eternity. That means people who lived before Jesus and people who live after Jesus can all benefit from the atonement He made.

Time Forward: Why You Can Be Born Again Today

Let's look forward first. None of us was alive the day Jesus died. Nobody living today is 2,000 years old. Yet you and I are receiving forgiveness of sins right now. I can be born again today because His blood spilled over eternity and still atones for us.

And it will atone for the next person who gives their heart to Christ in the next minute, tomorrow, next month or next year. That blood is fresh. Scripture calls it "the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel" (Hebrews 12:24, KJV).

Here's something that should settle your heart: if His death provided forgiveness for sins committed long after the cross, then the sins you haven't committed yet are also taken care of. The moment you acknowledge something you've done as sin, it comes straight under that blood, because the blood was shed for the forgiveness of sin.

But you have to admit it's sin. Think of a house built for people, not animals. If you admit you're human, you have access. If you're human but you insist you're an animal, you've shut yourself out. It's that simple.

Time Backward: Forgiven in Advance

Now let's look at the past. In the Gospels, Jesus kept telling people their sins were forgiven. "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee" (Mark 2:5, KJV). But on what account? He hadn't died yet. He hadn't paid the price.

He was forgiving them in advance, because the payment was coming.

Think about rent. Say you live in a house and you're owing for a week. There's water in the compound. Would you refuse to use it that week because you haven't paid? No. Once you pay, the payment covers the whole term, including the days you were owing. You'd only be cheating yourself by going without.

That is how the blood of Jesus works. It covers all of eternity, so Jesus could forgive sins before Calvary.

Abraham walked in this thousands of years earlier. "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness" (Romans 4:3, KJV). Faith as Jesus came to establish it wasn't even fully revealed yet, but Abraham was pardoned the same way a Christian receives righteousness today, by believing.

David understood it too. "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity" (Psalm 32:2, KJV). It wasn't his dispensation, but he walked in it in advance.

And at the transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus (Matthew 17:3). Why? Because they were in heaven. They had received eternal life, the life Jesus came to give (John 3:16), in advance.

It's Not History. It's a Current Reality.

The people before Jesus were reaching forward to receive something that would happen. We are reaching back to receive something that has happened. But in the light of eternity, it isn't really backward or forward.

His death and resurrection are as effective today as they were the very day they happened. It's not just history. It's your reality, and it's fresh.

Bring Sickness Under the Light of Eternity

One of the major things His death provided is healing.

"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24, KJV).

Isaiah saw it centuries before and spoke of it in the past tense: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities... and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5, KJV).

God's plan was never to let us get sick so He could keep healing us. He provided healing, yes, but His aim for you is good health.

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth" (3 John 2, KJV).

What Jesus spread over all of eternity for us is life: abundant life, eternal life. Sickness, disease and even emotional troubles don't exist in the light of eternity. So just as a sin disappears the moment you bring it under the blood, sickness is swallowed up in life when you bring it under the light of eternity.

Your Takeaway

1. Don't carry what's already been paid for. When you sin, call it sin and bring it under the blood. It's forgiven.
2. Stop living like the rent is unpaid. The payment covers your past, your present and your future. Use everything the house provides.
3. Treat the cross as today's reality. When sickness or heaviness shows up, remind yourself of 1 Peter 2:24 and 3 John 2, and receive the life God has already given you.

Hallelujah. The blood is still speaking, and it's speaking for you.

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God bless you,
Michael Adegoke