Brad Cooper is the Lead Pastor of Culture & Direction at the 14,000-member multisite NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC.
NewSpring used to be an SBC megachurch when it was once headed up by Perry Noble, claiming as many as 33,000 members. However, tens of thousands left and several campuses closed after Noble flamed out and was disqualified from ministry. The church has begun rebuilding, however, and has seen growth over the last few years.
During a recent sermon titled “The Blood,” Cooper sought to vividly portray the importance of blood in the Bible and trace its theological significance.
To drive the point home he brought on his phlebotomist friend to draw blood during the message, later explaining:
The scripture points to God’s intentionality to sacrifice something innocent so that something guilty might be covered. This is the gospel right here in Genesis 3 — that something innocent died so that something guilty might be covered.
He continues:
Here’s a gospel principle. You’ll see this wherever you find blood in the scripture. Here’s the gospel principle: Because of sin, something has to die so that something else can live.vThe gospel principle is this: Because of sin, something had to lay its life down and die so that something else could live.
And so, the question that we’ve got to begin to ask ourselves is, have we been covered by the blood of God? Have we received God’s kindness to fashion for us a new identity?
…You’re not going to earn the gospel. You’re going to receive the gospel. You’ve got to receive the blood of Christ. There’s not an amount of money or an amount of good works or an amount of charity that you can do. It’s only by the blood of Jesus that we receive forgiveness of sin and are clothed in Christ. And listen, from that identity, there is grace and gratitude that explodes like a fountain from our lives.
