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ALONE
WITH GOD
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Spiritual Answers and Reasons
for Faith |
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THE BLOOD
OF CHRIST
Without shedding of blood is no remission."
-HEBREWS ix. 22.
ROUND and round this ancient
window into the past (vv. 15-28) is bound the red cord of
blood. Twelve times at the very least does this solemn,
this awful, word occur. The devil himself seems to admit
that it is invested with some mystic potency; else why
should he compel so many of his miserable followers to
interlard each phrase they utter by some reference to it?
Man cannot look on or speak of blood without an
involuntary solemnity; unless, indeed, he has done despite
to some of the deepest instincts of his being, or through
familiarity has learned con-tempt. And we feel whilst
reading this chapter, as if we have come into the very
heart of the deepest of all mysteries, the most solemn of
all solemnities, the most awful of all tragedies or
martyrdoms or sacrificial rites. Take off the shoes from
your feet; for the place on which we stand together now is
holy ground.
Blood is becoming increasingly
recognized as one of the most important constituents of
the human body. Scientific and other research is more and
more inclined to verify the ancient sayings, which may
have been broken in the colleges of Egypt, where Moses
learned the most advanced science of his time, before ever
they were stamped with the imprimatur of inspiration, "the
blood is the life"; "the life of the
flesh is in the blood" (Deut. xii. 23; Lev.
xvii. ii). We know that the red corpuscles of the blood
play an important function in carrying the oxygen of the
air to consume the decaying tissues, and to light fires in
every part of the human frame. But who can tell all the
mysterious functions of the numberless colorless disks
which float along the currents of the blood, and which may
be intimately connected with the very essence of our
vitality? Certain it is that impoverished blood means
decrepit life; tainted blood means corruption and disease;
ebbing blood means waning life. The first effort of the
physician is to feel the pulse of the blood; whilst the
most fatal disease is the poisoning of the blood. The
blood is the life. And shed blood is life poured forth
from its source and fountain-head.
There is nothing, therefore, in man
more precious than blood. If he gives that, he gives the
best he has to give. His blood is his life-his all; and it
is a noble act when a man is ready to make this supreme
gift for others. It is this which lights up the devilry of
war, and sheds a transient gleam of nobility on the
coarsest, roughest soldiery, that they are prepared to
sacrifice their lives in torrents of blood, to beat the
foeman back from hearth and home and fatherland. This is
why women have treasured up handkerchiefs dipped in the
blood that has flowed on the heads-man's block from the
veins of martyrs for liberty or religion. This is why men
point without a shudder to the stains of blood on blades
that have been drawn in freedom's holy cause; or on
tattered banners which led the fight against the
battalions of Paganism or Popery. This is why the
historian of the Church does not feel too dainty to make
frequent reference to the blood which flowed in rivers on
the eve of the Sicilian Vespers, and on the day of black
St. Bartholomew. No, we glory in the blood which noble men
have poured out as water on the ground. None of us is too
sensitive to dwell with exultation on the phrase.
Why, then, should we hesitate to speak
of the blood of Christ? It was royal blood. "His
own" (ver. 12); and he was a King indeed. It was
voluntarily shed: " He offered himself" (ver.
14). It was pure "innocent blood,"
"without spot" (ver. 14). It was sacrificial.
He died not as a martyr, but as a Saviour (ver. 26). It
flowed from his head, thorn-girt, that it might atone for
sins of thought; from his hands and feet, fast nailed,
that it might expiate sins of deed and walk; from his
side, that it might wipe out the sins of our affections,
as well as tell us of his deep and fervent love, which
could not be confined within the four chambers of his
heart, but must find vent in falling on the earth. Why
should we be ashamed of the blood of Christ? No other
phrase will so readily or sufficiently gather up all the
complex thoughts which mingle in the death of Christ.
Life; life shed; life shed violently; life shed violently,
and as a sacrifice; life passing forth by violence, and
sacrificially, to become a tide of which we must also all
stoop down and drink, if we desire to have life in
ourselves (John vi. 53-56).
"This is he that came by water and
blood; not by water only, but by water and blood" (1
John v.6). Oh, precious words, recalling that
never-to-be-forgotten incident when, following the rugged
point of the soldier's spear, there came out blood and
water from the Saviour's broken heart (John xix. 34). Had
it been water only, we had been undone. Water might do for
respectable sinners-fifty-pence debtors, Pharisees, who
are not sinners as other men. But some of us feel water
would be of no avail at all. Our sins are so deep-dyed, so
inveterate, so fast, that nothing but blood could set us
free. Blood must atone for us. Blood must cleanse us. In
other words, life must be shed to redeem us, such life as
is poured from the very being of the Son of God.
But there is a deep sense in which that
blood is flowing, washing, cleansing, and feeding soul,
all down the age. Like the stream of desert, it follows
us. "It speaketh" pleading with God for man, and
with man for God (xii. 24). "It cleanseth," not
as a single past act, but as a perpetual experience in the
believer's soul, removing recent sin, and checking the
uprisings of our evil nature (1 John i.7). It is the drink
of all devout souls; and its perennial presence and
efficacy is well symbolized by the appearance still on the
communion table of the church of the wine, which tells the
worshiper that the blood of Calvary, once shed, and never
shed again, is a s fresh and efficacious as ever, or as
the wine poured freshly into the cup. Let men say what
they will, the shedding of the blood of Christ is an
embodiment of an eternal fact in the Being of God, and is
an essential condition of the healthy life of man.
It purges the defiled conscience
more completely than the ashes of a heifer purged of flesh
of the ceremonially unclean (ver. 14). Why, then, do you
carry about the perpetual consciousness of sin? Confess
sin instantly, of ever you are aware of it. Claim the
blood of sprinkling, and go at once top serve the living
God.
It put away the sin of previous
dispensation. It was in virtue of the death to be
suffered on Calvary that the holy God was able to forgive
the offences and accept the imperfect services of Old
Testament saints. The shadow of the cross fell backward,
as well as forward. And it is because of what Jesus did
that all have been saved, who have passed within the
pearly gate, or shall pass it (ver. I 5, and compare Rom.
iv. 24).
It ratifies the covenant.
No covenant was ratified in the old time, except in blood.
When God entered into covenant with Abraham, five victims
were divided in the midst, making a lane, down which the
fire-symbol of the divine presence passed. "There is
of necessity the death of the covenant maker." And in
pursuance of this ancient custom, the first covenant was
solemnly sealed by blood (vv. i8, 19). How sure and
steadfast must that covenant be into which God has entered
with our Surety on our behalf! The blood of Jesus is an
asseveration which cannot be gain-said or transgressed.
All God's will is opened to us since Jesus died. We may
claim what we will. We are his heirs, the heirs of the
wealth of our Elder Brother, Jesus.
It opens the way into the holies.
What the high-priest did every year in miniature, Christ
has done once (vv. 24, 25, 26). "He died unto sin
once." By virtue of his own shed blood, he went once
for all into the real holiest place, appearing in the
presence of God for us as our High-Priest, and leaving the
way forever open to those who dare to follow. "The
heavenly things themselves" need cleansing; not
because of any intrinsic evil in themselves, but because
they are constantly being used and trodden by sinful men.
Now, however, though that is so, there is an efficacy in
the work of Jesus which is always counterveiling our
impurity, and making it possible for us to draw near to
God with boldness and acceptance.
It put away sin.
"Once for all." " Once in the end of the
world." Not for each dispensation, but for all
dispensations. Not for one age, but for all ages Not for a
few, but for the "many," comprehending the
vastness of the number which no man can compute of the
great family of man. As the year's sin of a nation was
borne away into the desert by the scapegoat, and put away,
so was the whole sin of the race centered on the head of
Jesus. He was made sin. As a physician might be imagined
drawing on himself all the maladies of his patients, so
did Jesus draw to himself and assume all the sins of
mankind. He was the propitiation for the whole world. And
when he died, he dropped sin as a stone into the depths of
oblivion. And he put away sin. The Greek word is very
strong; annihilated, made nothing of made as though it had
never been. Sin, in the mind and purpose of God, is as
entirely done away as a debt when it is paid. Hallelujah!
in heaven and on earth (Rev. v. 9; 1. 5). But whilst this
is an eternal truth with him who knows not our
distinctions of time, yet it will avail only as a fact
when each individual sinner lays claim to this wonderful
provision, confesses his sin, and realizes that there is
now no longer condemnation, because the Lamb of God has
borne away his sin and the world's. Will you now dare to
reckon this to be true for you, not because you feel it,
but because God says it? Dare to repeat 1 Peter ii. 24,
and Isaiah liii. 5, substituting "my" for
"our.
"What marvelous appearances are
these three! He appeared once in the end of the world as a
sacrifice. He appears now in heaven as a Priest. He will
appear the second time without sin unto salvation; as of
old the high priest, at the close of the day of atonement,
came out with outstretched hands to bless the people. Oh,
to be looking for him, that we may not miss the radiant
vision or the tender blessing of peace!
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