I.
THE Apostle Peter, in writing to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who were elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (I. Pet. i. 1-2) reminds them that the means whereby they were redeemed from the empty, vain life they had hitherto lived was the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for those who, by Him, believed in God (I. Pet. 19, 20). The price paid was not in corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but in something far beyond the most precious of earth’s greatest and rarest treasures — it was “the precious blood of Christ.” It was worthy of notice that our Lord’s first visit to Jerusalem was when the redemption money required by the Mosaic law was to be paid, and His last visit was when the redemption price of His people was to be paid not in silver and gold but in His own precious blood. Everyone who reads the Scriptures with any care must be impressed with the frequency of the references to the sacrificial blood in the old economy and the no less impressive references in the New Testament to the shed blood of God’s great sacrifice—our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. From the early dawn of history down to the eventful day when our Lord announced, “It is finished,” the thoughts of God’s people were kept fixed on the shedding of blood which was to take away
the sins of a countless number. And believers of the New Testament dispensation have their thoughts directed back to the shedding of that blood which speaketh better things than that of Abel and forward to the day when, through the mercy of their God, they shall join in the song to Him who was slain and who redeemed them to God by His blood (Rev. v. 9).
As we read God’s Word we are met with the announcement full to overflowing with tremendous significance—”without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin”—the import of which is not lessened but deepened by the apostolic statement that the gifts and sacrifices offered to God continually on Jewish altars could not make him that did the service perfect. But over against this failure of the blood of the sacrifices the Apostle directs our attention to the blood of Christ “who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,” and in doing so purged the consciences of His people from dead works to serve the living God. In this way infinite Wisdom found a solution to the perplexing question: How could God be just and justify a sinner? Nay, how could there be even the possibility of salvation for sinful men? Lying deeply imbedded among other mysteries in the words—”without the shedding of blood there is no remission”—lies the inexplicable mystery of iniquity. These words tell us that there is something in the nature of sin that neither omniscience nor omnipotence can take away. We make that statement with all reverence and in the full consciousness of our limited faculties failing to grasp all the bearings of the august theme, but if there was a way whereby omniscience or omnipotence could remove sin would there have been Gethsemane and Calvary?
Of old God in the covenant He made with Noah ordained that blood was not to be eaten, and in the Mosaic law whosoever would “eat any manner of blood” was to be cut off from among the people (Lev. xvii. 10) and the reason assigned for this prohibition was that “The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. xvii. 11). These words clearly indicate the symbolic import of the shedding of blood and the inhibitions that warned the Israelite of the sacredness of blood, “for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Here, in a nutshell, we have the key to the New Testament doctrine of the shed blood of the Lamb
of God. It was shed to make an atonement, and any doctrine of the atonement, though it lay tremendous stress on many aspects of that marvellous work, utterly fails to understand the New Testament teaching if it leaves out of account the shedding of the life-blood of the Son of God for the remission of the sins of many. It is the laying down of that life voluntarily with complete resignation to the divine will by One who was the God-Man that constitutes the efficacy, the infinite efficacy of the atoning work of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. It is well that the Church of the living God should meet often at that cross where the Lord of Glory died and read in the words—”It is finished: and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost” her legal right to a life that shall never end. Justice demanded no less a price than life—it is the greatest it could ask and it is the greatest that could be given, and when the Lord’s blood was shed the life was in it. Is it any wonder, therefore, that the Church of God in every age and generation should delight in the doctrine which speaks of the blood that set her free and sealed her right to the blessings in the everlasting covenant for ever. An age which has become finical in the things of God, but which can swallow without the slightest sign of squeamishness the works of the devil, turns away from the doctrine of a blood atonement as if it were confronted with some barbaric rite of a savage tribe. This attitude of mind, so prominent in Modernist teaching, is a direct arraignment of God’s truth as set forth in the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. It is an attempt to rob the Church of Christ of a doctrine dear to the saints of God which has encouraged them in their battle with sin and cheered them on the way until the happy day shall come when they shall sing the song of God’s redeemed to Him whose blood was shed for them and who obtained eternal redemption for them.
(To be continued).
Be patient, then, my brethren; but how long? To the coming of the Lord. But when will that be? The coming of the Lord draws nigh.—John Bunyan.
The righteousness by which we stand just before God, from the curse, was performed long ago by the person of Christ.—John Bunyan.