by Rev. D. Beaton
The Apostle Peter, in writing to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who were elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1: 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 (1 Pet. 1: 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. 5: 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. 17: 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. 17: 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 had 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 near 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.
In the teaching of the Lord Jesus we find Him saying: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6: 53-54). It is not our intention to discuss the great truths set forth in these divine words: we content ourselves meantime with quoting Prof. Smeaton when he says: “These figurative terms imply that men are to believe on Him as giving His flesh for the life of the world, and that they are to receive the atonement with the same eagerness with which a hungry man partakes of food. The doctrine of Christ’s sacrifice is the principal matter in the way of procuring the donation of spiritual life; and it is never ignored in any of those inward blessings of renovation, love, growth, zeal, and strength, which are comprehended in the spiritual life, and go to make up our idea of this life” (Our Lord’s Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 279). Another utterance of vital importance in connection with His blood is the statement made by Him at the institution of the Supper: “This cup is the new testament (covenant) in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22: 20). This is one of the greatest of the New Testament utterances in connection with the precious blood of Christ, and we take the liberty of again quoting Dr Smeaton, as his words are worthy of attention coming as they do from a theologian of the first rank and an exegete with exceptional spiritual insight and sanity of judgment. “Of all the sayings which our Lord uttered,” writes Dr Smeaton, “on the subject of His death, there is none which can be regarded as either more important or more express than that testimony which He uttered at the institution of the Supper. He had previously called His death ‘a ransom’; He had called His crucified flesh ‘meat indeed’; and in the present passage He called His blood ‘a covenant’. This phraseology may be considered as a key to all those passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as well as elsewhere, which speak of a covenant people as separated and sanctified, as saints and holy ones, or speak of the Church of God according to the new covenant relation in which believers stand” (Our Lord’s Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 207). The words used by the Lord recall to the mind the blood of the sacrifices shed at the dedication of the Sinaitic Covenant when Moses sprinkled both the book and all the people. But as this Covenant was ratified by blood so, also, is the new Covenant, and the words used by the Lord Jesus describe His blood (1) as shed for his disciples; (2) as the procuring cause of the remission of sins; (3) as the fundamental condition of the new Covenant. A covenant cannot be constituted without sacrifice, and the New Covenant was no exception. The sacrifices were no accidental part in the vast system of the Old Testament Dispensation. The priesthood was a divine institution, and through it, with its manifold activities in the service of God, there were proclaimed these truths: (1) Man is alienated from God; (2) that God has a purpose of reconciliation; (3) that this reconciliation is to be effected through sacrifice — the shedding of blood — and by no other way. On the most solemn of all the Jewish feasts — the day of Atonement — the whole functions of the priesthood were concentrated in the person of the High Priest and the solemn significance of the sacrificial blood was specially emphasised as the High Priest entered the holiest of all with the blood of others. Take away the shed blood from the institution in which the priesthood played such an important part and you rob it of its meaning and the day of Atonement of its solemn significance, and all that is left is an empty shell as it is with the Jews today. Take away the shed blood from the Gospel Dispensation and what have we? — no doubt, there are mighty signs and wonders and marvellous things brought to pass, but the way into the holiest of all is not opened, and the sinner is still without. It is in connection with the momentous action on the part of the Son of God that the Apostle writes: “Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was, therefore, necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebs. 9: 22-26). Is it any wonder that the means which made it possible for sinners to draw nigh to God should, in the eyes of those so privileged, be regarded as a priceless blessing and that the blood of Christ should be precious in their estimation? The great truth set forth in the passage quoted is that the reconciliation God purposed has been brought about by the means that Infinite Wisdom found. It is by the blood of the Cross that this reconciliation has been effected — sinners have peace through the blood of His Cross, the peace of God which passeth all understanding. Sin was not simply passed by: it was punished to the uttermost in the death of the sinless Sin-bearer, and divine justice found satisfaction in the price paid and the conscience of the guilty sinner who, by grace, was enabled to look to the Lord Jesus, found the truest satisfaction ever it knew as it saw for the first time Heaven’s wonderful plan of salvation — sin being duly punished and yet the guilty one who believed in Jesus having a legal right through the infinite merits of the Sin-bearer to the priceless blessings of pardon and peace. It is through His blood that the guilty were justified (Roms. 5: 9). It is also through His blood believers have obtained eternal redemption (Ephes. 1: 7).
There are a number of passages which ascribe cleansing to the blood of Christ which merit attention. In 1 John 1: 7 — “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” The blood that cleanses is here described as the blood of God’s Son; this, no doubt, is intended to emphasise its infinite efficacy. Dr Smeaton, commenting on the passage, says: “Though the blood belongs to Him as Son of Mary, yet in virtue of the hypostatic union it is the blood of God’s Son, and, therefore, possessed of all the value that the divine nature lends to it, and adequate to the expiation of human sin laid in the scales against it” (The Apostles Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 450). The meaning of the term “cleansing” is indicated by the words: “On that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord” (Levit. 16: 30). Evidently the expression “to cleanse” does not mean, as Dr Smeaton points out, to inwardly amend and renew but to free from punishment incurred by sin: to obtain remission was the great design of the sacrificial blood, and it is in this sense John uses the expression. The phrase used by him in Revelation 1: 5, “washed us from our sins in His own blood,” is to be explained in the same way. These phrases “to cleanse” and “to wash” from sin are borrowed from the Mosaic ceremonies, and have a sacrificial import. The words — “the blood of Christ” — therefore direct our thoughts to God’s great sacrifice — to the Cross of Calvary — and what took place there when by the death of the Lord of Glory He obtained eternal redemption for His inheritance. It is no wonder, therefore, that God’s redeemed on earth should see in the blood of Christ something worthy of being regarded as precious. That it shall never cease to be so in their eyes is evident from the words of the heavenly new song:— “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” (Rev. 5: 9-13)