Throughout Scripture we can trace in God’s dealings with men the work of His Spirit, the moral cleansing indicated by water, and the atoning value of the blood. All three are brought together in the cleansing of the leper in Leviticus 14. The blood of the bird that was slain had to be sprinkled on the leper seven times; on the seventh day he had to wash his clothes and his flesh in water, the blood of the trespass offering had to be put upon his right ear, his right thumb, and his right great toe; and the oil from the hand of the priest was to be put upon the blood, and the remainder poured upon the head of him that was to be cleansed.
This beautiful type brings to us God’s dealings with the sinner who is cleansed from the guilt and defilement of sin by the work of the Lord Jesus. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission, and the Lord Jesus died to take all our sins away, and to enable God to bring us before Him cleansed and purified, with no more conscience of sins, and anointed by His Spirit. The blood of the trespass offering on the ear tells of a sinner who has heard and believed that the blood of Jesus was shed to remove his guilt, and his hand and foot were claimed by that same blood for God’s service and the path of His will.
Consecration of the Priests
When Aaron was first anointed in Leviticus 8 there was no shedding of blood (verse 12), for he typified Christ as God’s Anointed Man, who, before the cross, glorified God in His path of service and devotion in this world. Aaron was washed with water along with his sons, but this was to show in type what Christ was Himself, without a spot or stain, perfect in His humanity as born of the virgin; and spotless in His holy walk under the eye of God. At Nazareth, the Lord took up the words written by Isaiah concerning Him, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4:18). His whole life and mission was characterized by the Spirit with which He was anointed, and it was by the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God (Heb. 9:14).
Aaron and his sons together bring before us Christ and the church, the priestly family associated with the great High Priest, who having completed the great work of redemption has entered upon His priestly service in resurrection, and in the presence of God in heaven. Like the cleansed leper, Aaron’s sons had the blood applied to their right ears, right thumbs and right great toes; but it was the blood of a consecration offering, a special kind of peace offering, not the blood of a trespass offering as in the case of the leper. They were claimed from head to foot for the service of God by the application of the blood, just as true Christians are claimed by God who has redeemed them to Himself through the death of His own Son. We are cleansed as sinners as the leper was cleansed, but we are claimed as priests to serve God alone.
We are to heed no other voice but God’s; we are to serve Him only, and we are to stand in His presence as worshippers. The power for our priestly service is in the Holy Spirit that God has given to us, and this is seen in the oil which, with the blood, was sprinkled upon the garments of the priests. The garments, which speak of the priestly character that we bear, are marked by blood and oil, for in our life here below we are to be marked in all our habits as those whom God has claimed for Himself, and anointed with His own Spirit.
Holy Priests and Royal Priests
In the New Testament, we learn that God has sanctified us by His Spirit, “unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2). Every true believer in the Lord Jesus, who has been sealed by the Holy Spirit, has been set apart by that same Spirit to walk in the life of holy obedience that was seen in its perfection in Jesus while in this world; and in virtue of His precious blood we enter upon divine service.
When the children of Israel were numbered, each one had to “give a ransom for his soul unto the Lord,” half a shekel of silver “the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less” (Ex. 30:12-16). Half a shekel of silver redeemed every Israelite. It was not what anyone considered he was valued at, but what the Lord said. In His sight all were of one value as redeemed to Himself. At the birth of a firstborn in Israel, silver and gold could not procure redemption, only the blood of a lamb would meet the case (Ex. 13:13-15).
Christians, who are viewed as the people of God, are not redeemed “with corruptible things, as silver and gold…but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). This is the blood of which the Apostle writes in verse 2 of this chapter, the blood of sprinkling that enables us to take our place among God’s people in service to Him.
As believers, we have “purified our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit,” and we have been “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever” (verses 22, 23). When the Lord spoke of the new birth to Nicodemus, He said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). There must be the moral cleansing of the washing of water by the word, and also the implanting of a divine seed in which there is the life of God, to bring us into God’s kingdom.
With the new birth, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, we have the three great truths indicated in the water, the blood, and the anointing oil of Leviticus 8, and by which we are prepared for our part in the priestly family of 1 Peter 2, where as a “holy priesthood” we offer up spiritual sacrifices to God, and as “a royal priesthood” we “show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light” (verses 5–9).
The Witness of Eternal Life
In John’s 1st Epistle we read of the eternal life that was with the Father manifested in His Son, and given to the children in God’s family. It was for this that the Son of God came down from heaven, and in chapter 5 it is written, “This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood” (verse 6). On earth, the Son of God was anointed with the Holy Spirit, and accomplished the mission foretold in Isaiah 61:1. It was a ministry of water, His words bringing life and cleansing to those who heard and obeyed. He spoke in John 13 of His disciples being “clean every whit” (verse 10), and in John 15:3 He could say to them, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
Moral cleansing was necessary for His disciples to have part with the Son of God in the place into which He was going, but something more was needed, and that was atonement. Without the shedding of the blood of Jesus we never could have had part with Him, or receive the eternal life He made known in this world. Therefore Jesus came by blood, that is to accomplish propitiation, so that we might have our sins put away, and be fitted for the presence of God. When on the cross, the side of Jesus was pierced, and the Apostle saw the “blood and water” flowing from His side. The blood witnessed that propitiation had been secured, and the water spoke of the moral purification available for all who trust in Jesus.
The Spirit of God, come from the exalted Son of God, is a witness of His glory on the Father’s throne, the evidence of the acceptance of His work upon the cross, for the Father has received and glorified the One who died for our sins, and in doing so glorified God in regard to every question that sin had raised in the wide universe.
The Spirit and the water and the blood are divine witnesses, sent from God, to declare the greatness of His Son. None but He could sit upon the throne of God, none but He could accomplish the great work that has brought such glory to God, and enabled Him to put away our sins and cleanse us from the moral impurity that would have kept us out of His presence for ever. It is a very solemn thing for those who refuse to listen to and accept these great divine witnesses that unite together to tell of the glory of the Son of God. God delights to tell out the glory of His Son, and it gives Him pleasure when men accept His witness and believe in Him to whom He has given such a witness.
Every believer sees in the cross the witness of the love of God, and of the glorious work of His Son, but as having the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we have the witness in ourselves of what Christ is and what He has done. The Spirit within us gives the knowledge and assurance that what Jesus wrought on the cross brought glory to God, and infinite blessing to all who have accepted Him. Faith in the Son of God brings this witness, for God seals with His Spirit all who believe in Him who died for our sins and rose again.
The three fold witness of the Spirit, the water, and the blood not only testify to the greatness of the Son of God, but also tell us that God has given to those who believe the eternal life that He manifested in Manhood here. This heavenly life, which is eternal, and in which we have the knowledge of the Father and the Son, has been given to us in the Son, that we might enjoy it in communion with the Father and the Son in the new relationships into which the risen Son of God has brought His own.
The Church Prepared for Glory
From Ephesians 1 we learn that in Christ “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His (God’s) grace” (verse 7), and that God has sealed us with His Holy Spirit (verses 13). To us, the Holy Spirit, which God had before promised in His word and by His Son on earth, is the earnest of the inheritance that we are to have in company with His own Son, for we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).
The water in this epistle is connected with the present ministry of Christ, for Christ, “loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).
With our sins already gone through the blood of Jesus, and having the Holy Spirit indwelling us, the Lord Jesus on high is preparing His church for the great day of presentation, when she shall be united to Him, and found without a spot or blemish, because of His work on the cross, and His present ministry of purification through the word of God. To be His bride, the church must be suited for the companionship of Christ, and it is His work that gives her this suitability. He is holy, spotless and blameless, and His church must be the same. We can therefore rejoice that our meetness for God’s presence, and for companionship with Christ, is all His own work.
From these Scriptures we can see that our present priestly privileges, our having eternal life in the Son of God, and the future glory that awaits us, are secured for us, and witnessed to us in the Spirit, the water, and the blood.
R. 31.12.66.