Throughout the Old Testament there are types, shadows and prophecies of the death of Christ; the foreshadowings of the blood-shedding in Exodus and Leviticus indicating the blessings and privileges that have been brought to Christians. The blood of the Passover lamb, the blood shed and applied at the cleansing of the leper, and the sprinkling of the blood of the sin offerings on the great day of atonement, all speaking powerfully of divine blessing brought to us through the death of God’s Son upon the cross.
In the sacrificial system of Judaism, the sprinkling of the blood of the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, round about upon the altar, speak of a universal testimony of the only way of approach to God, and of acceptance with Him. The blood of the ordinary sin offering, put upon the horns of the altar, surely speaks of the virtue and power in the blood that deals with sin; and the blood of this same offering, poured out at the bottom of the altar, shows that God’s dealings with His people, as regards their sins, were founded on blood.
There are however two aspects of blood shedding; one that brings blessing, the other that calls for judgment. When Cain killed his brother, the Lord said to him, “the voice of they brother’s blood cries unto me from the ground.” It was a call for vengeance. When Israel undertook to keep the law, they bound themselves in a covenant of blood to do so, the blood being sprinkled on the book and on the people. For them, this became “a ministration of condemnation,” and “a ministration of death.”
The blood of Jesus truly brings blessing to believers, but when Pilate sought to protest his innocence of the death of Jesus, “all the people” answered him saying, “His blood be on us, and on our children,” and how awful has been the judgment on them, and will yet be theirs, for this cry. Men cannot treat lightly the blood of God’s own Son, for those who count it “an unholy thing,” will have a fearful judgment (Heb. 10:26–29). This is written of those who apostatise from Christianity.
The Blood of the New Covenant
If the blood of the old covenant brought serious results for Israel, the blood of the new covenant brings rich blessing to those who trust in the Lord Jesus. When the Lord Jesus gave the cup to His disciples, on the night in which He was delivered up, He said to them, “this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28). The debt of our sins is remitted because Jesus shed His precious blood, and the blessings of the new covenant, which will yet be made with both the houses of Israel, are even now ours, as the Spirit of God shows in 2 Corinthians 3.
Israel will have the law written in their hearts and minds in the coming day, Christians have Christ written in their hearts, the work of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, Israel will have the knowledge of the Lord in an entirely new way, but we already have the knowledge of God as made known in Jesus. We know God as Father, revealed in the Son, and as brought into relationship with Him; and we know God in all that the Spirit has made known of Him in His counsels of love, and in His purpose that centres in Christ above. Now we have the knowledge of the glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ.
Made Nigh by the Blood of Christ
The Apostle Paul, in Romans 3:25, writes of “faith in” the blood of Christ, whom God has set forth as a mercy seat. Through faith we are justified, accounted righteousness before God; and this is again referred to in Romans 5:9. In 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle writes of “the communion of the blood of Christ,” for the blood is the foundation of our communion with God and with each other; and in chapter 11 we have the practical expression of this fellowship in the Lord’s Supper.
In Colossians 1:20 we learn that Christ has made peace through the blood of His cross, and in Ephesians 1:7 that in Christ “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Then in Ephesians 2:13 we read that now in Christ Jesus we “are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Our place of acceptance and favour, and His place of affection as God’s Beloved. We owe this favoured place to the precious blood of Him who died for us upon the cross.
Purged by the Blood of Christ
Of old, the high priest, having shed the blood of the sin offering on the day of atonement, entered into the holiest to sprinkle it seven times before the veil, and once upon the mercy seat. This has its answer in giving us a perfect standing before God in redemption, the claims of His throne having been met by the work of Christ on the cross. But there is also the contrast. Having shed His own blood, Christ has become a great High Priest for us, One who has glorified God in His death, having obtained eternal redemption. His work is of infinite and abiding value, bringing to God the glory of redemption.
So great was the transaction of the cross that the whole Trinity was engaged in it. Christ there offered Himself, the true sin offering to meet all God’s claims, but it was by the eternal Spirit, and it was to God the offering was made. Men may view lightly the great transaction, but we see from this verse (Heb. 9:14) how it is viewed by God. We learn here of the greatness of Christ’s work, the greatness of His priesthood, and the character of the holy Victim, who offered Himself without spot to God.
What was accomplished on the day of atonement, and through the other sacrifices, only related to the flesh of men, it cleansed their bodies from defilement, and enabled God to go on with them in a natural way; but the blood of Christ has purged our consciences, so that we are without conscience of sins before God, not now relying on our dead works for blessing, for they could never secure it, but resting implicitly and securely on what Christ has done.
Having no more conscience of sins, we are free in spirit to serve God, and have boldness to enter the holiest “by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19). In the compnay of our great High Priest we enter the immediate presence of God as worshippers, and in communion with Him, beholding the all-varied glories of Christ, viewing what brings before us His offices, ministry and perfections, and resting in all that God is as known in Jesus, and learning of what God is in the glory that shines unveiled in Jesus’ face.
Redeemed by Precious Blood
Introducing his first epistle, the Apostle Peter writes to God’s elect who were sanctified by the Holy Spirit “unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2). The Holy Spirit has set believers apart for God, as coming under the efficacy of the blood of Jesus, that they might walk in the obedience that marked their Lord. When the priests were set apart to serve God, the oil and the blood were together sprinkled upon them and upon their garments (Lev. 8:30).
In this same chapter, the Apostle tells the saints that they have been redeemed with Christ’s precious blood, not with silver and gold. Silver it would seem from Exodus 30 was the ransom money, and gold the most precious metal known, but a sacrifice of infinite worth was necessary to redeem the sinner, to purchase him and set him at liberty. The blood of One infinitely precious has secured our redemption. It was to Christ, the Lamb of God, that the paschal lamb pointed forward; and God had Him in reserve from before the foundation of the world, so that when the need arose He came and shed His precious blood.
The Testimony of the Blood
The Lord Jesus on earth spoke of His blood as that of the new covenant, for the remission of sins. Paul wrote of Christ’s blood upon the mercy seat, proclaimed in the Gospel, that which gives us God’s righteousness, which has made peace, which has given us forgiveness, and has brought us nigh to God. In the Hebrews we have seen the contrast between the blood of the sacrificial system, and the blood of Christ which purges the conscience, enables us to serve God, and to enter the holiest as worshippers. Peter shows us that the blood prepares us for priestly service, procuring us for God and setting us at liberty. The Apostle John adds his testimony, extolling the merits of the precious blood of Christ.
As believers in the Son of God we walk in the light of the revelation of God in Jesus, and are brought into the circle of Christian fellowship. All in that fellowship have forgiveness of sins, and have been cleansed from every stain of sin, for “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). We need cleansing as well as forgiveness, and the blood is efficacious for both. It is not that we need a fresh application of blood, though we need the washing of water from day to day; but our verse tells us of the infinite value and abiding efficacy of the precious blood of Christ the Son of God.
In chapter 5 of this epistle we read, “This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood” (1 John 5:6). The Lord came by water, speaking His Father’s word, and could say to His disciples, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3); but although this word of the Lord produced moral cleansing, something more was needed to remove their guilt, and give them cleansing from the stain their guilt had produced; and this was the shedding and sprinkling of blood. So Jesus came not only to speak the word of God in a ministry of moral cleansing, but also to die on the cross, and shed His blood, to make propitiation that would meet all the claims of God’s throne, and set His own free from their guilt and its defilement. John witnessed the blood and water that flowed from the side of Christ, and has put it on record.
The water and the blood have not only come to cleanse, but to witness to the greatness of Him who alone was able to accomplish this great work. God has sent His Spirit also, so that we might learn from Him of the glory of Jesus in heaven, and be within us to witness to what God has done for us in the Person of His Son. But the Spirit and the water and the blood have also come from God, a three-fold, united witness to men of what Christ His Son has accomplished, and men are responsible to God regarding this witness. It is a most solemn matter to refuse the witness that has come from God.
God’s witness also tells us that “God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” The blood is one of these great divine witnesses to us of the eternal life that we possess in the Son of God, even as it was by eating the flesh of the Son of Man, and drinking His blood, that we appropriated the life He has given us to enjoy down here and for ever with the Son in heaven above.
The Song of Redemption
After the church is rapt to heaven a remnant of the twelve tribes of Israel will be sealed for God, and a great number of Gentiles will be brought into earthly blessing, ascribing their “Salvation to our God…and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:1–10). One of the elders told the Seer who they were, saying, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (verse 14). All blessing to men, whether in heaven or on earth, has come to them through the precious blood of Jesus. When the “accuser of our brethren is cast down” from heaven, there will be the proclamation regarding the saints, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 12:10-11). Every accusation of Satan finds its answer in pointing to the blood of the Lamb that has cleansed us from all sin.
While waiting to celebrate the praises of God and the Lamb in heaven, we have a song of praise now, and this is given to us in Revelation 1:5-6, “Unto Him that loves us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” It was love, love that passes knowledge, that caused the Son of God to come down from heaven to shed His precious blood to take all our sins away, and we gladly acclaim Him now, and attribute our blessing to Him and to His great work upon the cross.
Soon the saints of the present day will be called to meet the Lord in the air, and to enter with Him the heavenly scene presented in Revelation 4 and 5. With what joy and delight shall we join the praises of heaven, and have our peculiar part with the redeemed in singing the praises of the Lord. The song that we sing now will be sung in a new way and in a new place, for we shall have bodies of glory like Christ’s body of glory, and without let or hindrance, and without a discordant note, the united hosts of the redeemed shall sing to the Lord, “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” (Rev. 5:9).
After the sons of Aaron had been consecrated, they had the privilege of presenting to Aaron the blood of the peace offerings, which he sprinkled on the altar round about (Lev. 9:18). Like them, it is our privilege now to present the blood in our praises to God, that which is the basis of our communion with God, and in so doing anticipate the day that is about to dawn when we shall present the blood in the new song of Revelation 5.
R. 31.1.68