3— “It Is Not Possible for the Blood of Bulls and Goats to Take Away Sins
IF it be "impossible for God to lie," and for all who deliberately abandon Christ to be renewed unto repentance, as we have seen, so may we with equal truth declare that: —
"Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain.”
As to this, Scripture speaks with no uncertain sound, and unfolds in every age the wonderful ways of God. While all the types and shadows of the past were meant to bring home to heart and conscience, in ever-varying beauty, the one great scheme of divine redemption; yet the one mighty sacrifice of Christ, at Calvary's altar, is the only righteous basis whereby the claims of justice are met, and salvation secured for every believer. Hence the law, being " only a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, could never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the corners thereunto perfect," and the constant shedding of blood only brought out all the more vividly the yearly remembrance of sins. Sin, of whatever kind, is an offense to God, and He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
How little, alas! does the world think of this today; but God would not allow His ancient people to forget that sin and holiness cannot live together. So the blood of countless victims, constantly flowing from Jewish altars, which could never take away sins, was but the foreshadowing of that one offering of Christ, whereby alone sins and sin could be righteously removed. None the less was it the purpose of God, from the beginning of His ways with man, to indicate, in type, that "without shedding of blood is no remission." The coats of skin made by the Lord God to cover our guilty parents in Eden's garden was the earliest type, not only that sin's penalty involves both death and blood-shedding, but also that man must be clothed in a way that could fit him for the presence of God. Thereafter, Abel's lamb, Noah's burnt offering, the ram caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah, and the blood-sprinkled lintel in Egypt, all alike tell the same story that the blood, which is the life of the victim, must needs flow. Hence, on the great day of atonement, the goat on which the Lord's lot fell, brings out in type the intense reality of God's holiness and sin's judgment, for the high priest could not enter the "holiest of all" except with blood and incense, the precious tokens of the one great sacrifice of Christ, and the fragrance of His adorable Person. That special goat had to die, for the claims of God in righteousness must needs be first met ere the sinner could (typically) be either cleansed or pardoned; and the "scape-goat," over whose head the sins of the people for one year had to be confessed, and then led away by a fit man into an uninhabited land, further illustrates the removal of sins from the camp where God dwelt. As atonement had to be made in this way, and there was but one to do it, so Calvary's altar is, in truth, the one and only place where, through the shed blood of God's lamb, atonement has been made, and sin's judgment borne by the man Christ Jesus, "Who gave himself a ransom for all.”
Fulfilling, in His own person, the eternal counsels of God, that precious Saviour enters this scene of sin and death, exclaiming, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then, said I, Lo I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God." "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
By that one offering, in contrast with all that had gone before, we learn three very precious and all-important truths, viz.: —
(2) “There is no more conscience of sins" (ver. 2).
(3) “There is no more remembrance of sins" (ver. 17).
So that God, in perfect consistency with Himself, can now by His Spirit proclaim in every believer's ears those peace-giving words, "Their sins anti their iniquities I will remember no more." Blessed, glorious fact! that He, who knew no sin, has, once for all, made propitiation for sins, by pouring out His soul unto death. He has taken His seat at God's right hand as the everlasting proof that there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
Many years ago, a poor old collier fell down a mine, and, in so doing, broke one of his legs, the injury being so serious that it terminated fatally. While lying in much pain upon his sick bed God's Spirit wrought mightily in heart and conscience; light from above entered his soul, and by God's grace he found joy and peace in believing. On the day of his death the friends around his bed saw him suddenly sit up, and, gazing upward with a bright smile, heard from his faltering lips this sweet confession of faith: "There is nothing now between my soul and God the blood of Christ has put it all away.”
Dear reader, can you say this? If not, why not?
S. T.