WITHOUT the death of the Son of God, men must forever have remained far off from Him, still in their sins and guilt, for " it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul"; and Jesus taught the absolute necessity of His death when He said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit " (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)). JOH 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24) It is not, then, the incarnation of Christ, the life of Christ, or the example of Christ, but the DEATH of Christ, the CROSS of Christ, the BLOOD of Christ, that cleanses our guilty consciences, and fits us for God's presence. It is Christ crucified that is the only peaceful meeting-place between God and the sinner.
There God opened an all-cleansing fountain for sin and uncleanness. There God shows sinners how much He loves them. There God brings salvation to the lost. There God magnified His own holiness and justice, and manifested the exceeding riches of His grace to unholy men; and now in Christ Jesus, by His blood, God has made all that believe to stand in everlasting nearness to Himself.
All who now believe in Jesus have redemption through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins, because God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. Our sins were laid upon Him, and He was made a curse for us. In this way He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
The wrath of God was thus poured out upon Him instead of us. “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." Hence, on the ground of strictest justice and holiness, God can speak of believers as a redeemed people, washed from our sins in the blood of Jesus, and that our sins and iniquities He will remember no more. The sole ground of forgiveness of sins, therefore, is not our works, our experience, our frames, or our feelings, but the blood of Christ; for without the shedding of blood is no remission; and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us, from all sin.
H. H. S.