“Thou hast redeemed us with Thy blood.”
DEAR Reader, ―Let me engage thine attention a short time, while I address thee on the Blood-shedding of Jesus. Look upon Him, as He hangs upon the cross―His body torn and bleeding. He hangs between the heavens and the earth, a spectacle to each, as if He were not fit for either. He has a crown on His head; but it is such an one as none will covet, as few will touch, as none will take from him—a cruel crown of thorns! His hair is clotted with His own blood; His face is clouded with bruises; He is pitifully mangled, outwards, inwards, body and soul. His hands are nailed; His feet are rent; His side is pierced. What has that Prince of sufferers done, that He should groan, bleed, agonize, die like that? He hath done nothing deserving of death; He is perfectly innocent, undefiled, holy, and separate from sinners. He dies thus, that He might be the Saviour of His enemies, ―the Redeemer of rebels. His love is deeper than hell, higher than heaven; therefore does He thus die, to make an atonement for the lost, that sinners may be reconciled unto God. The brightest seraphim’s that burn in love, are but as dim sparks in comparison with that mighty sun of love which flames in the heart of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus shed His blood, and died on the cross, as the Substitute of all His people, as it is written, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” The shame and pain, the curse and bitterness, of the cross, were all caused by reason of the transgressions of His people. (Isaiah 53) His scourged sides, His furrowed back, His pierced temples, His bleeding veins, His opened side, His nailed hands, His torn feet, and sorrowful soul, were all caused by the sins of those for whom He became Surety. Their sins plowed His back in deep furrows; their sins laid the cross on that bleeding back; their sins arrayed Him in the purple robe,—mocked Him,—plucked the hair from His cheeks, and spit in His face; their sins crowned Him with thorns; their sins drove the nails through His hands, and made the deep wounds in His feet; their sins plunged the spear into His side; their sins caused Him to cry out, amid the blackness of nature, and the horrors of soul desertion, “My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” To the spiritual eye, there was none other engine to torment Christ, none other judge to condemn Him, and none other executioner to crucify Him, than the iniquities of His people.
The end of the blood-shedding and death of Jesus, was the glory of God, and the salvation of lost and ruined sinners. As Moses in the wilderness lifted up the brazen serpent, that the serpent-bitten might look and live, even so has Jesus, the Son of God, been lifted up at Calvary; that whosoever believeth in Him, might not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus was lifted up on the cross, that He might draw sinners unto Himself. Jesus was hanged on the accursed tree, that He might bear away the sins of all who believe on His name. Jesus, by the shedding of His precious blood, hath REDEEMED all believers from the curse of the broken law. He has redeemed them from the curse; for He was made a curse for them. Believers are now not under law, but under grace. Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. By this blood-shedding, Jesus has made an ATONEMENT for the sins of His people; for “without shedding of blood there is no remission.” We may offer the sacrifice of our prayers, tears, our duties, our mortifications; but these could never remove sin. The blood of Jesus, and that alone, has power to atone for sins.
Believers in the Lord Jesus may say with confidence, “By the blood-shedding of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, we are CLEANSED from all sin;” for His blood cleanses away the defilement and pollution of sin. Sin is a fearfully defiling and polluting thing. The uncleansed sinner is the most hideous and loathsome creature in God’s sight. But the very instant the sinner believes in the Lord Jesus, though before his sins had been as scarlet, and red like crimson, he is made white as the virgin snow. The blood-shedding of Jesus removes stains of abundant iniquity, and makes us whiter than snow in the sight of God.
As Israel was preserved in Egypt, because the blood was sprinkled upon their houses, so believers are PRESERVED in Jesus, because His precious blood has flowed for them. God sees Christ’s blood, and the destroying angel passes them over. None can ever perish for whom the blood of Jesus hath been shed. God sees the blood for them, and that is sufficient. It is not necessary for our safety that we should see the blood. God says, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” A sight of Jesu’s blood will give us PEACE; but it is God who sees it for our salvation. The undimmed eye of the Omniscient Jehovah rests on the blood of the Incarnate sacrifice, and, therefore, believers are safe.
When we draw nigh to God in prayer, the blood-shedding of Jesus is our only PREVAILING plea. We knock at the door of mercy “for Christ’s sake,” and instantly the door flies open, and our Father says unto us, “What is your petition, and what is your request? for it shall be granted unto you.” Whatsoever we ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, we receive.
The blood-shedding of Jesus is an UNIVERSAL SOLVENT for the rocky heart. As the poet sings,
“Law and terrors do but harden
All the while they work alone;
But a sense of blood-bought pardon
Soon dissolves a heart of stone.”
In preaching the terrors of the law, we often make the hard heart harder; but when we preach the blood of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit applies the message, the hardest heart soon melts. The blood-shedding of Jesus gives PEACE to the wounded conscience. Many souls are anxious on account of sin. They can’t find peace, though they try to pray, to repent, to reform, and to believe. They never will find peace, until they give over their tryings altogether, and trust to the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is our only ground of peace with God. Nothing else will do. All beside is unavailing. The only foundation for peace is Christ. Behold the Lamb of God; look on Him who was pierced on Calvary’s cross for your sins; so shall you “have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (Ephesians 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7).) The blood on the lintel secured peace to Israel, and the blood of Jesus is sufficient to secure peace to you. All you have to do is, just to give up your doing altogether, and to rest on the testimony of God, as contained in the Scripture, concerning the blood-shedding of His Son Jesus. “Christ, having shed His blood as a perfect atonement for sin, has taken it into the presence of God and sprinkled it there; and God’s testimony assures the believer that everything is settled on his behalf. All the claims of justice have been fully answered, sin has been perfectly put away, so that the full tide of redeeming love may flow down from the heart of God, along the channel which the sacrifice of Christ has opened for it.” The blood-shedding of Jesus gives peace to the troubled soul when all things else have failed.
By the blood-shedding of Jesus, believers are SANCTIFIED. We can never have sanctification apart from the blood of the cross. The blood justifies the ungodly by removing sin, and sanctifies the believer by purging his conscience from dead works, to serve the living God. The blood-shedding of Jesus GIVES US AN ENTRANCE INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD. By it we draw nigh, and are made bold in holy and sacred fellowship. Through the blood of Jesus we gain access to the very heart of God. By it, and by it alone, we have access unto the Father, and hold sweet communion. The blood-shedding of Jesus CONFIRMS the new covenant, so that the promises of grace, being yea and amen in Christ, are sure to all believers. The blood-shedding of Jesus, day by day, GIVES NEW LIFE to the believer. The blood of Christ is drink indeed; ― “Superior drink! transcendent drink! strengthening drink!―such drink as angels never taste, though they drink before the eternal throne!” ‘Tis through the blood-shedding of Jesus that believers get their FINAL VICTORY. They overcome through the blood-shedding of God’s atoning Lamb.
Now, freed from sin, we walk at large:
Our Jesus’ blood’s our full discharge;
At Christ’s dear feet our souls well lay; ―
We’re sinners saved―well homage pay.
The blood of Jesus has been shed―the heart of God is satisfied―hell has been defeated―all sin is forever removed―all danger has forever vanished―all death is forever destroyed―and the gate of heaven is wide opened.
Not only is the blood-shedding of Jesus full of all precious virtue, but it is FREE to every soul that believeth. Whosoever trusteth thereto is now saved. Away from your works, your ways, your feelings, your doubts, your prayers your fears, your everything; away to the blood-shedding of Jesus.
THE SURE FOUNDATION OF MY HOPE IS IN MY SAVIOUR’S BLOOD.”
This was the dying testimony of an aged believer, who fell asleep in Jesus in the eighty-fifth year of his natural life. My dear reader, you are a sinner, and need a Saviour. The Saviour you need is revealed to you in the Gospel. His name is Jesus. He shed His precious blood for lost, ruined, guilty, undone, hell-deserving sinners. Make His precious blood the sure foundation of your hope, and you are saved.
Look to Jesus, sinner, look:
He our griefs and sorrows took;
He, to bring us near to God,
Shed His own most precious blood.
Look then, sinner, as thou art, —
He can heal thy deepest smart;
Jesus died, and lives to give
Peace and pardon. Loos AND LIVE.
The precious blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, cleanseth all who believe from all sin. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is simply to trust in Him as your Saviour, on the warrant of God’s Word.
T. W. M.