“I AM not going to turn my pulpit into a slaughter-house.” So said a minister―one of the leading lights of his denomination―clever, talented, and popular, but a disbeliever in the atoning value of the blood of Jesus. It is a very common thing nowadays to call the doctrine of the atoning blood of Christ vulgar, and I do not know what else besides.
These are truly serious days in which we live, and it is no wonder that many souls in sheer despair say, If our leaders disagree, how can you expect us to be sure? If the shepherds fall to fighting, little wonder if the sheep are scattered.
Well, it little matters what ministers or laymen think, or the writer of this paper for the matter of that, but WHAT SAY the SCRIPTURES?
“Ah!” you reply, “that is the difficulty. What do they say? The Rev. Mr. So-and-So says they say one thing, whilst the Rev. Dr So-and-So tells us they say the exact opposite. What are we to believe? For my part, I have decided to leave the matter alone, do my duty as far as I can, and hope for the best.”
Let me ask you a straight question. You are journeying to eternity. DEATH LIES STRAIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. There is a Book in this world which comes from God to tell us about eternal realities. That Book is the Bible.
Have you read it through? Have you weighed its words? You have read the newspapers hundreds of times. They are out of date in twenty-four hours. You have read the most recent novel, and know what is the latest.
But have you read the Bible carefully? If you find the road you are traveling lands you in the awful terminus of hell, can you complain, if you have neglected to read the directions in Eternity’s guide-book―the Bible?
Let me ask you to honestly and sensibly treat the Bible as you would any other book. Take its plain, unmistakable words to mean just what they say, whether it suits you or not. Surely you cannot rest till the all-important subject of your soul’s salvation is settled.
To come back to the doctrine of the blood, here are three plain passages. Don’t ask any one’s explanation of them. It would be foolish to do so, they are so unmistakably plain.
The first verse states most plainly that there is absolutely no forgiveness apart from the shedding of blood.
Cordage belonging to the Government of England is known by a colored line that runs throughout its entire length.
So a red line―the line of blood, the line of sacrifice―runs right throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, from cover to cover of the Book.
When Adam and Eve fell, what did God do? Clothed them with coats of skin. To do so life must be taken, BLOOD must be shed. To procure that covering, for the first time in the history of this world, blood stained God’s earth.
Before that they had covered themselves with fig-leaved aprons. Very pretty and effective, and far more artistic than the coarse skins of animals, you may say. Ah! there was NO BLOOD in the leafy aprons. Those aprons, without one divine stitch in them, would not do for God.
Again: Cain and Abel offered two offerings to God. Cain presented the fruit of the ground. No doubt he toiled hard to produce the most luscious fruit he could, but God rejected his offering. Why? There was NO BLOOD in it. There was no admitting the truth that “without shedding of blood is NO REMISSION.”
Abel brought of the firstling of his flock, and was accepted. The blood was shed, the sacrifice was slain, the fire of judgment consumed it, and the offerer was accepted.
Look again at the children of Israel on the Passover night. They are about to leave the cruel taskmaster’s bondage and slavery. The destroying angel is passing through the land at the hour of midnight.
How will the children of Israel prepare for the visitor of justice? Will their bitter lot and hard bondage soften his heart? No! Listen. God had appointed a divine way of escape. “The BLOOD shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see THE BLOOD, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:1313And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)).
Look again at those two spies in Rahab’s house on Jericho’s mighty walls, as they are about to leave her. They tell her to bind the scarlet cord, when she shall have lowered them down, in her window, and all beneath her roof shall be safe. Mark, it is a scarlet line―sheltered beneath it, all are divinely secure.
Again, think of the rivers of blood that flowed from Jewish altars―their constant, unceasing sacrifices for centuries. What does it all speak about?
From one end of the Old Testament to the other we find the scarlet line blood, blood, BLOOD! What does it all mean?
Let me quote the three short, simple verses again, and let them give the answer. Again I say―Do not ask any person the meaning of them. It would be foolish to do so. Their meaning is so plain. Here they are: ―
“Without shedding of BLOOD is no remission.”
“It is the BLOOD that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
“The BLOOD of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
The Old Testament is God’s picture book, and in it, by type, and picture, and symbol, He teaches the absolute need of a sacrifice before we can be cleansed. John the Baptist, looking upon Jesus, exclaimed, “Behold THE LAMB OF GOD, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Did he not see in Him the Fulfiller of the types and shadows? What the blood of bulls and goats could not do, here was One who could―the Lamb of God―who once and forever met the whole question of sin according to God’s righteousness and holiness.
Ah! this is a day when the blood is lightly esteemed, but let me warn you. You are either blood-sheltered or blood-guilty― either cleansed whiter than snow in the crimson tide of the blood of Jesus, or trampling it under foot―either fit for heaven’s glory, or fit for hell’s flames. Which? Unitarianism cannot lead to heaven. There they are all believers in the blood―a multitude that no man can number, from every people, and nation, and tongue, redeemed by the precious blood.
Unitarianism is preached either boldly or covertly from a thousand pulpits today. Many religious novels are full of it. And the devil chuckles as people talk about being abreast of the times, and scoff at the out-of-date theology about the blood.
Believe me, sir, that out-of-date theology is found in the Bible. God’s word and character do not alter with the times. He does not abate the claims of His holiness and justice to meet men’s mawkish, simpering ideas of justice.
A bloodless theology is as blind as a bat to the whole drift of Scripture, and does not recognize the awful demerit of sin, nor God’s character of absolute holiness.
When the Queen exercises her sovereign prerogative of mercy, and pardons the condemned criminal, who does not admire the graciousness of her act, and feel it well becomes one, who is also a sinner before God, to show mercy?
But she does it at the expense of strict justice and righteousness. God cannot do that. He is omnipotent, yet He is powerless to do those things, which involve a contradiction of His being.
Hence the necessity of the cross of Jesus. Hence the awful mystery of God forsaking Him in the hour of His deepest and direst need. Hence the work, which the blessed Saviour voluntarily took upon Himself to perform, and completed to God’s eternal satisfaction. “It is finished,” He cried, and gave up the ghost.
At the cross, emblazoned in eternal characters, we read, “GOD IS LIGHT, AND GOD IS LOVE.”
Come now, and, just as you are, trust the One who shed that precious blood. Good works cannot save you. They are like the fig-leaved aprons. They are like Cain’s offering of luscious fruit. They will not do. There is no blood in them, and “without shedding of blood is no remission.”
Yours is a desperate case. Nothing but the death of the Son of God can meet your deep need. His work―not yours―can meet God’s requirements. Covered in a righteousness not your own will alone do for God. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)). But God is “just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” The vilest may trust Him. Blessed, simple news!
By virtue of the death of Jesus, God is everlastingly satisfied, and justice has no longer any claim over the sinner who has trusted the Saviour. Further, God has proved His satisfaction by raising Jesus from the dead to His own right hand in glory. The believer can say of Him, “Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for OUR JUSTIFICATION. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have PEACE WITH GOD through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 4:25, 6:1).
Here let me part with my reader. One word more. Shall we meet in the presence of Jesus forever? Only if we are both trusting in THE PRECIOUS BLOOD. That alone can save.
A. J. P.