IF we examine the value of the death of Christ, what do we find attached to it in Scripture? Do I need redemption? We have redemption through His blood, an eternal redemption, for “neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by his own blood, he is entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.” Do I need forgiveness? That redemption which I have through His blood is the forgiveness of sins—yea, without shedding of blood is no remission.
Do I need peace? He has made peace through the blood of His cross.
Do I need reconciliation with God? Though we were sinners, yet now hath He reconciled its by the body of His flesh through death, to present us holy and unblameable, and unreproveable in God’s sight. When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
Do I desire to be dead to sin and have the flesh crucified with its affections and lusts? I am crucified with Christ. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed; for in that He died, He died unto sin once, and in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. This is my deliverance also from the charge and burthen of the law, which hath dominion over a man as long as he lives.
Do I feel the need of propitiation? Christ is set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood. The need of justification? I am justified by His blood.
Would I have a part with Christ? He must die, for except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; if it die, it brings forth much ruit.
Hence, unto what am I baptized as the public expression of my faith? As many of us as are baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death; for what, indeed, has broken down the middle wall of partition and let in the Gentiles, slaying the enmity, and reconciling Jew and Gentile in one body to God? The cross. How have we boldness to enter into the holiest? By the blood of Jesus, by that new and living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh; for till that was rent the Holy Ghost signified by it that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest.
Hence, it was a lifted-up Christ that was the attractive point for all. “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me.”
In the power of what was the great Shepherd of the sheep brought again from the dead? Through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
How was the curse of the law taken away from those who were under it? By Christ’s being made a curse for them, as it is written, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
How are we washed from our sins? He has loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, for His blood cleanseth from all sin. If I would be delivered from the world, it is by the cross, by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
If the love of Christ constrains us towards men in the thoughts of the terror of the Lord, how is it so? Because I thus judge, if One died for all, then were all dead, and they that live should live not to themselves, but to Him who died for them and rose again. Hence the apostle knew no man after the flesh—no, not even Christ. All was a new creation. If I would live in divine power, it is always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in my mortal body. If He would institute a special remembrance to call Him to mind, it was a broken body and shed blood. It is not less than a Lamb, as it were slain, that is found in the throne.
All was love, no doubt, but do I want to learn it? Hereby we know it, that He laid down His life for us, and that even of God, in that He loved us, and gave His Son as a propitiation for our sins. It is to the sprinkling of that precious blood of Christ that we are sanctified, and to obedience; and through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once (contrasted with the many Jewish sacrifices) sanctified and perfected forever, so that there is no more offering for sin; for having offered one sacrifice for sins, He is set down forever at the right hand of God. For He should not offer Himself often, as the high priest entered into the holy place once every year with the blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself: for as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Do I desire, therefore, my conscience purged? It is through the blood of Christ who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God. For it is by means of death that there is the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first covenant, and in that view He became Mediator. Indeed, a testament could have no force while the testator lived.
Do I seek the destruction of the power of Satan? Is it through death that He destroyed (the power of) him that had the power of death?
Would He sanctify even the Jewish people to Himself? It must be by His blood, suffering, rejected, without the gate. No remission for us—no privileges of the new covenant for us, nor establishing of it with them, without this blood—redemption is not without it. The living sinner, as such, cannot be presented to God, nor a living Christ offer that by which the sinner must draw nigh. The veil remains unrent, the conscience unpurged, the propitiation unaccomplished. God forbore with the Old Testament saints, and has shown His righteousness in doing so now—a righteousness now declared in that propitiation set forth through faith in Christ’s blood. “By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”
J. N. D.