|
When I See The Blood In the case of the Israelites, it was the blood of the paschal lamb. In our case, it is the blood of a divinely appointed victim. Jesus Christ did not come into this world unappointed. He was sent by His Father. Sinner! The blood of Christ is well pleasing to God; for God Himself did send Christ to be the Redeemer and He Himself did lay upon Him the iniquity of us all. It was God's will that the blood of Jesus should be shed. Jesus is God's chosen Saviour for men. Sinner! He is able to save you. Christ Jesus, like the lamb, was not only a divinely appointed victim, but he was spotless. Had there been one sin in Christ, He had not been capable of being our Saviour-but He was without sin. Turn, then, your eye to the cross and see Jesus bleeding there and dying for you. Remember, "For sins not His own, He died to atone." The blood of Jesus; is able to save thee because "He died, the Just for the unjust." But some will say, "Whence has the blood of Christ such power to save?" Not only because God appointed that blood and because it was the blood of a spotless being, but because Christ Himself was God. If Christ were man only, there would be no efficacy in His blood to save. The blood is once shed for the remission of sin. The paschal lamb was slain every year. But Christ, once for all, hath put away sin by the offering of Himself. He has said, "It is finished." Let that ring in thine ears. For a moment, try to picture to yourself Christ on the cross. Lift now your eyes and see the three crosses upon that rising knoll. See in the center the thorn-crowned brow of Christ. See the hands nailed fast to the accursed tree! See His face, more marred than that of any other man. See it now as His head bows upon His bosom in the agonies of death! He was a real man, remember. It was a real cross. Do not think of these things as fancies and romance. There was such a being and He died as I describe it. Sit still a moment and think: "The blood of that Man, whom now I behold dying, must be my redemption. And if I would be saved, I must put my only trust in what He suffered for me." God says, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you. " The blood of Christ-nothing but it can ever save the soul. If some foolish Israelite had despised the command of God and had said, "I will sprinkle something else upon the door posts," or, "I will adorn the lintel with jewels of gold and silver," he must have perished. Nothing could save his household but the sprinkled blood. And, now, let us all remember that "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." My works, my prayers, my tears cannot save me. The blood, the blood alone, has power to redeem. Sacraments cannot save me. Nothing but the blood of Jesus has the slightest saving power. O you that are trusting in baptism, confirmation or the Lord's Supper-nothing but the blood can save. I care not how right the ordinance, how true the form, how scriptural the practice: it is all vanity to you if you rely on it to save. God forbid that I should say a word against ordinances or against holy things-but keep them in their places. If you make them the basis of your soul's salvation, they are lighter than a shadow. There is not-I repeat it again-the slightest atom of saving power anywhere but in the blood of Jesus. That blood only has the power to save. The blood stands out the only rock of our salvation. So jealous is God about this that anything you put with Christ, however good it is, becomes, from the fact of your putting it with Him, an accursed thing. And what is it that thou wouldst put with Christ? Thy good works? What! Wilt thou yoke a reptile with an angel-yoke thyself to the chariot of salvation with Christ? What are thy good works? Thy righteousnesses are "as filthy rags"-and shall filthy rags be joined to the spotless Christ? It must not be. Rely on Jesus only, and thou canst not perish. But, rely on anything with Him and thou are as surely condemned as if thou shouldst rely on thy sins. Jesus only-this is the rock of our salvation. "Oh," says one, "I could trust in Christ if I felt my sins more." Sir, is thy repentance to be a part-Saviour? The blood is to save thee, not thy tears; Christ's death, not thy repentance. Thou art bidden this day to trust in Christ, not in thy feelings on account of sin. Many a man has beenbrought into great soul-distress because he has looked more at his repentance than at Christ: Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for sin could not atone, Thou must save and Thou alone. "Nay" says another, "But I feel that I do not value the blood of Christ as I ought, and, therefore, I am afraid to believe." My friend, that is another insidious form of the same error. God does not say, "When I see your estimate of the blood of Christ I will pass over you." No, but, "When I see the blood. " It is not your estimate of that blood-it is the blood that saves you. As I said before, that magnificent, solitary blood must be alone. "Nay" says another, "but if I had more faith then I should have hope." That, too, is a very deadly shape of the same evil. You are not saved by the efficacy of your faith but by the efficacy of the blood of Christ. I bid you believe, but I bid you not to look to your believing as the ground of your salvation. No man will go to heaven if he trusts to his own faith. You may as well trust to your own good works as trust to your own faith. Your faith cannot hang upon itself-it must hang on Christ. You must not think of your faith, but of Christ. Faith comes from meditation upon Christ. Turn, then, your eye, not upon faith but upon Jesus. It is not the efficacy of your believing in Him; it is the efficacy of His blood applied to you through the Spirit. I do not know how sufficiently to follow Satan in all his windings into the human heart. But this I know-he is always trying to keep back this great truth: The blood, and the blood alone, has power to save. "Oh," yet says another, "If I had such-and such an experience, then I could trust." Friend, it is not thine experience-it is the blood. God did not say, "When I see your experience," but, "When I see the blood of Christ." Acquire experience, cultivate the Christian graces. But, oh, do not put them where Christ's blood ought to be. I hear Thy welcome voice That calls me, Lord, to Thee For cleansing in Thy precious Blood That flowed on Calvary. All hail, Atoning Blood! All hail, Redeeming Grace! All hail, the Gift of Christ, our Lord, Our Strength and Righteousness. For a free literature packet, write Fundamental Evangelistic Association PO Box 6278, Los Osos, CA 93412, U.S.A. |