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The Necessity of Christ’s Death by Stephen Charnock

January 7, 2010 by ADMIN

Ought not Christ to have suffered these

things; and to enter into his glory?

Luke 24:26.

1. Let us here see the evil of sin. Nothing more fit to show the baseness of sin, and the greatness of the misery by it, than the satisfaction due for it; as the greatness of a disease is seen by the force of the medicine, and the value of the commodity by the greatness of the price it cost The sufferings of Christ express the evil of sin, far above the severest judgments upon any creature, both in regard of the greatness of the person, and the bitterness of the suffering. The dying groans of Christ show the horrible nature of sin in the eye of God; as he was greater than the world, so his sufferings declare sin to be the greatest evil in the world. How evil is that sin that must make God bleed to cure it! To see the Son of God haled to death for sin, is the greatest piece of justice that ever God executed. The earth trembled under the weight of God’s wrath when he punished Christ, and the heavens were dark as though they were shut to him, and he cries and groans, and no relief appears; nothing but sin was the procuring meritorious cause of this.

The Son of God was slain by the sin of the fallen creature; had there been any other way to expiate so great an evil, had it stood with the honor of God, who is inclined to pardon, to remit sin without a compensation by death, we cannot think he would have consented that his Son should undergo so great a suffering. Not all the powers in heaven and earth could bring us into favor again, without the death of some great sacrifice to preserve the honor of God’s veracity and justice; not the gracious interposition of Christ, without becoming mortal, and drinking in the vials of wrath, could allay divine justice; not his intercessions, without enduring the strokes due to us, could remove the misery of the fallen creature. All the holiness of Christ’s life, his innocence and good works, did not redeem us without death. It was by this he made an atonement for our sins, satisfied the revenging justice of his Father, and recovered us from a spiritual and inevitable death. How great were our crimes, that could not be wiped off by the works of a pure creature, or the holiness of Christ’s life, but required the effusion of the blood of the Son of God for the discharge of them! Christ in his dying was dealt with by God as a sinner, as one standing in our stead, otherwise he could not have been subject to death. For he had no sin of his own, and “death is the wages of sin,” Rom. 6:23. It had not consisted with the goodness and righteousness of Cod as Creator, to afflict any creature with out a cause, nor with his infinite love to his Son to bruise him for nothing. Some moral evil must therefore be the cause; for no physical evil is inflicted without some moral evil preceding. Death, being a punishment, supposeth a fault Christ, having no crime of his own, must then be a sufferer for ours: “Our sins were laid upon him,” Isa. 53:6, or transferred upon him. We see then how hateful sin is to God, and therefore it should be abominable to us. We should view sin in the sufferings of the Redeemer, and then think it amiable if we can.

Shall we then nourish sin in our hearts? This is to make much of the nails that pierced his hands, and the thorns that pricked his head, and make his dying groans the matter of our pleasure. It is to pull down a Christ that hath suffered, to suffer again; a Christ that is raised, and ascended, sitting at the right hand of God, again to the earth; to lift him upon another cross, and overwhelm him in a second grave. Our hearts should break at the consideration of the necessity of his death. We should open the heart of our sins by repentance, as the heart of Christ was opened by the spear. This does an Ought not Christ to die? teach us.

2. Let us not set up our rest in anything in ourselves, not in anything below a dying Christ; not in repentance or reformation. Repentance is a condition of pardon, not a satisfaction of justice; it sometimes moves the divine goodness to turn away judgment, but it is no compensation to divine justice. There is not that good in repentance as there is wrong in the sin repented of, and satisfaction must have something of equality, both to the injury and the person injured; the satisfaction that is enough for a private person wronged is not enough for a justly offended prince; for the greatness of the wrong mounts by the dignity of the person. None can be greater than God, and therefore no offense can be so full of evil as offenses against God; and shall a few tears be sufficient in any one’s thoughts to wipe them off? The wrong done to God by sin is of a higher degree than to be compensated by all the good works of creatures, though of the highest elevation. Is the repentance of any soul so perfect as to be able to answer the punishment the justice of God requires in the law? And what if the grace of God help us in our repentance? It cannot be concluded from thence that our pardon is formally procured by repentance, but that we are disposed by it to receive and value a pardon. It is not congruous to the wisdom and righteousness of God to bestow pardons upon obstinate rebels. Repentance is nowhere said to expiate sin; a “broken heart is called a sacrifice,” Ps. 51:17, but not a propitiatory one. David’s sin was expiated before he penned that psalm, 2 Sam. 12:13.

Though a man could weep as many tears as there are drops of water contained in the ocean, send up as many volleys of prayers as there have been groans issuing from any creature since the foundation of the world; though he could bleed as many drops from his heart as have been poured out from the veins of sacrificed beasts, both in Judea and all other parts of the world; though he were able, and did actually bestow in charity all the metals in the mines of Peru: yet could not this absolve him from the least guilt, nor cleanse him from the least filth, nor procure the pardon of the least crime by any intrinsic value in the acts themselves; the very acts, as well as the persons, might fall under the censure of consuming justice. The death of Christ only procures us life. The blood of Christ only doth quench that just fire sin had kindled in the breast of God against us. To aim at any other way for the appeasing of God, than the death of Christ, is to make the cross of Christ of no effect. This we are to learn from an Ought not Christ to die?

3. Therefore, let us be sensible of the necessity of an interest in the Redeemer’s death. Let us not think to drink the waters of salvation out of our own cisterns, but out of Christ’s wounds. Not to draw life out of our own dead duties, but Christ’s dying groans. We have guilt, can we expiate it ourselves? We are under justice. Can we appease it by any thing we can do? There is an enmity between God and us. Can we offer him anything worthy to gain his friendship? Our natures are corrupted, can we heal them? Our services are polluted, can we cleanse them? There is as great a necessity for us to apply the death of Christ for all those, as there was for him to undergo it. The leper was not cleansed and cured by the shedding the blood of the sacrifice for him, but the sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice upon him, Lev. 14: 7. As the death of Christ was foretold as the meritorious cause, so the sprinkling of his blood was foretold as the formal cause of our happiness, Isa. 52:15. By his own blood, he entered into heaven and glory, and by nothing but his blood can we have the boldness to expect it, or the confidence to attain it, Heb. 10:19. The whole doctrine of the gospel of Christ crucified, 1 Cor. 1:23, and the whole confidence of a Christian should be Christ crucified. God would not have mercy exercised with a neglect of justice by man, though to a miserable client: Lev. 19:15, “Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor in judgment.” Shall God who is infinitely just, neglect rule himself? No man is an object of mercy till he presents a satisfaction to justice. As there is a perfection in God, which we call mercy, which exacts faith and repentance of his creature before he will bestow a pardon, so there is another perfection of vindictive justice that requires also the content of his justice.

The fallen angels, therefore, have no mercy granted to them, because none ever satisfied the justice of God for them. Let us not, therefore, coin new ways of procuring pardon, and false modes of appeasing the justice of God. What can we find besides this, able to contend against everlasting burnings? What refuge can there be besides this to shelter us from the fierceness of divine wrath? Can our tears and prayers be more prevalent than the cries and tears of Christ, who could not, by all the strength of them, divert death from himself, without our eternal loss? No way but faith in his blood. God in the gospel sends us to Christ, and Christ by the gospel brings us to God.

4. Let us value this Redeemer, and redemption by his death. Since God was resolved to see his Son plunged into an estate of disgraceful emptiness, clothed with the form of a servant, and exposed to the sufferings of a painful cross, rather than leave sin unpunished, we should never think of it without thankful returns, both to the judge and the sacrifice. What was he afflicted for, but to procure our peace? bruised for, but to heal our wounds? brought before an earthly judge to be condemned, but that we might be brought before a heavenly judge to be absolved? fell under the pains of death, but to knock off from us the shackles of hell? and became accursed in death, but that we might be blessed with eternal life? Without this our misery had been irreparable, our distance from God perpetual. What commerce could we have had with God, while we were separated from him by crimes on our part, and justice on his? The wall must be broken down, death must be suffered, that justice might be silenced, and the goodness of God be again communicative to us.

This was the wonder of divine love, to be pleased with the sufferings of his only Son, that he might be pleased with us upon the account of those sufferings. Our redemption in such a way, as by the death and blood of Christ, was not a bare grace. It had been so, had it been only redemption; but being a redemption by the blood of God, it deserves from the apostle no less a title than riches of grace, Eph. 1:7. And it deserves and expects no less from us than such high acknowledgments. This we may learn from Ought not Christ to die.

Posted in Stephen Charnock |

The Mediation of Christ by A. W. Pink

January 7, 2010 by ADMIN

“For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Some unregenerate men who deny the God-head of Christ, imagine they find something in this verse which supports their system of infidelity, but this only serves to make the more evident the fearful blindness of their minds. As well might they reason from Gal. 1:1 (where we read, “Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ”) that the Lord Jesus is not Man, as to infer from 1 Tim. 2:5 that He is not God. As we shall show in what follows, none could possibly heal the breach between God and men save one who partook of each of their natures.

“For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” “In that great difference between God and men occasioned by our sin and apostasy from Him, which of itself could issue in nothing but the utter ruin of the whole race of mankind, there was none in heaven or earth, in their original nature and operations, who was meet or able to make up a peace between them. Yet this must be done by a mediator, or cease forever. This mediator could not be God Himself absolutely considered, for “a mediator is not of one, but God is one” (Gal. 3:20). And as for creatures, there was none in heaven or earth, there was none meet to undertake this office. ‘For if one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the lord, who shall intreat for him?’: 1 Sam. 2:25″ (J. Owen, 1680).

In view of this state of things, the eternal Son, out of love for His Father and that people which had been given to Him, volunteered to enter the office and serve as Mediator. It is to this that Phil. 2:7 refers, where we are told that He “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” The susception (“taking upon him”) of our nature for the discharge of the mediatorial office therein, was an act of infinite condescension, wherein He is exceedingly glorious in the eyes of His saints. To quote again from the eminent Puritan:

“Such is the transcendent excellency of the Divine nature, It is said of God that, ‘He dwelleth on High, and humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth’ (Psa. 113:5,6). All His respect unto creatures, the most glorious, was an act of infinite condescension. And it is so on two accounts. First, because of the infinite distance there is between His being, and that of the creature. Hence ‘all nations before Him are as a drop of a bucket.’ Second, because of His infinite self-sufficiency unto all the acts and ends of His own eternal blessedness. What we have a desire unto, is that It may add to our satisfaction, for no creature is self-sufficient unto its own blessedness. God alone wants nothing, and stands in need of nothing; see Job 35:5-6. God hath infinite perfections in Himself.

How glorious, then, is the Son of God in His susception (“taking upon him”) of the office of mediator! For if such be the perfection of the Divine nature, and its distance Is so absolutely infinite from the whole creation, and if such be His self-sufficiency unto His own eternal blessedness, so that nothing can be taken from Him, nothing added unto Him, so that every regard to Him unto any of His creatures, is an act of self-condescension from the prerogative of His being and state; what heart can conceive, what tongue can express the glory of that condescension in the Son of God, whereby He took our nature upon Him took it to be His own, in order to a discharge of the office of Mediator in our behalf!” Nothing but love, love unfathomable, to His Father and to His people could have moved Him thereunto.

When we speak of Christ as Mediator, we always think of Him as God and man in one Person, and that His two natures, though infinitely distinct are not to be separated. As God, without a human nature united to His Divine person, He would be too high to sustain the character or to perform the work of a servant, and, as such, to yield to the law that obedience which was incumbent upon Him as Mediator. So, on the other hand, to be man, or merely a creature, would be too low, and altogether inconsistent with that infinite value and dignity which must be put upon the work He was to perform. Therefore none but God incarnate, possessing two natures, was qualified to act as Mediator. Let us amplify this important consideration with a few details.

First, it was necessary that the Mediator should be a Divine person. “It was requisite that the Mediator should be God, that He might sustain and keep the human nature from sinking under the infinite wrath of God and the power of death; give worth and efficacy to His sufferings, obedience, and intercession; and to satisfy God’s justice, procure His favor, purchase a peculiar people, give His Spirit to them, conquer all their enemies, and bring them to everlasting salvation” (Westminster Catechism, 1643).

None but God can give eternal life, and therefore none but a Divine person could be a real Savior of those who were dead in sins (John 10:27,28). Again; “For man to glory in any one as his Savior, and give him the honor of the new creation, to resign himself to His pleasure, arid become His property, and say to Him, Thou art Lord of my soul, is an honor to which no mere creature can have the least claim. ‘In Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory,’ Isa. 45:25” (H. Witsius, 1693).

Second, it was necessary that the Mediator should be a human person. “It was requisite that the Mediator should be man, that He might advance our nature, perform obedience to the law, suffer, and make intercession for us in our nature, having a fellow-feeling of our infirmities, that we might receive the adoption of sons, and have comfort and access with boldness unto the throne of grace” (Westminster Catechism). The law of God requires the love of our neighbor, but none is our neighbor but who is of the same blood with us: therefore before our Surety could satisfy the law for us, He must become man. So too He needed to take on Him our nature in order to our being united to Him in one body, and He made members of His flesh and of His bones” (Eph. 5:30).

Third, it was necessary that the Mediator should be God and man in one person. “It was requisite that the Mediator, who was to reconcile God and man, should Himself be both God and man, and this in one person; that the proper works of each nature might be accepted of God for us, and relied on by us, as the works of the whole person” (Westminster Catechism). Had He been God only, He could not have died. Had He been man only, He could not have merited for and bestowed the Holy Spirit upon all His people. Had He not been the God-man, our redemption would have been brought about by two persons! Therefore did the eternal Word become flesh (John 1:14) — forever be His name adored!

Now inasmuch as the Mediator is God and man in one Person, it follows that various things may be truly stated concerning, or applied to Him, which are infinitely opposite to each other, namely: that He has all power and wisdom as it concerns His Deity, and yet that He is weak and finite as respects His humanity. In one nature He is equal with the Father, and so receives nothing from Him, nor is under any obligation to yield obedience. In His other nature He is inferior to the Father, and so receives all things from Him. Here then is what makes it manifest that there is no contradiction between John 10:30 and 14:28: as the second person of the Trinity, He could say, “I and my Father are one”; as the God-man Mediator, “My Father is greater than I.” Such verses as Matt. 11:27; 28:18; John 17:5; 1 Cor. 15:28; Eph. 1:22, 23; Rev. 1:1, etc., all speak of Him as “the Mediator!”

In seeking to make practical application of this blessed theme, we cannot do better than quote the following words: “Think of it, my brother, I entreat you, upon every occasion when drawing near to the throne of grace, through that channel by which alone you can approach the throne–through the mediation of Jesus; and in that recollection may the Lord strengthen your hands and heart. That almighty Friend we now have in heaven, in whose hands all our high interests are placed, though once ‘Man of sorrows,’ was, and is, no less, at the same time, one with the Father, ‘over all God blessed forever,’ Rom. 2:5” (R. Hawker, 1825). May the Lord be pleased to add His blessing to this meditation.

From Studies in the Scriptures, January 1932.

The current formatting and editing is copyrighted by Jim Ehrhard, 1999. You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author; (2) any modifications are clearly marked; (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction; and (4) you do not make more than 100 copies without permission. If you would like to post this material to your web site or make any use other than as defined above, please contact

Posted in A. W. Pink |

The Blood Shedding by C. H. Spurgeon

January 7, 2010 by ADMIN

I will show you three fools. One is yonder soldier, who has been wounded on the field of battle, grievously wounded, well nigh unto death; the surgeon is by his side, and the soldier asks him a question. Listen, and judge of his folly. What question does he ask? Does he raise his eyes with eager anxiety and inquire if the practitioner’s skill can suggest the means of healing, or if the remedies are within reach and the medicine at hand? No, nothing of the sort; strange to tell, he asks, “Can you inform me with what sword I was wounded, and by what Russian I have been thus grievously mauled? I want,” he adds, “to learn every minute particular respecting the origin of my wound.” The man is delirious. Such questions at such a time are proof that he is bereft of his senses.

There is another fool. The storm is raging, the ship flying impetuous before the gale, the masts are creaking, the sails are rent to rags, and still the gathering tempest grows more fierce. Where is the captain? Is he busily engaged on the deck, manfully facing the danger, and skillfully suggesting the means to avert it? No, he has retired to his cabin, and there with studious thoughts is speculating on where the storm took its rise. “It is mysterious, this wind; no one ever yet,” he says, “has been able to discover it.” And, so reckless of the vessel, the lives of the passengers, and his own life, he is careful only to solve his curious questions. Take the rudder from his hand, he is clean gone mad!

The third fool I shall doubtless find among yourselves. You are sick and wounded with sin, you are in the storm and the hurricane of Almighty vengeance, and yet the question you would ask of me, would be, “Sir, what is the origin of evil?” You are spiritually mad; that is not the question you would ask if you were in a sane and healthy state of mind; your question would be: “How can I get rid of this evil?” Not, “How did it come into the world?” but, “How am I to escape from it?” Not, “How is it that I am sick,” but, “Are there medicines what will heal me?” “Is there a physician to be found that can restore my soul to health?”

The broad fact is this, your question should be, “How can I escape from the wrath to come?” In answering that question, [Hebrews 9:22–“without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin] stands right in the middle of the way. Your real want is to know how you can be saved; if you are aware that your sin must be [either] pardoned or punished, your question will be, “How can it be pardoned?” and then point blank in the very teeth of your inquiry stands out this fact: “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.” But some men will say that God’s way of saving men, by the shedding of blood, is a cruel way, an unjust way, an unkind way; and all kinds of things they will say of it. Sirs, I have nothing to do with your opinion of the matter; it is so. If you have any faults to find with your Maker, fight your battles out with him at last. . . . The doctrine of the atonement, when rightly understood and faithfully received, is delightful, for it exhibits boundless love, immeasurable goodness, and infinite truth; but to unbelievers it will always be a hated doctrine.

Note how decisive this is in its character. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.” “But, sir, can’t I get my sins forgiven by my repentance? If I weep, and plead, and pray, will not God forgive me for the sake of my tears?” “No remission,” says the text, “without the shedding of blood.” “But, sir, if I never sin again, and if I serve God more zealously than other men, will he not forgive me for the sake of my obedience?” “No remission,” says the text, “without the shedding of blood.” “But, sir, may I not trust that God is merciful, and will forgive me without the shedding of blood?” “No,” says the text, “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission;” none whatever. It cuts off ever other hope. Bring your hopes here, and if they are not based in blood, they are as useless as castles in the air, and dreams at night.

Note again how universal it is in its character. “What! may I not get remission without blood-shedding?” says the king; and he comes with the crown on his head; “May not I in all my robes, with this rich ransom, get pardon without blood-shedding?” “None,” is the reply, “None.” Forthwith comes the wise man, with a number of learnings after his name. “Can I not get remission by these grand titles of my learning?” “None, none.” Then comes the benevolent man. “I have dispersed my money to the poor, and given my bounty to feed them; shall I not get remission?” “None;” says the text, “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.” How this puts everyone on a level! No hope for the best, any more than for the worst, without the shedding of blood. Oh! I love the gospel, because it is a leveling gospel.

Mark too, how perpetual my text is. Paul said, “there is no remission;” I must repeat this testimony too. When thousands of years have rolled away, some minister may stand on this spot and say the same. This will never alter at all, in the next world as well as this: no remission without the shedding of blood. The fact is, beloved, there is no use for you to satisfy your hearts with anything less than what satisfied God the Father. Without the shedding of blood, nothing would appease his justice; without the application of that same blood, nothing can purge your consciences.

The current formatting and editing is copyrighted by Jim Ehrhard, 1999. You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author; (2) any modifications are clearly marked; (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction; and (4) you do not make more than 100 copies without permission. If you would like to post this material to your web site or make any use other than as defined above, please contact Teaching Resources International

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

The Sprinkling, the Blood, and the Trinity by Andrew Murray

January 7, 2010 by ADMIN

Peter. . . to. . . the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood Jesus Christ: grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 1 Peter 1:1-2

The Tri-unity of the Godhead is often considered as merely a matter of doctrine, and having no close relationship to the Christian life. This is not the view of the New Testament, when it describes the work of redemption, or the idea of the life of God. In the Epistles, the three Persons are constantly named together, so that in each activity of grace all three together have a share in it. God is triune; but in everything that He does, and at all times, the Three are One. This is in entire agreement with what we see in nature. A trinity is found in everything. There is the hidden, inner nature; the outward form; and the effect. It is not otherwise in the Godhead. The Father is the eternal being–I AM–the hidden foundation of all things, and fountain of all life. The Son is the outward form, the express image, the revelation of God. The Spirit is the executive power of the Godhead. The nature of the hidden unity is revealed and made known in the Son, and that is imparted to us and is experienced by us through the agency of the Spirit. In all Their activities the Three are inseparably One.

Everything is of the Father, everything is in the Son, everything is through the Spirit.

In the words of our text, which Peter writes to believers to whom also he sends his greetings, we find the relationship in which each redeemed one stands to the three persons of the Godhead is clearly set forth.

1. They are elect “according to the foreknowledge of God.” The source of our redemption is in the counsel of God.

2. They are chosen “in sanctification of the Spirit”: the entire carrying out of the counsel of God is through the Holy Spirit, and the sanctification and the impartation of divine holiness which He works.

3. They are elect “to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ”: the final purpose of God is the restoration of man to a state where the will of God will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven, and where everything will redound to the glory of the free grace which has been revealed so gloriously in the death and blood of the Son of God. The place which “the sprinkling of blood” takes is most remarkable. It is mentioned last, as the great final end, in which according to the foreknowledge of the Father, the sanctification of the Spirit, and submission to the obedience of Christ, it finds completion.

In order that we may understand its place and worth in redemption, let us consider it in the light of:

1. The Glorious Purpose of the Tri-une God.

2. The Mighty Power by which that Purpose was Attained.

3. The Counsel in which Everything Originated.

1. The Purpose of the Triune God.

Christians are described as “elect unto. . . obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” In the Holy Trinity the place occupied by the Lord Jesus is characterized by the name which He bore as “the only-begotten Son of God.” He is literally and really the only One with whom God the Father can or will have anything to do. As the Son, He is the mediator through whom God wrought in creation, and by whom the creature can draw near to God. God dwells in the hidden and unapproachable light of a consuming fire: Christ is the Light of Lights, the light in which we can view and enjoy the Deity. And the eternal election of God can have no higher purpose than to give us a share in Christ, and through Him, approach to the Father Himself.

Because of sin there was no possibility for man again to be brought near to God, save through reconciliation, by means of the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. Scripture speaks of Him as the “Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.” It is stated that we are elect. . . to the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, which means that God ever and always saw that the only way by which salvation could be made possible for us, the only needful thing by which the door of Heaven could be opened for us, and the right and fitness procured for us to obtain a share in all the blessings of His love, was by the sprinkling of the blood. And it tells us further that when the blood occupies the place in our eyes and hearts that it occupies in the eye and heart of God, we shall then certainly enter into the full enjoyment of what He has acquired for us by it.

What these blessings are is clearly revealed to us in the Word of God. “You who were afar off have been brought nigh through the blood.” “We have liberty to enter into the most holy place through the blood.” “He has cleansed us from our sins by His blood.” “How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience to serve the Living God.” “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.” Many such statements show us that the cleansing and fitness to draw near to God, that the true and living entrance into fellowship with him is the blessed effect of “the sprinkling of the blood” on our heart and conscience. In the depths of eternity, that blood of sprinkling was the object of the unspeakable good pleasure of he Father, as the means of the redemption of his elect. Is it not obvious that when the blood becomes the good pleasure and joy of a sinner, and he seeks life and salvation in the blood, then the heart of God and the heart of the sinner meet one another, and an inner agreement and fellowship, which nothing can break, is found in the blood? The Father has elected us to the sprinkling of the blood, that we may heartily accept it, and find our entire salvation in it.

There is still another word to consider: elect to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Here the two sides of the life of grace are placed together for us in a most striking way. In “the sprinkling of blood” we learn what Christ has done for; and to us; in “obedience” we have what is expected from us. The creature can have no other blessedness than that found in the will of God, and in the doing of it as it is done in heaven. The Fall was simply the turning away of man from God’s will, to do his own will. Jesus came to alter this, and to bring us again into obedience; and God lets us know that He, in His eternal choice, had these two things in view: “obedience” and “the sprinkling of the blood.” The placing together of these two words teaches us the very important lesson that obedience and the sprinkling of blood are inseparably united. It was so with the Lord Jesus. Apart from His obedience, the shedding of His blood would have been of no value. The blood is the life; life consists of disposition and will. The power of Jesus’ blood lies wholly in this, that He offered Himself without spot to God, to do His will, subjecting His own will utterly to the will of God. “He became obedient unto death, therefore God hath highly exalted Him.” He who receives the blood of Jesus receives with it, as his life, His disposition of utter obedience to God. “Obedience and the sprinkling of the blood’ are inseparably bound together. The disposition manifested by Christ, in the shedding of His blood, must become the disposition of those on whom it has been sprinkled.

He who desires to have the benefit of the blood must first submit himself to an obedience of faith, which must characterize his whole life. He must understand that “the blood” is constantly crying: “God’s will must be done, even to death.” He who truly experiences the power of the blood of Jesus will manifest it by a life of obedience. In the heart of God, in the life and death of Christ, in the heart and life of the true Christian, these two things will always go together.

If any Christian asks why it is that he enjoys so little of the peace and cleansing of the blood, he may be almost certain that the reason is that he has not fully surrendered himself to be obedient. If anyone asks how he may obtain the full enjoyment of the power of the blood–the reply may be–“Set yourself resolutely to obey God. Let your motto be: “My will in nothing–God’s will in everything;” that is what the blood of your Redeemer teaches you.” Do not separate what God from the beginning has joined together–obedience and the sprinkling of the blood–and you will thus be led into the fullness of blessing. From eternity God has elected you to both obedience and the sprinkling of the blood.

It may be that you shrink from this demand. Such obedience seems to you to be out of your reach, and as you hear about the power and blessedness obtainable by the sprinkling of the blood, even that seems to you to be out of reach. Do not be discouraged, but attend to what has yet to be said.

2. The Mighty Power by which that Purpose was Attained.

The Holy Spirit is the great power of God. In the Holy Trinity He proceeds from the Father and the Son. He, by His omnipotent but hidden activity, executes the divine purpose; He reveals and makes known the Father and the Son. In the New Testament the word “Holy” is applied to Him more often than to the Father or the Son, and He is almost always called “the Holy Spirit” because it is He who from the inward being of God transfers holiness to the Redeemed. The life of God is where His holiness dwells. where the Holy Spirit imparts the Life of God, there He imparts and maintains the holiness of God, and thus is called the Spirit of sanctification. So the text says that we are “elect to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Christ by the sanctification of the Spirit.” It is committed to the Holy Spirit by His holy power to watch over us, and to fulfill God’s purpose in us. Elect in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.

The Spirit of sanctification and obedience: these two go together in the purpose of God. Here we have also a solution to the difficulty already mentioned, that it is not possible for us to render the obedience that God demands. Because God knew this much better than we do, He has made provision for it. He bestows upon us the Spirit of sanctification, who so renews our heart and inward nature, and fills us with His holy and heavenly power that it becomes really possible for us to be obedient. The one needful thing is that we should recognize and trust in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and follow His leading.

His inward activity is so gentle and hidden; He unites Himself so entirely with us and our endeavors, that we still imagine that it is our own thinking or willing, where He has already been the hidden Worker. Through this disregard of Him we cannot believe that when we have a conviction of sin, or a willingness to obey (both the result of His inward activity), that He has also power to perfect that work in us. Let him therefore, who really desires to be obedient, be careful persistently and quietly to maintain this attitude of trustful confidence: “The Spirit of God is in me”; and let him bow reverently before God with the prayer that He would “strengthen him with His Spirit, by power, in the inner man.”

In sanctification of the Spirit: this supplies the power which enables us to be obedient, and through which also we experience what the sprinkling of the blood means and imparts.

This is the reason why so many of God’s people have to complain that after all they have learned, and heard, and thought, and believed about the blood, they experience so little of its power. This is not to be wondered at, for that learning, and hearing, and thinking, and believing, is in a great part only a work of the understanding. And even when prayer is made for the Holy Spirit, it is all in expectation that He will give us clearer ideas of the truth. No–this is not the way. The Spirit dwells in the heart: it is there He desires to do His first and greatest work. The heart must first be made right, and then the understanding will lay hold of the truth, not merely as a mental idea, but will preserve it within his Christian life. We are chosen in sanctification of the Spirit–not in the activities of the understanding–to the sprinkling of the blood.

Everyone who desires to know the power of the blood of Jesus must remember that the Spirit and the Blood bear witness together. It was by the shedding of the blood, and by the sprinkling of that blood before God in heaven, that the Spirit was free to come and dwell among us, and in us. It was to assure the hearts of the disciples concerning the glorious and powerful effect of the blood in heaven, in opening a free and bold entrance to God; and to make them partakers of the blessedness and power of the heavenly life that was now their portion, that the Holy Spirit was sent into their hearts. The first Pentecost, in all its power and blessing, is our portion also; our inheritance. Would that we might cease to seek in our own strength salvation and blessings purchased for us by the blood. If only we began to live as those who have been led in sanctification of the Spirit to the full experience of what the blood can do, we should have, as never before, a real entrance into an eternal abiding-place near God, and fellowship with Him. We should know what it is to have a conscience cleansed by the blood, “to have no more conscience of sin,” to have the heart entirely cleansed from an evil conscience and so have liberty for an abiding intercourse with God. The Holy Spirit, as we commit ourselves to His leading, is able, in a moment, to bring us into that relationship to Him, in which we shall expect everything from Him.

We have seen what is the work of the Son, and of the Spirit; let us now ascend to see the place which the Father occupies.

3. The Counsel in which Everything Originated.

Peter writes to “the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” The counsel of the Father is the origin of everything: and that in the Godhead as well as in the work of redemption. In the Godhead, the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit from the Father and the Son. The whole counsel of redemption is also solely “according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11).

From the greatest-the ordering of the work of the Son and of the Holy Spirit–to the least–the conclusion of each dispensation in the history of His kingdom, with all occurrences in it, and the choice of those who will obtain a share in it–all this is the work of the Father. Sanctification of the Spirit, obedience, and the sprinkling of the blood, is the portion of the elect, according to the foreknowledge of the Father.

Scripture, without contradiction, teaches an eternal election. That this teaching should be strongly opposed, is because it is a divine mystery beyond human comprehension. That it has an appearance of unrighteousness, can be admitted. That it leads to conclusions which seem strange and terrible to our understanding, we do not deny. To comprehend it, man would need the omniscience and the wisdom of Him who sits upon the throne. And to take up our place on the throne, and give our judgment upon the eternal portion of mankind–may we be preserved from that! Our place is at the footstool of the throne, in deepest reverence; believing what God says, and adoring Him whose doings surpass all our thoughts.

Our text calls us not to reason about these hidden mysteries, but to rejoice, if we are believers, in what is revealed to us in it, and to make a practical use of it. And then this truth calls us to take special notice of the sure ground in which our expectation of salvation is rooted. The sprinkling of the blood, with the obedience which accompanies it, and the sanctification of the Spirit by which both of these reach their full authority over us-all these things are from God.

You may, with the most entire confidence, reckon that He who has thought out this wonderful counsel so far and gloriously carried it out in the sprinkling of the blood in heaven, and the sending of the Spirit from heaven, will just as surely and gloriously carry it out in your soul. This is the right use of the doctrine of predestination–leading you to cast yourself down before God, and to acknowledge that from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things; and to expect everything from Him alone. Take your place before God, my fellow-believer, in deep reverence and complete dependence. Do not imagine that now God has revealed Himself in Christ and by the Spirit, that you, by making use of what you have learned from this revelation, can work out your own salvation. Let it not be thought of! God must work in you to will and to do, before you can work it out. God must work in you by the Holy Spirit, and by Him reveal Christ in you. Give God the glory, and let the fullest dependence on Him be the key-note of your life of faith. If God does not do everything in you, all is in vain. If you expect anything of yourself, you will receive nothing; if you expect all from God, God will do everything in you. Let your expectation be from God alone.

Apply this to all upon which we have been meditating concerning obedience. “Elect unto obedience;” how certain then it is that obedience is indispensable. The Son was obedient unto death. But this was because He had said: “The Son can do nothing of Himself.” He submitted himself to the Father that He might do everything in Him. Let every desire to do the will of God, every fear of your own weakness, drive you to Him who has elected you to obedience. Predestined to obedience: that gives assurance that you can be obedient. God Himself will accomplish His purpose in you. Become nothing before Him; He will become all.

Apply it especially to the blessed “sprinkling of the blood” of Jesus Christ. It was this that led us to the choice of this text. Your heart is longing with great desire–is it not?–to live every day under the clear consciousness: “I have been sprinkled with the eternal, precious, divine blood of the Lamb.” Your heart longs after all the blessed effects of that blood, redemption, pardon, peace, cleansing, sanctification, drawing near to God, joy, victory–all of which come through the blood. Your heart longs to experience constantly these blessings in full measure. Cast fear aside–you have been elected by God to the sprinkling of the blood of Christ Jesus; you must steadfastly rely on the fact that God, as God, will bestow it upon you. Wait continually upon Him in patience of soul, and confidently expect it. He “works all things according to the counsel of His own will”; He Himself will surely work it out in you.

Apply this also to the sanctification of the Spirit. He is the link that binds together the middle and the end; His is the power that brings together the eternal purpose of God, and a life of obedience and the sprinkling of the blood. Do you feel that this is the one thing that you desire and for which you must wait, that you may inherit the full blessing? Understand that it is God Himself who bestows the Spirit; who works through the Spirit; who will fill you by the Spirit. How can God who elected you “in sanctification of the Spirit” allow you to lack that without which His purpose cannot be carried out? Be confident about this; ask and expect it with utter boldness. It is possible to live in the sanctification of the Spirit, because it has been designed for you from eternity.

The sprinkling of the blood is the light or revelation of the Trinity–how wonderful and glorious it is! The Father designed the sprinkling of the blood and elected us to it; the Son shed His blood and bestows it on the obedient from heaven; the Spirit of Sanctification makes it our own, with abiding power, and imparts to us all the blessings which He has obtained for us. Blessed sprinkling of the blood! Revelation of the triune God! May this be our joy and our life each day.

Taken from The Blood of the Cross

The current formatting and editing is copyrighted by Jim Ehrhard, 1999. You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author; (2) any modifications are clearly marked; (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction; and (4) you do not make more than 100 copies without permission. If you would like to post this material to your web site or make any use other than as defined above, please contact Teaching Resources International

Posted in Andrew Murray |

The Precious Blood of Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

January 7, 2010 by ADMIN

Blood has from the beginning been regarded by God as a most precious thing. He has hedged about this fountain of vitality with the most solemn sanctions. The Lord thus commanded Noah and his descendants, “Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” Man had every moving thing that liveth given him for meat, but they were by no means to eat the blood with the flesh. . . . As for the blood of man, you remember how God’s threatenings ran, “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man. . . . Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man”. . . . Even in cases where life was taken in chance-medley or misadventure, the matter was not overlooked. . . .

[The shedding of blood was taken very seriously under the Old covenant]. The general law in all cases was, “So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land.” Strange is it that that very thing which defileth, should turn out to be that which alone can cleanse. . . . Further permit me to observe that the seal of sanctity of blood is usually set upon the conscience even of the most depraved of men. . . , for you will notice that men, bad as they are, shrink from the disgrace of taking blood-money. . . . It is clear then that blood is precious in God’s sight, and he would have it so in ours.

Now if in ordinary cases the shedding of life be thus precious, can you guess how fully God utters his heart’s meaning when he says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints?” If the death of a rebel be precious be precious, what must be the death of a child? . . . I have taken you up, you see, from the beast to man, from man to God’s chosen men.

I have another step to indicate to you: it is a far longer one–it is to the blood of JESUS CHRIST. Here, the powers of speech would fail to convey to you an idea of the precariousness! Behold here, a person innocent, who without taint within, or flaw without; a person meritorious, who magnified the law and made it honorable–a person who served both God and man even unto death. Nay, here you have a divine person–so divine, that in the Acts of the Apostles Paul calls his blood the “blood of God.” Place innocence, and merit, and dignity, and position, and Godhead itself in the scale, and then conceive what inestimable value of the blood which Jesus Christ poured forth. Angels must have seen that matchless blood-shedding with wonder and amazement.

Let us come nearer to the text and try to show forth the precariousness of the blood of Christ. . . . The precious blood of Christ is useful to God’s people in a thousand ways; we intend to speak of twelve of them. [We will examine only a four of CHS’s twelve–editor].

1. The precious blood of Christ has a REDEEMING POWER.

It redeem us from the law. We were all under the law which says, “Do this and live”. . . . My brethren, the life of a Jew, happy as it was compared with that of a heathen, was a perfect drudgery compared to yours and mine. He was hedged in with a thousand commands and prohibitions. . . . He was always in danger of making himself unclean.

A thousand sins of ignorance were like so many hidden pits in his

way. . . . When he had done his best any one day, he knew he had not finished; no Jew could ever talk of a finished work. The bullock was offered, but he must bring another; a lamb was offered this morning, but another must be offered this evening, another to-morrow, and another the next day. . . . The high priest has gone into the veil once, but he must go there again; the thing is never finished, it is always beginning. He never comes any nearer to the end.

But see our position: we are redeemed from this. Our law is fulfilled, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness; our Passover is slain, for Jesus died; our righteousness is finished, for we are complete in him; our victim is slain, our priest has gone within the veil, the blood is sprinkled; we are clean, and clean beyond any fear of defilement, “For he hath perfected for ever those that were set apart.” Value this precious blood, my beloved, because it has redeemed you from the thraldom and bondage which the law imposed upon its votaries.

2. The value of the blood lies much in its ATONING EFFICACY.

We are told in Leviticus, that “it is the blood which maketh an atonement for the soul.” God never forgave sin apart from blood under the law. . . . I may make sacrifices; I may mortify my body; I may be baptized; I may receive sacraments; I may pray until my knees grow hard with kneeling; I may read devout words until I know them by heart; I may celebrate masses; I may worship in one language or in fifty languages; but I can never be at one with God, except by blood; and that blood, “the precious blood of Christ.”

3. The precious blood of Jesus Christ has a CLEANSING POWER.

John tells us in his first Epistle, first chapter, seventh verse, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Sin has a directly defiling effect upon the sinner, hence the need of cleansing. Suppose that God the Holy One were perfectly willing to be at one with an unholy sinner, which is supposing a case that cannot be, yet even should the pure eyes of the Most Holy wink at sin, still as long as we are unclean, we can never feel in our own hearts, anything like joy, and rest, and peace. Sin is a plague to the man who has it, as well as a hateful thing to the God who abhors it. I must be made clean, I must have mine iniquities washed away, or I can never be happy. . . . Whatever the sin may be, there is power in the veins of Christ to take away at once and for ever. No matter how deeply seated our offenses may be, the blood cries, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

4. A fourth property of the blood of Christ is its PRESERVING POWER.

You will rightly comprehend this when you remember the dreadful night of Egypt when the destroying angel was abroad to slay God’s

enemies. . . . The angel sped with noiseless wing through every street of Egypt’s many cities; but there were some houses which he could not enter. What was it that preserved the houses? The inhabitants were not better than others, their inhabitants were not more elegantly built, there was nothing except the bloodstain on the lintel and on the two side posts, and it was written, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

And today, if my eye of faith be dim, and I can scarce see the precious blood, so as to rejoice that I am washed in it, yet God can see the blood, and as long as the undimmed eye of Jehovah looks upon the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, he cannot smite one soul that is covered with its scarlet mantle. . . . It preserving power of that blood should make us feel how precious it is. . . . When heaven is on a blaze, when earth begins to shake, when the mountains rock, when God divides the righteous from the wicked, happy will they be who can find shelter beneath the blood.

Excerpted and edited from “The Precious Blood of Christ,” a sermon preached by CHS on March 20, 1865.

The current formatting and editing is copyrighted by Jim Ehrhard, 1999. You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author; (2) any modifications are clearly marked; (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction; and (4) you do not make more than 100 copies without permission. If you would like to post this material to your web site or make any use other than as defined above, please contact Teaching Resources International

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

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