THE BLOOD; THE CROSS

These words refer to two different aspects of the precious death of Christ. We often use the words, “the cross”, as a general term for the death of Christ, but it is well to distinguish things that differ and to use terms intelligently. When we think of the blood, we are considering the expiatory efficacy of the death of Christ. In the types the blood was presented Godward. It was never to be eaten, it was for God. “The soul of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul”, Lev 17: 11, 12. “Without shedding of blood is no remission”, Heb 9: 22. In the Passover the blood of the lamb was placed under the eye of God on the outside of the houses, while the Israelites fed on the roast lamb inside. God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exod 12. On the great day of atonement the blood of the victims was carried into the holiest, and sprinkled on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat; typically on the throne of God, Lev 16; Rom 3: 25. God’s righteousness has been declared in the blood of Christ. Nothing less could satisfy the claims of divine righteousness. Hence God is now free to come out in grace toward all men. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. On this ground God is able to establish all His will. The shedding of blood means the giving up of life. Man as a sinner has forfeited his life, and come under the penalty of death. This could only be met by the vicarious suffering of the penalty by One who was Himself free from the penalty. Christ coming in flesh took up a life, a life of flesh and blood, in order that He might lay it down vicariously. He had previously proved the preciousness and perfection of that life in His pathway here, in a life wholly devoted to the will of God, yielding constant sweet savour to God; all its outgoings and movements were delightful to God. God alone could fully estimate the value of such a life. That precious life was laid down in expiation for man’s sin. The laying down of no other life would have sufficed to meet the demands of divine holiness and righteousness. The blood that flowed from His pierced side was the expression of the efficacy of His death Godward. His resurrection was God’s testimony to its value. He was raised from the dead in the power of the blood of the everlasting covenant, Heb 13: 20. Having made purification for sins, He sat Himself down at the right hand of the majesty on high, Heb 1: 3. He has entered into heaven in all the value of His own blood, Heb 9: 12. It is on the ground of redemption by blood that God is able to establish all His will and purpose. In result there will be a new heavens, and a new earth, untainted by sin, in which righteousness will dwell, and in which God will rest eternally. While in scripture the blood is not presented as an object of faith, but the Person of Christ Himself, all the value of it is made good to the soul of the one believing on Him. The believer is redeemed by blood, justified by blood, cleansed by blood, made nigh by blood, has boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Christ. In 1 John 5: 6-8 the blood is the witness of the holy love of God.

The term “the cross” in scripture is not used to express this aspect of the death of Christ. It stands for reproach, suffering, death. It was the most ignominious form of death reserved for the worst criminals. It was the great expression of man’s sin, which culminated in the crucifixion of God’s Son. The leaders of this world crucified the Lord of glory. God allowed man as of Adam to expose himself, and thus to justify God in finally rejecting that order of man. It is the end of man’s probation. The cross is God’s estimate and judgment of man after the flesh, if “one died for all, then all have died”, 2 Cor 5: 14. That is, the death of Christ proved the state in which all men were in the sight of God, for Christ was there as representing all men, and as such came under the judgment of God. So that now the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike, is under judgment; it is a condemned world, John 12: 31; Gal 6: 14. Therefore the apostle could say, “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh”, 2 Cor 5: 16. He was determined to know nothing among the Corinthians save Jesus Christ (a man of another order) and Him crucified, 1 Cor 2: 2. He would not recognise anything of the natural man in things relating to God. A crucified Christ was an offence to the religious Jew, and foolishness in the eyes of the wise men of this world. But to us who are saved it is the power of God. The cross is the only ground on which God could carry out His purpose. Every departure from Christianity is marked by the recognition in some form or other of the man that God has rejected; every false religious system has its root in this fundamental error. The one foundation on which God builds is Christ, the Man this world has rejected, 1 Pet 2: 6. Paul as a wise master-builder said, “Other foundation can no man lay, besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”, 1 Cor 3: 11. What we see in the world today is a great religious system built up of what is of man after the flesh, what the apostle likens to wood, hay, stubble; it will be burnt up. “If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation”. “In Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but new creation”, Gal 6: 15. Paul, in applying the truth of the cross to himself, said, “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I”, Gal 2: 20. Again, “The world is crucified to me, and I to the world”, Gal 6: 14. He had no thought of improving the old man, Rom 6: 6. If he lived, it was in the life of the last Adam, not the first. “Christ liveth in me”. It is important that we should take home to ourselves the truth of the cross. It would deliver us from the world, and from all the disappointment connected with the effort of self-improvement. The Spirit would then be free to engage our minds with Christ, and the thoughts of God as revealed in Him, and thus to form us after Him. We should then understand what God has purposed to establish in Christ for our eternal blessing, and for His eternal glory. This would lead to spiritual growth and the enjoyment of life. We could take up the words of the apostle, “we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh”, Phil 3: 3. The acceptance of the word of the cross clears the ground, and makes room for the work of God in new creation in forming a new order of man after the pattern of Christ. It is not God’s way to restore what is old, but to bring in that which is new, “Behold, I make all things new”, Rev 21: 5.

Bristol

From The Believer’s Friend vol 23 (1931)