THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS
Revelation 1:5 (from “To him”),6;
It will be evident from the scriptures I have read that I desire by the Spirit to speak about the blood of Jesus – a subject that has no doubt been spoken of many times in this room. We never tire of hearing and speaking of the blood of Jesus; indeed I believe it will enter into the eternal song of the redeemed saints (see Rev.5:9). How precious is the blood of Jesus!
My simple desire is that we may have some impression of how much that blood means to God; and also of what we are brought into as a result of putting our faith in the precious blood of Jesus. I believe that His blood is the basis of everything for God in His relations with man, and thus forms the basis for our blessing. That is really brought out in the passover lamb, a well-known type for us to learn from in the Old Testament. When the children of Israel were under the bondage of Pharaoh, under slavery to the Egyptians, their deliverance from judgment was on the basis of God’s evaluation of the blood that they were told to place on the doorposts and the lintel of their houses. Of course, the children of Israel on that night had to roast the lamb with fire and to eat it: transferring the thought to ourselves, they had to appropriate for themselves what the death of our Lord Jesus meant. But the word there in relation to their deliverance was “when I see the blood”, Exod.12:13.
That really brings out for us that the basis of everything that God has in mind as regards man is the blood of Jesus. Looking at the offerings in Leviticus, there is the burnt-offering, the peace-offering, the trespass-offering and the sin-offering. In all of them, the blood was to be sprinkled on the altar. These types really bring out that everything for God from those who serve Him is secured on the basis of the precious blood of Jesus.
When Paul writes to the Colossian saints, he brings before them the greatness of the person of our Lord Jesus. He says, “And he is before all, and all things subsist together by him. And he is the head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things: for in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to itself” (chap.1:17-20); and then it goes on to say, “having made peace by the blood of his cross”. I think Paul was emphasising that all he was writing about to the Colossian saints – everything that was brought in through Christ, all that was established in the assembly – was on the basis of the precious blood of Jesus. How precious that blood is to God. If God’s holy and righteous claims were to be upheld, it required a perfect offering, and that could only be in Jesus. Think of what it meant to God when the precious blood of the Lord Jesus was shed upon that cross at Calvary, and when the full, holy and righteous claims of God were upheld. God could then come out toward His creature in grace. What a moment! What a moment for us, beloved; but what a moment for God.
We should contemplate what it meant for Jesus to go that way, and for His precious blood to be shed. As I say, He was the perfect offering. None but Jesus could be that. This morning we had a fresh sense of the perfection of Jesus, the one who stands alone and unique and beyond compare. The satisfaction of God’s claims required such a One, a perfect offering, to go the way of the cross. That life of perfection, that life that so fully demonstrated and expressed the love of God in every footstep that Jesus took, had to be given up. How pleasing that life of Jesus was to His God and Father. What a life it was; we have that life of Jesus recorded for us in the gospels. Consider too the life of Jesus before His public service began: what a life it was; how pleasurable it was to God. Yet that life was given up – given up on the cross, and His precious blood was shed as the witness to His life laid down. Let that sink into your heart, beloved, that the precious work of Jesus on the cross fully satisfied the holy and righteous claims of God. What a work it was: how much it meant and how pleasurable it was to God. It is through that precious work and that precious blood that you and I come into the most tremendous blessing; it is all on the basis of that precious blood.
The first scripture I read speaks of the washing, or the cleansing power, of that blood: “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood”. What an expression of love: the Lord Jesus went that way in full commitment to the will of His God and Father; but He also went that way because He loved you. “To him who loves us, and has washed us”: dear friend, do you know what it is to be washed in the precious blood of Jesus? Do you know the cleansing power of that blood? I trust each one of us here knows what we are as sinners and how important it is to be washed in that precious blood.
The apostle Paul wrote, “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, Rom. 3:23. That is what we are as of Adam’s race, and in practice: we are sinners who have offended God. But God has provided the glorious answer in the work of Jesus and in His precious blood, and He desires that we should know what it is to be washed and to be cleansed. Come to the Saviour, come to that precious One; come to that One who has done that work for you upon the cross of Calvary. His precious blood has been shed to satisfy the holy claims of God, and it was shed for you. We sang:
‘Precious, precious blood of Jesus,
Shed on Calvary!
Shed for rebels, shed for sinners,
Shed for me.’ Hymn 167
I trust that we can all say that blood was ‘shed for me’. If you have not availed yourself of that precious blood through faith, simply bow the knee to Jesus now and put your faith and trust in His work and in that precious blood. You will know what it is to be washed from your sins and be cleansed in the power of His blood. How wonderful it is, and what a relief it is, to know that your sins have been washed away. But think also of what it meant for Jesus. He bore the righteous judgment of God upon sin in those three hours of darkness; He took that judgment upon Himself. In doing so, He has exhausted the judgment, and so God can come out in blessing towards you and me, and we can know what it is to be cleansed in that blood. Do you know your sins forgiven? Does each of us know that our sins have been forgiven before a holy God whom we have offended? If you do not, turn to Jesus now and put your faith in His precious blood.
I do trust that every one in this room has availed themselves of that precious blood. But then, it is to be a continual matter with us. What a glorious day it is when we put our faith and trust in Jesus and His precious blood. Then, in whatever time may be left to us, that blood is to become more precious to us. We are thankful that we have been washed, that we have been cleansed by His blood. That is the blessing we come to by “repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”, Acts 20:21. But as Scripture indicates, we are to be repenting sinners (Luke 15:7). In the time left to us here, we rejoice in the confidence, faith and knowledge that that precious blood has washed away our sins. “Their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more” (Heb. 8:12): how precious that is. In our pathways here we have faith in the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus, and are thankful to the Saviour every day for His precious blood as we are in the good of its powerful, cleansing nature. What blessing is opened up to us, in liberty, peace and joy.
Then the death of Christ is the basis of fellowship together. John says in his first epistle, “if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin” (chap.1:7). How wonderful that the basis of our fellowship together is in His death, and the precious, cleansing blood of Jesus maintains that fellowship in its pure character. May that enlighten us and deepen the appreciation in my heart of our links together. The precious links of fellowship that the Lord intends us to enjoy are maintained through the cleansing power of His blood. Do we look upon one another in that light? May we, as John writes, walk more in the light so that we are enlightened as to the blessedness and glory of these things. How wonderful they are. May we all avail ourselves of the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus.
The passage in Ephesians says, “in whom we have redemption through his blood”. How wonderful to take account of the fulness of God’s thoughts that Paul opens up in his letter to the Ephesian saints. He says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”. What glorious thoughts God has in mind for us: it says, “marked us out beforehand for adoption”; that is, before the foundation of the world. All these thoughts are in God’s mind for us, that we, as His creatures, should be before Him. And we can be before Him, beloved, because we have been redeemed through the precious blood of Jesus. We have been brought back to God, and what a price has been paid by the Lord Jesus to accomplish that. He has paid that price of redemption in His precious blood. Peter speaks of it: “ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, as silver or gold … but by precious blood”, 1 Pet.1:18,19. What a price has been paid for our redemption, to bring us back to God, that we can be holy and blameless before God in love, and taken into favour in the Beloved.
God has His Beloved – the Son – before Him in all His perfection and all His glory. Again, we had an impression as to it this morning, the glory of the Person of Jesus, the One who is before God. That place is His by right, but we also are brought before God in all the worth of that blessed One because He has redeemed us and has brought us to God. He has paid that price in His precious blood: “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace”. What grace, beloved; what riches. There is the glory of His grace: it says in this passage, “to the praise of the glory of his grace”. Think of the way that God has come out in grace towards us. And it also speaks of “the riches of his grace” – that would convey the depths to which that grace has gone so that we might know what it is to be redeemed, brought back to God through the precious blood of Jesus. What a scene opens to us; what glorious opportunities are before us as we understand more of God’s thoughts for us.
That is why I read in Ephesians 2. It says, “ye who once were afar off are become nigh by the blood of the Christ”. How wonderful, beloved, that we can be in the very presence of God. In the tabernacle system, the priests entered once a year into the holy of holies, and what do we find upon the mercy-seat? The blood is sprinkled upon the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat. God has come out towards us through the precious blood of the One whom He has “set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood”, Rom.3:25. And we can draw nigh to God through that precious blood. When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, He cried, “it is finished”, John 19:30. It speaks in Mark’s gospel of the veil of the temple being rent from the top to the bottom (chap.15:38). That shows that God has come out. He has come out in our Lord Jesus on the basis of the precious blood that has been sprinkled upon the mercy-seat, and we enter in through that same blood: “ye who once were afar off are become nigh by the blood of the Christ”.
The blood of Christ brings those who are covered by it into the very presence of God. How wonderful that is. We can know joy and liberty in the presence of God, all through the precious blood of Jesus. Have you availed yourself of it? It means everything to God, as we said at the beginning. Everything for God is established on the basis of that blood and everything for our blessing depends on it, too. Simply put your faith and trust in the work of Jesus and in His precious blood. Once you have availed yourself of it, it can never be taken from you. As I said at the beginning too, I believe our eternal song will be on the basis of that precious blood.
These portions of Scripture were all written to believers: how testing and exercising that is. I believe I am speaking to believers this afternoon, but may the preciousness of the blood of Jesus lay hold afresh of the hearts of each one of us.
May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Preaching of the Gospel, Colchester
22 February 2026
Stuart Webster