"When I see the blood, I will pass over you..." Exodus 12,13.
God's people are always safe. But God's people are only safe through the
blood; because He sees the blood-mark on their brow. They are
bought with the precious Blood of Christ. Nothing can hurt them,
because "the blood" is upon them. It was so that night
in Egypt; God spared, because He saw the blood-mark on the lintel
and on the two side posts. And so it is with us. In the case of the
Israelites it was the blood of the Paschal Lamb. In our case it is
the blood of the Lamb of God. The blood — 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 choose Christ to be
the Redeemer; and He Himself did lay upon Christ 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 those words:
"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?"
Because Christ Himself was God. If Christ were man only, there would be no efficacy in His blood to save.
The 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 our ears.
The Blood of Jesus Christ is Blood that hath been accepted. Christ died, He was buried; but neither Heaven nor earth could tell whether God had accepted the ransom. Until God had signed the warrant for acquittal of all His people, Christ must abide in the bonds of death. But now is Christ risen. The blood was accepted, and sin was forgiven.
For a moment try to picture to yourself Christ on the Cross. Lift now your eyes and see the three crosses put upon that rising knoll. See in the center the thorn-crowned brow of Christ. See the hands nailed fast to the accursed wood! 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. Oh, you that are trusting in baptism, confirmation, or the Lord's Supper (for salvation), nothing but the Blood of Jesus can save. I care not how right the ordinance, how true the form, how Scriptural the practice; it is all a vanity to you, if you rely in 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 has the only power to save. The Blood stands out the only rock of our salvation.
It must save alone. Put anything with the Blood of Christ, and you are lost; trust to anything else with it, and you perish.
"It is true," says one, "that the sacrament cannot save me, but I will trust in that, and in Christ too."
You are a lost man. So jealous is Christ of His honour, that anything you put with Him, 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? "filthy rags"; and shall filthy rags be joined to the spotless righteousness of Christ? It must not be. Rely on Jesus only, and thou canst not perish; but rely on anything with Him, and thou art as surely damned as if thou shouldst rely upon 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 been brought into great soul distress, because he has looked more at his repentance than at Christ:
"Could thy tears for ever flow,
Could thy zeal no respite know
All for sin could not atone,
Christ must save, and Christ 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 to be 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 faith. Your faith must deal with Christ, not with itself. Faith comes from meditation upon Christ. Turn, then, your eye, not upon faith, but upon Jesus. It is not "your hold of Christ" that saves you; it is "His hold of you." 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; but anything with it, and it does not save.
"Oh," says another, "if I had such-and-such an experience, then I could trust." Friend, it is not experience; it is the Blood. God did not say, "When I see your experience," but "When I see the Blood of Christ." "Nay," says one, "but if I had such-and-such graces, I could hope." Nay, but He did not say, "When I see your graces" but "When I see the Blood." Get grace, get as much as you can of faith, and love, and hope; but oh, do not put them where Christ's Blood ought to be.
Yet again, we may say of the Blood of Christ, it is all-sufficient. There is no case which the Blood of Christ cannot meet; there is no sin which it cannot wash away. There is no multiplicity of sin which it cannot cleanse, no aggravation of guilt which it cannot remove. Ye may be double-dyed like scarlet, ye may have lain in the lye of your sins these seventy years, but the Blood of Christ can take out the stain. You may have blasphemed Him almost as many times as you have breathed; you may have rejected Him as often as you have heard His name; you may have denied His Godhead; you may have persecuted His servants; you may have trampled on His Blood; but all this the Blood can wash away. "The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin."
There is no sort of a man, there is no abortion of mankind, no demon in human shape, that this Blood cannot wash. Hell may have sought to make a paragon of iniquity, it may have striven to put sin, and sin, and sin together, till it has made a monster in the shape of a man — a monster abhorred even of mankind; but, the Blood of Christ can transform that monster. Magdalene's seven devils, it cast out. The madness of the demoniac, the deep-seated leprosy, it cured. There is no spiritual disease which the great Physician cannot heal. This is the great medicine for all diseases. No case can exceed its virtue, be it ever so black or vile; all-sufficient, all-sufficient Blood.
But go further. The Blood of Christ saves surely. Perhaps, says one, who is believing in Christ, "Well, I hope it will save."
My friend, that is a slur upon the honour of God. If any man gives you a promise, and you say, "Well, I hope he will fulfil it;" is it not implied that you have at least some doubt as to whether he will or not? Now, I do not hope that the Blood of Christ will wash away my sin.
I know it is washed away by His Blood; and that is true faith, which does not hope about Christ's blood, but says, "I know it is so; that blood does cleanse. The moment it was applied to my conscience, it did cleanse, and it does cleanse still."
The Israelite, if he was true to his faith, did not go inside, and say, "I hope the destroying angel will pass by me"; but he said, "I know he will; I know God cannot smite me. There is the blood-mark there; I am secure beyond doubt; there is not the shadow of a risk of my perishing. I am; I must be saved." "Whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish, but have everlasting life."
O sinner, I have not the shadow of a doubt as to whether Christ will save you, if you trust in His Blood. I know He will. I am certain His Blood can save; and I beg you, in Christ's name, believe it; believe that that Blood is sure to cleanse; not only that it may cleanse, but that it must cleanse.
And yet again, he that hath this Blood sprinkled upon him is saved completely. Not the hair of the head of an Israelite was disturbed by the destroying angel. So he that believeth in the Blood is saved from all things. I like the old translation of the chapter in the Romans. There was a martyr once summoned before Bonner; and after he had expressed his faith in Christ, Bonner said, "You are an heretic, and will be damned. " "Nay," said he (quoting the old version), "there is therefore now no damnation to them that believe in Christ Jesus. " Sweet thought! no damnation to the man who has the Blood of Christ upon him. Impossible. Let the Blood be applied to the lintel and to the doorpost; there is no destruction. There is a destroying angel for Egypt, but there is none for Israel. There is a hell for the wicked, but none for the righteous. Christ saves completely; every sin washed, every blessing ensured.
I have dwelt upon the efficacy of His Blood; but no tongue can ever speak of its worth. I pray that God the Spirit may lead some of you to put your trust simply, wholly, and entirely, on the Blood of Jesus Christ. See the Saviour hanging on the Cross; turn your eye to Him, and say, "Lord, I trust Thee; I have nothing else to trust to; sink or swim, my Saviour, I trust Thee." And as surely, sinner, as thou canst put thy trust in Christ, thou art safe. He that believeth shall be saved, be his sins ever so many; he that believeth not shall be damned, be his sins ever so few, and his virtues ever so many. Trust in Jesus now!
"My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesu's Blood and Righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesu's Name;
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy Blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come."
From Safe Through the Blood of Jesus by William Reid. London: Pickering & Inglis, [n.d.]
>> More Charles Spurgeon