[THE BLOOD]
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood is no remission.”—Heb. ix. 22.
No man can give a satisfactory reason for the hope that is in him if he is a stranger to the “Blood.” At the very commencement of the Bible we find reference made to the subject in Genesis iii. 21: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” In this verse we get the first glimpse of blood. Certainly God could not have clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of beasts unless He had shed blood. Here, then, we have the innocent suffering for the guilty—the doctrine of substitution in the garden of Eden. God dealt with Adam in grace before He dealt in judgment. Death came by sin. Adam had sinned, and the Lord came down to make the way of escape. God came to him as a loving friend, and not to hurl him from the earth. Adam could have said to Eve, “Though the Lord has driven us out of the garden of Eden, He loves us,” for this coat is a token of love.
God put a lamp of promise into Adam’s hand before He drove him out; for He said, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Did you ever think what a terrible state of things it would be if man was allowed to live for ever in his lost, ruined state? It was from love to Adam that God drove him out of Eden, that he should not live for ever. God put the cherubim with a flaming sword there. But now Christ has taken the sword out of his hand, and opened wide the gate, so that we can come in and eat. Adam might have been in Eden ten thousand years, and then be led astray by Satan; but now “our life is hid with Christ in God.” Man is safer with the second Adam out of Eden than with the first Adam in Eden.
Let us next turn to Genesis iv. 4: “And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.” Cain and Abel were brought up outside of Eden, and had the same parents, and both received the same instruction as to how they were to draw near to God; but
CAIN CAME IN HIS OWN WAY,
while Abel came in the way God commanded. Cain said to himself, “I am not going to bring a bleeding lamb. Here is the grain and the beautiful fruit that I have raised by my industry; and I’m sure it looks better than blood, and I’m not going to bring blood.” Now it was not that there was any difference between these two men, but it was the offering which each brought. One came in the way God had marked out, and the other in a way of his own. Now there are a great many just like that at the present day. They prefer what is agreeable to the eye, as Cain did his beautiful corn and fruit, and they do not like the doctrine of
THE BLOOD OF ATONEMENT.
But any religion that makes light of the Blood is the work of the devil, even if an angel from heaven came down to preach salvation through any other means.
Undoubtedly on the morning of creation God marked out the way a man might come to Him; and Abel walked in God’s way, and Cain in his own. Perhaps Cain could not bear the sight of blood, and so he took that which God had cursed and laid it upon the altar.