5. It is the blood of Christ, who offered Himself to God, without spot, through the eternal Spirit. By the eternal Spirit, here, we are to understand, not the third Person of the Godhead, but the second; Christ’s own Divine nature, which was co-eternal with the Father before the world was, and which, in the fulness of time, seized on humanity—sinless, and immaculate humanity—and offered it, body, and soul, as a sacrifice for human sins. The eternal Spirit was at once the priest that offered the victim, and the altar that sanctified the offering. Without His agency, there could have been no atonement. The offering of mere humanity, however spotless, aside from the merit derived from its connection with Divinity, could not have been a sacrifice of sweet-smelling savour unto God.
6. It is the blood of Christ, who offered Himself to God, without spot, through the eternal Spirit, that He might purge your conscience. As the typical sacrifices under the law purified men from ceremonial defilement, so the real sacrifice of the Gospel saves the believer from moral pollution. Blood was the life of all the services of the tabernacle made with hands, and gave significance, and utility to all the rites of the former dispensation. By blood the covenant between God, and His people was sealed. By blood the officers, and vessels of the sanctuary were consecrated. By blood the children of Israel were preserved in Egypt from the destroying angel. So the blood of Christ is our justification, sanctification, and redemption. All the blessings of the Gospel flow to us through the blood of the Lamb. Mercy, when she writes our pardon, and when she registers our names in “the Book of Life,” dips her pen in the blood of the Lamb. And the vast company that John saw before the throne had come out of great tribulation, having “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
The children of Israel were delivered from Egypt, on the very night that the paschal lamb was slain, and its blood sprinkled upon the doorposts, as if their liberty, and life were procured by its death. This typified the necessity, and power of the Atonement, which is the very heart of the Gospel, and the spiritual life of the believer. In Egypt, however, there was a lamb slain for every family; but under the new covenant God has but one family, and one Lamb is sufficient for their salvation.
In the cleansing of the leper, several things were necessary; as running water, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop, and the finger of the priest; but it was the blood that gave efficacy to the whole. So it is in the purification of the conscience. Without the shedding of blood, the leper could not be cleansed; without the shedding of blood, the conscience cannot be purged. “The blood of Christ” seals every precept, every promise, every warning, of the New Testament. “The blood of Christ” renders the Scriptures “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” “The blood of Christ” gives efficiency to the pulpit; and when “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” is shut out, the virtue is wanting which heals, and restores the soul. It is only through the crucifixion of Christ that “the old man” is crucified in the believer. It is only through His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, that our dead souls are quickened, to serve God in newness of life.
Here rest our hopes. “The foundation of God standeth sure.” The bill of redemption being presented by Christ, was read by the prophets, and passed unanimously in both houses of parliament. It had its final reading in the lower house, when Messiah hung on Calvary; and passed three days afterward, when He rose from the dead. It was introduced to the upper house by the Son of God Himself, who appeared before the throne “as a lamb newly slain,” and was carried by acclamation of the heavenly hosts. Then it became a law of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Holy Ghost was sent down to establish it in the hearts of men. It is “the perfect law of liberty,” by which God is reconciling the world unto Himself. It is “the law of the Spirit of life,” by which He is “purging our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
III. The end of this purification is twofold,—that we may cease from dead works, and serve the living God.
1. The works of unrenewed souls are all “dead works,” can be no other than “dead works,” because the agents are “dead in trespasses and sins.” They proceed from the “carnal mind,” which “is enmity against God,” which “is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” How can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit, or a corrupt fountain send forth pure water?
But “the blood of Christ” is intended to “purge the conscience from dead works.” The apostle says—“Ye are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver, and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish, and without spot.” The Jews were in a state of bondage to the ceremonial law, toiling at the “dead works,” the vain, and empty forms, which could never take away sin; and unjustified, and unregenerate men are still captives of Satan, slaves of sin, and death, tyrannized over by various evil habits, and propensities, which are invincible to all things but “the blood of Christ.” He died to redeem, both from the burdens of the Mosaic ritual, and from the despotism of moral evil—to purge the conscience of both Jew, and Gentile “from dead works to serve the living God.”
2. We cannot “serve the living God” without this preparatory purification of conscience. If our guilt is uncancelled—if the love of sin is not dethroned—the service of the knee, and the lip is nothing but hypocrisy. “If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us.” Cherishing what He hates, all our offerings are an abomination to Him; and we can no more stand in His holy presence than the dry stubble can stand before a flaming fire. He who has an evil conscience flees from the face of God, as did Adam in the garden. Nothing but “the blood of Christ,” applied by the Holy Spirit, can remove the sinner’s guilty fear, and enable him to draw nigh to God, in the humble confidence of acceptance through the Beloved.
The service of the living God must flow from a new principle of life in the soul. The Divine word must be the rule of our actions. The Divine will must be consulted and obeyed. We must remember that God is holy, and jealous of His honour. The consideration that He is everywhere, and sees everything, and will bring every work into judgment, must fill us with reverence and godly fear. An ardent love for His law, and His character must supplant the love of sin, and prompt to a cheerful and impartial obedience.