Under the symbolic sacrifices of the Old Covenant, it was the _blood_
which made atonement for the soul. It was not the death of the victim,
nor yet its broken body, but it was the blood, the life, the soul,
that was made the means of a soul’s ransom, of its rescue, of its
redemption. “The life [the soul] of the flesh is in the blood,” said
the Lord: “and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement
[to be a cover, to be a propitiation] for your souls [for your lives]:
for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason [of its being] the
life [the soul].”[640] “For as to the life [the soul] of all flesh, the
blood thereof is all one with the life [the soul] thereof.”[641] And
so, all through the record of the Old Covenant.
It is the same in the New Covenant, as it was in the Old. Atonement,
salvation, rescue, redemption, is by the blood, the life, of Christ;
not by his death as such; not by his broken body in itself; but by that
blood which was given at the inevitable cost of his broken body and
of his death. The figure of leprosy and its attempted cure by blood,
may tend to make this truth the clearer. In the leper, the very blood
itself--the life--was death smitten. The only hope of a cure was by
purging out the old blood, by means of an inflowing current of new
blood, which was new life.[642] To give this blood, the giver himself
must die; but it was his blood, his life, not his death, which was to
be the means of cure. So, also, with the sin-leprous nature. His old
life must be purged out, by the incoming of a new life; of such a life
as only the Son of God can supply. In order to supply that blood, its
Giver must himself die, and so be a sharer of the punishment of sin,
although he was himself without sin. Thus was the new life made a
possibility to all, by faith.
So it is, that “we have redemption [rescue from death] through
[by means of] his blood”;[643] and that “the blood of Jesus ...
cleanseth us [by its purging inflow] from all sin.”[644] So it is,
that he “loosed us [freed us] from our sins by his [cleansing, his
re-vivifying] blood.”[645] So it is, that “if any man is in Christ [is
one in nature with Christ, through sharing, by faith, the blood of
Christ], he is a new creature [Of course he is]: the old things are
passed away; behold they are become new.”[646] So it is, also, that it
can be said of those whose old lives were purged away by the inflowing
redeeming life of Christ: “Ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in
God.”[647] And “this is the true God and eternal life.”[648]
“These things have I written unto you,” says the best loved of the
disciples of Jesus, “that ye may know that ye have eternal life; even
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God”;[649] “that ye may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing,
ye may have life in his name.”[650] For “God commendeth his own love
toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us
[while we were separated from God by sin, God yielded his only Son, to
give his blood, at the cost of his death, as a means of our inter-union
with God]. Much more then, being now justified by [or, in] his blood
[being brought into inter-union with God by that blood], shall we be
saved from the wrath of God [against sin] through him [in whom we
have life]. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God
[restored to union with God] through the [blood-giving] death of his
Son, much more, being [thus] reconciled, shall we be saved by [or, in]
his life.”[651]
All who will, may, now, “be partakers of the divine nature,”[652]
through becoming one with Christ, by sharing his blood, and by being
nourished with his body. Entering into the divine-human covenant of
blood-friendship, which Christ’s death has made possible, the believer
can be so incorporated with Christ, by faith, as to identify himself
with the experience and the hopes of the world’s Redeemer; and even
to say, in all confidence: “I have been crucified with Christ; yet
I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me; and that life
which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith, the faith which is
in [which centres in] the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
up for me.”[653] “For as the Father hath life in himself, even so
gave he to the Son also to have life in himself.”[654] And “it was
the good pleasure of the Father that in him [the Son] should all the
fulness dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself,
having made peace [having completed union] through the blood of his
cross”[655]--in the bonds of an everlasting covenant--between those who
before were separated by sin.
“Remember, that aforetime ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are
called Uncircumcision by that [people] which is called Circumcision,
in the flesh, made by hands,--that ye were at that time separate from
Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God
in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are
made nigh in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both
[Jew and Gentile] one, and broke down the middle wall of partition,
having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the twain
one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one
body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and
he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them
that were nigh: for through them we both have our access in one Spirit
unto the Father.”[656] “For in him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness
of the Godhead bodily, and in him ye are made full, who is the head of
all principality and power: in whom ye were also circumcised with a
circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the
flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.”[657] “For ye all are one man in
Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs
according to promise”[658]--inheritors of the blood-covenant promises
of God to Abraham his friend.
No longer is there a barrier between the yearning, loving, trusting
heart, and the mercy-seat of reconciliation in the very presence of
God. We who share the body and the blood of Christ, by faith, are one
with him in all the privileges of his Sonship. “For by one offering
he hath perfected [hath completed in their right to be sharers with
him] for ever, them that are sanctified [that are devoted, that are
consecrated, to him]. And the Holy Ghost also beareth witness to us:
for after he hath said,
This is the covenant that I will make with them
After those days, saith the Lord;
I will put my laws on their heart,
And upon their mind also will I write them;
then saith he,
And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Now where remission of these [of sins and iniquities] is, there is no
more offering [no more need of offering] for sin. Having, therefore,
brethren, boldness [the right of boldness] to enter into the Holy
Place [the Holy of Holies] by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he
dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to
say his flesh; and having a Great Priest over the house of God; let
us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed, with pure water
[there being no longer need of blood-sprinkling or blood-laving, to
those who are sharers of the divine nature--the divine blood].”[659]
No more an altar of sacrifice, but a table of communion,[660] is where
we share the presence of Him in whom we have life, by the blood of
the everlasting covenant. To question the sufficiency of the “one
sacrifice” which Christ made, “once for all,”[661] of his body and
his blood, as a means of the believer’s inter-union with God, is to
count the blood of the covenant an unholy, or a common, thing, and is
to do despite unto the Spirit of grace.[662] “Wherefore, my beloved,
flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The
cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood
of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the
body of Christ?[663] Seeing that we [believers together in Christ],
who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one
bread.”[664]
“Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great
Shepherd of the sheep with [or, by; or, by means of] the blood of the
eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, make you perfect [complete]
to do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his
sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.”[665]