Free Grace Broadcaster

Issue 155

The Blood of Christ

CONTENTS

The Sprinkling of Blood and the Trinity

Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

The Necessity of Christ’s Death

Stephen Charnock (1628-1680)

The Blood of Jesus: the Foundation of Our Peace and Joy

William Reid (1814-1896)

The Blood of Sprinkling

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

Christ the Cleanser

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

The Rent Veil

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

The Precious Blood of Christ

L. R. Shelton, Jr. (1923-2003)

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THE SPRINKLING OF BLOOD AND THE TRINITY

Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

“Peter...to the…elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”—1 Peter 1:1-2

The Tri-unity of the Godhead is often considered as merely a matter of doctrine, and having no close relationship to the Christian life.

This is not the view of the New Testament when it describes the work of redemption or the idea of the life of God. In the epistles the three Persons are constantly named together, so that in each activity of grace all three together have a share in it. God is triune; but in everything that He does, and at all times, the three are one. This is in entire agreement with what we see in nature. A trinity is found in everything. There is the hidden, inner nature; the outward form; and the effect. It is not otherwise in the Godhead. The Father is the eternal being—I AM—the hidden foundation of all things, and fountain of all life. The Son is the outward form, the express image, the revelation of God. The Spirit is the executive power of the Godhead. The nature of the hidden unity is revealed and made known in the Son, and that is imparted to us and is experienced by us through the agency of the Spirit. In all Their activities the three are inseparably one.

Everything is of the Father, everything is in the Son, everything is through the Spirit.

In the words of our text, which Peter writes to believers to whom also he sends his greetings, we find the relationship in which each redeemed one stands to the three persons of the Godhead is clearly set forth.

1. They are elect “according to the foreknowledge of God.” The source of our redemption is in the counsel of God.

2. They are chosen “in sanctification of the Spirit”: the entire carrying out of the counsel of God is through the Holy Spirit, and the sanctification and the impartation of divine holiness which He works.

3. They are elect “to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ”: the final purpose of God is the restoration of man to a state where the will of God will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven, and where everything will redound to the glory of the free grace which has been revealed so gloriously in the death and blood of the Son of God.

The place which “the sprinkling of blood” takes is most remarkable. It is mentioned last, as the great final end, in which according to the foreknowledge of the Father, the sanctification of the Spirit, and submission to the obedience of Christ, it finds completion.

In order that we may understand its place and worth in redemption, let us consider it in the light of:

1. The Purpose of the Triune God

Christians are described as “elect unto...obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” In the Holy Trinity the place occupied by the Lord Jesus is characterized by the name which He bore as “the only-begotten Son of God.” He is literally and really the only One with Whom God the Father can or will have anything to do. As the Son, He is the Mediator through Whom God wrought in creation, and by Whom the creature can draw near to God. God dwells in the hidden and unapproachable light of a consuming fire: Christ is the Light of Lights, the light in which we can view and enjoy the Deity. And the eternal election of God can have no higher purpose than to give us a share in Christ, and through Him, approach to the Father Himself.

Because of sin there was no possibility for man again to be brought near to God, save through reconciliation, by means of the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. Scripture speaks of Him as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). It is stated that we are elect...to the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, which means that God ever and always saw that the only way by which salvation could be made possible for us, the only needful thing by which the door of heaven could be opened for us, and the right and fitness procured for us to obtain a share in all the blessings of His love, was by the sprinkling of the blood. And it tells us further that when the blood occupies the place in our eyes and hearts that it occupies in the eye and heart of God, we shall then certainly enter into the full enjoyment of what He has acquired for us by it.

What these blessings are is clearly revealed to us in the Word of God. You who were afar off have been brought nigh through the blood (Eph 2:13). We have liberty to enter into the most holy place through the blood (Heb 10:19). He has cleansed us from our sins by his blood (Rev 1:5). How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience to serve the living God (Heb 9:14)? The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin (1Jo 1:7). Many such statements show us that the cleansing and fitness to draw near to God, that the true and living entrance into fellowship with Him, is the blessed effect of “the sprinkling of blood” on our heart and conscience. In the depths of eternity that blood of sprinkling was the object of the unspeakable good pleasure of the Father, as the means of the redemption of His elect. Is it not obvious that when that blood becomes the good pleasure and joy of a sinner, and he seeks life and salvation in that blood, then the heart of God and the heart of the sinner meet one another, and an inner agreement and fellowship, which nothing can break, is found in the blood? The Father has elected us to the sprinkling of the blood, that we may heartily accept of it, and find our entire salvation in it.

There is still another word to consider: elect to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Here the two sides of the life of grace are placed together for us in a most striking way. In “the sprinkling of blood” we learn what Christ has done for, and to us; in “obedience” we have what is expected from us. The creature can have no other blessedness than that found in the will of God, and in the doing of it as it is done in heaven. The Fall was simply the turning away of man from God’s will, to do his own will. Jesus came to alter this, and to bring us again into obedience; and God lets us know that He, in His eternal choice, had these two things in view: “obedience” and “the sprinkling of the blood.” The placing together of these two words teaches us the very important lesson that obedience and the sprinkling of blood are inseparably united. It was so with the Lord Jesus. Apart from His obedience the shedding of His blood would have been of no value. The blood is the life; life consists of disposition and will. The power of Jesus’ blood lies wholly in this, that He offered Himself without spot to God, to do His will, subjecting His own will utterly to the will of God. “He became obedient unto death, therefore God hath highly exalted him.” He who receives the blood of Jesus receives with it, as his life, His disposition of utter obedience to God. “Obedience and the sprinkling of the blood” are inseparably bound together. The disposition manifested by Christ, in the shedding of His blood, must become the disposition of those on whom it has been sprinkled.

He who desires to have the benefit of the blood must first submit himself to an obedience of faith, which must characterize his whole life. He must understand that “the blood” is constantly crying: “God’s will must be done, even to death.” He who truly experiences the power of the blood of Jesus will manifest it by a life of obedience. In the heart of God, in the life and death of Christ, in the heart and life of the true Christian, these two things will always go together.

If any Christian asks why it is that he enjoys so little of the peace and cleansing of the blood, he may be almost certain that the reason is that he has not fully surrendered himself to be obedient. If anyone asks how he may obtain the full enjoyment of the power of the blood—the reply may be—“Set yourself resolutely to obey God. Let your motto be: ‘My will in nothing—God’s will in everything’; that is what the blood of your Redeemer teaches you.” Do not separate what God from the beginning has joined together—obedience and the sprinkling of the blood—and you will thus be led into the fullness of blessing. From eternity God has elected you to both obedience and the sprinkling of the blood.

It may be that you shrink from this demand. Such obedience seems to you to be out of your reach, and as you hear about the power and blessedness obtainable by the sprinkling of the blood, even that seems to you to be out of reach. Do not be discouraged, but attend to what has yet to be said.

2. The Mighty Power by Which That Purpose Was Attained

The Holy Spirit is the great power of God. In the holy Trinity He proceeds from the Father and the Son. He, by His omnipotent but hidden activity, executes the divine purpose; He reveals and makes known the Father and the Son. In the New Testament the word “Holy” is applied to Him more often than to the Father or the Son, and He is almost always called “the Holy Spirit” because it is He Who from the inward being of God transfers holiness to the redeemed. The life of God is where His holiness dwells. Where the Holy Spirit imparts the life of God, there He imparts and maintains the holiness of God, and thus is called the Spirit of sanctification. So the text says that we are “elect to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Christ by the sanctification of the Spirit.” It is committed to the Holy Spirit by His holy power to watch over us, and to fulfill God’s purpose in us. Elect in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.

The Spirit of sanctification and obedience: these two go together in the purpose of God. Here we have also a solution to the difficulty already mentioned, that it is not possible for us to render the obedience that God demands. Because God knew this much better than we do, He has made provision for it. He bestows upon us the Spirit of sanctification, Who so renews our heart and inward nature, and fills us with His holy and heavenly power that it becomes really possible for us to be obedient. The one needful thing is that we should recognize and trust in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and follow His leading.

His inward activity is so gentle and hidden; He unites Himself so entirely with us and our endeavours, that we still imagine that it is our own thinking or willing, where He has already been the hidden worker. Through this disregard of Him we cannot believe that when we have a conviction of sin, or a willingness to obey (both the result of His inward activity), that He has also power to perfect that work in us. Let him therefore, who really desires to be obedient, be careful persistently and quietly to maintain this attitude of trustful confidence: “The Spirit of God is in me”; and let him bow reverently before God with the prayer that He would strengthen him with his Spirit, by power, in the inner man (Eph 3:16).

“In sanctification of the Spirit”: this supplies the power which enables us to be obedient, and through which also we experience what the sprinkling of the blood means and imparts.

This is the reason why so many of God’s people have to complain that after all they have learned, and heard, and thought, and believed about the blood, they experience so little of its power. This is not to be wondered at, for that learning, and hearing, and thinking, and believing, is in a great part only a work of the understanding. And even when prayer is made for the Holy Spirit, it is all in expectation that He will give us clearer ideas of the truth. No—this is not the way. The Spirit dwells in the heart: it is there He desires to do His first and greatest work. The heart must first be made right, and then the understanding will lay hold of the truth, not merely as a mental idea, but will preserve it within his Christian life. We are chosen in sanctification of the Spirit—not in the activities of the understanding—to the sprinkling of the blood.

Everyone who desires to know the power of the blood of Jesus must remember that the Spirit and the Blood bear witness together. It was by the shedding of the blood, and by the sprinkling of that blood before God in heaven, that the Spirit was free to come and dwell among us, and in us. It was to assure the hearts of the disciples concerning the glorious and powerful effect of the blood in heaven, in opening a free and bold entrance to God; and to make them partakers of the blessedness and power of the heavenly life that was now their portion, that the Holy Spirit was sent into their hearts. The first Pentecost, in all its power and blessing, is our portion also; our inheritance. Would that we might cease to seek in our own strength salvation and blessings purchased for us by the blood. If only we began to live as those who have been led in sanctification of the Spirit to the full experience of what the blood can do, we should have, as never before, a real entrance into an eternal abiding-place near God, and fellowship with Him. We should know what it is to have a conscience cleansed by the blood, to have no more conscience of sin (Heb 10:2), to have the heart entirely cleansed from an evil conscience and so have liberty for an abiding intercourse with God. The Holy Spirit, as we commit ourselves to His leading, is able, in a moment, to bring us into that relationship to Him, in which we shall expect everything from Him.

We have seen what is the work of the Son and of the Spirit; let us now ascend to see the place which the Father occupies.

3. The Counsel in Which Everything Originated

Peter writes to “the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” The counsel of the Father is the origin of everything: and that in the Godhead as well as in the work of redemption. In the Godhead the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit from the Father and the Son. The whole counsel of redemption is also solely “according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph 1:11). From the greatest—the ordering of the work of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—to the least—the conclusion of each dispensation in the history of His kingdom, with all occurrences in it, and the choice of those who will obtain a share in it—all this is the work of the Father. Sanctification of the Spirit, obedience, and the sprinkling of the blood, is the portion of the elect, according to the foreknowledge of the Father.

Scripture, without contradiction, teaches an eternal election. That this teaching should be strongly opposed, is because it is a divine mystery beyond human comprehension. That it has an appearance of unrighteousness, can be admitted. That it leads to conclusions which seem strange and terrible to our understanding, we do not deny. To comprehend it, man would need the omniscience and the wisdom of Him Who sits upon the throne. And to take up our place on the throne, and give our judgment upon the eternal portion of mankind—may we be preserved from that! Our place is at the footstool of the throne, in deepest reverence; believing what God says, and adoring Him Whose doings surpass all our thoughts.

Our text calls us not to reason about these hidden mysteries, but to rejoice, if we are believers, in what is revealed to us in it, and to make a practical use of it. And then this truth calls us to take special notice of the sure ground in which our expectation of salvation is rooted—the sprinkling of the blood, with the obedience which accompanies it, and the sanctification of the Spirit, by which both of these reach their full authority over us. All these things are from God.

You may, with the most entire confidence, reckon that He Who has thought out this wonderful counsel so far, and gloriously carried it out in the sprinkling of the blood in heaven, and the sending of the Spirit from heaven, will just as surely and gloriously carry it out in your soul. This is the right use of the doctrine of predestination—leading you to cast yourself down before God, and to acknowledge that from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things; and to expect everything from Him alone. Take your place before God, my fellow-believer, in deep reverence and complete dependence. Do not imagine that now God has revealed Himself in Christ and by the Spirit, that you, by making use of what you have learned from this revelation, can work out your own salvation. Let it not be thought of! God must work in you to will and to do, before you can work it out. God must work in you by the Spirit, and by Him must reveal Christ in you. Give God the glory, and let the fullest dependence upon Him be the key-note of your life of faith. If God does not do everything in you, all is in vain. If you expect anything from yourself, you will receive nothing; if you expect all from God, God will do everything in you. Let your expectation be from God alone.

Apply this to all upon which we have been meditating concerning obedience. “Elect unto obedience”; how certain then it is that obedience is indispensable, that it is possible, that in it lies the salvation of God. The Son was obedient unto death, but this was because He had said: “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (Joh 5:19). He submitted Himself to the Father in order that He might do everything in Him. Let every desire to do the will of God, every fear of your own weakness, drive you to Him Who has elected you to obedience. Predestined to obedience: that gives assurance that you can be obedient. God Himself will accomplish His purpose in you. Become nothing before Him; He will become all.

Apply it especially to the blessed “sprinkling of the blood” of Jesus Christ. It was this that led us to the choice of this text. Your heart is longing with great desire—is it not?—to live every day under the clear consciousness: “I have been sprinkled with the eternal, precious, divine blood of the Lamb.” Your heart longs after all the blessed effects of that blood; redemption, pardon, peace, cleansing, sanctification, drawing near to God, joy, victory—all of which come through the blood. Your heart longs to experience constantly these blessings in full measure. Cast fear aside—you have been elected by God to the sprinkling of the blood of Christ Jesus; you must steadfastly rely on the fact that God, as God, will bestow it upon you. Wait continually upon Him in patience of soul, and confidently expect it. He “works all things according to the counsel of his own will”; He Himself will surely work it out in you.

Apply this also to the sanctification of the Spirit. He is the link that binds together the middle and the end; His is the power that brings together the eternal purpose of God, and a life of obedience and the sprinkling of the blood. Do you feel that this is the one thing that you desire and for which you must wait, that you may inherit the full blessing? Understand that it is God Himself Who bestows the Spirit; Who works through the Spirit; Who will fill you by the Spirit. How can God Who elected you “in sanctification of the Spirit’’ allow you to lack that without which His purpose cannot be carried out? Be confident about this; ask and expect it with utter boldness. It is possible to live in the sanctification of the Spirit, because it has been designed for you from eternity.

The sprinkling of the blood is the light or revelation of the Trinity. How wonderful and glorious it is! The Father designed the sprinkling of the blood and elected us to it; the Son shed His blood and bestows it on the obedient from heaven; the Spirit of Sanctification makes it our own, with abiding power, and imparts to us all the blessings which He has obtained for us. Blessed sprinkling of the blood! Revelation of the triune God! May this be our joy and our life each day.

From The Blood of the Cross.

Andrew Murray (1828-1917): South African writer, educator, and Christian pastor. He was sent to Aberdeen in Scotland for his education, remaining there until 1845. He then returned to South Africa, where he pastored several churches. He married and had eight children. He was a champion of the South African Revival of 1860.

THE NECESSITY OF CHRIST’S DEATH

Stephen Charnock (1628-1680)

“Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?”—Luke 24:26

Let us here see the evil of sin. Nothing more fit to shew the baseness of sin, and the greatness of the misery by it, than the satisfaction due for it; as the greatness of a distemper is seen by the force of the medicine, and the value of the commodity by the greatness of the price it cost. The sufferings of Christ express the evil of sin, far above the severest judgments upon any creature, both in regard of the greatness of the person, and the bitterness of the suffering. The dying groans of Christ shew the horrible nature of sin in the eye of God; as He was greater than the world, so His sufferings declare sin to be the greatest evil in the world. How evil is that sin that must make God bleed to cure it! To see the Son of God haled to death for sin is the greatest piece of justice that ever God executed. The earth trembled under the weight of God’s wrath when He punished Christ, and the heavens were dark as though they were shut to Him, and He cries and groans, and no relief appears; nothing but sin was the procuring meritorious cause of this.

The Son of God was slain by the sin of the lapsed creature; had there been any other way to expiate so great an evil, had it stood with the honour of God, Who is inclined to pardon, to remit sin without a compensation by death, we cannot think He would have consented that His Son should undergo so great a suffering. Not all the powers in heaven and earth could bring us into favour again, without the death of some great sacrifice to preserve the honour of God’s veracity and justice; not the gracious interposition of Christ, without becoming mortal, and drinking in the vials of wrath, could allay divine justice; not His intercessions, without enduring the strokes due to us, could remove the misery of the fallen creature. All the holiness of Christ’s life, His innocence and good works, did not redeem us without death. It was by this He made an atonement for our sins, satisfied the revenging justice of his Father, and recovered us from a spiritual and inevitable death. How great were our crimes, that could not be wiped off by the works of a pure creature, or the holiness of Christ’s life, but required the effusion of the blood of the Son of God for the discharge of them! Christ in His dying was dealt with by God as a sinner, as One standing in our stead, otherwise He could not have been subject to death. For He had no sin of His own, and “death is the wages of sin” (Rom 6:23). It had not consisted with the goodness and righteousness of God as Creator, to afflict any creature without a cause, nor with His infinite love to His Son to bruise Him for nothing. Some moral evil must therefore be the cause; for no physical evil is inflicted without some moral evil preceding. Death, being a punishment, supposeth a fault. Christ, having no crime of His own, must then be a sufferer for ours: “Our sins were laid upon him” (Isa 53:6), or transferred upon Him. We see then how hateful sin is to God, and therefore it should be abominable to us. We should view sin in the sufferings of the Redeemer, and then think it amiable if we can. Shall we then nourish sin in our hearts? This is to make much of the nails that pierced His hands, and the thorns that pricked His head, and make His dying groans the matter of our pleasure. It is to pull down a Christ that hath suffered, to suffer again; a Christ that is raised, and ascended, sitting at the right hand of God, again to the earth; to lift Him upon another cross, and overwhelm Him in a second grave. Our hearts should break at the consideration of the necessity of His death. We should open the heart of our sins by repentance, as the heart of Christ was opened by the spear. This does an “Ought not Christ to die?” teach us.

Let us not set up our rest in anything in ourselves, not in anything below a dying Christ; not in repentance or reformation. Repentance is a condition of pardon, not a satisfaction of justice; it sometimes moves the divine goodness to turn away judgment, but it is no compensation to divine justice. There is not that good in repentance as there is wrong in the sin repented of, and satisfaction must have something of equality, both to the injury and the person injured; the satisfaction that is enough for a private person wronged is not enough for a justly offended prince; for the greatness of the wrong mounts by the dignity of the person. None can be greater than God, and therefore no offense can be so full of evil as offenses against God; and shall a few tears be sufficient in anyone’s thoughts to wipe them off? The wrong done to God by sin is of a higher degree than to be compensated by all the good works of creatures, though of the highest elevation. Is the repentance of any soul so perfect as to be able to answer the punishment the justice of God requires in the law? And what if the grace of God help us in our repentance? It cannot be concluded from thence that our pardon is formally procured by repentance, but that we are disposed by it to receive and value a pardon. It is not congruous to the wisdom and righteousness of God to bestow pardons upon obstinate rebels. Repentance is nowhere said to expiate sin; a broken heart is called a sacrifice (Psa 51:17), but not a propitiatory one. David’s sin was expiated before he penned that psalm (2Sa 12:13). Though a man could weep as many tears as there are drops of water contained in the ocean, send up as many volleys of prayers as there have been groans issuing from any creature since the foundation of the world; though he could bleed as many drops from his heart as have been poured out from the veins of sacrificed beasts, both in Judea and all other parts of the world; though he were able, and did actually bestow in charity all the metals in the mines of Peru: yet could not this absolve him from the least guilt, nor cleanse him from the least filth, nor procure the pardon of the least crime by any intrinsic value in the acts themselves; the very acts, as well as the persons, might fall under the censure of consuming justice. The death of Christ only procures us life. The blood of Christ only doth quench that just fire sin had kindled in the breast of God against us. To aim at any other way for the appeasing of God, than the death of Christ, is to make the cross of Christ of no effect. This we are to learn from an “Ought not Christ to die?”

Therefore, let us be sensible of the necessity of an interest in the Redeemer’s death. Let us not think to drink the waters of salvation out of our own cisterns, but out of Christ’s wounds. Not to draw life out of our own dead duties, but Christ’s dying groans. We have guilt. Can we expiate it ourselves? We are under justice. Can we appease it by any thing we can do? There is an enmity between God and us. Can we offer Him anything worthy to gain His friendship? Our natures are corrupted. Can we heal them? Our services are polluted. Can we cleanse them? There is as great a necessity for us to apply the death of Christ for all those, as there was for Him to undergo it. The leper was not cleansed and cured by the shedding the blood of the sacrifice for him, but the sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice upon him (Lev 14:7). As the death of Christ was foretold as the meritorious cause, so the sprinkling of His blood was foretold as the formal cause of our happiness (Isa 52:15). By His own blood He entered into heaven and glory, and by nothing but His blood can we have the boldness to expect it, or the confidence to attain it (Heb 10:19). The whole doctrine of the gospel is Christ crucified (1Co 1:23), and the whole confidence of a Christian should be Christ crucified. God would not have mercy exercised with a neglect of justice by man, though to a miserable client: “Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor in judgment” (Lev 19:15). Shall God Who is infinitely just neglect the rule Himself? No man is an object of mercy till he presents a satisfaction to justice. As there is a perfection in God which we call mercy, which exacts faith and repentance of His creature before He will bestow a pardon, so there is another perfection of vindictive justice that requires a satisfaction. If the creature thinks its own misery a motive to the displaying the perfection of mercy, it must consider that the honour of God requires also the content of His justice. The fallen angels, therefore, have no mercy granted to them, because none ever satisfied the justice of God for them. Let us not, therefore, coin new ways of procuring pardon, and false modes of appeasing the justice of God. What can we find besides this, able to contend against everlasting burnings? What refuge can there be besides this to shelter us from the fierceness of divine wrath? Can our tears and prayers be more prevalent than the cries and tears of Christ, Who could not, by all the strength of them, divert death from Himself, without our eternal loss? No way but faith in His blood. God in the gospel sends us to Christ, and Christ by the gospel brings us to God.

Let us value this Redeemer and redemption by His death. Since God was resolved to see His Son plunged into an estate of disgraceful emptiness, clothed with the form of a servant, and exposed to the sufferings of a painful cross, rather than leave sin unpunished, we should never think of it without thankful returns, both to the Judge and the Sacrifice. What was He afflicted for, but to procure our peace? bruised for, but to heal our wounds? brought before an earthly judge to be condemned, but that we might be brought before a heavenly Judge to be absolved? fell under the pains of death, but to knock off from us the shackles of hell? and became accursed in death, but that we might be blessed with eternal life? Without this our misery had been irreparable, our distance from God perpetual. What commerce could we have had with God, while we were separated from Him by crimes on our part, and justice on His? The wall must be broken down, death must be suffered, that justice might be silenced, and the goodness of God be again communicative to us. This was the wonder of divine love, to be pleased with the sufferings of His only Son, that He might be pleased with us upon the account of those sufferings. Our redemption in such a way, as by the death and blood of Christ, was not a bare grace. It had been so, had it been only redemption; but being a redemption by the blood of God, it deserves from the apostle no less a title than riches of grace (Eph 1:7). And it deserves and expects no less from us than such high acknowledgments. This we may learn from “Ought not Christ to die?”

From Christ our Passover.

THE BLOOD OF JESUS: THE FOUNDATION OF OUR PEACE AND JOY

William Reid (1814-1896)

If the Holy Ghost be awakening you to a true apprehension of your danger as a rebel against God’s authority—a guilty, polluted, hell-deserving sinner—you must be in a deeply anxious state of mind, and such questions as these must be ever present with you: What must I do to be saved? What is the true ground of a sinner’s peace with God? What am I to believe in order to be saved? Well, in so far as laying the foundation of your reconciliation is concerned, I wish you to observe that you have nothing to do; for the almighty Surety of sinners said on Calvary, “It is finished,” (Joh 19:30). Jesus has done all that the holy Jehovah deemed necessary to be done to insure complete pardon, acceptance, and salvation to all who believe in His name. If you take Jesus as your Saviour, you will build securely for eternity. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Co 3:11). He is the foundation-stone of salvation laid by God Himself, and on His finished atoning work alone you are instructed to rest the salvation of your soul, and not on anything accomplished by you, wrought in you, felt by you, or proceeding from you.

It is of the utmost importance to be clear as to the fact that it is the work of Christ without you, and not the work of the Spirit within you, that must form the sole ground of your deliverance from guilt and wrath, and of peace with God. You must beware of resting your peace on your feelings, convictions, tears, repentance, prayers, duties, or resolutions. You must begin with receiving Christ, and not make that the termination of a course of fancied preparation. Christ must be the Alpha and Omega. He must be everything in our salvation, or He will be nothing. Beware lest you fall into the common mistake of supposing that you will be more welcome and accepted of Christ if you are brought through a terrible process of “law-work.” You are as welcome to Christ now as you will ever be. Wait not for deeper convictions of sin, for why should you prefer conviction to Christ? And you would not have one iota more safety though you had deeper convictions of sin than any sinner ever had. Convictions of sin are precious; but they bring no safety, no peace, no salvation, no security; but war, and storm, and trouble. It is well to be awakened from sleep when danger is hanging over us; but to awake from sleep is not to escape from danger. It is only to be sensible of danger, nothing more.

In like manner, to be convinced of your sins is merely to be made sensible that your soul is in danger. It is no more. It is not deliverance. Of itself, it can bring no deliverance; it tells of no Saviour. It merely tells us that we need one. Yet there are many who, when they have had deep convictions of sin, strong terrors of the law, congratulate themselves as if all were well. They say, “Ah, I have been convinced of sin; I have been under terrors; it is well with me; I am safe.” Well with you? Safe? Is it well with the seaman when he awakes and finds his vessel going to pieces upon the rocks amid the fury of the whelming surge? Is it well with the sleeper when he awakes at midnight amid the flames of his dwelling? Does he say, “Ah, it is well with me; I have seen the flames?” In this way sinners are not infrequently led to be content with some resting-place short of the appointed one. Anxiety to have deep convictions, and contentment with them after they have been experienced, are too often the means which Satan uses for turning away the sinner’s eye from the perfect work of Jesus, Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Our peace with God, our forgiveness, our reconciliation, flow wholly from the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus.

Behold, then, O Spirit-convinced soul, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world! In His death upon the cross, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world! In His death upon the cross, behold the mighty sacrifice, the ransom for the sins of many! See there the sum of all His obedience and sufferings! Behold the finished work—a work of stupendous magnitude, which He alone could have undertaken and accomplished! Behold our sacrifice, our finished sacrifice, our perfected redemption, the sole foundation of our peace, and hope, and joy. “He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1Pe 2:24). It is not said that our duties, or our prayers, or our fastings, or our convictions of sin, or our repentance, or our honest life, or our almsdeeds, or our faith, or our grace—it is not said that these bore our sins; it was Jesus, Jesus Himself, Jesus alone, Jesus, and none but Jesus, bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Rest, then, in nothing short of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ has done the mighty work; Nothing left for us to do,

But to enter on His toil, Enter on His triumph too.

His the labour, ours the rest; His the death, and ours the life;

Ours the fruits of victory, His the agony and strife.

From The Blood of Jesus; booklet available from Chapel Library.

William Reid (1814-1896): Scottish Presbyterian minister.

THE BLOOD OF SPRINKLING

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

But an inquirer asks, What is the special meaning of the blood, of which we read so much? How does it speak of peace? How does it “purge the conscience from dead works” (Heb 9:14)? What can blood have to do with the peace, the grace, and the righteousness of which we have been speaking? God has given the reason for the stress which He lays upon the blood; and, in understanding this, we get to the very bottom of the grounds of a sinner’s peace.

The sacrifices of old, from the days of Abel onwards, furnish us with the key to the meaning of the blood, and explain the necessity for its being shed for the remission of sins. “Not without blood” (Heb 9:7), was the great truth taught by God from the beginning, the inscription which may be said to have been written on the gates of tabernacle and temple. For more than two thousand years, during the ages of the patriarchs, there was but one great sacrifice, the burnt-offering. This, under the Mosaic service, was split into parts: the peace-offering, trespass-offering, and sin-offering. In all of these, however, the essence of the original burnt-offering was preserved by the blood and the fire which were common to them all. The blood, as the emblem of substitution, and the fire, as the symbol of God’s wrath upon the substitute, were seen in all the parts of Israel’s service; but especially in the daily burnt-offering—the morning and evening lamb—which was the true continuation and representative of the old patriarchal burnt-offering. It was to this that John referred when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Joh 1:29). Israel’s daily lamb was the kernel and core of all the Old Testament sacrifices, and it was its blood that carried the worshippers back to the primitive sacrifices, and forward to the blood of sprinkling that was to speak better things than that of Abel (Heb 12:24).

In all these sacrifices the shedding of the blood was the infliction of death. The “blood was the life” (Lev 17:11, 14; Deu 12:23); and the pouring out of the blood was “the pouring out of the soul” (Isa 53:12). This blood-shedding or life-taking was the payment of the penalty for sin; for it was threatened from the beginning, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17); and it is written, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze 18:4); and again, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).

But the blood-shedding of Israel’s sacrifices could not take sin away. It showed the way in which this was to be done, but it was in fact more a “remembrance of sins” (Heb 10:3) than an expiation (Heb 10:11). It said life must be given for life before sin can be pardoned; but then the continual repetition of the sacrifices shewed that there was needed richer blood than the temple altar was ever sprinkled with and a more precious life than man could give.

The great blood-shedding has been accomplished; the better life has been presented, and the one death of the Son of God has done what all the deaths of old could never do. His one life was enough; His one dying paid the penalty; and God does not ask two lives, or two deaths, or two payments. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Heb 9:28). “In that he died, he died unto sin once” (Rom 6:10). He “offered one sacrifice for sins for ever” (Heb 10:12).

The “sprinkling of the blood” (Exo 24:8) was the making use of the death by putting it upon certain persons or things, so that these persons or things were counted to be dead, and therefore, to have paid the law’s penalty. So long as they had not paid that penalty, they were counted unclean and unfit for God to look upon; but as soon as they had paid it, they were counted clean and fit for the service of God. Usually when we read of cleansing, we think merely of our common process of removing dirt by water and soap. But this is not the figure meant in the application of the sacrifice. The blood cleanses by making us partakers of the death of the Substitute. For what is it that makes us filthy before God? It is our guilt, our breach of law, and our being under sentence of death in consequence of our disobedience. We have not only done what God dislikes, but what His righteous law declares to be worthy of death. It is this sentence of death that separates us so completely from God, making it wrong for Him to bless us, and perilous for us to go to Him.

When thus covered all over with that guilt whose penalty is death, the blood is brought in by the great High Priest. That blood represents death; it is God’s expression for death. It is then sprinkled on us, and thus death, which is the law’s penalty, passes on us. We die. We undergo the sentence, and thus the guilt passes away. We are cleansed! The sin which was like scarlet becomes as snow, and that which was like crimson becomes as wool. It is thus that we make use of the blood of Christ in believing, for faith is just the sinner employing the blood. Believing what God has testified concerning this blood, we become one with Jesus in His death; and thus we are counted in law, and treated by God, as men who have paid the whole penalty, and so been “washed from their sins in his blood.”

Such are the glad tidings of life, through Him Who died. They are tidings which tell us, not what we are to do, in order to be saved, but what He has done. This only can lay to rest the sinner’s fears, can purge his conscience, can make him feel as a thoroughly pardoned man. The right knowledge of God’s meaning in this sprinkling of the blood is the only effective way of removing the anxieties of the troubled soul and introducing it into perfect peace.

The gospel is not the mere revelation of the heart of God in Christ Jesus. In it the righteousness of God is specially manifested (Rom 1:17); and it is this revelation of the righteousness that makes it so truly “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom 1:16). The blood-shedding is God’s declaration of the righteousness of the love which He is pouring down upon the sons of men; it is the reconciliation of law and love; the condemnation of the sin and the acquittal of the sinner. As “without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb 9:22), so the gospel announces that the blood has been shed by which remission flows to us; and now we know that “the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin” (1Jo 1:7). The conscience is satisfied. It feels that God’s grace is righteous grace, that His love is holy love. There it rests.

It is not by incarnation, but by blood-shedding that we are saved. The Christ of God is no mere expounder of wisdom, no mere deliverer or gracious benefactor; and they who think that they have told the whole gospel, when they have spoken of Jesus revealing the love of God, greatly err.

If Christ is not the Substitute, He is nothing to the sinner. If He did not die as the Sin-bearer, He has died in vain. Let us not be deceived on this point, nor misled by those who, when they announce Christ as the Deliverer, think they have preached the gospel. If I throw a rope to a drowning man, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more than that? If I cast myself into the sea, and risk myself to save another, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more? Did He but risk His life? The very essence of Christ’s deliverance is the substitution of Himself for us, His life for ours. He did not come to risk His life; He came to die! He did not redeem us by a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labour, a little suffering: “He redeemed us to God by his blood”; “the precious blood of Christ” (1Pe 1:19). He gave all He had, even His life, for us. This is the kind of deliverance that awakens the happy song, “To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Rev 1:5, 5:9).

The tendency of the world’s religion just now is to reject the blood and to glory in a gospel which needs no sacrifice, no Lamb slain. Thus, they go the way of Cain, who refused the blood and came to God without it. He would not own himself a sinner, condemned to die and needing the death of another to save him. This was man’s open rejection of God’s way of life. Foremost in this rejection we see the first murderer; and he who would not defile his altar with the blood of a lamb pollutes the earth with his brother’s blood.

The heathen altars have been red with blood; and to this day they are the same. But these worshippers do not know what they mean in bringing that blood. It is associated only with vengeance in their minds; and they shed it to appease the vengeance of their gods. But this is no recognition either of the love or the righteousness of God. Fury is not in Him (Isa 27:4); whereas their altars speak only of fury. The blood which they bring is a denial both of righteousness and grace.

But look at Israel’s altars. There is blood; and they who bring it know the God to Whom they come. They bring it in acknowledgment of their own guilt, but also of His pardoning love. They say, “I deserve death; but let this death stand for mine; and let the love which otherwise could not reach me, by reason of guilt, now pour itself out on me.”

Beware of Cain’s error on the one hand, in coming to God without blood; and beware of the heathen error on the other, in mistaking the meaning of the blood. Understand God’s mind and meaning in “the precious blood” of His Son. Believe His testimony concerning it; so shall your conscience be pacified, and your soul find rest.

It is into Christ’s death that we are baptized (Rom 6:3), and hence the cross, which was the instrument of that death, is that in which we glory. The cross is to us the payment of the sinner’s penalty, the extinction of the debt, and the tearing up of the hand-writing which was against us. And as the cross is the payment, so the resurrection is God’s receipt in full, for the whole sum, signed with His own hand. Our faith is not the completion of the payment but the simple recognition on our part of the payment made by the Son of God. By this recognition we become so one with Him Who died and rose that we are thereafter reckoned to be the parties who have paid the penalty, and treated as if it were we ourselves who had died. Thus are we “justified from sin,” and then made partakers of the righteousness of Him Who was not only delivered for our offenses, but Who was raised again for our justification.

From God’s Way of Peace; paperback available from Chapel Library.

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889): Scottish Presbyterian minister and prolific author of tracts, books, and hymns. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

CHRIST THE CLEANSER

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

“He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.”—John 13:10

This washing of the disciples’ feet was one of the last of our Lord’s acts on earth, as the servant of His disciples, the servant of sinners. How fully did that towel, and that basin, shew that He had “taken upon him the form of a servant” (Phi 2:7), and that He had come not to be ministered unto, but to minister! This last act of lowly love is the filling up of His matchless condescension; it is so simple, so kindly, so expressive; and all the more so, because not referring to positive want, such as hunger, or thirst, or pain, but merely to bodily comfort. Oh, if He is so interested in our commonest comforts, such as the washing of our feet, what must He be in our spiritual joys and blessings! How desirous that we should have peace of soul, and how willing to impart it!

This scene of condescending love is no mere show. It is a reality. And it is a reality for us to copy. Love to the saints; love shewing itself in simple acts of quiet, lowly service; service pertaining to common comforts—this is the lesson for us, which the divine example gives. If He did this, what should we do? “If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

But, in the midst of this scene and its lesson, there suddenly rises up a spiritual truth, called forth by Peter’s remonstrance. The whole transaction is transferred into a type, or symbol, by the Lord Himself. The earthly all at once rises into the heavenly as He utters these words, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me.” It is as if He had lighted up a new star in the blue, or rather withdrawn the cloud that hid a star already kindled, but hindered, in its shining, by an earthly veil.

Accepting, then, this spiritual truth as a vital part of the transaction, let us study its full meaning, as thus unveiled to us. The words of this tenth verse might be thus translated, or at least paraphrased: “He that has bathed (or, come out of the bath) needs only, after that, to wash his feet; the rest of his person is clean.” Here, then, we have first the bathing and, secondly, the washing.

I. The Bathing

The reference here may be to “the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness” (Zec 13:1), in which we are “washed from our sins in his own blood” by “Him who loved us” (Rev 1:5). The bath is the blood, and the bathing is our believing. From the moment we bathe, that is, believe, we are personally and legally clean in God’s sight; our bodies are “washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22). We may accept the reference here as being either to the temple or to the bath. He who bathes, say in the morning, is clean for the whole day. Our believing is our taking our morning bath. That cleanses our persons; and during all the rest of our earthly day we walk about, as men forgiven and clean; who know that there is no condemnation for them, and that God has removed their sins from them, as far as east is from the west. Connecting the washing here referred to with the temple service, the meaning would be this: we go to the altar and get the blood, the symbol of death, sprinkled upon us, implying that we have died the death, and paid the penalty in Him Who died for us. From the altar we go to the laver and get the blood washed off from our persons, proclaiming that we are risen from the dead, and therefore in all respects most thoroughly clean—“clean every whit,” all over clean, in our persons before God.

This is the bathing; and thus it is that we are cleansed, realizing David’s prayer, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow” (Psa 51:7). When I believe in Christ as the fountain, as the altar and the laver, that is, when I receive God’s testimony concerning His precious blood, I am washed. I become clean; as Christ said to His disciples, “Now are ye clean through the word that I have spoken unto you.” When I believe in Christ as the righteousness, that is, when I receive God’s testimony concerning His divine righteousness, I am straightway righteous. When I receive Him as the life, I have life. When I receive Him as Redeemer, I am redeemed. When I receive Him as the sinner’s surety, I am pardoned; there is no condemnation for me. When I receive Him as the dead and risen Christ, I die and rise again.

Such are the results of this divine bathing. They are present and immediate results. They spring straight from that oneness with Him in all things into which my believing brings me. As a believing man, I enter upon His fulness; I become partaker of His riches; and so identified with Himself, that His cleanness is accounted my cleanness, His excellence my excellence, His perfection my perfection. As He was the Lamb without blemish, and without spot, so I am “clean every whit;” and to me, as part of the cleansed Bride, the Lamb’s wife, it is said, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee” (Song 4:7).

II. The Washing

This is something different from the bathing, and yet there is a likeness between the two things. Both refer to forgiveness; or, rather, we should say that the first refers to personal acceptance, the latter to the daily forgiveness of the accepted one. The washing is not that of the person, but of the person’s feet—those parts which come constantly into contact with the soil and dust of the earth. Considered personally, and as a whole, he is far above the earth and beyond its pollutions; for he is with Christ in heavenly places; but, considered in parts, his feet may be said to be still upon the earth. In one sense he is “clean every whit,” seated with Christ in heaven; in another, he is still a sinner, walking the earth, and getting his feet constantly soiled with its dust, or “thick clay.” Our Lord here speaks of the washing in reference to this latter condition; and contrasts the continual washing with the one bathing; the daily pardons, upon confession, with the one acceptance, in believing; an acceptance with which nothing can interfere. With the sense of acceptance, we may say that many things can and do interfere; but with the acceptance itself, nothing can, either within or without, either in heaven or on earth.

The person who is bathed is exposed after coming from the bath to constant soiling of his feet; but that is all. His person remains clean. The priest who has washed at the laver is constantly getting his feet soiled with the dust of the temple pavement or with the clotted blood which adheres to it. But this does not affect his person. That remains clean. So is it with the believing man. Personally accepted, and delivered from condemnation, he is every moment contracting some new stain, some defilement which needs washing. But this defilement does not affect his personal forgiveness, and ought not to lead him into doubt as to his acceptance. He himself is clean, through his reception of the word spoken to him by his Lord and Master; and he goes about the removal of his ever-recurring sins, as one who knows this. He betakes himself to Christ for the hourly removal of his sins, as one who has tasted that the Lord is gracious; he comes for the washing of his feet to Him Who has already bathed his person.

It is this distinction between the bathing and the washing that meets the difficulty felt by some, as to a believer constantly seeking pardon. He that has bathed needeth not save to wash his feet; but still he does need to have these washed. He that has been accepted in the beloved, has not daily to go and plead for acceptance, nor to do or say anything which implies that the condemnation, from which he has been delivered, has returned; but he has to mourn over, to confess, to seek forgiveness for daily sins. The two states are quite distinct, yet quite consistent with each other. The complete acceptance of the believing man does not prevent his sinning, nor do away with the constant need of new pardons for his sins; and the recurrence of sin does not cancel his acceptance, nor is the obtaining of new pardons at variance with his standing as a forgiven man.

It is this distinction which answers a question often raised, “Are all our sins, future as well as past, forgiven the moment we believe?” In one sense they are; for from the time of our believing, we are treated by God as forgiven men, and nothing can interfere with this. But in another they are not; for, strictly speaking, no sin can be actually forgiven till it exists, just as no one can be raised up till he actually fall, and as we cannot wash off the soil from our feet until it is on them. That God should treat His saints as forgiven ones, and yet that He should be constantly forgiving, are two things quite compatible—and the bathing and washing of our text, furnish an excellent illustration of their consistency. All such questions have two sides, a divine and a human one. The mixing up of these two, or the ascribing to the one what belongs to the other, confuses and perplexes. The keeping of them separate makes all clear. With the divine side God has to do, with the human we have to do. Eternal forgiveness is God’s purpose: daily forgiveness is our enjoyment and privilege.

We are apt to get into confusion here, and to feel as if our daily sins did interfere with our acceptance, and ought, for the time, to destroy our consciousness, or assurance, of acceptance. Our Lord’s words here clear up this difficulty and rectify this mistake. “He that hath bathed needeth not, save to wash his feet.” Our state of “no condemnation” is one which our daily sins cannot touch. These sins need constant washing; but that does not affect the great truth of our personal cleanness in the sight of God, our having found grace in the eyes of the Lord. To suppose that it could do so, would be to misunderstand our Lord’s distinction between the bathing and the washing.

Let us learn, then, how to deal with our daily sins in consistency with this distinction. Suppose I sin—suppose I get angry; shall I conclude that I have never been accepted, or that this sin has thrown me out of acceptance? No; but holding fast my acceptance, go and confess my anger to the Master. Suppose I allow the world to come in, and perhaps for days I become cold, and prayerless; shall I say, Ah, I have never been a forgiven man? or, This has broken up the reconciliation? No; but, undisturbed in my consciousness of pardon and reconciliation, I simply take my worldliness, my coldness, my prayerlessness to God; I go and wash my feet as often as they need it, and that is every moment; but, in doing so, I never lose sight of the blessed fact, that I have bathed, and that as nothing can alter this fact, so nothing can invalidate its effects. It abides unchanged. Once bathed, then bathed forever!

Shall we sin, then, because grace abounds? Shall we soil our feet because our cleansing has been so perfect, and because the washing is so easy? No. How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein? So far from being now in a more favourable position for committing sin, we are placed in one which, of all others, is the most effectual for delivering us from it. The conscious completeness of the pardon is God’s preservative from sin; and it is the best, the most effectual. There is none like it. It is the source of our power against sin, and for holiness. Without this, progress in goodness, freedom in service, and success in labour are all impossible.

The bathing and the washing are, both of them, God’s protests against sin; and, if understood aright, would be our most effectual safeguards. They come to us like Christ’s words to the woman, “Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more” (Joh 8:11). And what more likely to deepen our hatred of sin, than this necessary intercourse with our holy Master, in the reception of constant forgivenesses from His priestly hands. The more that we have to do with Him, the more are we sure to become like Him; nor is anything more fitted to make us ashamed of our sins, than our being compelled to bring them constantly, and to bring them all, small and great, for pardon to Himself.

It is thus that the Highest stoops to the lowest, and discharges toward them the offices of happy affection and considerate sympathy in the most menial things of life. Shall we not imitate His love, and by our daily acts of kindly service to our fellow saints, knit together the members of the blessed household? However great in rank, or riches, or learning, shall we not stoop? “High in high places, gentle in our own.” Shall we not thus win love? Not so much to ourselves, as to the beloved One; shewing His meekness in ours, His gentleness in ours, His lowliness in ours, His patience in ours; thus melting hearts that would not otherwise be melted, and winning affections that would not otherwise be won. “For as he is, so are we in this world.”

From Christ the Healer.

THE RENT VEIL

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

“Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.”—Matthew 27:50-51

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.”—Hebrews 10:19-20

First, think of what has been done. In actual historical fact the glorious veil of the temple has been rent in twain from the top to the bottom: as a matter of spiritual fact, which is far more important to us, the separating legal ordinance is abolished.

This rending of the veil signified also the removal of the separating sin. Sin is, after all, the great divider between God and man.

Next, be it remembered that the separating sinfulness is also taken away through our Lord Jesus. It is not only what we have done, but what we are that keeps us apart from God.

I want you to notice that this veil, when it was rent, was rent by God, not by man. It was not the act of an irreverent mob; it was not the midnight outrage of a set of profane priests: it was the act of God alone. Nobody stood within the veil; and on the outer side of it stood the priests only fulfilling their ordinary vocation of offering sacrifice. It must have astounded them when they saw that holy place laid bare in a moment. How they fled, as they saw that massive veil divided without human hand in a second of time! Who rent it? Who but God Himself? If another had done it, there might have been a mistake about it, and the mistake might need to be remedied by replacing the curtain; but if the Lord has done it, it is done rightly, it is done finally, it is done irreversibly. It is God Himself Who has laid sin on Christ, and in Christ has put that sin away. God Himself has opened the gate of heaven to believers, and cast up a highway along which the souls of men may travel to Himself. God Himself has set the ladder between earth and heaven. Come to Him now, ye humble ones. Behold, He sets before you an open door!

2. And now I ask you to follow me, dear friends, in the second place, to an experimental realization of my subject. We now notice what we have: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest.” Observe the threefold “having” in the paragraph now before us, and be not content without the whole three. We have “boldness to enter in.” There are degrees in boldness; but this is one of the highest. When the veil was rent it required some boldness to look within. I wonder whether the priests at the altar did have the courage to gaze upon the mercy-seat. I suspect that they were so struck with amazement that they fled from the altar, fearing sudden death. It requires a measure of boldness steadily to look upon the mystery of God: “Which things the angels desire to look into” (1Pe 1:12). It is well not to look with a merely curious eye into the deep things of God. I question whether any man is able to pry into the mystery of the Trinity without great risk. Some, thinking to look there with the eyes of their natural intellect, have been blinded by the light of that sun, and have henceforth wandered in darkness. It needs boldness to look into the splendours of redeeming and electing love. If any did look into the holiest when the veil was rent, they were among the boldest of men; for others must have feared lest the fate of the men of Bethshemesh would be theirs (1Sa 6:19). Beloved, the Holy Spirit invites you to look into the holy place, and view it all with reverent eye; for it is full of teaching to you. Understand the mystery of the mercy-seat, and of the ark of the covenant overlaid with gold, and of the pot of manna, and of the tables of stone, and of Aaron’s rod that budded. Look, look boldly through Jesus Christ: but do not content yourself with looking! Hear what the text says: “Having boldness to enter in.” Blessed be God if He has taught us this sweet way of no longer looking from afar, but of entering into the inmost shrine with confidence! “Boldness to enter in” is what we ought to have.

Let us follow the example of the high priest, and, having entered, let us perform the functions of one who enters in. “Boldness to enter in” suggests that we act as men who are in their proper places. To stand within the veil filled the servant of God with an overpowering sense of the divine presence. If ever in his life he was near to God, he was certainly near to God then, when quite alone, shut in, and excluded from all the world, he had no one with Him, except the glorious Jehovah. O my beloved, may we this morning enter into the holiest in this sense! Shut out from the world, both wicked and Christian, let us know that the Lord is here, most near and manifest. Oh that we may now cry out with Hagar, “Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?” Oh, how sweet to realize by personal enjoyment the presence of Jehovah! How cheering to feel that the Lord of hosts is with us! We know our God to be a very present help in trouble. It is one of the greatest joys out of heaven to be able to sing, “Jehovah Shammah”—the Lord is here. At first we tremble in the divine presence; but as we feel more of the spirit of adoption we draw near with sacred delight, and feel so fully at home with our God that we sing with Moses, “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations” (Psa 90:1). Do not live as if God were as far off from you as the east is from the west. Live not far below on the earth; but live on high, as if you were in heaven. In heaven you will be with God; but on earth He will be with you. Is there much difference? He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Jesus hath made us nigh by His precious blood. Try day by day to live in as great nearness to God as the high priest felt when he stood for a while within the secret of Jehovah’s tabernacle.

The high priest had a sense of communion with God; he was not only near, but he spake with God. I cannot tell what he said, but I should think that on the special day the high priest unburdened himself of the load of Israel’s sin and sorrow, and made known his requests unto the Lord. Aaron, standing there alone, must have been filled with memories of his own faultiness, and of the idolatries and backslidings of the people. God shone upon him, and he bowed before God. He may have heard things which it was not lawful for him to utter, and other things which he could not have uttered if they had been lawful. Beloved, do you know what it is to commune with God? Words are poor vehicles for this fellowship; but what a blessed thing it is! Proofs of the existence of God are altogether superfluous to those of us who are in the habit of conversing with the Eternal One. If anybody were to write an essay to prove the existence of my wife, or my son, I certainly should not read it, except for the amusement of the thing; and proofs of the existence of God to the man who communes with God are much the same. Many of you walk with God: what bliss! Fellowship with the Most High is elevating, purifying, strengthening. Enter into it boldly. Enter into His revealed thoughts, even as He graciously enters into yours. Rise to His plans, as He condescends to yours. Ask to be uplifted to Him, even as He deigns to dwell with you.

This is what the rent of the veil brings us when we have boldness to enter in; but, mark you, the rent veil brings us nothing until we have boldness to enter in. Why stand we without? Jesus brings us near, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Let us not be slow to take up our freedom and come boldly to the throne. The high priest entered within the veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with blood, and with incense, that he might pray for Israel; and there he stood before the Most High, pleading with Him to bless the people. O beloved, prayer is a divine institution, and it belongs to us. But there are many sorts of prayers. There is the prayer of one who seems shut out from God’s holy temple; there is the prayer of another who stands in the court of the Gentiles afar off, looking towards the temple; there is the prayer of one who gets where Israel stands and pleads with the God of the chosen; there is the prayer in the court of the priests, when the sanctified man of God makes intercession; but the best prayer of all is offered in the holiest of all. There is no fear about prayer being heard when it is offered in the holiest. The very position of the man proves that he is accepted with God. He is standing on the surest ground of acceptance, and he is so near to God that his every desire is heard. There the man is seen through and through; for he is very near to God. His thoughts are read, his tears are seen, his sighs are heard; for he has boldness to enter in. He may ask what he will, and it shall be done unto him. As the altar sanctifieth the gift, so the most holy place, entered by the blood of Jesus, secures a certain answer to the prayer that is offered therein. God give us such power in prayer! It is a wonderful thing that the Lord should hearken to the voice of a man; yet are there such men. Luther came out of his closet, and cried, “Vici!” “I have conquered!” He had not yet met his adversaries; but as he had prevailed with God for men, he felt that he should prevail with men for God.

But the high priest, if you recollect, after he had communed and prayed with God, came out and blessed the people. He put on his garments of glory and beauty, which he had laid aside when he went into the holy place, for there he stood in simple white, and nothing else; and now he came out wearing the breast-plate and all his precious ornaments, and he blessed the people. That is what you will do if you have the boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. You will bless the people that surround you. The Lord has blessed you, and He will make you a blessing. Your ordinary conduct and conversation will be a blessed example; the words you speak for Jesus will be like a dew from the Lord: the sick will be comforted by your words; the despondent will be encouraged by your faith; the lukewarm will be recovered by your love. You will be, practically, saying to each one who knows you, “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face shine upon thee…and give thee peace” (Num 6:24-26). You will become a channel of blessing: “Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water” (Joh 7:38). May we each one have boldness to enter in, that we may come forth laden with benedictions!

If you will kindly look at the text, you will notice, what I shall merely hint at, that this boldness is well grounded. I always like to see the apostle using a “therefore”: “Having therefore boldness.” Paul is often a true poet, but he is always a correct logician; he is as logical as if he were dealing with mathematics rather than theology. Here he writes one of his therefores.

Why is it that we have boldness? Is it not because of our relationship to Christ which makes us “brethren”? “Having therefore, brethren, boldness.” The feeblest believer has as much right to enter into the holy place as Paul had; because he is one of the brotherhood. I remember a rhyme by John Ryland, in which he says of heaven:

“They all shall be there, the great and the small;

Poor I shall shake hands with the blessed St. Paul.”

I have no doubt we shall have such a position and such fellowship. Meanwhile, we do shake hands with him this morning as he calls us brethren. We are brethren to one another, because we are brethren to Jesus. Where we see the apostle go, we will go; yea, rather, where we see the Great Apostle and High Priest of our profession enter, we will follow. “Having, therefore, boldness.”

Beloved, we have now no fear of death in the most holy place. The high priest, whoever he might be, must always have dreaded that solemn Day of Atonement, when he had to pass into the silent and secluded place. I cannot tell whether it is true, but I have read that there is a tradition among the Jews, that a rope was fastened to the high priest’s foot that they might draw out his corpse in case he died before the Lord. I should not wonder if their superstition devised such a thing, for it is an awful position for a man to enter into the secret dwelling of Jehovah. But we cannot die in the holy place now, since Jesus has died for us. The death of Jesus is the guarantee of the eternal life of all for whom He died. We have boldness to enter, for we shall not perish.

Our boldness arises from the perfection of His sacrifice. Read the fourteenth verse: “He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” We rely upon the sacrifice of Christ, believing that He was such a perfect substitute for us, that it is not possible for us to die after our substitute has died; and we must be accepted, because He is accepted. We believe that the precious blood has so effectually and eternally put away sin from us, that we are no longer obnoxious to the wrath of God. We may safely stand where sin must be smitten, if there be any sin upon us; for we are so washed, so cleansed, and so fully justified that we are accepted in the Beloved. Sin is so completely lifted from us by the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, that we have boldness to enter where Jehovah Himself dwells.

Moreover, we have this for certain, that as a priest had a right to dwell near to God, we have that privilege; for Jesus hath made us kings and priests unto God, and all the privileges of the office come to us with the office itself. We have a mission within the holy place; we are called to enter there upon holy business, and so we have no fear of being intruders. A burglar may enter a house, but he does not enter with boldness; he is always afraid lest he should be surprised. You might enter a stranger’s house without an invitation, but you would feel no boldness there. We do not enter the holiest as housebreakers nor as strangers; we come in obedience to a call, to fulfill our office. When once we accept the sacrifice of Christ, we are at home with God. Where should a child be bold but in his father’s house? Where should a priest stand but in the temple of his God, for Whose service he is set apart? Where should a blood-washed sinner live but with his God, to Whom he is reconciled?

It is a heavenly joy to feel this boldness! We have now such a love for God, and such a delight in Him, that it never crosses our minds that we are trespassers when we draw near to Him. We never say, “God, my dread,” but “God, my exceeding joy.” His name is the music to which our lives are set: though God be a consuming fire we love Him as such, for He will only consume our dross, and that we desire to lose. Under no aspect is God now distasteful to us. We delight in Him, be He what He may. So you see, beloved, we have good grounds for boldness when we enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

I cannot leave this point until I have reminded you that we may have this boldness of entering in at all times, because the veil is always rent, and is never restored to its old place. “The Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not” (Lev 16:2), but the Lord saith not so to us. Dear child of God, you may at all times have “boldness to enter in.” The veil is rent both day and night. Yea, let me say it, even when thine eye of faith is dim, still enter in; when evidences are dark, still have “boldness to enter in”; and even if thou hast unhappily sinned, remember that access is open to thy penitent prayer. Come still through the rent veil, sinner as thou art. What though thou hast backslidden, what though thou art grieved with the sense of thy wanderings, come even now! “To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” but enter at once; for the veil is not there to exclude thee, though doubt and unbelief may make you think it is so. The veil cannot be there, for it was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.

My time has fled, and I shall not have space to speak as I meant to do upon the last point. Let me give you the notes of what I would have said.

3. How we exercise this grace—Let us at this hour enter into the holiest. Behold the way! We come by the way of atonement: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” I have been made to feel really ill through the fierce and blasphemous words that have been used of late by gentlemen of the modern school concerning the precious blood. I will not defile my lips by a repetition of the thrice-accursed things which they have dared to utter while trampling on the blood of Jesus. Everywhere throughout this divine Book you meet with the precious blood. How can he call himself a Christian who speaks in flippant and profane language of the blood of atonement? My brothers, there is no way into the holiest, even though the veil be rent, without blood. You might suppose that the high priest of old brought the blood because the veil was there; but you have to bring it with you though the veil is gone. The way is open, and you have boldness to enter; but not without the blood of Jesus. It would be an unholy boldness which would think of drawing near to God without the blood of the great Sacrifice. We have always to plead the atonement. As without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin, so without that blood there is no access to God.

Next, the way by which we come is an unfailing way. Please notice that word: “by a new way”. This means by a way which is always fresh. The original Greek suggests the idea of “newly slain.” Jesus died long ago, but His death is the same now as at the moment of its occurrence. We come to God, dear friends, by a way which is always effectual with God. It never, never loses one whit of its power and freshness.

“Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power.”

The way is not worn away by long traffic: it is always new. If Jesus Christ had died yesterday, would you not feel that you could plead His merit today? Very well, you can plead that merit after these nineteen centuries with as much confidence as at the first hour. The way to God is always newly laid. In effect, the wounds of Jesus incessantly bleed our expiation. The cross is as glorious as though He were still upon it. So far as the freshness, vigour, and force of the atoning death is concerned, we come by a new way. Let it be always new to our hearts. Let the doctrine of atonement never grow stale, but let it have dew upon it for our souls.

Then the apostle adds, it is a “living way.” A wonderful word! The way by which the high priest went into the holy place was of course a material way, and so a dead way. We come by a spiritual way, suitable to our spirits. The way could not help the high priest, but our way helps us abundantly. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Joh 14:6). When we come to God by this way, the way itself leads, guides, bears, brings us near. This way gives us life with which to come.

It is a dedicated way: “which he hath consecrated for us.” When a new road is opened, it is set apart and dedicated for the public use. Sometimes a public building is opened by a king or a prince, and so is dedicated to its purpose. Beloved, the way to God through Jesus Christ is dedicated by Christ and ordained by Christ for the use of poor believing sinners such as we are. He has consecrated the way towards God and dedicated it for us, that we may freely use it. Surely, if there is a road set apart for me, I may use it without fear; and the way to God and heaven through Jesus Christ is dedicated by the Saviour for sinners; it is the King’s highway for wayfaring men, who are bound for the City of God; therefore, let us use it. “Consecrated for us”! Blessed word!

Lastly, it is a Christly way; for when we come to God, we still come through His flesh. There is no coming to Jehovah, except by the incarnate God. God in human flesh is our way to God; the substitutionary death of the Word made flesh is also the way to the Father. There is no coming to God, except by representation. Jesus represents us before God, and we come to God through Him Who is our covenant head, our representative and forerunner before the throne of the Most High. Let us never try to pray without Christ; never try to sing without Christ; never try to preach without Christ. Let us perform no holy function, nor attempt to have fellowship with God in any shape or way, except through that rent which He has made in the veil by His flesh, sanctified for us, and offered upon the cross on our behalf.

Beloved, I have done when I have just remarked upon the next two verses, which are necessary to complete the sense, but which I was obliged to omit this morning, since there would be no time to handle them. We are called to take holy freedoms with God. “Let us draw near,” at once, “with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Let us do so boldly, for we have a great high priest. The twenty-first verse reminds us of this. Jesus is the great Priest, and we are the sub-priests under Him, and since He bids us come near to God, and Himself leads the way, let us follow Him into the inner sanctuary. Because He lives, we shall live also. We shall not die in the holy place, unless He dies. God will not smite us unless He smites Him. So, “having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”

And then the apostle tells us that we may, not only come with boldness because our high priest leads the way, but because we ourselves are prepared for entrance. Two things the high priest had to do before he might enter: one, was to be sprinkled with blood, and this we have; for “our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience.” The other requisite for the priests was to have their “bodies washed with pure water.” This we have received in symbol in our baptism, and in reality in the spiritual cleansing of regeneration. To us has been fulfilled the prayer:

“Let the water and the blood

From thy riven side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure,

Cleanse me from its guilt and power.”

We have known the washing of water by the Word, and we have been sanctified by the Spirit of His grace; therefore let us enter into the holiest. Why should we stay away? Hearts sprinkled with blood, bodies washed with pure water—these are the ordained preparations for acceptable entrance. Come near, beloved! May the Holy Spirit be the Spirit of access to you now. Come to your God, and then abide with Him! He is your Father, your all in all. Sit down and rejoice in Him; take your fill of love; and let not your communion be broken between here and heaven. Why should it be? Why not begin today that sweet enjoyment of perfect reconciliation and delight in God which shall go on increasing in intensity until you behold the Lord in open vision, and go no more out? Heaven will bring a great change in condition, but not in our standing, if even now we stand within the veil. It will be only such a change as there is between the perfect day and the daybreak; for we have the same sun, and the same light from the sun, and the same privilege of walking in the light. “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Division” (Song 2:17). Amen, and Amen.

From Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 34, Sermon No. 2015.

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892): Influential Baptist minister in England. History’s most widely read preacher (apart from those found in Scripture). Today, there is available more material written by Spurgeon than by any other Christian author, living or dead. Born at Kelvedon, Essex.

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST

L. R. Shelton, Jr. (1923-2003)

Romans 3:24–26 tells us that the gospel of the grace of God, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation that God has provided through the substitutionary work of Christ, the power that saves us from our sins, glorifies and magnifies the grace of God in allowing God to be just when He justifies a poor sinner who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. This to me is the heart, the meat, the marrow of the gospel of the grace of God, that God is just when He justifies poor sinners because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth is that Christ poured out His precious blood as an atonement for our souls, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. The gospel consists in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible shows us, the Word of God declares unto us, that it is by the poured out precious blood of Christ that an atonement for poor souls can be made and that sins can be remitted—washed away.

From the beginning, the Bible puts great emphasis on the blood of God’s appointed sacrifice as the means of His passing over or forgiving us our sins. Look at Hebrews 9:22 again: “Without shedding of blood is no remission [of sins].” We cannot bypass the blood shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the heart of the gospel of the grace of God. All the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were just types of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ and the forgiveness of sinners’ sin by faith in His precious blood. Hebrews 9:12-14 says, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

The gospel of the grace of God declares unto us how much more the power of the blood of Christ will purge our conscience from dead works that we might serve the true and living God, and that He might declare us justified by that blood, and that we might be saved from His wrath through the Lord Jesus Christ.

We understand, then, that the good news of the gospel is that the blood shedding of our Lord has given us a righteousness whereby God has justified us freely from all things, and we stand in Christ where no condemnation can touch us, and this we have received by faith in His precious blood. Also, this perfect righteousness imputed to us in heaven has brought about a change in our lives down here on earth, if we indeed have laid hold of Christ and the eternal life He gives to every believing soul.

The first change we read about is found in Colossians 1:20: “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” At the cross the Lord Jesus overcame that which takes away peace, that is, sin. By the shedding of His blood, He also overcame Satan, who robs us of our peace. The Lord Jesus satisfied the justice of God whereby God gives us peace by faith in His blood, and Christ by His blood becomes our peace. That is one of the benefits of the gospel of the grace of God, as He tells us in Romans 5:1: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This great truth of the blood shedding of Jesus Christ…has done something else. It has opened the way back to the throne of God. It is the theme of the New Testament. God has made a way that we could come by the shed blood into the very presence of God and have entrance to that throne of grace by that new and living way that Hebrews 10:19 describes: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

First John 1:7 declares another truth, that through the blood of Christ, we who have believed in Christ have been cleansed from all our sin. Ephesians 1:7 declares unto us the same thing, that in Christ we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Also in Romans 5:9 we are told that we who have trusted our never-dying souls to Christ have been justified by His blood before God and are thereby saved from God’s wrath through Christ. We read in Hebrews 9:14 that our conscience, our innermost man, is purged through the blood of the Lamb, Who gave Himself unto God for us, a Lamb without spot or blemish. This is grace; this is mercy; this is precious—the conscience purged from dead works that we might serve the living God!...

The effect of the blood of Christ upon our lives, as we have come to rest upon that blood of Christ for our cleansing and our standing before God, will make a marked difference between us and the world of unbelievers. Why? Because it brings us, as redeemed sinners, into a holy relationship with a holy God by the Holy Spirit, based upon the holy sacrifice of our blessed and holy Savior. When we believe and trust Him and are made to stand by faith in this blood, cleansed and justified before God, there is then a marked difference between us and the world of unbelievers.

By the cross of Christ, by His death and shed blood, we have been crucified unto the world and the world has been crucified unto us. The shedding of the precious blood of Christ means death to self, sin, and the flesh. The difference between the believer and the world of unbelievers is this: the believer has been washed in the blood of Christ by faith and has died to the world. He is no longer an unbelieving worldling; he has become a believing one in Christ and belongs to another world. He has been crucified in Christ to the world; he has been buried with Christ in death. His old man, his former life and ways, have been crucified with Christ; he has died to the power of indwelling sin, for they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.

This is the reason the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, for by the power of the gospel we are made free from the power of indwelling sin, according to Romans 6:22, and are made free in Christ to follow and serve Him as His children. We are delivered from the power of the world and the power of the devil, and are made by God’s grace to walk in newness of life. Second Corinthians 5:17 tells us old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. We have been given new hearts and new natures, so we desire to please God, to follow after holiness and hate every evil and false way.

But that is not all. Scripture teaches that the blood of Christ has secured the death of my old man, my fleshly man. It will lie down and die at last and never rise again. For this I praise the Lord! Also, the blood of Christ has secured the death of Satan, the accuser of the brethren. He will be cast into the lake of fire, for our blessed Lord defeated him at the cross.

The blood of Christ has secured the death of sin, for the plague of my heart will one day be left in the grave. One day I will be able to say, because of the blood of Christ shed on my behalf, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Co 15:55-57).

The blood of Christ has secured for me a new body wherein dwelleth righteousness, and I shall stand before God perfectly redeemed in spirit, soul, and body, being made like my blessed Lord in holiness. Oh, I praise the Lord for this! This is real to my soul, and this to me is what the verses in our text teach: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16).

The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation because of substitution. Christ died in my place. His blood was shed for the remission of my sin, and on believing in Him as a poor, lost, hell-deserving sinner, I have been brought before God completely justified by His blood from all sins. They have been blotted out forever and never shall be remembered against me any more. This is the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what it does in the hearts and lives of those whom He saves by His grace.

This work of Christ was not only for me, but for all those whom the Father had given to Him in electing love and in whom the Holy Spirit has worked effectually by His grace, showing them that they are sinners and deserve nothing but the wrath of God. Unto them, the Scriptures say, He will have mercy. Who are they? No man knows, so the invitation goes forth, “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely” (Rev 22:17).

Will you come and believe and trust Him and look to Him? He alone can save by the power of His gospel.

From Man’s Ruin God’s Redemption; paperback available from Chapel Library.

L. R. Shelton, Jr. (1923-2003): Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He later became associate pastor in his father’s Baptist church. As a young man he devoured the writings of Spurgeon, Pink, the Puritans, and Lloyd-Jones. In 1970 he began a church and ministry in Minnesota. The ministry moved to Pensacola, Florida, in 1979, with the founding of Mt. Zion Bible Church there.

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Using Mount Zion Resources

From anywhere in the world with Internet access, you may download literature in .mobi, .epub, and PDF formats without charge from www.chapellibrary.org. In North America, you may also request limited quantities in print at no charge.

Chapel Library’s literature is helpful for evangelism and discipleship. Our authors include Spurgeon, Calvin, Pink, Bonar, Ryle, the Puritans, and many others. Foreign languages are available as well.

Subscribe to two free quarterly magazines: (1) Free Grace Broadcaster, which presents a biblical theme each quarter, filled with Christ-centered articles from previous centuries; and (2) Studies in the Scriptures, A.W. Pink’s expository digest from the 1930s and 40s. In North America, please write or email for a free subscription. Inmates should use our Prison Order Form instead.

Study the Bible with 30+ courses from either Mount Zion Bible Institute, which uses classic texts from previous centuries, or from Ekklesia Theological Seminary, which offers courses online.

Order resources from our Prison Ministry: we offer a wide selection of literature and free order forms for inmates.

Chapel Library does not necessarily endorse all the doctrinal views of the authors it publishes. © Copyright 2014 Chapel Library: compilation, abridgment, annotations.

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A worldwide ministry of Mount Zion Bible Church