is of deep significance. It shows that there can be no approach to God; no fellowship with Him by faith; no enjoyment of His favor, apart from The Blood.Scripture gives but short notice of the following sixteen centuries. Then Came The Flood, which was God’s judgement on sin, by the destruction of the world of mankind.But God brought forth a new earth from that awful baptism of water. Notice, however, that the new earth must be baptized used also with blood, and the first recorded act of Noah, after he had left the ark, was the offering of a burnt sacrifice to God. As with Abel, so with Noah a t a new beginning, it was “Not Without Blood.”Sin once again prevailed, and God laid an entirely new foundation for the establishment of His Kingdom on earth.By the divine call of Abram, and the miraculous birth of Isaac, God undertook the formation of a people to serve Him. But this purpose was not accomplished apart from the shedding of The Blood. This is apparent in the most solemn hour of Abraham’s life.God had already entered into covenant relationship with Abraham, and his faith had already been severely tried, and had stool the test. It was reckoned, or counted to him, for righteousness. Yet he must learn that Isaac, the son of promise, who belonged wholly to God, can be truly surrendered to God only by death.Isaac must die. For Abraham, as well as for Isaac, only by death could freedom from the self-life be obtained.Abraham must offer Isaac on the altar.That was not an arbitrary command of God. It was the revelation of a divine truth, that it is only through health, that a life truly consecrated to God is possible. But it was impossible for Isaac to die and rise again from the dead; for on account of sin, death would hold him fast. But see, his life was spared, and a ram was offered in his place. Through the blood that then flowed on Mount Moorish his life was spared. He and the people which sprang from him, live before God “Not Without Blood.” By that blood, however, he was in a figure raised again from the ahead. The great lesson of substitution is here clearly taught.Four hundred years pass, and Isaac has become, in Egypt, the people of Israel. Through her deliverance from Egyptian bondage Israel was to be recognized as God’s first-born among the nations. Here, also, it is “Not Without Blood.” Neither the electing grace of God, nor His covenant with Abraham, nor the exercise of His omnipotence, which could so easily have destroyed their oppressors, could dispense with the necessity of The Blood.What The Blood accomplished on Mount Moorish for one person, who was the Father of the nation, must now be experienced by that nation. By the sprinkling of the door frames of the Israelites with the Blood of the Paschal lamb; by the institution of the Passover as an enduring ordinance with the words—” When I see the Blood I will pass over you,” the people were taught that life can be obtained only by the death of a substitute. Life was possible for them only through The Blood of a life given in their place, and appropriated by “the sprinkling of that blood.”Fifty days later this lesson was enforced in a striking manner. Israel had reached Sinai. God had given His Law as the foundation of His covenant. That covenant must now be established, but as it is expressly stated in Hebrews ix. 7, “Not Without Blood.” The Sacrificial Blood must be sprinkled, first on the altar, and then on the book of the Covenant, representing God’s side of that Covenant; then on the people, with the declaration, “This is The Blood of the Covenant” (Exodus xxiv).It was in that Blood the Covenant had its foundation and power. It is by The Blood alone, that God and man can be brought into covenant fellowship. That which had been foreshadowed at the Gate of Eden, on Mount Ararat, on Moriah, and in Egypt was now confirmed at the foot of Sinai, in a most solemn manner. Without Blood there could be no access by sinful man to a Holy God. There is, however, a marked difference between the manner of applying the blood in the former cases as compared with the latter. On Moriah the life was redeemed by the shedding of the blood. In Egypt it was sprinkled on the door posts of the houses; but at Sinai, it was sprinkled on the persons themselves. The contact was closer, the application more powerful.Immediately after the establishment of the covenant the command was givers, “Let them make me a. sanctuary that I may dwell among them “ (Exod. xxv. 8). They were to enjoy the full blessedness of having the God of the Covenant abiding among them. Through His grace they may find Him, and serve Him in His house.He Himself gave, with the minutest care, directions for the arrangement and service of that house. But notice that The Blood is the center and reason of all this. Draw near to the vestibule of the earthly temple of the Heavenly King, and the first thing visible is the Altar of Burnt Offering, where the sprinkling of blood continues, without ceasing, from morning till evening. Enter the Holy Place, and the most conspicuous thing is the golden altar of incense, which also, together with the veil, is constantly sprinkled with the Blood. Ask what lies beyond the Holy Place, and you will be told that it is the Most Holy Place where God dwells. If you ask how He dwells there, and how He is approached, you will be told “Not Without Blood.” The golden throne where His glory shines, is itself sprinkled with The Blood, once every year, when the High Priest alone enters to bring inThe Blood, and to worship God. The highest act in that worship is the sprinkling of The Blood.If you inquire further, you will be told that always, and for everything, The Blood is the one thing needful. At the consecration of the House, or of the Priests; at the birth of a child; in the deepest penitence on account of sin; in the highest festival; always, and in everything, the way to fellowship with God is through The Blood alone.This continued for fifteen hundred years. At Sinai, in the desert, at Shiloh, in the Temple on Mount Moriah it continued till our Lord came to make an end of all shadows by bringing in the substance, and try establishing a fellow ship with the Holy One, in spirit and truth.2 What Our Lord Jesus Himself Teaches about the Blood.With His coming old things passed away, and all things became new.He came from the Father in Heaven, and can tell us in divine words the way to the Father.It is sometimes said that the words “Not Without Blood” belong to the Old Testament. But what does our Lord Jesus Christ say? Notice, first, that when John the Baptist announced His coming, he spoke of Him as filling a dual office, as “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world”; and then as “the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.” The outpouring of the Blood of the Lamb of God must take place, before the outpouring of the Spirit could be bestowed. Only when all that the Old Testament taught about The Blood has been fulfilled, can the Dispensation of the Spirit begin.The Lord Jesus Christ Himself plainly declared that lies death on the Cross was the purpose for which He came into the world; that it was the necessary condition of the redemption and life which He came to bring. He clearly states that in connection with His death the shedding of His Blood was necessary.In the Synagogue at Capernaum He spoke of Himself as “the Bread of Life”; of His flesh, “that He would give it for the life of the world.” Four times over He said most emphatically, “Except ye . . . drink lies Blood ye have no life in you.” “He that drinketh my Blood hath everlasting life.” “My Blood is drink indeed.” “He that drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him” (John vi.). Our Lord thus declared the fundamental fact that He Himself, as the Son of the Father, who came to restore to us our lost life, can do this in no other way than by dying for us; by shedding His blood for us; and then making us partakers of its power.Our Lord confirmed the teaching of the Old Testament Offerings—that man can live only through the death of another, and thus obtain a life that through Resurrection has become eternal.But Christ Himself cannot make us partakers of that eternal life which He has procured for us, save by the shedding of His blood, and causing us to drink it. Marvelous fact! “Not Without Blood” can eternal life be ours.Equally striking is our Lord’s declaration of the same truth on the last night of His earthly life. Before He completed the great work of His life by giving it “as a ransom for many,” He instituted the Holy Supper, saying—“This cup is the New Testament in My Blood that is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins. Drink ye all of it.” (Matt. xxvi. 28). “without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” Without remission of sins there is no life. But by the shedding of His Blood He has obtained a new life for us. By what He calls “the drinking of His blood” He shares His life with us. The blood shed in the Atonement, which frees us from the SIN, the guilt of sin; and from death, the punishment of sin; the blood, which by faith we drink, bestows on us His life. The Blood He shed was, in the first place for us, and is then given to us.
3 The Teaching of the Apostles under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit.After His Resurrection and Ascension, our Lord is not any longer known by the Apostles “after the flesh.” Now, all that was symbolical has passed away, and the deep spiritual truths expressed by symbol, are unveiled.But there is no veiling of The Blood. It still occupies a prominent place. Turn first to the Epistle
