The Doctrine of the Blood of Christ

Colossians 1:15-20

COL-155

Our subject is "Hymn in honor of Christ," segment number 45 in Colossians 1:15-20.

We are concluding this early New Testament hymn, which was recorded in Colossians 1:15-20. The Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, came into the human race as the incarnate God-Man to die as the Lamb of God for the sin of mankind. Three great consequences of that vicarious death for us all brought peace to people who previously had been living in fear of dying, and of facing God.

Redemption

Propitiation

Reconciliation

Peace

The result of these three great things stemming from the death of Christ have given us great personal dignity. And it gives us peace. And to have dignity, you have to have peace. The person who is all disheveled; all out of sorts; all out of control; and, all out of ease, is not a person who is at peace, and, therefore, is a person who does not act with dignity. The resulting peace that Jesus gives to those who trust in Him alone for salvation is irrevocable, never to be lost again. It is entirely a work of God.

The Peace with God, and the Peace of God

The peace that Christ brings to us is twofold. First, we pointed out to you that there is peace with God. This refers to the eternal fellowship. Peace with God is relates to the eternal fellowship of salvation, and the grace gift of God making Christ one's Savior. There's also the peace of God. This relates to temporal fellowship – our daily life, by the confession of making Christ one's Lord. This is how you make Christ your Lord. That's why you know that somebody who says, "Make Christ our Lord and Savior," I don't care if he's on TV, and has a wide following, and he makes a lot of money, and he has a big impact, right away you know that this man is not a good student of the Bible. Nobody who understands the Scripture and the process of the consequence of the death of Christ would say, "Make Christ your Lord and Savior." That's backwards. And it indicates that he probably doesn't even know how to make Christ the Lord.

We live in a day of touchy-feely, emotional approaches. Just read the articles about the death of a recent princess – the reality over against the emotional unreality that is surrounding that event. This is how people relate. And anybody who comes with gravitas dignity is jumped upon as some kind of a lowlife, out of touch with human kindness.

Well, the truth of the matter is that we have peace with God as eternal fellowship, because of what Christ has done for us, and these three things that stem from that. But we have the peace of God, our daily temporal fellowship, by the confession of one's sin.

So, first He has to be your Savior, and then you maintain leadership; that is, He is in control when you have confessed known sins. Now, this is part of why the Scripture says, "Pray without ceasing. One of the things that will occupy you through the day in prayer will be saying, "Lord, I've been this and this and this. And I've said, this and this. And I've just been thinking of this and this. And I've done this and this. It's wrong. I admit it. And I'm going to cease and desist, and make correction and restitution– straighten it out. All day long, there is need for us to get straight with the Lord.

Now, that's important because of what we're told in Ephesians. In our morning devotions in our faculty at the academy, we're starting the book of Ephesians. The first thing we're told is that we have all blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus now. There's nothing in life that you need. There's nothing in life of blessing to be restrained from you, or to be withheld from you. Your fondest dreams and your fondest hope under the will of God are all there. And He's waiting to trigger them, to let you have them. But you have to learn how to be a worshiper of God, and that starts with making Him Lord. Next Sunday morning, I hope you will get a new sense of what it is to be a worshiper of God, and to gain the dignity that is befitting a member of the royal family.

There's nothing so terrible as to see a royal personage who acts like a low, slum commoner. And many Christians are guilty of that very thing. Thank God that we not only have peace with God, relating to our external fellowship of salvation, but we also have the peace of God that takes us through our day as we admit what needs to be told Him.

We took you, this morning, through the Old Testament peace offering under the Mosaic Law, which portrayed a future peace between man and God, resulting from the sacrificial death of Christ, the Messiah, as the Lamb of God on the cross: from our end, knowing what He did; and, then we go back to what the Jews did in this peace offering ritual. That ritual becomes much more meaningful to us than it was to them, because we know the ins and outs of it, and what all those procedures were signifying.

In Colossians 1:20, the last verse of this early Christian hymn, we are told that our reconciliation to God, and our consequent peace with God, is the result of the blood of His cross. Colossians 1:20: "And through Him to reconcile all things Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross."

Tonight, I'm going to take you through everything the Bible says about the blood of Christ – through the doctrine of the blood. Isn't it interesting that when we think about the blood of Christ, we've naturally associate it with what? We associate it with the cross. Isn't it interesting that, in Mormonism, one of the deceiving religions that Satan has invented, they despise the cross? They have contempt for anybody who would wear a cross on a lapel. They have contemptuous things to say about the cross of Christ. I've lost track of the details on that. I'll have to update myself as to why they had that antagonism. Nevertheless, it is interesting that here's a religious system that is based upon proving your merits to go to heaven rather than getting there by the merit of Christ, Who has already done it for us.

Furthermore, isn't it interesting, under that system, that when they gather for the Lord's Supper, they use water instead of wine (instead of grape juice)? They use water in the Lord's Supper? Do you know where that comes from in the Bible? The only water I know in the Bible is one that got converted to wine at the feast. But certainly there it was not water they were drinking at the Last Supper, when that feast was instituted. Now, why would Mormonism have such an antagonism toward the blood of Jesus Christ, such that, even in a Lord's Supper meeting, they put water in those cups? And everybody goes along with it like dumb sheep. Why? Because there is no expository preaching in Mormonism. There's no pastor-teacher principle understood, do that you have somebody in the pulpit who is explaining the Bible, and people out in the congregation are saying, "Amen. Hot dog. I'm with you, I'm going for it." Or, they're saying, "I wish you'd stop butting in, and stop meddling, and start preaching." And in any service, we always try to have something to offend everyone, just so that you stay alert to the fact that nobody is perfect, and you just might as well admit it. But when you start dabbling in something like the blood of Christ, you're in a lot of deep trouble.

The Doctrine of the Blood of Christ

1. "Dam"

   The Old Testament Hebrew word for "blood" looks like this: "dam." This word is used 362 times in the Old Testament for the word "blood." 203 times it refers to death with some violence attached to it. 103 times it refers to the blood of sacrifice – the sacrifices which pictured the work of Christ. Seven times, it's used in connection with the statement that life is in the blood. 17 times it refers to the prohibition about eating meat with blood in it. You can't eat borscht – that's a blood soup. 32 times are miscellaneous uses of this word.

2. "Hima"

   In the New Testament, the word "blood" is "hima." This word is used 98 times in the New Testament. 25 times it's used to indicate a violent death. 12 times it's used in reference to animal sacrifices. 25 times it's used of the blood of Christ relative to salvation: 25 times – one of the major uses, referring to the blood of Christ in salvation. Nine times it's used as an apocalyptic sign. In the book of the Revelation, the moon turns to blood, or the appearance of blood, I should say. And it's used 27 times in miscellaneous ways.

3. The Red Fluid in our Veins

   The word "blood" is used normally is used normally in the Old Testament and the New Testament as a designation for the red fluid that flows in the veins of people and animals (Luke 13:1, Acts 15:20). Blood is simply the fluid that's in the veins of living creatures.

4. The Bearer of Life

   The blood is the bearer of life in both people and animals. In John 1:13, we read, "Who were born (people who were born-again) not of blood. The life doesn't come from the blood, though there is life in the blood. That is the point of this – nor of the will of the flesh, nor by human determination are you going to get to heaven, nor by the will of man – somebody determining for you, like a priest who's going to make a cross over you, and say, "Pax vobiscum" ("peace be with you"), and you're going to get the idea that he's going to take you into heaven. But it's of God.

   Verse 12: "But as many as received Him (Christ), to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name." Salvation is always by an act of faith in Jesus Christ, believing that His death covers your sins.

   Then verse 13: "These who were born (again – by believing) not of blood (not of the life that's in the blood), nor the determination of man, nor the will of man (the human body in some way, performing rituals), but of God.

   In the Old Testament, in Leviticus 17:11, we have the same principle. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood by reason of the light that makes atonement." God said, "The life is in the blood. I take this animal, and I sprinkle his life as a covering. "Atonement" means a temporary covering for your sins until the Messiah Savior comes and actually pays for those. So, the blood is where the life is. It takes a life that is innocent to pay for a life that is guilty. So, the blood is the bearer of life in both people and animals.

5. The Blood of Christ has a Central Position in the New Testament

   The blood of Jesus Christ occupies a central position in New Testament thought. 1 Peter 1:2 speaks about the blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:19 and 1 John 1:7 speak about the blood of Jesus. 1 Corinthians 10:16, Ephesians 2:13, and Hebrews 9:14 speak about the blood of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:27 speaks about the blood of the Lord. Revelation 7:14 and Revelation 12:11 speak about the blood of the Lamb. Repeatedly in the New Testament, those 25 times that it's used in association with Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ has a central position.

   Now, my teenage years were spent in a little Baptist church in the city of Chicago, participating in all the activities that went on there – the band and everything else, and the scouting. And that church, on the west side of Chicago, was the product of a man who was an elderly gentleman, when I came along as a teenager. And everybody addressed him as "Dad Crittendon." He was the man who walked out of a very large church in the city of Chicago, when it had a new pastor from the Baptist Seminary of the University of Chicago, who had been caught up and conquered by what was then called "the modernist fundamentalist battle" of the day. At that point in time, liberals were called "modernists," and a great debate was on about whether the Bible was actually the Word of God; whether Jesus was virgin-born; whether Christ died in order to substitute for you on the cross; and, whether He had to shed His blood for you. And one of the things that came out of that modernist battle was that the blood of Christ was symbolic. It was not real. It was not necessary. As a matter of fact, they called it "modernism," and they had no hesitancy in calling it (the Word of God) "a butcher religion." They held in great contempt.

   Well, Dad Crittendon, as a very young man, walked out of that church. After that new pastor preached his first sermon, he announced the hymn, and that hymn has a fourth verse that spoke about the blood of Christ, and our saving covering through that blood. He said, "We won't sing that verse because that speaks about the blood of Christ, and we don't adhere to that in our understanding today.

   So, this contempt (this antagonism) for the blood of Christ led Mr. Crittendon to walk out, and to get a mission work that eventuated into a church. And I was one of the beneficiaries of the fact that there was a man who said, "No, the Bible is true. The blood of Christ is the source of life. The blood of Jesus Christ is central to anybody ever getting to heaven. It was the blood which was shed in death for us that enables us to be declared justified in the sight of God. And you here this day, as the result, through me, are the beneficiaries of what that man did decades and decades and decades ago.

   The blood of Jesus Christ occupies a central position in New Testament thought, no matter what liberalism does to try to denigrate that.

6. Literal Interpretation

   The principle of literal interpretation demands that references to the blood of Christ be normally taken as literal. That's how you interpret the Bible. You interpret it, first of all, in its literal sense, unless it's obviously a symbolic expression. 1 Peter 1:18-19: "Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a Lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." In these two verses, you will see that Peter is saying you are not saved, and you are not redeemed with valuable metals like silver and gold.

   Now, what could he have meant by that? What deeper meaning was silver and gold? What could Peter have meant by that? You're not saved by silver or gold. He probably was talking about the aura that you see around the sun sometimes. It looks very silvery – or the moon at night. He was probably talking about the golden cast that one sees as the sun sets. What could these words mean? Any normal person says, "What do you mean, 'What does it mean?'" It means the valuable metal of silver, and the valuable metal of gold. And you are not saved with monetary-valued things.

   OK. So now we get down to the next verse, and it speaks about precious blood. And that's not literal. That is symbolic for the spiritual death of Christ? Now you can see the nonsense. And some very prominent preachers will tell you that within these two verses, "Yes, the gold and silver was for real. But the precious blood – that's a symbol." This spiritualizing of the blood of Jesus Christ into a symbol of His spiritual death is an arbitrary conclusion. That's just somebody who decides they want it that way. You have to take the Bible literally.

7. The Shedding of Animal Blood vs. the Blood of Christ

   The Bible links the Old Testament sacrifice shedding of animal blood with the New Testament shedding of the blood of Christ in sacrifice. Let's look at a few verses on that – Hebrews 9:7, for example: "But into the second (that is the second part of the tabernacle, the holy of holies), only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance." Once a year, they sprinkled the blood on the Day of Atonement for all of the nation.

   Now look at Hebrews 9:12-14: "And not through the blood of goats and calves (which is what the high priest took into the holy of holies to sprinkle on the mercy seat), but through His own blood, He (Jesus) entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctified for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, Who, through the eternal spirit, offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" What's he saying? He is telling us that the blood of animals is only a temporary symbol. It will not take away your sin. You may go through it, and have ceremonial cleansing, like the ashes of the red heifer, and the blood of the animals, but you will not have forgiveness of sin. You'll have ceremonial cleansing, representing the cleansing that Christ, with His blood, eventually will produce.

   That's what verse 17 says. Here is this God-man, sinless, with no blemish. He will cleanse your conscience from the dead worship trying to save yourself. You may add to that Hebrews 9:18-22, Hebrews 9:25, Hebrews 10:4, Hebrews 11:28, and Hebrews 13:11-12. In all of these verses, the Bible connects the Old Testament animal sacrifices with that which Christ did as the fulfillment of what those sacrifices represented. And those animal sacrifices were the type, and Jesus Christ and His sacrifice were the anti-type. The type in the Old Testament shed blood. The anti-type, Jesus Christ, also shed blood – shed literal blood. And that's what our Colossians 1:20 passage was referring to – the sacrificial blood of His cross.

8. The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ vs. the Animal Sacrifices

   The New Testament references to the blood of Jesus Christ derive their meaning from the Old Testament animal sacrifices, specifically, on the Day of Atonement. That is explained in detail in Leviticus 16. Jesus Christ brought the one efficacious sacrifice for sin. The perfect sacrifice of Christ was portrayed in the Old Testament repeatedly under the Mosaic Law by the animal sacrifices. What Christ did explains what they were portraying in the Old Testament.

9. Christ's Blood on the Cross was Sacrificial in Nature

   The literal blood shed by Jesus Christ on the cross was sacrificial in nature (Hebrews 9:12ff, and also again, our Colossians 1:20 passage) – the blood of His cross. That's a term for sacrifice.

10. Christ's Blood had no Magical Powers

    The literal blood of Jesus Christ has no magical powers in itself. Contact with the actual blood of Christ would not have created a miracle. I've told you before that, when I was a boy, somehow I came into this into the possession of a Roman Catholic crucifix. I discovered that there was a latch on the back, so the back of the crucifix opened. And when I opened it, lo and behold, there was a red substance. It was soil. It was a little bit of dirt and it was marked red. It was colored red. And in it, above cross-arm of the cross above, it said, "This soil bears a drop of the blood of Christ from the foot of the cross." I went everywhere with that cross, hoping that someday I'd run into Dracula, and I could hold it against him. This is not only a cross, but it had the actual blood of Christ inside of it.

    Well, some poor Catholic had bought that from some Catholic bookstore, and somehow it got into my hands, and to that Catholic, it had a special meaning, because he actually believed that that red stuff inside was soil marked by the blood of Christ. But even if it were, it had no magical quality. That is the point. It has no magical qualities. It would not have performed a miracle. The blood of Christ that was shed simply fell into the dust of the ground. The value of the literal blood of Jesus Christ lies in Who He was as a sinless God-man, and that it was shed while bearing the sins of the world. If Jesus Christ, in His carpentry work, cut Himself on His finger, His blood had no particular magic or merit or value, at that point in time. He would heal, like anybody else. But when He said His blood, while the sins of all of us were imputed to Him, that blood was now being shed in payment with His life for our sinfulness. And He died spiritually, as well as physically, so that we could live, because we're already spiritually dead. We could not afford that price. And physical death, while you are spiritually dead, destines you for the lake of fire. There was no way out for us. He had to do it, and He did.

    The union of Christ's two nature's was actually so complete (that he was both God and man) – that's the doctrine of the hypostatic union (we refer to that theologically). They were always separate, but His blood, in His humanity, did make it, in effect, the blood of God – the blood of the God-Man. And it was special in that respect, but it bore its value only when He was bearing the sins of the world.

    So, when the Roman Catholic priest (as I recently watched him do) claims to convert the blood in the Mass into the actual blood of Christ, whatever he has left over, he drinks, and then he swishes out the chalice. And he walks over to the wall, and they have a little funnel there. And he pours it in. And they have a tube that will take it down into the ground, because it's a sacred object. That is paganism. That is not Christianity.

11. Christ's Blood, at any Other Time, Had No Redemptive Power

    The blood of Jesus Christ said at any other time, other than when He was bearing the sins of the world, had no redemptive power. The enemies of Jesus Christ tried to kill Him many times, but He would not permit it. We see that, for example, in John 10:17-18. But at the right time, Jesus Christ permitted His life to be taken (John 18:4-5, and John 12).

12. Death by the Shedding of Blood was Required

    The Old Testament animal sacrifice, as portraying the atonement of Christ, always had to be killed by the shedding of literal blood. If an animal was brought in sacrifice by any other means than the shedding of that animal's blood, it was not acceptable as a sacrifice. You couldn't strangle the animal to death, and have it accepted by God as a sacrificial animal for the purpose that it was being given. Always, the animal's blood had to be shed. There was no forgiveness of sins possible if literal blood was not shed. Hebrews 9:22: "And according to the law, one may almost say, 'All things are cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.'"

    Hebrews 11:4: "By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks." Abel brought a sacrifice of a slain Lamb. The blood was shed; the symbol was intact; the symbol was respected; and, God accepted his sacrifice. Cain came along, one of the first liberals of the human race and said, "I'm a farmer. I don't deal with animals. I will bring the best of my produce to God. That is my sacrifice." God says, "No, that is not acceptable, because there is no blood shed." Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins.

    So, when the creature from the sophisticated, prestigious University of Chicago seminary talks about not believing in the shedding of the blood of Christ with contempt, he was simply repeating the heresy of Cain. And tomorrow morning in chapel, I'm showing the children a video about the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, and of the consequences to Cain – the mark that God put upon him, and the horrendous realization of what this man had done, and the consequences, as his father, Adam, has to look there upon his dead son Abel, and realize that it was the father's sin, to begin with, that caused all of this tragedy to come.

    The shedding his blood short of the physical death of the animal was not acceptable to God either. You could not take just a little blood of the animal, and let the animal live. Hebrews 9:22: "All things have to be cleansed by the actual blood.

    Now, while the Lord Jesus Christ did not die by having his throat cut, as in the animal sacrifices, He did shed His blood on the cross (Colossians 1:20, again) – "the blood of His cross." We have pretty good indication that that's the way Cain killed his brother Abel, because the word that is used for "kill," there in the Hebrew, is the word that is used for taking an animal by his neck; pulling the neck back; drawing a knife across the throat; and, cutting the jugular vein. And that's the same Hebrew word which is used to describe what Cain did to Abel. So, he probably picked up the very sacrificial knife that Abel had used in sacrificing his Lamb in obedience to God, and used it to kill his brother. You want to sacrifice God? I'll sacrifice my brother to you.

    What has Satan always done? Satan was always a blood-letter. Satan was always a murderer. Satan is always shedding the blood of innocent people. So, there's this an enormous consistency of what took place there that consistently happens in the human race through the leadings of Satan's deceit, and his attacks upon people in shedding innocent blood.

13. Christ's Physical Body

    Jesus Christ was given a physical body to be specifically offered in sacrifice for sin by offering his literal blood. Hebrews 10:5: "Therefore, when He comes into the world (Jesus Christ), He says, 'Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for me.'" Jesus Christ said, "Father, you've prepared a human body for Me." For what purpose?

    Verse 10: "By this will, we have been sacrificed through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." It was so that the body of Christ could be sacrificed on that cross. Jesus Christ, as God, could not die. But as the God-Man, in His humanity, He could die in that body.

14. A Specific, Sacrificial Kind of Death

    References to the blood of Christ is not simply a symbol of His death, but a specific, sacrificial kind of death. The blood of Christ is not simply a symbol for His death, but a specific kind of death – one that sheds the blood. 1 Corinthians 5:7: "Clean out the leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are, in fact, unleavened, for Christ, our Passover, also has been sacrificed." Christ is compared to the Passover lamb. It was the blood of that Passover land that kept the firstborn of the Jewish children from being killed.

15. The Perfect Lamb of God

    Jesus Christ presented his little literal blood in the sacrifice of himself on the cross as the perfect Lamb of God for the sins of the world (Hebrews 9:12ff). In this way, He fulfilled all the Old Testament animal types. Christ's literal blood testified His literal physical death.

16. Christ's Blood was Necessary for the Atonement

    The sacrificial ritual on the Day of Atonement portrayed the necessity for the literal blood of Jesus Christ in the Atonement. In Leviticus 16:30, Leviticus 23:27, and Hebrews 9:11-14, all these verses describe how the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies once a year with the blood of an innocent and perfect animal, and sprinkles it on the mercy seat. That is the point at which God is satisfied. His justice is satisfied relative to the payment for human sin.

17. Part of the Atonement

    The analogy of Jesus Christ to the Old Testament Passover lamb demands the shedding of His literal blood as part of the Atonement (1 Corinthians 5:7). If Christ is our Passover Lamb He has to literally to be killed by the shedding of His blood.

18. Christ's Blood was Shed Profusely in Payment for Sin

    The literal blood of Jesus Christ was shed profusely in the course of the payment for sin. Some people think that (and I've heard preachers say) that He didn't bleed. He had a lot of vitamin K in His system. The vitamin K formed the clotting, and He didn't bleed. That's not true. We can't take time to go through these Scriptures, but Luke 22:44 tells us how He bled profusely in the Garden of Gethsemane, before anything was done to him.

    In Matthew 26:67 and Matthew 27:26, we have described the physical beatings that were given Him. He was struck on His back by whips in which there were metal implantations that just simply shredded the skin on His back, and cut into the muscle, and caused profuse bleeding.

    Matthew 27:29 tells about the long thorns out of which were made a crown that was pressed into His skull, and the bleeding that came down His face, over His eyes, around the back of His neck as the blood flowed from the scalp. If you've ever had a scalp wound, you know how profusely the scalp can bleed. There's lots of blood there.

    Then, in John 20:25 and Luke 24:39-40, He bled from the nail wounds in His hands, and the wounds in His feet. The Lord Jesus Christ did a lot of bleeding. That probably was the reason that He ultimately died – the loss of blood was so great that shock set in.

19. The Death of Christ by Blood Loss

    The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was the normal result of the beatings and the great loss of blood which He experienced. He did not commit suicide. He lay down His life for the sins of the world by permitting man to murder Him. Jesus knew, of course, when the moment had arrived, when his body would die, and he announced it in Luke 23:46. The deity of Christ was in full command of all the proceedings surrounding His death. And as the God-man, He paced and chose the moment when His body no longer could sustain the loss of blood. And then He turned it over to death. He was in control all the way (Matthew 27:50, John 19:30)

20. The Animal Sacrifices Portrayed Christ's Death

    The Old Testament animal sacrifices simply portrayed the death of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world without distinguishing between His spiritual and physical deaths on the cross (Matthew 27:46, John 19:33-4). In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah speaks about the sacrifice of the coming Messiah, and it says, "His deaths" (plural), because Christ died spiritually when the Father and the Holy Spirit placed the burden of the sins of the world on Him, and then they turned away from Him. And that's why, in agony, from 12:00 noon, to 3:00, He cried out, "My God, My God," addressing those two persons of the Godhead, "Why have you forsaken Me?"

    Later on, at 3 o'clock, having paid for the sins of the world, he was now ready to make the last commitment of His own physical death, and that's when He no longer used the word "God," when He said, "Father, into Your hands I commit Myself." He was now back in fellowship, and the payment had been made. So, the animal sacrifices did not distinguish between the fact that He died spiritually in separation from God (that's what death is), and He died physically, which is separation of the soul from the body.

21. Christ Ransomed Believers from the Power or Satan

    By His spiritual and physical deaths, Christ ransomed believers from the power of Satan (Acts 20:28, Ephesians 1:7, 1 Peter 1:18ff, Revelation 5:9). That's why the devil has no control over you anymore. Christ broke the back of the devil's power. And once you're in Christ, you are under His protective custody. And the only time Satan can guide your mind so that His mind becomes your mind is when you permit him to do that – when you're out of temporal fellowship. You've said "No" to something God wants you to do. You've turn your back upon a mission that He has called you for. You are in willful sin, and you're grieving Him. You're quenching Him by saying, "No." You're not walking by means of dependence upon Him. Please remember that every moment of your life, there is one of two minds that is operating in the mentality of your soul. It's either Satan or it's the Spirit of God. It is one of the other. If you're not a Christian, you're for bunco artists all the time. It's always Satan that's guiding your thinking. It's always Satan that's running thought through your mind. You are not sitting there, bringing thoughts on your own, ever.

22. The Lord's Supper

    The blood of Christ in salvation is stressed separately in the memorial of the Lord's Supper (Matthew 26:26-28, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Since the bread symbolizes His literal body, the wine (the grape juice) symbolizes the literal blood of the sacrifice. Both the body and the blood are viewed as essential to redemption. You can see what a blasphemy Mormonism presents by using water instead of the juice of the grape.

23. Purging of Sin is at the Point of Application

    The purging of sin in the Old Testament did not come at the point of shedding the animal's blood, but at the point of application. Yes, Christ died for the sins of the world. That's not going to get you into heaven. When does the shedding of the blood of Christ pertain and apply to you? When you accept Him as Savior. Then you come under the blood (Hebrews 9:19-22, Hebrews 12:24). In the Old Testament, the application was by pouring the blood out at the base of the altar (Leviticus 4:7) by smearing it on the altar (Exodus 29:12), or by sprinkling it on the altar (Exodus 29:16), or it was sprinkled on the high priest (Exodus 29:21), or it was sprinkled on the veil dividing the holy place from the holy of holies (Leviticus 4:6). In the New Testament, the application of the blood of Christ is by believing in Him as personal Savior John 6:53-56 point that out, as well as Acts 16:31: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and You shall be saved." At that point of faith is the point where the blood applies to you. So, Christ's sacrificial blood justifies all who appropriate for themselves the sacrificial death in which He shed that blood (Romans 3:25).

24. The Word "Blood" is Sometimes Used Figuratively for Atonement

    The word "blood" is sometimes used figuratively for the atoning work of Jesus Christ as a whole (Revelation 19:13, John 6:53-56). Here they're taking one element of the whole process of atonement (the blood), and using it to describe the whole saving work. The blood of Christ cannot be viewed as meaning simply the death of Christ. The death of Christ included a great deal more than just the actual blood.

25. Sprinkled Blood

    The phrase "sprinkled blood," that we have in Hebrews 12:24, means the application to the believer of the death of Christ for sin. Let me just read that verse: "And to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel." Abel's blood was an animal blood. We are sprinkled by the blood of Christ, meaning the application of His death.

26. The Substitution of an Innocent Life for a Guilty one

    Without the substitution in death of an innocent life for a guilty one, there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22).

27. Blood on the Door Post

    Literal blood on the lintel and the door post in Egypt protected the firstborn from physical death, symbolizing the protection of the blood of Christ from eternal death (Exodus 12).

28. The Church

    The New Testament church is built upon the redemption provided by the literal blood of Jesus Christ (Acts 20:28). The whole church is built upon the fact that Christ shed His blood.

29. A New Covenant

    New Testament is a covenant – a new covenant based on the shed blood of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:24, Hebrews 9:16, Hebrews 10:13, Mark 14:24). All of those verses in the book of Hebrews are well worth going through. It is beyond our time to do that tonight. But all those verses in the book of Hebrews are written to Jewish Christians who were thinking about going back to the legalism of the Mosaic Law. And what is pointing out is that we have a new covenant which is based upon the shed blood of Jesus Christ, which is much better than that old covenant of Moses, which was based upon the shed blood of animals.

30. Temporal Fellowship

    The shed literal blood of Jesus Christ, given in death, is the basis for the believer's maintenance of his temporal fellowship. It is the fact that the blood of Christ has been shed in our behalf for all sins: past; present; and, future, that we can confess and maintain our temporal fellowship. 1 John 1:7-9: "If we walk in the light (doctrinal truth), as He (Christ) is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin (no sin nature), we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins (our personal acts of evil, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Verse 7 says, "We have eternal fellowship through the blood of Christ." Verse 6 says, "We have temporal fellowship through the confession of sin, based upon with that love has covered."

31. Access to God

    Christ's blood makes possible life in God's presence, giving access to God (Hebrews 10:19, Ephesians 2:13-18). The only reason you and I are going to stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, and in the glory of God the Father, is because of the blood of Jesus Christ.

32. Christ's Physical Death

    Here is a very significant point about the contempt for the blood of Christ, and the point at which salvation was made. There are some people who are saying that Jesus was still alive when He said, "It is finished." So, they said, "The physical death of Christ was not part of the atonement – only the spiritual death." Well, may I point out to you that the veil in the temple was not torn until the physical death of Jesus Christ? You cannot blow that off as an insignificant point in this whole discussion. Mark 15:37-38: "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed out His last." "A loud cry," we know from other gospels, was: "Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit."

    Verse 38: "When He breathed His last, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom." Now, what did the tearing of the veil signify? Well, behind that veil was the most sacred object that only the high priest could see once a year: the Ark of the Covenant, covered by those two cherubim angels made of gold, facing one another. And the objects within the Ark (that box) were the signs of Israel's sin: the Ten Commandments; Aaron's rod budding; and, the little bit of manna. All of these spoke of Christ, and of human sin. And if the high priest went in there (past that veil) any other day, he died. If he didn't go in there with the proper blood sacrifice, he would die. Now, here, it's all open. And we're all going to be able to go in. When did it happen? At the physical death of Christ. You cannot say the physical death of Christ is not part of the payment for our sins. That is consistent with the Old Testament picture of animal sacrifice. The physical body of Jesus Christ was provided, as we have seen, for the specific purpose of suffering and dying for the sins of the world (Hebrews 10:5, Hebrews 10:10). All of this is compared to the animal sacrifices. Our access as believers into God's presence is through the physical death of Jesus Christ, which is symbolized by the temple veil.

    The Lord Jesus Christ declared in John 10:15 that He is giving His physical life for His sheep (the believers). Jesus Christ died physically for our sins because He was buried physically, and he was resurrected physically. All of these (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) are part of paying for our sins.

33. The Literal Blood of Christ

    As entrance into the holy of holies of the temple was by means of the literal blood of Christ, so also is entrance into heaven by means of the literal blood of Christ. Anybody who rejects Jesus Christ rejects His literal blood. That person can never go to heaven. It is the blood of Christ that is payment for our sins that brought about His death.

34. Sanctification, Redemption, Propitiation, Peace, Reconciliation, & Justification

    The great doctrines related to salvation are all based on the literal blood shed by Jesus Christ in His payment of death for the sins of mankind. Every one of these verses declares that the great doctrines associated with our salvation are the result of His shed blood. Matthew 26:28 says that: "The forgiveness of our sins could not have come about without the shedding of His blood." In 1 Corinthians 1:2, Hebrews 2:10-11, and Hebrews 9:13-15, we're told that there could be no sanctification without blood. Sanctification means that God sets us apart to eternal life with no compromise and no changes. There was no redemption without the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:7, Revelation 5:9). There was no propitiation of God the Father's justice without the blood of Christ (Romans 3:25). There was no peace with God without the shedding of the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:1-3, 3 Colossians 1:20). There was no reconciliation without the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20-22_. There was no temporal fellowship (1 John 1:7-9) without the shedding of the blood of Christ. There was no justification without the shedding the blood of Christ (Romans 5:8-9), and there is no entrance into heaven without the shedding of the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:10-20).

While man with His human reasoning, contaminated and fallen by the effects of sin, may dispense with contempt the shed blood of Christ, relative to our entrance into heaven, the Old Testament animal sacrifices made it very clear: an innocent life for a guilty one. And for us, it took the spiritual and the physical deaths of Jesus Christ, with the resulting shedding of His blood, which brought about His physical death, to cover our sins. If it was not for the blood of Christ, there would be no hope for us. But He did it. And we're saved. And we're secure.

Father, we thank You for this summary of this great doctrinal of truth – the blood of Christ. And we pray that we will have a new respect and a new awe for this which our Savior did for us. It hurts to bleed, and we thank You that He was willing to take that suffering so that He could put in us His absolute righteousness, and thereby to be able to enfold us in His arms, in maximum love. Thank You for that. In His name. Amen.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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