Without the Shedding of Blood...
You will find the text in the ninth
chapter of Hebrews, and the twenty-second verse: "And almost all things
are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no
remission. This text has in it the very soul and center and secret of all true
Christian consecration. The idea has obtained that God was angry with men
because of sin, that God's wrath must be satisfied; and so an arrangement must
be made by which he could pour out his wrath upon his Son, and thus satisfy his
justice. And while this wrath was waiting for full satisfaction when it should
be poured out on his Son, a system of sacrifice was instituted which would
appease his wrath temporarily, and hold it in abeyance. But this idea of atonement,
or reconciliation, separates entirely between the Father and the Son, making
the Father so stern and hard that he demands his full "pound of
flesh," so to speak, and the Son so kind, so good, that he gives it out of
his own heart that we may be set free. Thus, instead of Christ revealing the
Father, the two are opposite - entirely separated. But no, "He that hath
seen the Son hath seen the Father."
And if you want to know how God
feels toward sin, notice how Christ hated sin. If you want to know how God
feels toward the sinner, notice how Christ loved the sinner. God's wrath burns
eternally against sin, and never will be appeased; but it will consume the
sinner in the end. His love is unending, unchanging, for the sinner. And just
as we have learned that the moral law is not an arbitrary thing, but a
statement of everlasting love and life, so, my brethren, may we learn that,
although the ceremonies have passed away by limitation, yet the meaning of
those ceremonies is just as true to-day as then. And it still is true that
"without the shedding of blood there is no remission."
What is the blood? Gen.9:4:
"But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not
eat." What is the blood? - The life. Another text.
Lev.7:26: "Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings."
Again in Deut.12:23: "Only be sure that thou eat not the blood; for the
blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life
with the flesh." This is the Lord interpreting the law. Lev.17:11:
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you
upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls:
for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said
unto the children of
The life is the blood. This is the
Bible interpretation; and we will let it interpret itself. Then when we read
that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us
from all sin," it does not mean that by some magic-charm process or
incantation, it enables him to count us as cleansed. The whole living gospel
was brought forth there in the sanctuary as clearly as it is here in the New
Testament, and it is just as clearly applied to human lives and human hearts;
but the devil stole it away.
In this dispensation, the living
gospel is revealed to us in the incarnate One, Jesus of Nazareth; and yet man
loses the gospel out of Christ by making the sign of the cross; and they say, We are safe, we have made the sign of the cross. They say that
by some magic process or charm word or name by which they believe on him very
hard, it will save them. They are using it precisely the same as the ark was
used back there; and the Lord has let them be taken captive from time to time,
to show them that the Word in that way does not have power to save. It is not
any charm process, it is a living fact. God gave us his life in his Son that we
might have life, and that we might have that life to live on the earth.
I am told that it is a scientific
fact that if some one will allow his blood to be taken and transfused into the
veins of a poor anemic person, the first thing the blood does is to purge out
the poison and sickness, and then to build him up with a new life. New blood
has been transfused into that person, and new life is imparted. Do you get the
figure? We are saved by transfusing blood. God has opened his mighty heart, and
poured out his life in Christ, for our salvation. He has given his life that we
might take it and be purified by it, and live on earth by faith. And the life
of his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Was it only on
I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
And Paul gave his life day by day;
he gave his life in all those whippings, and beatings, and persecutions that he
received from the Jews, and finally to Nero's executioners he completed the
gift, and made the final delivery of the goods that had been the Lord's ever
since he met him on the
Now let us get a glimpse of Christ's
crucifixion. Jesus Christ was with God, equal with the Father in glory and
honor; co-creator with him of countless worlds; all the ten thousand times ten
thousand angels at his beck to do his bidding. One cannot take in the honor and
the glory of that life that opened out into limitless distances before him. But
down here on this world man had sinned, and Christ did not think of holding
fast to that glory and honor as a robber holds fast to his prey; but he gave it
up. That was when Christ was crucified. He let that life go, and he came down
here and identified himself with human sorrow, with human trial, with human
need, with human heart-ache; so that away back there, before he became
incarnate at all, in all their afflictions he was afflicted, and he bore them
and carried them all the days of old. He was with us much more than we think.
Abraham saw him; Joshua saw him; Moses saw him; the Israelites drank of that
spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was
Christ. The divine One had given up that life there, been crucified, and
identified himself with human need down here, away back there; and when you
come to the incarnation, which was but the revelation of this larger sacrifice,
this larger fact, the crucifixion was carried so far that he who was Almighty
became so weak that he said, "I can do nothing of myself." Is not
that crucifixion?
And then every step of the way,
having given up his power, having given up his infinite knowledge, he lived a
life of faith, - the faith of Jesus, - amening every
one of God's promises, until they became living facts in his life; and lived
upon the written word day by day. When the tempter came to him, he put him to
flight by the written word; and he said, "It is written, Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God." He was living his spiritual life by faith in
that word; and every step of the way it was not my will, not my word, not my
doctrine; but thy will, thy word, thy doctrine in me. Is not that crucifixion
of self?
And finally on
I will have to bring out the thought
by way of illustration; but no illustration will convey it to you. We have
heard about some great famine or trial or trouble that came upon some people a
hundred or a thousand miles away. Now, while we had something to eat and wear,
it did not trouble us so very much, did it? We felt a little sorry for those
people; may be we sent them five dollars; but somehow we got along comfortably
well, although we knew there was a famine in
Jesus Christ came that near to
humanity, not merely in the incarnation, but he did it before the incarnation.
But in the incarnation he showed to our sin-blinded eyes what he was before. He
is not any further away since he bore human flesh; he is just that near
humanity now. He is so near that he suffers with all who suffer; so near that
he loves in all who love, and lives in all who live. That is how near he is;
for he has taken our nature upon himself, and identified himself with us. That
is what Christ has done.
This is how near he is to us all the
time; for the more you think of it, the more you see that he suffers in all who
suffer; and he is not ashamed to call the poorest and meanest of us brethren.
And therefore - notice, that is the sacrifice that he has taken upon himself to
save the world - all our little sacrifices for him are only little parts of his
great sacrifice. Since his great sacrifice is that he suffers in all who
suffer, and has identified himself with the human sorrow and need and trial, he
suffers in all my sufferings, and he sacrifices in all my true sacrifices; and
my little sacrifices for him are only parts of his great sacrifice manifested
in me. And when I live any sacrifice truly, and others are
thereby turned to God, who has turned those people back to God? Did I do
it? - Christ did it. O, the sacrifice of Christ is an eternal sacrifice!
This is knowing
Christ after the Spirit. You know what Paul says: Henceforth I know no man
after the flesh; even if I have known Christ after the flesh, I will know him
so no more. When a man simply believes that Jesus Christ eighteen hundred years
ago was the divine Son of God; that he lived, died, rose again, and ascended up
to heaven, - that is simply knowing Christ after the flesh. What you and I want
to know is this divine fact of the eternal sacrifice, and that God to-day, in
Christ, is giving his life to save humanity. It is a present, personal,
everlasting gospel all the way. Away back in Eden, when it was said that the
seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, and he should bruise its
heel, that did not mean simply that four thousand years from now somebody is
going to come and give you power to triumph over sin; it did not mean that
simply. It was a present promise right there, that the seed of the woman Eve,
should have the power come right into his flesh, then and there, to triumph
over Satan in his life, and that is what the everlasting and the ever-present
gospel is all the way along. And that is what God was revealing back there.
They were considered merely types. They were types, but not primarily types.
They were present revelations of the present eternal fact that God was giving
his life in Christ to save mankind. Now we can understand something of the old
sacrifices back there. When a man brought a sacrifice, what did it represent?
Christ, you say. That is true. But there is something more; that sacrifice
represented the man who brought it; and if he brought a sin-offering, he was
considered as a sinner coming to repentance.
Now I am ready to consider the
splendid truth for you and me in some of these expressions back there.
"Thou shalt not eat the blood." We have seen how God has given his
blood in Christ, his life in Christ. What is that pouring out of the blood, and
covering it with the dust? O, do you see that picture of Christ, how that he
let his life go out, - let it go out to be hated, to be despised, to be spit
upon, to be crucified, to be misunderstood and mistreated, to be just covered
with the dust of forgetfulness, apparently, - just as the pouring out of the
blood, and it being covered with the dust?
And why was the sacrifice always
slain? If it had been beaten and bruised, and then let go, it might have said,
I will follow Christ a little way, or to Pilate's judgment hall it may be; but
it could not have said, I will follow him to the
cross. It is only when the sacrifice actually gives its life that it could
speak of a complete consecration.
The blood of Christ represents the
life of Christ, and also the life of the man who brings the sacrifice. The
eating a thing is a symbol of self-appropriation. The blood is the life. The
blood of that victim represents the blood of him who is bringing the victim.
Now what shall I do with that blood? "Thou shalt not eat the blood."
Thou shalt not appropriate thy life unto thyself. The blood of that victim
represents my life, or, the Christ-life manifested in me. "Thou shalt not
eat the blood." Thou shalt not appropriate thy life unto thyself. That is
a statement away back there of the great central truth of the gospel. "For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it." And that means more than we thought it did. We
have thought on it like this: If a man would rather sin than give up this life,
he will lose eternal life. But if a man will give up this life rather than sin,
he will find eternal life. All that is there, but a good deal more than that is
there. Whosoever shall save his life for himself, either here or hereafter, loseth both the here and the hereafter. There are some men
who are trying to use their lives to have a good time in this world. They are
losing this world and the next one, too. There are other men who are trying to
use their lives solely for themselves; not for this world, but they are trying
to be good, so that they can be saved and happy by and by. They are using their
lives simply for themselves. Whosoever saveth his
life, or useth it for himself only, either here or
hereafter, loseth both the here and the hereafter.
What was the life given for?
Lev.17:11: To make an atonement. It is the giving of his life in and through us
that makes us one with God. You know a man may believe just as strongly as he
can that Jesus Christ was divine, and that God gave his life on
Jesus Christ, the Truth, gave
himself that we might have the truth. Jesus Christ, the Way, gave himself that
we might find the way back to the Father's house. Jesus Christ, the Life, gave
himself that we might have the life. What is it to be a Christian? Is it to be
good so that we can be saved? At best, that is but monkery.
O, I wish we had more of the spirit of Moses when he said, "Yet now, if
thou wilt forgive their sin . . . .; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of
thy book which thou hast written;" - more of that spirit of Paul when he
said, "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
brethren," if they could by this be saved? And the world that did not know
unselfish love back there, but crucified it, will do the same thing here; and
the church that had men in it that did not know unselfish love back there, will
have men in it that do not know it here. Can you imagine any life going out in
more apparent abject failure than did the life of Jesus? Was it defeat? - He
triumphed over principalities and powers, although the devils thought they had
gotten the victory. The Bible says he triumphed over them on that very cross,
and God got the victory that was going to redeem the world. And that is God's
business - to give victory. It may not look like victory to us. Some of the
sweetest words that have ever come to us, it seems to me, from that servant of
God, from the Spirit of Prophecy, are these words: "The life of the
trusting Christian is a series of uninterrupted victories, - often not seen and
understood to be such here, but to be seen and understood to be such
hereafter." Our lives influence other lives, and they influence other
lives, until, as Tennyson puts it, -
Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow forever and forever. We cannot tell. Leave that
with God. Just partake of his life until he can make us channels through which
to pour his life to others, - until he can live his life in us, and give
himself through us; and then God will take care of all the rest. And only that
will enable us to do the work that he wants us to do in this world. How can we
love men enough to give our lives for them? - See them as Christ sees them. O,
may God reveal to every one of us to-night, to me and to you, the depths of
meaning in Christianity, that we may know and
understand what it is to be a Christian. May God put this into our hearts and
souls, so that the sacred fire of the divine love may consume the sacrifice
upon the altar, to come up as a sweet savor unto God, that our lives may flow
out in blessing and benediction, and until the true motive is there to do the
work which God has for us as a people to do to-day, is my prayer.
~G.E. Fifield, Adventist Pioneer Library, 1897 General Conference
Bulletin, sermon #2