Revelation 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for you were slain… Redeemed us to God [Revised Version, 'purchased unto God'] by thy blood. The expression, "blood of Christ" is used by millions who have no accurate idea concerning its import. Blood is life, and the essential idea is Christ's self-sacrificed life. Notice - I. THERE IS SOMETHING SUBLIMELY UNIQUE IN ITS NATURE. Things are said of it that could not possibly be said with propriety of the blood of any other man in any age or time who has sacrificed his life. Millions of men have been sacrificed; they have lost their life, but not in the way in which Christ was sacrificed. Some have been sacrificed by assassination, some by war, some by capital punishment, some by accident; most against their will, although some voluntarily, either by suicide or superstitious fanaticism. But in the case of Christ's sacrificed life there was nothing like this. Two facts especially marked off his sacrificed life from that of any other sacrificed life. 1. It was in accordance with the eternal plan of God. "he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." There was nothing accidental about it, nothing out of keeping with the eternal order of things. 2. It was voluntary in the sense in which no other man's death was voluntary. Amongst the millions of men who have died most freely, not one has felt that he need not die at all if he chose - that he could continue here forever. But this Christ felt. There was no law in heaven or earth to force him to the fate. "I have power to lay down my life, and power to take it up." 3. The life he sacrificed was absolutely free from all imperfections. Not one of all the teeming myriads who departed this life has been entirely free from sin. All have had on them, to a greater or less extent, the common stain. But Christ was immaculate. His greatest enemies could not convict him of sin. Pilate and all his judges could find no fault in him. He was "holy," "harmless," and "separate from sinners." Another remark suggested concerning the blood of Christ is - II. THAT IT IS SOMETHING SUBLIMELY UNIQUE IN ITS EFFECTS. In different passages in the New Testament results are ascribed to this blood, which could not, with any propriety or the slightest approach to truth, be ascribed to the blood of any other man. 1. These effects are variously represented. It is represented as reconciliation. His sacrificed life was the atonement. It is represented as purifying. "It cleanseth from all sin." Through it men are "made white." "Unto him that loved us, and washed us," etc. It is represented as an essential element of soul-life. "Whoso drinketh my blood hath eternal life" - something that has not only to be applied to the soul, but taken into it. It is represented as a ransom. "Redeemed us to God by his blood;" "purchased by his blood." It is the power to deliver from the guilt and dominion of sin. It is represented as a conquering force. "Overcame by the blood of the Lamb." Of whose blood have these results ever been predicated, or can ever be? 2. These effects are universal in their influence. It "cleanseth from all sin;" it makes the "great multitudes which no man can number," white. How extensive has been its beneficent influence on humanity already! But its present area of influence, as compared with its future, is less than a little lake to the ocean. 3. These effects are eternal in their blessings. "Whoso drinketh my blood hath eternal life." CONCLUSION. The subject: 1. Serves to explain both the essence of the gospel and the essence of personal holiness. Christ's sacrificed life is the gospel, and hence the very effects that are here ascribed to his blood are elsewhere ascribed to the gospel, to the truth of the gospel, to the grace of the gospel, to the word of the gospel; all these are said to cleanse, to redeem, to conquer, to make white, etc. Not only does it serve to explain the essence of the gospel, but the essence of personal holiness. That principle of love which led Christ to sacrifice his life must be appropriated by us as a vital ruling element if we would be holy. His sacrifice upon the cross will be worthless to us unless we sacrifice ourselves in love; hence we must become conformable unto his death. 2. Serves to correct the mischievous way in which the blood of Christ is popularly represented. Men talk of Christ's blood as if it was the crimson fluid that coursed through his veins that saves, washes, cleanses, etc.; or at any rate, that it was his blood which qualified him to be a Saviour. It was not his blood;the blood was nothing only as it expressed his self-sacrificing love. Supposing that the criminal law of Rome at the time in which Christ lived had required that capital offenders should be put to death by hanging, or strangling, or suffocating, or by taking poison like Socrates. Had Christ been sacrificed in any of these ways, would the power of his self-sacrifice to save humanity be one what the less? Not so. It was his self-sacrificing love, not the form of his mortal agonies, that made him the Saviour of the world. - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; |
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