I have a yellowing copy of a 1979 newspaper with a picture of my father receiving a certificate of recognition. The article talks about the fact that Antony Oldfield had been donating whole blood for more than 40 years. During that time, he had given more than 20 gallons of his rare blood type, saving many lives. The article mentions that he had been involved in eleven open heart surgeries, giving blood to meet the needs of specific individuals. He met only one of them: an eleven-year-old boy. He said, “To me it was very traumatic – it was a beautiful situation.” It was apparently absolutely necessary that his type A negative blood be ready for that child whose heart the surgeons were trying to repair. That was in Omaha, Nebraska, a place known for the processing of excellent beef. “Omaha steaks” was at the time proverbial for excellent meat. Why didn’t someone from the hospital go to the slaughter house and collect a gallon of Angus beef blood to give to that boy who was to have open heart surgery? It is because there is no substitute for human blood when another human being is in need of a transfusion. Any other blood would have been like poison.
Last Wednesday we had a lesson entitled: “How God BECAME Man.” And earlier this morning we looked at “How God WAS Man.” My intention was to remind us that God became incarnate; He took upon Himself human flesh. Christ Jesus was, and still is, both God and man. This is essential, foundational Bible doctrine. Wednesday when I started, I didn’t intend for this to become a trilogy. But in preparing our second lesson, it occurred to me I should probably explain why this is important. And it can be summarized with that illustration with which I began.
God has decreed that BLOOD, ONLY BLOOD, can wash away our sins.
Judy was telling me the other day that some bird houses need to be cleaned out from time to time. But they can’t be washed with soap. It must be pure water or it might be mixed with a bit of bleach. And in our homes, most stains can be washed away with one natural chemical or another, but specific stain requires specific agents. There is quite a science to stain removal.
And the moral stains caused by sin… stains which God sees more clearly than any human being… the stains of sin can only be washed away by blood. It is not our prerogative to question that fact, if God has declared it to be so. That is simply the way it is. In our opening text from Hebrews, the writer refers back to the Old Testament law when he said, “And almost all things are by the law purged with BLOOD; and without shedding of blood is NO remission.” In Leviticus we read, “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.” Scripture after scripture tell us the same thing: Christ said, “This is my BLOOD of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” The Apostles said, “Christ has purchased His church with his own BLOOD.” “Being now justified by (Jesus’) BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold… but with the precious BLOOD of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” “The BLOOD of Jesus Christ, (God’s) Son cleanseth us from all sin.” “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sin with his own BLOOD.” John saw a certain group of people in Heaven, who were “they which came out of the great tribulation, (having) washed their robes, and made them white in the BLOOD of the Lamb.” These are not all the scriptures which speak of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ.
If the thought of being baptized in blood disgusts you, then you probably are not a Biblical Christian. “There is a fountain filled with BLOOD Drawn from Immanuel’s veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains.” “What can wash away your sins? Nothing but the BLOOD of Jesus. What can make you whole again? Nothing but the BLOOD of Jesus.” “Would you be free from the burden of sin? There is power in the BLOOD. Would you o’er evil a victory to win? There wonderful power in the BLOOD.” I am “saved by the BLOOD of the Crucified One. Now ransomed from sin and a new work begin. Sing praise to the Father and praise to the son – Saved by the BLOOD of the crucified One.” “Blessed be the Fountain of BLOOD. To a world of sinners revealed. Blessed be the dear Son of God – Only by his stripes we are healed. Though I’ve wandered far from His fold. Bringing to my heart pain and woe. Wash me in the BLOOD of the Lamb, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Both the Word of God and the words which God has given to our hymn writers, tell us that the blood of Christ is the ONLY remedy for our sins. But it saddens me – grievously saddens me to know that many people preaching these verses… And many of the people singing these hymns… horribly underestimate the true nature of that blood.
Remember that cattle’s blood cannot be used for human transfusions; it is not useful blood for that purpose. And the Bible tells us that cattle’s blood cannot be used to cleanse us of our transgressions against God. Hebrews 10:4 – “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Hebrews 9:9 – they were nothing but “a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect…”
With these important truths once again in our minds let’s head back in the direction of our trilogy.
At the time of the eternal appointment, God sent His only begotten Son into the world to redeem sinners.
“When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a women, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” – Galatians 4:4-5. Mary was told by God’s angel that her baby would be “the Son of the Highest” – the Son of God. Elizabeth told Mary that her baby would be “the Lord,” as in “the Lord God.” Then Joseph was told, probably by that same angel, that the baby’s name must be “Jesus, because He shall save His people from their sins.” And finally the shepherds outside of Bethlehem were told they’d find their Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. They were told to look for him “wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying in a manger,” and that is exactly what they found.
This is an important part of the gospel message, even though most of us take it for granted. In the incarnation of Christ, the eternal Son of God, took upon Him human flesh. “Without controversy (or debate) great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” – I Timothy 3:16. As the Book of Hebrews begins it says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high…” God sent His Son – someone who is everything that God the Father is – to purge our sins. He accomplished that purgation through His sacrificial death on the cross. Then He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high as the glorious heir of all things.
Adding these to our previous thoughts, we come to the next point in our trilogy.
Only Christ… only the Theanthropic Person, the God-Man – could accomplish our salvation.
“Would you be free from the burden of sin? There is power in the blood. Would you o’er evil a victory to win? There wonderful power in the blood.” But, as I have said, it is not just any blood, just as cattle’s blood cannot be used for a human transfusion. And not every kind of human blood is compatible with the needs of every human surgery. Not even the God-proscribed, blood of the Old Testament sacrifices can deal completely with our sins. Only the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will meet the demands of God’s absolute holiness. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold… but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Only the “The blood of Jesus Christ, (God’s) Son cleanseth us from all sin. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven, given among men whereby ye must be saved.”
I know that I’ve repeated myself several times for emphasis. Now I’ll try to explain and illustrate. When Israel was given instructions on offering their sacrifices, one of God’s stipulations was that they were to offer only their very best – those sacrifices were to be without obvious blemish. Out of several scriptures, here are the words of Leviticus 22 – “Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats. But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you. And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein. Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the LORD, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD. Either a bullock or a lamb that hath any thing superfluous or lacking in his parts, that mayest thou offer for a freewill offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted.” This was the ideal; this was the command. But in actuality this is impossible. Perfection is unattainable in this world because of the corruption of sin. So, when the time was come for the ultimate sacrifice to be made, God sent His own perfect Son – the only one in whom He is well-pleased.
When Mary gave birth to her child, Jesus – as the angel explained to Joseph, “They shall call his name EMMANUEL, which being interpreted is, God with us.” At the birth of Christ Jesus it was not simply that He who HAD been God came to dwell among us. And He didn’t become God at any point in time – as some cults try to tell people. He who has always been God took upon himself human flesh. “Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” – Philippians 2. I have read that God has never honored His creation any more than He did in “Immanuel” – “God with us.” I have also read that if Christ was not truly “Immanuel” then Christianity would be nothing better than reformed paganism.
In the midst of the incredible blessing of God’s presence among us, and His purpose of becoming the perfect sacrifice – there is another extremely important thought, involving the nature and quality of that sacrifice. The sacrifice necessary to deliver us from God’s wrath against us in our sins had to be perfect, infinitely perfect, if I can use that redundancy. There is the necessity of the incarnation, and the necessity of the God-man – the “Theanthropic being.”
Not only did Christ come into this world without the sinful nature of Adam, because He had no human father… But because He was as much God as He was human, He lived His entire life without sin. There are several scriptures which testify of this fact. For example there is II Corinthians 5:21 – God “hath made (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Christ demanded that witnesses step forward with evidence of sin, but there were no one did. Peter says that Jesus Christ shed his blood, “as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” And “He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.”
There are people, wanting to emphasize Jesus’ humanity, who have taught that He could have sinned, but He chose not to do so. In other words, because of His desire to fulfill His father’s wishes, Christ WOULD not sin. But the fact is, in His humanity, that is as much an impossibility as it is for me to not sin. Despite my best plans and endeavors, there is far too much sin in my life – because I am human. But the thing to remember is that Christ was not merely an exquisite human being; He is God. The humanity of Christ never stood alone; the humanity of Christ could never stand alone. He was always linked and supported by His deity. After His incarnation, the two could never be separated.
So the question becomes: Can God sin? And the answer is: absolutely not. God has defined sin as anything which is against His nature or His will. And God cannot do anything which is contrary to His own nature. Therefore He cannot sin. And having already proved that Jesus Christ is God, I believe that He could not and cannot sin. I believe in the impeccability of Christ; not only DID He never sin; he COULD never sin. In this area, Jesus’ deity ruled over His humanity.
But what about those days when Jesus got tired, or hungry and thirsty. Where was His deity then? While admitting that my understanding is limited, let me put it this way – In matters of simple human weakness, when there were no moral issues involved, Jesus humanity ruled. But because of the unity of His humanity and deity, when it came to right and wrong, sin or holiness, Christ’s deity superceded His humanity. Christ could never sin, and in this He remained the perfect sacrifice for sin.
The other day in our family devotions, the Lord taught me something I had never seen before. It not only answered a question I have had, but also sheds light on our subject this morning. In Matthew 26 when Jesus was on trial before the High Priest, the council sought false witnesses against Him. Various people stepped forward making all kinds of accusations, “But Jesus held his peace,” not answering a word. He didn’t defend Himself. He didn’t prove the foolishness of the witnesses or exposed their lies. He was as Isaiah prophesied, “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.” But then the high priest “answered and said unto him, I ADJURE thee by the living God, that thou tells us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.” At that Jesus instantly said unto him, “thou hast said…” The reference Judy and I were reading pointed to Leveticus 5:1 as the reason for Jesus breaking His silence. “If a soul… hear the voice of swearing” as the priest had just done, “and is a witness… if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.” If it is a lie or blasphemy and we say nothing we sin. If someone swears and we don’t expose it, we sin. And if under an oath, someone demands the truth and we don’t agree, then again we sin and are accountable before God. Because the high priest used an oath, swearing as he did, our sinless Saviour became obligated to reply. “Thou has said…” “Yes, I am the Son of God.”
Christ Jesus could never sin, and yet the devil put pressure on him. He was tempted, tried and tested, but He did not break. Hebrews 4:15 – “We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” It was somewhat like the Old Testament priests when looking for the perfect Red Heifer to sacrifice. Satan combed through every hair of our Saviour, looking for fault, and trying to cause failure, but it was Satan who failed. Christ Jesus is the perfect God-man, and in that He is also God’s perfect sacrifice – our remedy for sin. His human blood type, so to speak, matched our human needs. And in that He is God, that sacrificial blood was perfect.
I know that I’ve gotten a little more involved than usual for a Lord’s day morning.
So let me simplify and summarize. I would like to set before you the Saviour whom we need our all our wretched sins. In ourselves, we do not possess what is necessary to wash away the effects of our sin nature or our any of individual transgressions. But in the God-man Saviour, we have the one and only perfect substitutionary sacrifice. What is required of us to acknowledge our need of that Saviour – we must repent of our sin. And then all that is left is to trust the sacrifice that Christ has made in dying on the cross.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” And I emphasize that word “Lord.” “Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Our Saviour is the Lord God of Heaven and earth – the Second Person of the God-head. I plead with you, using God’s own words: “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Will you call on Him this morning? Will you put your faith on Christ?