How to Depend on Divine Blood
Never has the church world needed to know the source of all grace more clearly than the present time. The grace of God is our entrance into every provision and promise of the believer’s life. The Bible is an incredible book; infallible, and supernatural, but the provisions and promises are unapproachable until there is a dependence on grace. This word has been described with a multitude of neat statements and phrases, all of them are certainly inadequate to truly define all that the grace of God really represents. Let me add my feeble effort of explaining the breath of this word.
Grace is the total favor of Almighty God, manifest in the persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. It is the favor of which our God asks nothing to merit or earn. It is freely offered to every individual that God the Father draws by His Spirit. No one is excluded except those whose hearts are fixed against Him and who refuse all expression of His goodness and those who think themselves worthy and never become willing to rest all hope in His grace alone.
Grace does not make an excuse for sin, but rather offers a remedy. Sin is not covered by grace, but defeated by grace. Grace does not include a license to continue in the prior life, but provides cleansing from those bondages of sin and an enablement to be a new person with a renewed spirit and mind. Grace is God’s transforming power that offers the prodigal son new shoes, new garments, sonship, and a fresh meal with the Father’s best. Grace does not begin and end when we are “born again”, it never ends.
Apostle Paul sounds close to tears when he wrote to the Galatians about the grace of God and how they had turned back to their own works. Let’s begin reading in the last verse of chapter two. “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness [come] by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if [it be] yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, [doeth he it] by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” (Galatians 2:21-3:7).
The church world is filled with good people who live clean lives, but that have forgotten that there is no grace in their works. We begin in the Spirit by the Divine activity of grace that ushered us into His presence and we remain in His presence by the same activity of grace. The moment we trust in anything but grace, grace has no merit in our soul and we fall from grace. That does not mean He has forsaken us at that moment, for His grace always provides space to repent. It does mean that the joy of our salvation is gone and our soul reflects the absence of His sunshine.
How Does Such Grace Flow Continually To Men?
It is overwhelming to consider the flood of grace that flows to every believing soul. The source of such grace must be an endless fountain and indeed it is. The old favorite song says it well, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath its flood lose all their guilty stains.” The precious blood of Jesus Christ is that fountain and the source of all grace to sinful man. Every expression of His favor and benefit is the result of the blood sacrifice of the Divine Son of Man. His blood was human blood that was infused with Divine life. Both the human element and the Divine element was present, neither contradicting the other. The value of all physical life is in the blood. The blood of a turtledove was of a small value, the sheep and goats of a higher value, but an ox was a value greater still. Man’s blood was certainly of a greater value than any animal. Because of the value of human life, anyone that shed the blood of another person maliciously was to be put to death.
Now, appears the Son of God in human flesh to manifest a value beyond all other expressions of flesh life. He was sanctified and sent into the world. The Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary and she conceived by the work of God’s Spirit. That holy thing, which was born of the virgin Mary, was both human and Divine. His blood is “precious blood,” said Apostle Paul, and that blood is the source of all grace. He shed that blood willingly and allowed His Father to actually put His own Son to death that the fountain might be both full and freely open.
His blood was so powerful that once offered to God He could enter into the realm of the dead, where the saints of old awaited the fulfilling of Old Testament types. His “precious blood” finished every shadow of every sacrifice the believers had ever offered and Satan had to give up the keys of death. Jesus, with the “precious blood” of His sin offering on the cross, lead a procession out of upper Sheol right through the streets of Jerusalem and forward to the presence of God the Father. “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” (Matthew 27:51-53).
It was the “blood sacrifice” of the sinless Son of Man that opened the way for His ascent into the Heavenly temple. “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:23-26).
He actually appeared in the Holy of Holies in the Heavenlies with His precious blood. Please note again, “but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared (with His precious blood) to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” No wonder He said to Mary Magdalene in the garden on the morning of His resurrection, “Touch Me not for I have not yet ascended to my God and to your God.” (John 20:17). Later He said to His disciple, “Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (Luke 24:39).
The Sprinkling Of Precious Blood
It was the Apostle Paul who used this incredible term, “the sprinkling of blood.” It was only with desire that the concept began to take root in my heart. Please note the context of this statement. “And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.” (Hebrews 12:24-26)
What could the apostle mean by this term, “the blood of sprinkling”? It can only mean what the context suggests. It was an active, dynamic, spiritual power that continues to speak the grace of God without failure. His death was not just an act, it is a fountain flowing to every believing soul. Three times the text above states that this blood “speaketh”. His death was once in the end of the world, never to be repeated, but it is a fountain speaking to the hungry soul.
The Harmony Of The Holy Spirit, The Word, And The Blood
The “blood of sprinkling” suggests that His sacrifice is a dynamic power of “redemption.” The Bible is a Testament, a will bequested to the Believer and signed with “precious blood.” This truth intimately tied the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus. The Holy Ghost is God’s Spirit and He was sent back to the church to deliver the triumph of the cross and resurrection to the soul of the church. Again, that is why this blood of Jesus is spoken of as “the blood of sprinkling.” The dynamics of the blood is God’s Holy Spirit bearing witness in the human spirit. Paul said it well, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Romans 8:16).
“And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” (I John 5:8). No wonder the redemption of the precious blood is the greatest transforming power on this earth. The church brings in a psychologist to nurse the human soul and the problems grow worse. They bring in the entertainers and the church becomes worldly. They bring in the church growth experts and the unsaved join the choir. On and on goes the dilemma of a church that forgets its own dynamic resource in God’s triune witness in the earth.
Look At God’s Resources For His Church
– The Word Declares God’s Promises. The blood has purchased each of these promises. The Holy Ghost is available to deliver to the soul.
– The Word is forever settled in Heaven. The blood is forever on the mercy seat. The Holy Ghost is the eternal Spirit of Christ.
– The Word is the very essence of Jesus. The blood is His sacrifice and the Holy Ghost is His Vicar.
What Are We Waiting For?
We are waiting to become finished with self. When finally we realize how helpless the best our flesh can offer really is, maybe we will once again bend our knee before Calvary’s fountain. Every promise in the Scripture is part of that fountain. Zechariah prophesied of this fountain. “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” (Zechariah 13:1).
Moses and Israel were traveling in the wilderness when they were plagued by the terrible drought. All their best efforts to find water had failed and now they murmured and longed for Egypt’s nasty Nile. What a picture of today’s church that drinks from the polluted Nile when all she needs is to speak to the “Rock.” Moses committed a grievous sin in this wilderness experience. Already he had struck the rock once, a type of the crucifixion; the second time he was told by God to simply speak to the rock. He struck the rock twice and a flood of water came gushing forth. The supply is in the “Rock.”
Speak To The “Rock”
As we stand in our desert land with drought and death all about us. As we look toward our doubts and our fears and see the results of the absence of living waters. As we look at our children and grandchildren and view their worldly entanglement and the emptiness they show in their face; would we dare stand before this mighty “Rock” and believe that in that “Rock” is a fountain ready to flood our souls. If we will to believe, let us “speak to the Rock” as Moses was instructed. Doubt it not, there is a fountain in that “Rock” called Jesus Christ.
The Blood Of Sprinkling
The gushing of water from the Old Testament type, the Rock, is a beautiful picture of the “Blood of Sprinkling.” The Lord Jesus’ blood sacrifice is like the rock in the wilderness. It is a source from whence constantly flows the marvelous supply. The grace of God knows no limitations because of the life in the blood. We must learn that grace has no other source. Nothing you do in your acts of biblical obedience can ever offer a substitute for grace. You can never become holy enough to save yourself, not even for one moment. All your hopes are bound up in His “Blood of Sprinkling” and the grace that flows from its fountain.
Cast Your All At His Feet
Come today to this fountain just exactly as you did the first time. Treat all your righteousness as filthy rags compared to His provision at the sacred fountain of grace. Simply humble yourself and cling to Jesus Christ as your only hope of acceptance. When all self-trust has been washed away, His flood of grace will lift up your soul into Heavenly joy.
“He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the ROCK should I have satisfied thee.” (Psalm 81:16).
“From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the ROCK that is higher than I.” (Psalm 61:2).
The Rock was Christ. “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual ROCK that followed them: and that ROCK was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:4).