Power In The Blood

Power In The Blood “POWER IN THE BLOOD”
By J. L. Hines

“In whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our tresspasses” (Eph„ 1:7). “Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ ” (1 Peter 1:17-18).

Beloved, it is indeed a very great pleasure for me to be here during “Lecture Week” and contribute my bit toward making life a little brighter, and help you if I may to get a clearer view of Gods redemptive plan. The responsibility resting upon me is indeed great and I acknowledge it most cheerfully, yet with that degree of soberness which should dignify God’s servants. The passages read declare most emphatically, that we have been redeemed and forgiven, of our tresspasses through, and by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. There is a third (1 John 1:7) that teaches us how to keep clean by the blood. Therefore, the only way to the beautiful home just beyond our golden sunset, is by the cross saturated by the blood of God’s dear Son.

It may not be out of place, just here, to talk awhile, about the enormity of sin-^-sin with all of its blackening influence. Sin threw Lucifer from his throne, drove Adam and Eve from the beautiful Edenic home; separated them from their Creator, thrust mother Eve’s heart through with a sword of anguish, when she was called upon to attend the funeral of her second son whose life had been taken by her firstborn. Ther e he stands over the body of his victim with blood dripping from his hands. Sin defied God, hated purity, wrecked a home and sent the human family on a journey through the blackness of a night, to be thrown and tossed against the rocks of greed, pride and jealousy, and to be torn by the thorns of hate, envy, strife and selfishness. It is a serpent that lurks in the darkness, to bite the feet of the tired and weary pilgrim. It bites and stings, it blackens and blurs, it disgraces and degrades. It brings to shame and distinction and at last causes one to writhe in agony and pain in the lake of fire and brimstone, where the worm dieth not and where the fire is not quenched. For four thousand years sin wielded the scepter of power over the earth as a mighty giant; but through the thick darkness there would be seen the star of hope sending its silver rays forth from Bethlehem. Not one sin throughout the four thousand years had been blotted out. I like to sing that good old song:

“What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again ?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

All blood is life (Genesis 9:4), the life of the flesh, but no blood except the blood of Christ could or can wash away one single sin. I do not hesitate to say, and with emphasis, no sin was ever remitted, except through the blood shed on Calvary. All the blood of all the sacrifices offered from Abel to Christ, could not pardon one poor sinner. If pardon could have been procured by an animal sacrifice, such would have never been removed ‘and replaced by another. By the eye of faith, I see the veins of the first lamb opened, back yonder, just outside of the Edenic home. The blood began to flow from this Edenic spring, and to this flow were gathered the streams as from ten thousand trib-utaries, throughout the twenty-five hundred and thirteen years of the Patriarchal age; until we see a mighty river of blood passing Mt. Sinai, to be swollen by thousands of other streams during the fourteen hundred and ninety-one years of the Mosaic age; and yet not one sin could be blotted out by this crimson flow. “For the law (for the critical student read Genesis 26:5 for law of the Patriarchal age) having a shadow of the good things to some, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh. Else would they not have ceased to be offered? because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:1-4). “And every priest indeed standeth day by day ministering and offering oft'entime the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins” (Hebrews 10:11).

It would be ridiculous and next to sacrilegious, for one who poses before the public as a religious teacher, minister or evangelist, to declare that remission of sins, in the absolute, was obtained prior to the death of the Lamb of God. The logical deduction deducible from such a declaration would be: God’s son laid aside his celestial robe and the glory that he had with the Father before the worlds were formed, before the stars were tuned to singing and the earth hung on nothing, emptied himself, took upon him human flesh, suffered, bled and died the horrible death of the cross for naught.

If remission of sins could be had before the death of Jesus—and sin was the only barrier between God and man—why did Jesus die? Beloved, there was but little power in the blood of bulls and goats,—just enough to roll one’s sins forward one year, and then these returned bringing with them all the sins of the recent' year. And thus it was throughout the life of the faithful individual, until at death his sins were rolled mountain high,—but just ahead. These were to be placed upon the scape-goat, Jesus who was to bear them away. Oh! how wonderful are God’s ways! We cannot see. We cannot know. But by faith we feel our way through the shadow. Every lamb, every bloody sacrifice offered from Abel to the death of Jesus, typified the one great sacrifice offered by the great and eternal God. We see him (Jesus) led as a sheep to the slaughter, bruised, beaten, tried and torn— “Hark! I hear the dull blow of the hammer swinging low, they are nailing my Lord to a tree!” The cross is upraised and plunged into the place prepared for it. I see the flesh as it tears in his hands and feet, the blood as it streams from the thorn pricks in his brow, agony as it plays across his blood besmeared face. I hear him moan. I hear him pray. In pain he writhes until the sixth hour, bows his head and gives up the ghost. God turns his face away and refuses to look upon the scene. The sun’s light seems to go out. The old earth trembled, reeled and pitched as a drunken man. The lightning must have played across the heavens, to give one a momentary glimpse of the nude, beaten, bruised, haggard and bloody body of God’s Son, as it hanged upon Calvary’s top, between two thieves who are not as yet dead. Don’t you by the eye of faith see him as he hangs suspended between heaven and earth, bleeding and dying for the sins of the world? Why did he die? Why was it necessary for him to die? Could God not have given remission of sins without offering His only begotten Son as a sin offering? These and a thousand other questions might be asked, but the only answer is the answer which God gave to the prayer of Jesus, who under the very shadow of the cross, prayed thrice thus: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” The second time the Lord said: “My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink it, thy will be done.” He drank the cup to its bitter dregs. It was not possible for the cup of suffering and death to pass and the world have a Redeemer, The scenes of the cross ought to stir every heart, fire our emotions and set our souls to singing;

“Jesus keep me hear the cross,
There a precious fountain,
Free to all—a healing stream,
Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain.
“Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the Bright and Morning Star Sheds its beams around me.
“Near the cross! Oh Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadows o'er me.”

All people prior to the cross who would trust in God, could only remove their sins forward one year by the blood of animals, but not one sin was forgotten by- Jehovah, or remitted, but was remembered the next year and so on until death. So when the Lamb of God was offered upon the cross, buried and begotten from the dead, he took his own blood, went to heaven and after seven days entered the Sanctorum, heaven itself, and there in the presence of God made atonement for the “transgressions that were under the first covenant, that they that have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance” It is clear that no responsible human being will be permitted to pass through the pearly gates and bask in the sunlight of God’s eternal smile, except through and by virtue of the shed blood of the Lamb of God. The prophets, priests and all the faithful Israel of old, looked through the crimson mist, to the Messiah, the promised seed of Abraham. To make it perfectly clear, let me say; that all, from Adam to the second coming of our Lord, who will be permitted to enjoy the bliss of over there, will have done so only by remission of sins through the blood of Christ. The benefits of His blood were appropriated only to the transgressors under the law, who were “the called.” The “called” were the ones who heard God, believed God, repented of their sins, confessed their sins and obeyed him in offering the proper sacrifice. Be it understood all things else done, if the proper sacrifice was not offered the offender’s sins remained unmoved, and such a one dying never reached the blood of Christ.

Christ died at the end of the Jewish age (Hebrews 9:26), took away the law (Ephesians 2:11-19) of Moses and es-tablished a New Covenant, the blood of which covenant can take away sins. But only people who are in Christ, or in fellowship with him, have their sins removed by his blood. “In whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7). “In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins” (Colossians 1:14). “There is salvation in none other” (Acts 4:12). “And the witness is this that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11). These scriptures declare that “life,” “salvation,” “redemption,” “forgiveness of sins” are in him “through his blood.” So whatever is necessary to get into Christ is necessary to cleansing by his blood, for the blood is in him. We believe in, on, unto, repent toward, unto; confess unto; and are baptized into, as is clearly set forth in Romans sixth chapter and Galatians third chapter. So if you would reach the benefits of the blood of Christ, it is necessary to hear God, believe God, repent of your sins, confess Christ and obey him in baptism. For baptism to a believing penitent who has confessed Christ is, “for the remission of sins” for it brings that one to the blood which is in Christ, which washes away his sins.

“Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There is pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood.
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There is wonderful pow’r in the blood.
“Would you be white, much whiter than snow?
There is pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood.
Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide,
There is wonderful pow’r in the blood.” In conclusion, permit me to say a word about children of God keeping clean by the blood. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). There is no fellowship ‘out of Christ and to be in Christ is to be in his body, the church. In order for the blood of Christ to keep us clean from all sin, it is absolutely necessary to walk in the light, and to have fellowship with the brethren. Otherwise we are unclean. One who is not in fellowship with his brethren is unclean because he is out of touch with the blood. Remember that the blood of Christ flows, spiritually speaking, through the veins of his body, the church, and all who die out of fellowship with the brethren, the church, die out of fellowship with Christ and away from the blood and thereby die in sin and are lost.

Power in the blood? Yes, power in the blood of Christ. Enough power to save all who will bow in hum-ble submission to his divine will. Saved by the blood and kept clean by the blood, let us as a band of happy Christian soldiers march forward under the bloodstained banner of the Prince of Peace, ever fighting against the enemy of righteousness, till the last' battle has been fought, the smoke has cleared away, the banner of victory has been planted upon the rampart of the enemy, and then we can pass across the silent river of death, with a smile upon our face, into the Paradise of God, to wait the final day when the Lord shall come on the clouds of heaven, and we then shall come forth with bodies immortal and by his invitation be permitted to pass into the beautiful city prepared for all who have been redeemed by the blood.