November 24

The blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. - Hebrews 12:24.

THE blood of Abel here referred to is typical. The language is used comparatively. Abel’s blood was shed by wicked and cruel hands; so was the blood of Christ. Abel’s blood was shed by his own brother according to the flesh. Abel’s blood spake; so did the blood of Christ. But here comparison becomes contrast. In common language we say of the murdered, His blood cries aloud for vengeance. So it is said of the sins of Sodom, that the cry of them came up before God. The dreadful crime committed by Cain is referred to in a bold but very elegant figure:-“The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the ground.” The action was horrid: it was the murder of a brother because his works were righteous. No wonder that such guilt should have provoked the wrath of God.

But the blood of Christ was not only shed by men, but for them; and “his blood speaketh better things than that of Abel,” for Abel’s blood speaks and calls to God for punishment, but the blood of Christ speaks and calls for pardon. The one calls for the death of the murderer, the other calls for-oh, marvellous mercy and grace!-his life. The blood of Abel only called for the destruction of one murderer; the blood of Christ calls for the life of the world, and for salvation for the vilest upon earth, even for those who shed his blood. Therefore he said to his disciples, “When ye preach the gospel, begin at Jerusalem: let those who smote the rock drink of it first.”

Yes, he died to give himself a ransom for sinners, and by his death has shown God’s displeasure and abhorrence of sin, and “he was raised up from the dead that our faith and hope might be in him.” His death was “a sacrifice, and an offering to God of a sweet-smelling savour,” and here “mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace embrace each other.” Yea, it is more glorious to God that Christ thus died, than if an apostate world had all perished. He now appears for us above as our High-Priest, “who ever liveth to make intercession for us.”

This blood speaks also to us as well as to God. Abel’s blood spoke not only to God but to Cain; that is, it spoke in his conscience, filling him with horror, and following him wherever he went. He may have become a builder, but he could get no rest; so he became a fugitive and a vagabond upon earth. Christ’s blood speaks peace to all Christians; it tranquillizes the soul; it encourages the penitent; it shows that God is gracious, yea, that “God is love,” for “herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” It shows us the possibility of salvation for the very chief of sinners; it tells us how Jesus hath “made peace by the blood of his cross,”-that, therefore, we may venture into the holiest of all by his precious blood.