FIFTH REASON: THE ATONING BLOOD OF CHRIST LIES AT THE HEART OF THE THREE-FOLD WITESS ON EARTH
"And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son." 1 John 5:8, 9.
The witness of God on this earth to the fact that His Only Begotten Son, the Eternal Word, has come into the world, is the Spirit, the Water and the Blood. It is the reception of this fact that brings eternal life. Commenting on this verse Bishop Westcott remarks:
"The three personal witnesses are turned to the one absolute end, to establish the one truth (the one, not simply one) that definite Truth which is everywhere through the epistle. The idea is not that of simply unanimity in the witnesses, but that of their convergence (so to speak), on the one Gospel of 'Christ come in the flesh' to know which is eternal life."
Now the Spirit here spoken of is the Spirit of God. The Water is the Word of God. ("Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3. "The washing of water by the word." Ephesians 5:26.) The Blood is the Blood of God. "Feed the Church of God which He hath purchased with his own blood." Acts 20:28.
Professor B. B. Warfield comments:
"The reading 'God' is as F. J. A. Hort says, 'assuredly genuine' and the emphasis upon the Blood being His own is very strong. There is no justification for correcting the text conjecturally as Hort does to avoid this. If reading 'Lord' were genuine, the meaning would be precisely the same. 'Lord' is not a lower title than 'God' in such connections. 1 Corinthians 2:8, 'They would not have crucified the Lord of Glory' is an exact parallel."
The witness of God on this earth to the fact that His Only Begotten Son, the Eternal Word, has come into the world, is the Spirit, the Water and the Blood. It is the reception of this fact that brings eternal life. Commenting on this verse Bishop Westcott remarks:
"The three personal witnesses are turned to the one absolute end, to establish the one truth (the one, not simply one) that definite Truth which is everywhere through the epistle. The idea is not that of simply unanimity in the witnesses, but that of their convergence (so to speak), on the one Gospel of 'Christ come in the flesh' to know which is eternal life."
Now the Spirit here spoken of is the Spirit of God. The Water is the Word of God. ("Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3. "The washing of water by the word." Ephesians 5:26.) The Blood is the Blood of God. "Feed the Church of God which He hath purchased with his own blood." Acts 20:28.
Professor B. B. Warfield comments:
"The reading 'God' is as F. J. A. Hort says, 'assuredly genuine' and the emphasis upon the Blood being His own is very strong. There is no justification for correcting the text conjecturally as Hort does to avoid this. If reading 'Lord' were genuine, the meaning would be precisely the same. 'Lord' is not a lower title than 'God' in such connections. 1 Corinthians 2:8, 'They would not have crucified the Lord of Glory' is an exact parallel."
The blood of God outpoured upon the tree!
So reads the Book. O mind, receive the thought,
Nor helpless murmur thou hast vainly sought
Thought-room within thee for such mystery.
Thou foolish mindling! Do'st thou hope to see
Undazed, untottering, all that God hath wrought?
Before His mighty "shall," thy little "ought"
Be shamed to silence and humility!
Come mindling, I will show thee what 'twere meet
That thou shouldst shrink from marvelling, and flee
As unbelievable, --- nay, wonderingly,
With dazed, but still with faithful praises, greet:
Draw near and listen to this sweetest sweet, ---
Thy God, O mindling, shed His blood for thee!
So reads the Book. O mind, receive the thought,
Nor helpless murmur thou hast vainly sought
Thought-room within thee for such mystery.
Thou foolish mindling! Do'st thou hope to see
Undazed, untottering, all that God hath wrought?
Before His mighty "shall," thy little "ought"
Be shamed to silence and humility!
Come mindling, I will show thee what 'twere meet
That thou shouldst shrink from marvelling, and flee
As unbelievable, --- nay, wonderingly,
With dazed, but still with faithful praises, greet:
Draw near and listen to this sweetest sweet, ---
Thy God, O mindling, shed His blood for thee!
Now, the Spirit of God is both living and life-giving; the Word of God is both living and life-giving and the Blood is both living and life-giving. Their witness is not a dead witness but a living and life-giving witness.
The blood in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament had a two-fold aspect, death, the slaughter of the victim, and life, the release of the blood which is the principle of life. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." Leviticus 17:11.
The shedding of blood was death, the sprinkling of blood was life. In the sacrifice, death resulted in life, i.e., the blood. Death was thus the gateway to life. The blood shed in sacrifice, is always treated as living and active even after the death of the animal sacrificed. For example, on the day of atonement the blood was active in its sprinkling of the mercy seat after its shedding at the altar.
What is true in type is even more so true in what is typified. The Blood of Christ shed in death was the release of the divine Life of Christ and the making available of that Life for the sinner. In the shedding of His Blood Christ offered up His Life to God as an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. In the sprinkling of His Blood Christ offered His life to men as salvation from sin. The Blood shed is the sacrificed Life of Christ propitiating Deity. The Blood sprinkled is the saving Life of Christ regenerating humanity.
The apostle John records concerning Christ's death a remarkable phenomenon. "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." John 19:34, 35.
Bishop Westcott says:
"It has been argued (with the greatest plausibility and authority by Dr. Stroud, 'The physical cause of the deathof Christ,' that this is a natural phenomenon. The immediate cause of death was (it is said) a rupture of the heart, which was followed by a large effusion of blood into the pericardium. This blood, it is supposed, rapidly separated into its more solid and liquid parts, which flowed forth in a mingled stream, when the pericardium was pierced by the spear from below. But it appears that both this and the other naturalistic explanations of the sign are not only inadequate but also inconsistent with the real facts. There is not sufficient evidence to shew that such a flow of blood and water as is described would occur under the circumstances supposed, and the separation of the blood into its constituent parts is a process of corruption, and we cannot but believe that even from the moment of death the Body of the Lord underwent the beginnings of that change which issued in the Resurrection. The issuing of the blood and water from His side must therefore be regarded as a sign of life in death. Though dead, dead in regard to our mortal life, the Lord yet lived; and as He hung upon the cross He was shewn openly to be the source of a double cleansing and vivifying power, which followed from His death and life."
This divine paradox, life issuing from death, is emphasised by the Apostle Paul. Writing to the believers in Rome he says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Romans 5:8-10.
Here we have the two aspects of the Blood. Justification in the eyes of God by the Blood shed and salvation from sin by Christ's life, i.e., the blood sprinkled. "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." Hebrews 10:22.
The uniqueness and vitality of the blood is taught by the writer to the Hebrews when he defines the Blood as "a new and living way." "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." Hebrews 10:19, 20. The Blood of Christ is unique, it is new. Never before in the history of man has such Blood been produced. It is unparalleled in haematology.
Again, this Blood is living, it is the fulness of the Godhead in solution. As the living waters bring forth life to the country through which we pass, so this living stream brings God's life to the wilderness of the world. Itself the vehicle of uncreated life, it creates life in its flow. It is, as we have already seen, living and life-giving.
The blood in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament had a two-fold aspect, death, the slaughter of the victim, and life, the release of the blood which is the principle of life. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." Leviticus 17:11.
The shedding of blood was death, the sprinkling of blood was life. In the sacrifice, death resulted in life, i.e., the blood. Death was thus the gateway to life. The blood shed in sacrifice, is always treated as living and active even after the death of the animal sacrificed. For example, on the day of atonement the blood was active in its sprinkling of the mercy seat after its shedding at the altar.
What is true in type is even more so true in what is typified. The Blood of Christ shed in death was the release of the divine Life of Christ and the making available of that Life for the sinner. In the shedding of His Blood Christ offered up His Life to God as an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. In the sprinkling of His Blood Christ offered His life to men as salvation from sin. The Blood shed is the sacrificed Life of Christ propitiating Deity. The Blood sprinkled is the saving Life of Christ regenerating humanity.
The apostle John records concerning Christ's death a remarkable phenomenon. "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." John 19:34, 35.
Bishop Westcott says:
"It has been argued (with the greatest plausibility and authority by Dr. Stroud, 'The physical cause of the deathof Christ,' that this is a natural phenomenon. The immediate cause of death was (it is said) a rupture of the heart, which was followed by a large effusion of blood into the pericardium. This blood, it is supposed, rapidly separated into its more solid and liquid parts, which flowed forth in a mingled stream, when the pericardium was pierced by the spear from below. But it appears that both this and the other naturalistic explanations of the sign are not only inadequate but also inconsistent with the real facts. There is not sufficient evidence to shew that such a flow of blood and water as is described would occur under the circumstances supposed, and the separation of the blood into its constituent parts is a process of corruption, and we cannot but believe that even from the moment of death the Body of the Lord underwent the beginnings of that change which issued in the Resurrection. The issuing of the blood and water from His side must therefore be regarded as a sign of life in death. Though dead, dead in regard to our mortal life, the Lord yet lived; and as He hung upon the cross He was shewn openly to be the source of a double cleansing and vivifying power, which followed from His death and life."
This divine paradox, life issuing from death, is emphasised by the Apostle Paul. Writing to the believers in Rome he says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Romans 5:8-10.
Here we have the two aspects of the Blood. Justification in the eyes of God by the Blood shed and salvation from sin by Christ's life, i.e., the blood sprinkled. "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." Hebrews 10:22.
The uniqueness and vitality of the blood is taught by the writer to the Hebrews when he defines the Blood as "a new and living way." "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." Hebrews 10:19, 20. The Blood of Christ is unique, it is new. Never before in the history of man has such Blood been produced. It is unparalleled in haematology.
Again, this Blood is living, it is the fulness of the Godhead in solution. As the living waters bring forth life to the country through which we pass, so this living stream brings God's life to the wilderness of the world. Itself the vehicle of uncreated life, it creates life in its flow. It is, as we have already seen, living and life-giving.
Stretched on the cross, the Saviour dies,
Hark! His expiring groans arise!
See from His hands, His feet, His side,
Runs down the sacred crimson tide!
But life attends the deathful sound,
And flows from every bleeding wound;
The vital stream, how free it flows,
To save and cleanse His rebel foes!
Hark! His expiring groans arise!
See from His hands, His feet, His side,
Runs down the sacred crimson tide!
But life attends the deathful sound,
And flows from every bleeding wound;
The vital stream, how free it flows,
To save and cleanse His rebel foes!
Now as the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices is represented as being active even after its shedding, so the incorruptible Blood of Christ has been active to the cleansing of sin since it was shed over nineteen hundred years ago. The Blood keeps on cleansing. Its life is unabated; its power is undiminished; its merit is unimpoverished and its value is unlessened.
Dear dying Lamb! Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more,
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more,
Unlike, however, the blood of the types, the Blood of Christ is not only active after its shedding but it was active long before its release at the cross. Stephen Charnock, the great puritan theologian states:
"Many were delivered from their bonds by God before the payment made by Christ, but not before the payment promised by Him. The blood of this sacrifice as shed reaches us through sixteen hundred years since it was poured out; but the blood of this sacrifice promised by the Redeemer, and receiving credit with God, reached Adam four thousand years before it was shed. God imparted the virtue before Christ actually merited, and freed the captive before the ransom was paid; yet upon the account of the promised merit and contracted ransom, natural causes must be before the effect, moral causes may be after the effect. The blood of Christ cleanseth not as a natural, but as a moral cause. He was in this respect a 'Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,' Revelation 13:8; slain federally, though not actually; imputatively, though not really; sententially in the acceptation of the judge, though not executively in the enduring passion; and therefore he was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world efficaciously, by whose blood the ancient believers were sprinkled, as well as those of a later date."
Now it is this Blood, living and life-giving, which unites with the testimony of the Spirit of God and the Word of God as the divine witness on earth of the Christ of God. Without the Blood witnessing to the heart of the believer, the witness of the Word and the Spirit would be of none effect. The Blood is necessary to both the witness of the Spirit and the Word. To reject the Blood is to reject the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
So I believe in the Atoning Blood of Christ for that Blood lies at the heart of the three-fold witness on earth.
"Many were delivered from their bonds by God before the payment made by Christ, but not before the payment promised by Him. The blood of this sacrifice as shed reaches us through sixteen hundred years since it was poured out; but the blood of this sacrifice promised by the Redeemer, and receiving credit with God, reached Adam four thousand years before it was shed. God imparted the virtue before Christ actually merited, and freed the captive before the ransom was paid; yet upon the account of the promised merit and contracted ransom, natural causes must be before the effect, moral causes may be after the effect. The blood of Christ cleanseth not as a natural, but as a moral cause. He was in this respect a 'Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,' Revelation 13:8; slain federally, though not actually; imputatively, though not really; sententially in the acceptation of the judge, though not executively in the enduring passion; and therefore he was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world efficaciously, by whose blood the ancient believers were sprinkled, as well as those of a later date."
Now it is this Blood, living and life-giving, which unites with the testimony of the Spirit of God and the Word of God as the divine witness on earth of the Christ of God. Without the Blood witnessing to the heart of the believer, the witness of the Word and the Spirit would be of none effect. The Blood is necessary to both the witness of the Spirit and the Word. To reject the Blood is to reject the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
So I believe in the Atoning Blood of Christ for that Blood lies at the heart of the three-fold witness on earth.
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