“THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST” – Charles Spurgeon

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST

Introduction: The Importance of the Gospel

“The precious blood of Christ.” – 1 Peter 1:19.

It is frequently my fear that I might fall into the habit of preaching about the gospel rather than directly preaching the gospel itself. I then labor to return to the first principle of our faith and often choose a text upon which it would not be possible to say anything new, but which compels me to recapitulate in your hearing those things which are vital, essential, and fundamental to the life of our souls. With such a text as this before me, if I do not preach the gospel, I shall do violence both to the sacred Word and to my own conscience. Surely I may hope that while endeavoring to unfold my text and proclaim the saving Word, the Holy Spirit will be present to take of the things of Christ, to show them unto us, and to make them saving to our souls.

Blood in God’s Sight: The Sanctity of Life

Blood has from the beginning been regarded by God as a most precious thing. He has hedged about this fountain of vitality with the most solemn sanctions. The Lord thus commanded Noah and his descendants, “Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat.” Man had every moving thing that lives given him for meat, but they were by no means to eat the blood with the flesh. Things strangled were to be considered unfit for food, since God would not have man become too familiar with blood by eating or drinking it in any shape or form. Even the blood of bulls and goats had a sacredness placed upon it by God’s decrees.

As for the blood of man, you remember how God’s threats ran, “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man.” It is true that the first murderer did not have his blood shed by man, but then the crime was new, and the penalty had not yet been settled and proclaimed, and therefore, the case was exceptional. Cain’s doom was probably far more terrible than if he had been slain on the spot; he was permitted to fill up his measure of wickedness, becoming a wanderer and vagabond upon the earth. His life of sin doubtlessly brought about a more dreadful heritage of wrath.

The Sanctity of Blood in God’s Law

Under the theocratic dispensation, where God was the King and governed Israel, murder was always punished in the most exemplary manner, and there was never any toleration or excuse for it. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and life for life was the stern, inexorable law. It is expressly written, “You shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death.” Even in cases where life was taken in chance medley or misadventure, the matter was not overlooked. The slayer fled immediately to a city of refuge, where, after having his case properly tried, he was allowed to reside; but there was no safety for him elsewhere until the death of the high priest. The general law in all cases was, “So you shall not pollute the land wherein you are: for blood defiles the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, but by the blood of him that shed it.” Strange it is that that very thing which defiles should turn out to be that which alone can cleanse!

The Sacredness of Blood in Human Conscience

It is clear that blood was always precious in God’s sight, and He would have it so in ours. He first forbids the blood of beasts as food for man, then avenges the blood of man shed in anger, and further takes care that even accidents shall not pour it out unheeded. Nor is this all, for we hear within us the echo of that law. We feel that God has truly made blood sacred, for though some can, through use and habit, read the story of war with patience, if not with pleasure, though the sound of the trumpet and the drum and the tramp of soldiery may stir our hearts, yet if we could see war as it really is, a cold shiver would shoot through the very marrow of our bones. We would have experiential proof that blood is indeed a sacred thing.

The other night, I listened to one who professed to have come from the battlefields of the American war. I felt faintness and clammy sweat steal over me as he shocked us with the details of mutilated bodies, speaking of standing up to the tops of his boots in pools of human gore. The shudder which ran through us all was a sure confirmation of the sanctity with which God has forever guarded the symbol and nutriment of life. We cannot even contemplate the probability of the shedding of blood without fear and trembling. Comforts which entail high risks in their production or procurement lose all sweetness to those with humane dispositions.

David’s Reflection on Risk and Sacrifice

Who does not sympathize with David in his action with regard to the water procured by his three mighties? The three heroes broke through the hosts of the Philistines to bring David water from the well of Bethlehem. As soon as he received that water, though very thirsty and longing for it, he felt he could not touch it, for these men had run such dreadful risks in breaking thrice through the Philistine hosts. He then poured it out before the Lord, as if it was not right that men should risk their lives for anything but God, who gave life. His words were very touching: “My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing; shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy?”

How much more Christ-like the regret of David, who believed that only the highest devotion to God or benevolence to mankind could justify such a risk of life. Further, permit me to observe that the sanctity of blood is set upon the conscience of even the most depraved men. Men, bad as they are, shrink from the disgrace of taking blood money. Even those high priests who sat and gloat over the sufferings of the Savior would not receive the price of blood into the treasury. Judas, the son of perdition, who could contemplate without horror his treacherous betrayal, found the thirty pieces of silver in his hand “too hot to hold” and threw it down in the Temple.

The Precious Blood of Jesus Christ

Now, if in ordinary cases the shedding of life is precious, can you guess how fully God utters His heart’s meaning when He says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints”? If the death of a rebel is precious, what must be the death of a child? If He will not contemplate the shedding of the blood of His own enemies, and of those who curse Him without proclaiming vengeance, what do you think He feels concerning His elect, of whom He says, “Precious shall their blood be in His sight”?

Shall He not avenge them, though He bears long with them? Shall not the cup which the harlot of Rome filled with the blood of the saints long remain unavenged? Shall not the martyrs from Piedmont, the Alps, from Smithfield, and the hills of covenanting Scotland yet obtain vengeance from God for all that they suffered and all the blood which they poured forth in defense of His cause?

The Blood of Christ: A Divine Offering

I have taken you up, you see, from the beast to man, from man to God’s chosen men, the martyrs. I now take a far larger step—it is to the blood of Jesus Christ. Here, powers of speech fail to convey the preciousness! Behold a Person innocent, without taint within or flaw without; a Person meritorious who magnified the law and made it honorable; a Person who served both God and man even unto death. No, here you have a divine Person—so divine, that in Acts, Paul calls His blood the “blood of God.” Place innocence, merit, dignity, position, and Godhead itself in the scale, and conceive what must be the inestimable value of the blood which Jesus Christ poured forth.

Properties of the Precious Blood of Christ

Angels must have seen that matchless blood-shedding with wonder and amazement. Even God Himself saw something never before seen in creation or providence: He saw Himself more gloriously displayed than the whole universe beside. Let us come nearer to the text and try to show forth the preciousness of the blood of Christ. We shall limit ourselves to an enumeration of some of the many properties possessed by this precious blood.

The precious blood of Christ is useful to God’s people in a thousand ways—we intend to speak of twelve of them. After all, the real preciousness of a thing, in times of pinch and trial, must depend upon its usefulness.

The Value of the Blood of Christ

A bag of pearls would be more precious to us, this morning, than a bag of bread, but you have heard the story of the man in the desert who stumbled, nearly dead, upon a bag. Opening it, he hoped to find something to sustain him, but only found pearls. Had they been bread, how much more precious would they have been! In the hour of necessity and peril, the use of a thing really constitutes its preciousness. This may not be according to political economy, but it is according to common sense.

1. The Redeeming Power of the Blood

The precious blood of Christ has redeeming power. It redeems us from the law. We were all under the law, which says, “Do this and live.” We were slaves to it. Christ has paid the ransom price, and the law is no longer our tyrant master. The law had a dreadful curse; it threatened that whoever violated one of its precepts would die. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us.

By the fear of this curse, the law inflicted continual dread on those who were under it. They knew they had disobeyed it and feared death and destruction. But we are no longer under the law, but under grace, and consequently, we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. We have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.” The law’s worst thunders cannot affect us because we are sheltered beneath the cross of Christ.

2. The Atoning Power of the Blood

The value of the blood lies much in its atoning efficacy. In Leviticus, it is written, “It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” Without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. The blood, and the blood alone, puts away sin, allowing us to come to God’s courts to worship. The blood is the great at-one-ment. Without it, we cannot be reconciled with God.

Christ came and was punished in the place of all His people. Ten thousand times ten thousand souls are for whom Jesus shed His blood. He made a complete atonement for every man born of Adam who believes or who is taken to glory before being capable of believing. There is no other plan by which sinners can be made at one with God except by Jesus’ precious blood.

3. The Cleansing Power of the Blood

Thirdly, the precious blood of Jesus Christ has cleansing power. John tells us, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Sin has a directly defiling effect on the sinner, from which comes the need of cleansing. Without the cleansing power of Christ’s blood, we could never be happy.

It is by the precious blood that sin is cleansed. Murder, adultery, theft—whatever the sin may be—there is power in the veins of Christ to take it away at once and forever. No matter how deep our offenses, the blood cries, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

4. The Preserving Power of the Blood

A fourth property of the blood of Christ is its preserving power. In the Old Testament, on the night of the Passover in Egypt, the houses of the Israelites were preserved by the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” We are preserved in Christ Jesus.

Let us remember, it was not our seeing the blood that saved us. One sight of it gave us peace, but it was God’s seeing it that saved us. Under the shelter of that precious blood, we are protected, no matter how fierce the storm or what dangers may come. What can touch us when we are covered by His precious blood?

Conclusion: The Precious Blood of Christ

Beloved, the precious blood of Christ is truly a treasure to be valued above all else. It redeems, atones, cleanses, and preserves us. It is the foundation of our salvation and the source of our peace. Let us rest in the knowledge that, through His blood, we are safe, forgiven, and made whole. May we never forget the immeasurable value of the precious blood of Christ, and may it forever be a source of our joy and gratitude.

Let me ask you to come here, right under the shelter of the cross. Sit down now beneath the shadow of the cross and feel, “I am safe. I am safe, O you devils of hell, or you angels of God—I could challenge you all and say, ‘Who shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, or who shall lay anything to my charge, seeing that Christ has died for me?’” When heaven is ablaze, when earth begins to shake, when the mountains rock, when God divides the righteous from the wicked, happy will they be who can find a shelter beneath the blood! But where will you be who have never trusted in its cleansing power? You will call to the rocks to hide you, and to the mountains to cover you, but all in vain. God help you now, or even the blood will not help you then!

The Power of the Blood of Christ

1. The Pleading Prevalence of the Blood

Fifthly, the blood of Christ is precious because of its pleading prevalence. Paul says in the 12th chapter of his epistle to the Hebrews, at the 24th verse, “It speaks better things than that of Abel.” Abel’s blood pleaded and prevailed, and its cry was, “Vengeance!” and Cain was punished. But Jesus’ blood pleads and prevails; its cry is, “Father, forgive them!” and sinners are forgiven through it. When I cannot pray as I would, how sweet it is to remember that the blood prays! There is no voice in my tongue, but there is always a voice in the blood. If I cannot, when I bow before my God, get farther than to say, “God be merciful to me, a sinner,” yet my Advocate before the throne is not dumb because I am, and His plea has not lost its power because my faith in it may be diminished. The blood is always alike prevalent with God. The wounds of Jesus are so many mouths to plead with God for sinners—what if I say they are so many chains with which love is lead captive, and sovereign mercy bound to bless every favored child? What if I say that the wounds of Jesus have become doors of divine grace through which divine love comes forth to the vilest of the vile, and doors through which our needs go up to God, and plead with Him that He would be pleased to supply them? Next time you cannot pray, next time you are crying, striving, and groaning up in that upper room, praise the value of the precious blood which makes intercession before the eternal throne of God!

2. The Melting Influence of the Blood

Sixthly, the blood is precious where perhaps we little expect it to operate. It is precious because of its melting influence on the human heart. “They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one who mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one who is in bitterness for his first-born.” There is a great complaint among sinners, when they are a little awakened, that they feel their hearts so hard. The blood is a mighty melter. Alchemists of old sought after a universal solvent—the blood of Jesus is that. There is no nature so stubborn that a sight of the love of God in Christ Jesus cannot melt it, if grace shall open the blind eye to see Christ. The stone in the human heart shall melt away when it is plunged into a bath of divine blood.

Cannot you say, dear friends, that Toplady was right in his hymn—“Law and terrors do but harden all the while they work alone. But a sense of blood-bought pardon, soon dissolves a heart of stone”? Sinner, if God shall lead you to believe this morning in Christ to save you—if you will trust your soul in His hands to have it saved—that hard heart of yours will melt at once! You would think differently of sin, my friends, if you knew that Christ smarted for it. Oh, if you knew that out of those dear, listless eyes, there looked the loving heart of Jesus upon you, I know you would say, “I hate the sin that made Him mourn, and fastened Him to the accursed tree.”

The Law vs. The Gospel’s Melting Power

I do not think that preaching the law generally softens men’s hearts. Hitting men with a hard hammer may often drive the particles of a hard heart more closely together, and make the iron yet more hard; but oh, to preach Christ’s love—His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in sins, and to tell sinners that there is life in a look at the crucified one—surely this will prove that Christ was exalted on high to give repentance and remission of sins! Come for repentance if you cannot come repenting! Come for a broken heart if you cannot come with a broken heart! Come to be melted if you are not melted. Come to be wounded if you are not wounded.

3. The Gracious Power to Pacify

But then comes in a seventh property of the precious blood. The same blood that melts has a gracious power to pacify. John Bunyan speaks of the law as coming to sweep a chamber like a maid with a broom, and when she began to sweep, there was a great dust which almost choked people and got into their eyes; but then came the gospel with its drops of water, and laid the dust, and then the broom might be used far better. Now it sometimes happens that the law of God makes such a dust in the sinner’s soul that nothing but the precious blood of Jesus Christ can make that dust lie still.

Finding Peace Through the Precious Blood

The sinner is so disquieted that nothing can ever give him any relief except to know that Jesus died for him. When I felt the burden of my sin, I confess all the preaching I ever heard never gave me one single atom of comfort. I was told to do this, and to do that, and when I had done it all, I had not advanced one inch farther. I thought I must feel something or pray a certain quantity; and when I had done that, the burden was quite as heavy. But the moment I saw that there was nothing for me to do, that Jesus did it long ago—that all my sins were put on His back, and He suffered all I ought to have suffered—why then my heart had peace with God, real peace by believing, peace through the precious blood!

The Story of the Two Soldiers and the Blood’s Power

Two soldiers were on duty in the citadel of Gibraltar. One had obtained peace through the precious blood of Christ, the other was in great distress of mind. They both stood sentinel the same night, and there are long passages in the rock that convey sounds a great distance. The soldier in distress of mind was ready to beat his breast for grief—he felt he had rebelled against God, and could not find how he could be reconciled. Suddenly, he heard a mysterious voice from heaven saying these words, “The precious blood of Christ.” In an instant, he saw it all—it was that which reconciled us to God—and he rejoiced with unspeakable joy and glory!

Now, did those words come directly from God? No. They came through the air, as the other sentinel at the far end of the passage had been meditating. He had mistakenly spoken the words, “The precious blood of Christ,” and they reached the soldier who needed them most. And that man found peace and spent his life in the fear of God, later helping to complete one of our excellent translations of the Word of God into the Hindu language.

The Peace-Giving Power of the Blood

Who can tell, dear friends, how much peace you may give by only telling the story of our Savior! If I only had a dozen words to speak, and knew I must die, I would say, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” The doctrine of substitution is the pith and marrow of the gospel, and if you can hold that forth, you will prove the value of the precious blood by its peace-giving power.

4. The Sanctifying Influence of the Blood

In the ninth place, we have the sanctifying influence of the precious blood. The Apostle tells us in the 9th chapter and the 14th verse that Christ sanctified the people by His own blood. Certainly, the same blood which justifies by taking away sin does, in its later action, act upon the new nature, subduing sin and leading us onward to obey God’s commands. There is no greater motive for holiness than the blood of Jesus. If you want to know why you should be obedient to God’s will, my brethren, go and look upon Him who sweated, as it were, great drops of blood, and the love of Christ will constrain you. As Paul wrote, “That if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that we which live might not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again.”

5. The Power to Give Entrance

In the tenth place, another precious property of the blood of Jesus is its power to give entrance. We are told that the high priest never went within the veil without blood; and surely we can never get into God’s heart, nor into the secret of the Lord, nor into any familiar communion with our great Father and Friend, except by the sprinkling of the precious blood of Jesus. “We have access with boldness into this grace wherein we stand,” but we never dare approach God except as we are sprinkled with this precious blood.

Some of us do not come near to God because we forget the blood. If you try to have fellowship with God in your graces, your experiences, your believing—you will fail; but if you try to come near to God as you stand in Christ Jesus—you will have courage to approach, and on the other hand, God will run to meet you when He sees you in the face of His Anointed.

The Power of the Blood to Confirm and Strengthen

Lastly, we must consider the confirming power of the precious blood. No covenant was valid without the shedding of blood, and it is the blood of Jesus which has ratified the new covenant. Therefore, it is called “the blood of the everlasting covenant.” This blood confirms the promises of God to all believers. Rejoice, dear friends, that the promises are yes and amen because of Christ’s death and resurrection.

The Invigorating Power of the Blood

The blood of Jesus has invigorating power. Through His blood, we live and find strength for every trial. Christ’s blood is our spiritual sustenance, and when we feed upon Him, we find strength and comfort.

The Overcoming Power of the Blood

Lastly, the blood of Christ has an overcoming power. “They overcame by the blood of the Lamb.” The blood is a weapon that cuts through soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It makes hell tremble, and makes heaven subservient to the will of those who wield it. The blood of Jesus brings victory over sin, death, and hell.

Conclusion: The Precious Blood of Christ

Is this blood to be had? Yes, it is free, and full of virtue. It is free to every soul who believes. Whoever cares to come and trust in Jesus shall find the virtue of this blood in his case this very morning. Away from your own works! Turn your eyes to the full atonement made, to the utmost ransom paid! If God enables you to say, “I take that precious blood to be my only hope,” you are saved. And you may sing with the rest of us, “Now, freed from sin, I walk at large; the Savior’s blood’s my full discharge. At His dear feet, my soul I lay, a sinner saved, and homage pay.”

God grant it may be so, for His name’s sake. Amen.

Charles Spurgeon