WHAT THE ATONING BLOOD OF CHRIST DOES NOT DO
By G. H. LANG.
In the matter of deliverance from the Destroying Angel in
Thus for the redeemed Israelites the blood was the
commencement and basis of all future relations with God, it was the doorway out
of estrangement into a life of faith and communion. Moreover, all through the life thus entered
there continued various sprinklings of blood, showing that it remained
perpetually the basis of intercourse with God.
Nor is the place and efficacy of atoning blood at all diminished by the
abrogation of repeated sacrifices and sprinklings through the one complete and
final sacrifice of the cross, because the virtue of that death, and of the
blood of Christ there shed, is eternal and is the perpetual basis of all
communion with God.
Nevertheless the door is not the road or its goal, the
foundation is not the superstructure, the blood by itself serves its ends but not all ends; deliverance from the judicial penalty of sin is not the same
as deliverance from the practical power of sin, freedom from servitude in Egypt
must advance to conquest in Canaan, turning from idols is to develop into
service to a living and true God. For
the numerous phases and necessities of this developing life the blood is ever
the basis but is not by itself sufficient.
There are things which blood cannot do and does not do, which it is not
its function to do. In particular, as
all histories and types show, it does
not (1) dispense with the obedience of faith, or (2) with need of bread,
or (3) do the work of water, or
(4) take the place of oil, or (5) act as fire and serve the ends of discipline, or (6) do the work of the
sword.
1. Blood does not dispense with faith and obedience.
The sprinkling of the passover blood opened the door to escape
from
How many there are today who have rested their hope of safety
from eternal death upon the precious blood of Christ, but have failed to break with the world, and so they continue entangled
by its pleasures and enslaved by its Prince. Either they never heard the call and command
to break every yoke with unbelievers, or they have lacked the energy and
decision of faith to do this. Protected by the blood they yet remain
enslaved by the world, the flesh, and the devil. The apostle rejoiced greatly in the
continuing faith of his children in the faith (Eph.
1: 15; Col. 1: 4; 1 Thes. 1: 3), and gave thanks to God when he knew
that it “grew exceedingly” (2 Thes. 1: 3).
He was keenly aware of the practical dangers attendant upon a failure of
faith in children of God. He stressed
heavily that the disasters that overwhelmed Israel in the wilderness, though
they were the redeemed of the Lord, can have counterpart in the experience of
Christians, for, he says, “these things happened unto
them by way of example [Greek, figure]; and they
were written [put into God’s historical records] for our admonition upon whom
the ends of the ages are come” (1 Cor. 10: 1
-13). These disasters befell “most of them” that had been redeemed by the blood of
the lamb and brought into liberty and fellowship with God. They were sufficiently spiritual to know that
manna and water had spiritual counterparts and to partake of these latter: “they did all eat the same spiritual food; and did all drink
the same spiritual drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that went with
them: and the rock was Christ.”
In the face of these explicit assertions of Scripture as to
the spiritual state of those concerned, and in the face of the direct application
of their experiences to Christians in Corinth, it is wholly without warrant to
say that they were not real believers and that the application here made is to
mere professors of this age, not to true believers. Such treatment of Scripture would mean that
all but a very small number of the Corinthian Christians were either hypocrites
or self-deceived, for of those who were examples for them only three or four of
the men who left Egypt did not die in the desert. Jude
refers to the same ancient events and says, “I desire
to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, how that the
Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them
that believed not” (verse 5). This is exactly how Paul warns us in the
passage cited, saying, “Neither murmur ye, as some of
them murmured and perished by the destroyer” (verse
10).
Therefore there is such a thing as being saved from the
Destroyer in
2. Blood
does not take the place of food.
The same night that
3. The Blood does not dispense with discipline.
The classic instance of this is David after his lapse and
recovery (2 Sam. 12: 12-14). He was pardoned, his sin put away, the
capital punishment remitted, and all this because God was able to give the
repentant offender the benefit of the blood Jesus would shed. But to
the announcement of pardon the sentence was added that his child should die and
the sword would harass his house to the end. He had sinned publicly and had given great
occasion to the enemies of his God to blaspheme, and that holy God was bound to
vindicate His holiness and to show publicly that He does not tolerate sin in
His people. The after life of David showed that he humbly bowed to this severe
chastisement and was benefited by it.
The leading passage on parental discipline by God is Hebrews 12: 1-17.
This follows the great exposition of remission through the blood and of
cleansing by the water. Can discipline,
then, add ought to these? The passage
declares that the Father “scourges every son whom He
receiveth,” and that this is a proof of His love and of their
sonship. The object of this severe
treatment is “for our profit, that we may be partakers [eis to metalabein, so that
we may partake] of His holiness” (verses 6-10).
Every one of His sons has already been reckoned righteous by faith in
Christ. But that is something imputed,
securing a clear and safe standing in law; this
holiness is the actual character and activity of God infused into and wrought
out in His sons. The only other
place of this exact word in the New Testament is 2
Cor. 1: 12, where Paul uses it of his practical conduct at
For the furthering of this needful and noble end chastisement
is employed by God our Father, and
neither blood, water, nor oil dispenses with it. Gold is freed from dross by neither of these
but by
fire (1 Pet. 1: 7). This is set in direct connexion with the
believer being found unto “praise and glory and honour
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Our passage in Hebrews puts heavy emphasis upon this same connexion by exhorting us to “follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification
without which no one shall see the Lord” (verses
14-17), that is, God the Father, for every eye is to see Christ and
every knee to bend before Him at one or other session of His judgment seat.
In my commentary on Hebrews
it was shown from many Scriptures that there
is a possibility that this “scourging” of a
child of God may continue after death. An indignant critic complained in a magazine
that it seems that what the blood cannot do, a thousand years in purgatory is
to do. I had shown that the process
proposed differed radically and essentially from the Roman Catholic conception
of purgatory in that the Catholic doctrine makes salvation dependent upon such purgation, which is
false. The critic ignored this. His
phrase was clever, well calculated to
catch the unwary and mislead the uninstructed by a seeming honouring of the
blood: but it revealed the common and regrettable theological error that the
blood is like money and answereth for all things. Yet it is very evident that in this life at
least the atoning blood does not serve the end that chastisement serves, nor, if discipline be
resented, will the blood compensate by perfecting holiness in the child of
God. To lead the people of God to rest on this misconception is injurious to
their souls and to their prospects. It
retards growth in holiness, induces unwarranted confidence, and conduces to
lethargy.
4. Blood does not do the work of the sword.
By blood
Hast thou sheltered under the precious blood of Christ, then thou art secure from eternal damnation;
but take not thou for granted that all
the privileges and advantages of the new life in Christ, in time and eternity,
are certain to become thine. Not so, not
so! Thou must put on the whole armour of
God, and use the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph. 6.).
Therefore challenge thy heart with the question, Am I fighting the good
fight of faith? “Am I a soldier of the cross?”
Thy new birth grants thy title to inherit in Christ; the atoning blood has removed the legal obstacle to thy inheriting, even thy sin; but possession
will only be secured by thy
sword. Therefore, my brother, say
resolutely to thy soul
“Since I must
fight if I would reign
Increase my courage, Lord:
I’ll bear the toil, endure
the pain
Supported by Thy word.”
What the blood does has been opened up in the former part of this
exposition – [Atoning Blood What it Does
and Does Not Do by G. H. LANG.]. The
God of all grace be praised for the rich and establishing truth there set
forth. Yet it is very necessary that the
Christian should understand what the blood does not do, in order that he
may feel his need of water and oil, may set himself to the life of detail
obedience to the will of God declared in His Word, may thus enjoy the communion
of the Holy Spirit and “grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.”
(2 Pet. 3: 18. [R.V.]).