Now, it is most needful for the reader to understand and enter experimentally into the connection existing between these two things. It is quite possible to miss this grand link, even while holding and contending for a vast amount of evangelical truth; and it may be confidently affirmed that where this link is missing, there must be a very serious defect in the Christian character. We frequently meet with earnest souls who have been brought under the convicting and awakening power of the Holy Spirit, but who have not yet known, for the ease of their troubled consciences, the full value of the atoning death of Christ, as putting away forever all their sins, and bringing them nigh to God, without a stain upon the soul or a sting in the conscience. If this be the present actual condition of the reader, he would need to consider the first clause of the verse just quoted—“He gave Himself for our sins.” This is a most blessed statement for a troubled soul. It settles the whole question of sin. If it be true that Christ gave Himself for my sins, what remains for me but to rejoice in the precious fact that my sins are all gone? The One who took my place, who stood charged with my sins, who suffered in my room and stead, is now at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honor. This is enough. My sins are all gone forever. If they were not, _He_ could not be where he now is. The crown of glory which wreathes His blessed brow is the proof that my sins are perfectly atoned for, and therefore perfect peace is my portion—a peace as perfect as the work of Christ can make it.
But then let us never forget that the very same work that has forever put away our sins has delivered us from this present evil world. The two things go together. Christ has not only delivered me from the consequences of my sins, but also from the present power of sin, and from the claims and influences of that thing which Scripture calls “the world.” All this, however, will come more fully out as we proceed with our chapter.
“And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times.” Here we have the solid ground-work of all real purification. We know that in the type before us it is only, as the inspired apostle tells us, a question of “sanctifying to the purifying of the flesh.” (Heb. ix. 13.) But we have to look beyond the type to the Antitype—beyond the shadow to the substance. In the sevenfold sprinkling of the blood of the red heifer before the tabernacle of the congregation, we have a figure of the perfect presentation of the blood of Christ to God, as the only ground of the meeting-place between God and the conscience. The number “seven,” as has frequently been observed, is expressive of perfection; and in the figure before us, we see the perfection attaching to the death of Christ as an atonement for sin, presented to and accepted by God. All rests upon this divine ground. The blood has been shed and presented to a holy God as a perfect atonement for sin. This, when simply received by faith, must relieve the conscience from all sense of guilt, and all fear of condemnation. There is nothing before God save the perfection of the atoning work of Christ. Sin has been judged, and our sins put away; they have been completely obliterated by the precious blood of Christ. To believe this, is to enter into perfect repose of conscience.
And here let the reader carefully note that there is no further allusion to the sprinkling of blood throughout the entire of this singularly interesting chapter. This is precisely in keeping with the doctrine of Hebrews ix, x. It is but another illustration of the divine harmony of the volume. The sacrifice of Christ, being divinely perfect, needs not to be repeated. Its efficacy is divine and eternal. “But Christ being come a High-Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained _eternal_ redemption. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and _the ashes of a heifer_ sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. ix. 11-14.) Observe the force of these two words, “_once_” and “_eternal_.” See how they set forth the completeness and divine efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ. The blood was shed once and forever. To think of a repetition of that great work would be to deny its everlasting and all-sufficient value, and reduce it to the level of the blood of bulls and goats.