And let the reader observe that it was not a question of offering a fresh sacrifice, nor yet of a fresh application of the blood. It is of special importance that this should be distinctly seen and understood. The death of Christ cannot be repeated. “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.” We stand, by the grace of God, in the full credit and value of the death of Christ; but, inasmuch as we are surrounded on all sides by temptations and snares, and as we have within us such capabilities and tendencies, and further, seeing we have a powerful adversary who is ever on the watch to insnare us, and lead us off the path of truth and purity, we could not get on for a single moment were it not for the gracious way in which our God has provided for all our exigencies in the precious death and all-prevailing advocacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not merely that the blood of Jesus Christ has washed away all our sins, and reconciled us to a holy God, but “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” “He ever liveth to make intercession for us,” and “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” He is ever in the presence of God for us. He represents us there, and maintains us in the divine integrity of the place and relationship in which His atoning death has set us. Our ease can never, by any possibility, fall through in the hands of such an advocate. He must cease to live ere the very feeblest of His saints can perish. We are identified with Him and He with us.
Now, then, Christian reader, what should be the practical effect of all this grace upon our hearts and lives? When we think of the death and of the burning—of the blood and of the ashes—of the atoning sacrifice, and the interceding Priest and Advocate, what influence should it exert upon our souls? how should it act upon our consciences? Should it lead us to think little of sin? should it cause us to walk carelessly and indifferently? should it have the effect of making us light and frivolous in our ways? Alas! for the heart that can think so. We may rest assured of this, that the man who can draw a plea from the rich provisions of divine grace for lightness of conduct or levity of spirit, knows very little, if indeed he knows any thing at all, of the true nature or proper influence of grace and its provisions. Could we imagine for a moment that the ashes of the heifer or the water of separation would have had the effect of making an Israelite careless as to his walk? Assuredly not. On the contrary, the very fact of such careful provision being made, by the goodness of God, against defilement, would make him feel what a serious thing it was to contract it. Such, at least, would be the proper effect of the provisions of divine grace. The heap of ashes, laid up in a clean place, gave forth a double testimony; it testified of the goodness of God, and it testified of the hatefulness of sin. It declared that God could not suffer uncleanness upon His people; but it declared also that He had provided the means of removing it. It is utterly impossible that the blessed doctrine of the sprinkled blood, of the ashes, and of the water of separation can be understood and enjoyed without its producing a holy horror of sin in all its defiling forms. And we may further assert that no one who has ever felt the anguish of a defiled conscience could lightly contract defilement. A pure conscience is far too precious a treasure to be lightly parted with, and a defiled conscience is far too heavy a burden to be lightly taken up. But, blessed be the God of all grace, He has met all our need, in His own perfect way, and He has met it, too, not to make us careless, but to make us watchful. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” But then He adds, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the whole world.” (1 John.)
But we must draw this section to a close, and shall merely add a word on the closing verses of our chapter. “And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes, and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even. And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean, and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.” (Chap. xix. 21, 22.) In verse 18 we are taught that it needed a clean person to sprinkle the unclean, and in verse 21 we are taught that the act of sprinkling another defiled one’s self.