It is a topic that to many people in this 21st century probably seems archaic, even repulsive. Some abhor the thought of a “bloody religion,” while others may relegate it to the Old Testament sacrifices of bulls and goats; but the hymn penned by Robert Lowry (1826-1889) still says it all for the earnest Bible believers who today confess, unashamedly, that it is “nothing but the blood”: “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Missionary Ron White said it well in a missions message he delivered in our church in 2014: “Never was a greater price paid for a more worthless object.” But God saw fallen man as worthy of the death of His only begotten Son. He saw Adam and Eve and their descendants as precious souls who could be salvaged, but only by the spotless blood of one of their kind. So He sent Jesus, made of a woman, to bear the penalty of our sin and, thus, Lowry would pen verse three of his hymn: “Nothing can for sin atone, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Henry Ward Beecher, silver-tongued preacher and orator of the 19th century, likened Scripture to a Beethoven symphony. From the beginning to the end, Beecher said, runs the single theme of “man’s ruin by sin and his redemption by grace (through the blood); in a single word, Jesus Christ, the Savior.”
Beecher continued, “This redemption was promised in Eden, and portrayed in the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law. All the key events of the Old Testament paved the way for the coming of Christ. He was the Redeemer looked for by Job. Christ is foretold in the sublime strains of the lofty Isaiah; in the writings of the tender Jeremiah; in the mysteries of the contemplative Ezekiel; in the visions of the beloved Daniel. With each passing century, the great theme grew clearer and clearer.”
Beecher concluded: “Then the full harmony broke out in the declaration of the angels: ‘Glory to God in the highest. And on earth, peace, good will toward men.’ And the evangelists and apostles taking up the theme, the strain closes in the same key in which it began; the devil who troubled the first paradise, forever excluded from the second; man restored to the favor of God; and Jesus Christ the keynote of the whole.” (I am not sure of the source of these Beecher quotations, but I believe it is from a devotional in “Our Daily Bread,” by Richard W. DeHahn, date unrecorded.)
Joe Henry Hankins (1889-1967), a pastor in Arkansas and Texas, once said: “The Devil says to me sometimes, ‘How can you be so sure about this? How do you know your sins are gone?’ Every time he does this I point him to Calvary and say, ‘Listen, you old Devil! Until God repudiates the sacrifice of His Son on Calvary, my sins are gone. I have trusted that blood and that sacrifice with all my heart, soul, and mind. There’s my hope, and I know my sins are gone.’”
Of course, the Bible itself says it best: “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (Eph. 1:7) “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Eph. 2:13) “And having made peace through the blood of the cross.” (Col. 1:20) “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” (Rev. 1:5b)
M.R. DeHahn founded the Radio Bible Class and was a medical doctor. He wrote a book, Chemistry of the Blood, in which he explained: “All the blood which is in the child is produced within the child itself as a result of the introduction of the male sperm. The mother contributes no blood at all. From the time of conception to the time of birth of the infant, not one single drop of blood ever passes from the mother to child.” He further adds, on page 42, “His (Jesus’) blood was of the Holy Ghost. If that be true, the blood of Jesus Christ is not only inseparable and incorruptible, it is also incomparable. There is none like it. No wonder I Peter 1:19 calls it ‘precious blood.’”
A blood donor, while giving a pint of blood, was handed a card showing the percentages of people who have different types of blood: O positive, 37.4%; A positive, 35.7%; A negative, 6.3%; B negative, 1.5 %. The rarest is AB negative at 0.6%. The card concluded, “The rarest blood type is the one that’s not there when you need it.” The donor thought, “I know of one kind of blood that is always there when I ask for it. First John 1:7 states, ‘The blood of His Son cleanses us from all sin.’”
So, let us never be hesitant to confess that “without shedding of blood, there is no remission.” (Heb. 9:22)
Bottom line: “Nothing but the blood!”
“And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, and people and nation.” (Rev. 5:9)
YOU and GOD 