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©FOUNDATION
A MAGAZINE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
Dennis W. Costella, Editor; Karel Beyer, Production Manager; Matt
Costella,
Copy Editor
M.H. Reynolds, Jr. (1919-1997), Founding Editor
The Blood of Jesus
by The Rev. William Reid, M.A.
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus," Hebrews 10:19
[This is a reprint of a book
published by James Nisbet & Co., London, England, in 1866. Liberty Bell
Press no longer prints this book and has granted permission to the FEA for
reprinting. This resource is available in a booklet from the FEA. Click
here to order].
©FOUNDATION Magazine, July-August 1998
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Forgiveness Of Sins Through The Blood Of Jesus
<= you are here
Chapter 2: How Our Sins Are Taken Away By The
Blood Of Jesus
Chapter 3: The Blood Of Jesus, Not Conviction Of Sin, The Foundation
Of Our Peace And Joy
Chapter 4: A Letter About The Love Of Jesus
Chapter 5: Salvation Through The Blood Of Jesus, The Gift Of God
Chapter 6: The Blood Of Jesus Our Only Ground Of Peace With God
Chapter 7: Regeneration Through The Blood Of Jesus
Chapter 8: Faith In The Blood Of Jesus Essential To Salvation
Chapter 9: The Blood Of Jesus The Believer’s Life And Peace
Chapter 10: Faith In The Blood Of Jesus The Spring Of Holiness
Chapter 11: The Blood Of Jesus The Essence Of The Gospel
Chapter 12: The Holy Spirit’s Testimony To The Blood Of Jesus
Chapter 1
Forgiveness of Sins Through the Blood of Jesus
Topics In This Chapter:
- Forgiveness To Be Obtained Now
- Forgiveness Necessary At The Outset
- Forgiveness The Spring Of Devotedness
THE GOD OF LOVE, dear reader, in His written
Word, which gives an account of the rich mercy He has provided for the guilty, tells you
that you may be saved. His Word assures you that you may be saved from guilt, sin, and
wrath. And that Word also informs you that your salvation depends not on anything you
may do, but on what God has already done. Good news about God have reached our world, and
in believing these glad tidings. you shall be saved. This is the good news, "God
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us," (Rom. 5:8). "For God so loved the world that he gave his
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life," (John 3:16). "Christ died for the ungodly," (Rom.
5:6). "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him," (2 Cor. 5:21). If, by simply believing the
good news about what God through Christ hath done for sinners, we become "partakers
of Christ," (Heb. 3:14), and are "accepted in the Beloved," (Eph.
1:6), it will become matter of personal consciousness and spiritual joy that "we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his
grace," (Eph. 1:7). "Be it known unto you therefore, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe
are justified from all things," (Acts 13:38).
I beseech you to settle it in your mind that "forgiveness of sins" (Acts
13:38) lies at the very threshold of the Christian life. It is a blessing, needed and
obtainable now. You must have forgiveness, or perish for ever; you must have it now, or
you cannot have peace. It is surely a most delightful thought that you may have the guilt
of all your past sins blotted out at once and for ever! God pardons freely and at once. He
does not inculcate any preparation in order to pardon. One who knew the blessedness of
enjoying His pardoning mercy testifies thus concerning it: "If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness," (1 John 1:9); and this testimony was given on the ground
of what he had affirmed in the same letter, that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son
cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). He does not say, After you have repented
more thoroughly, after you have spent days and weeks in agonising prayer, after you become
more thoroughly instructed in divine things, and after you pass through years of
"trouble and sorrow," then you may venture to hope for forgiveness. No; but,
knowing that Christ died to put away sin, you are warranted, on simply taking the place of
a sinner, and accepting of Jesus as your Saviour, to believe that, through the all-perfect
merits of Christ, you are pardoned that very moment, and enjoy perfect peace with God; for
God "justifieth the ungodly," (Rom. 5:5).
Peace with God through the forgiveness of all your sins may thus be obtained at any
moment, seeing that you do not have to repent for it, work for it, or wait for it, but
simply believe what God says regarding Christ "having made peace by the blood of
his cross," (Col. 1:20). "And being justified freely by his grace,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom, 3:24), - and being, fully
satisfied that your sin has been forgiven you in a righteous way, being put away by "the
precious blood of Christ," (1 Pet. 1:19) - God being "well pleased
for his righteousness' sake," (Isa. 42:21)-"just, and the justifier of
him that believeth in Jesus," (Rom. 3:26) - "peace that passeth all
understanding" (Phil. 4:7) will spring up spontaneously within your soul, like the
fresh, flowing current of a perennial fountain.
In reference to the pardon of your sins, there is no time to be lost, for "the
Holy Ghost saith, To-day," (Heb. 3:7); and were you now refusing to listen, and
dying in your sins ere tomorrow's sun arose, you would inevitably perish eternally,
notwithstanding your conviction of sin, and anxieties of soul; for Jesus himself assures
us that "he that believeth not shall be damned," (Mark 16:16).
Besides, you can do nothing else that will prove satisfactory to yourself, or
well-pleasing to God, until you have obtained the forgiveness of your sins. And as pardon
of sin is the first thing that you feel in need of, so it is the first thing which is
presented by the God of love for your acceptance; for God is still to be found "in
Christ reconciling sinners unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them," (2 Cor. 5:19). Moreover, you will have your whole life and character
affected in a most striking way by the scripturalness or unscripturalness of the views you
now entertain of "the God of all grace," (1 Pet. 5:10), and the heartiness
or hesitancy with which you embrace His pardoning mercy. As a man's
position in the world is very materially affected by the character of his elementary
education and early training, so is the position of even true believers in Christ
materially affected not only in this world, but in the world to come, by their being
thoroughly grounded or not grounded in the great elementary truths of the Gospel of the
grace of God, which preaches present pardon and immediate peace "to every one that
believeth," (Rom. 1:16). Your position, as well as destiny for time and
for eternity, are now to be determined! It is, therefore, of the last importance that you
should have thoroughly scriptural views and an intelligent experience of the grace of God
as it is manifested to you, a sinner, in the person and work of His Son Jesus Christ. And
again, the character of your service for God, and your success in winning souls, will very
greatly depend upon the clearness with which you realise your own salvation through the
blood of Christ at the commencement of your Christian course; for how could you labor
faithfully to bring others to feel the constraining power of the love of Christ, unless
you yourself felt assured that He had loved you personally and put away your sin? The most
useful life must ever be that which is firmly based on a knowledge of Christ crucified as
the sole ground of acceptance with God, and on being justified, and having peace "through
our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us," (1 Thess. 5:9,10). It will be
found that those who do most for God and their fellow-sinners are such as the Rev. Robert
McCheyne, who knew himself to be forgiven by God and safe for eternity-of whom his
biographer says, that "he walked calmly in almost unbroken fellowship with the FATHER
and the SON" and who himself thus describes his own undoubted conversion in the only
record he has left of it:-
"When free grace awoke me, by light from on high
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
No refuge, no safety in self could I see-
Jehovah Tsidkenu* my Saviour must be.
My terrors all vanish’d before the sweet name,
My guilty fears vanish'd, with boldness I came
To drink at the Fountain, life-giving and free
Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me."
*Translation: the Lord our Righteousness
Continue With: Chapter 2: How Our Sins Are Taken Away By The
Blood Of Jesus
Back to: Preface
Return to: Table of Contents
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