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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
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 <=you are here
Chapter 12
The Holy Spirit's Testimony To The Blood Of Jesus
Topics In This Chapter:
- What We Should Say To An Anxious Inquirer
- Jesus Still The Saviour
- Nature And Grace
THE GREAT WORK WHICH THE Holy Spirit is now occupied in performing, is that of directing
sinners to Jesus, and inclining and enabling them to come to Him, that they may be saved; and
since this is the case, I am a fellow worker with God the Holy Spirit only in so far as I
tell anxious sinners TO LOOK TO JESUS ONLY, and have "redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins," as their first and great business; and
"this one, thing I do."
The question is not, whether do we think it scriptural for
an awakened sinner to desire the secret and power-giving presence of the Holy Spirit to
open the eyes of his understanding, and shew him the all-sufficiency of Christ. That is
what neither we nor any other true Christian would for a moment think of forbidding. Nor
is it the question, whether the work of the Holy Spirit be necessary in order to
salvation. The very fact of writing as we have done on regeneration in a previous chapter,
as well as writing to encourage our brethren to meet together, and also meeting ourselves,
to pray for the Holy Spirit to put forth His reviving, sanctifying, convincing, and
converting power, will satisfy all ingenuous minds that we hold the absolute necessity of
the work of the Holy Spirit in order to the regeneration and conversion of perishing
souls.
The only question, then, which falls to be considered is, What
am I to say to an awakened and anxious sinner? Am I to say simply, "Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," (Acts 16:31), as said the
apostle of the Gentiles to the trembling jailor of Philippi? or am I, as the first
thing I do, to exhort him to pray for the Holy Spirit to convince him more deeply of
his sin, enlighten his darkened understanding, renew his perverse will, and can able him
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of his soul? Am I to direct him, as the
grand thing he has to do, to believe in Jesus, and accept His blood-shedding as the only
foundation of his peace with God; or to seek the work of the Spirit as an addition to
Christ's work, in order that he may be justified ? The former leads to justification by
faith alone, the true Apostolic doctrine of the Churches of the first age ; the latter
leads to justification by sanctification, the pernicious doctrine of a later era,
by embracing which a man can never reach any satisfactory assurance that his sins are
pardoned, even after a lifetime's religious experience and devout and sincere
performance of religious duties; whereas, by teaching salvation
by the blood of Christ alone, a man may, like the Philippian jailor, "rejoice,
believing in God with all his house," (Acts 16:34), "in the same
hour" in which Christ is presented as the alone object of personal faith
and consequent reconciliation.
There is, we regret to think, a large class of professing
Christians who seem to have the unfounded notion engrained in their minds, that Christ
came as a Saviour in the fulness of time, and on being rejected and received up into
glory, the Holy Spirit came down to be the Saviour of sinners in His stead, and that
whether men are now to be saved or lost depends entirely on the work of the Holy Spirit in
them, and not on the work of Christ done for them; whereas the Holy Spirit was given as
the crowning evidence that JESUS IS STILL THE SAVIOUR, even now that He is in heaven; and
the great work of the Spirit is not to assume the place of Jesus as our Saviour, but to
bear witness to Christ Jesus as the only Saviour, and by His quickening grace bring
lost sinners to Him, that they may become "the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus," (Gal 3:26). This He did on the blessed day of Pentecost, when thousands of
divinely quickened souls received His testimony, believed "in the name of
Jesus," and obtained " remission of sins," (Acts 2:38). The Holy Ghost is not
the Saviour, and He never professed to be so, but His great work, in so far as the
unconverted are concerned, is to direct sinners to the Saviour, and to get them persuaded
to embrace Him and rely upon Him. When speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said distinctly
to His disciples, "He shall not speak of himself. .... HE SHALL GLORIFY ME,"
(John 16:13, 14). If to glorify Christ be the grand aim and peculiar work of the Holy
Spirit, should it not also be the grand aim and constant work of those who believe in Him,
and more especially of the ministers of His gospel?
The whole drift of the Holy Spirit's inspired oracles, as
we have them in the Bible, is to glorify Christ; and the gospel ministry has been
granted by Him, (Eph. 4:11, 12), to keep the purport of those Scriptures incessantly
before the minds of men, and in so doing to beseech sinners to be reconciled to God. Now,
Holy Scripture throughout clearly teaches that, simply on account of the one, finished and
all-sufficient and eternally efficacious work of Christ, sinners who believe in Him are "justified
from all things;" that we are "justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in His blood," (Rom. 3:24, 25); and we are justified as "sinners," as
"ungodly," (Rom. 5:6, 8), and not as having an incipient personal
righteousness wrought in us by the Holy Ghost. Few men, with the Word of God in their
hands, would subscribe to such a doctrine; and yet it is the latent creed of the
great majority of professing Christians. It is, in fact, the universal creed of the
natural heart. Fallen human nature, when under terror, says, Get into a better state by
all means; feel better, pray better, do better; become holier, and reform your life and
conduct, and God will have mercy upon you! But grace says, "Behold, God is my
salvation!" (Isa. 12:2). To give God some equivalent for His mercy, either in the
shape of an inward work of sanctification, or of an outward work of reformation, the
natural man can comprehend and approve of; but to be justified by faith alone, on the
ground of the finished work of Christ, irrespective of both, is quite beyond his
comprehension. But "the foolishness of God is wiser than men," (1 Cor. 1:25);
for, instead of preaching holiness as a ground of peace with God, "we preach Christ
crucified," (1 Cor. 1:23), "for other foundation can no man lay"
-either for justification or sanctification-"than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ," (1 Cor. 3:11); and, whatever others may do, I am "determined not to
know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified," (1 Cor. 2:2).
"O my Redeemer, who for me wast slain,
Who bringest me forgiveness and release,
Whose death has ransomed me to God again,
And now my heart can rest in perfect peace!
Still more and more do Thou my soul redeem,
From every bondage set me wholly free;
Though evil oft the mightiest power may seem,
Still make me more than conqueror, Lord, in Thee!"
[the following did not appear in the book, but
was added to the end of the article as it appears in FOUNDATION Magazine]
How Christ Saves...
A MAN WHO HAS BEEN CONVERTED from a sinful life
gave this experience of his acceptance with Jesus: "I just crept to the feet of
Jesus, and gently to my astonishment, He did not scold me - He knew I had been scolded
enough; and He did not pity me, and He did not give me any advice either. He knew that I
had plenty of that. He graciously and mercifully received me and loved me and I was a new
man."
How true that is: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:17). The Blood of Jesus
Christ, and the Blood alone, can atone for our sins and provide a ground for our eternal
redemption. Believe and accept Him before the door of mercy closes; then we can boldly
say:
"I do believe, I will believe,
That Jesus died for me,
That on the Cross He shed His Blood
From sin to set me free."
Believe it or not, all men are sinners.
Here is the proof: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one"
(Romans 3:10); "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans
3:23).
Believe it or not, trusting Him as our personal Saviour assures us of eternal
life.
The proof: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation" (Romans 10:9, 10).
Believe it or not, there is no other way to be saved.
God’s Word says: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by
me" (John 14:6).
Believe it or not, whether you believe it or not means for you the difference
between eternal life and eternal death, and the difference between heaven and hell.
"God … now commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30); "He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36).
Back to: Chapter 11: The Blood Of Jesus The Essence Of The
Gospel
Return to: Table of Contents
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