Hebrews 9:22

This was so true that the text adds a further fact: with blood almost all things are purified under the law. Yet it is not said of everything, for water was used in some cases and fire in others. Both picture death, and fire pictures death in its most extreme form, as divine judgment. How blessed for us is the gift of grace, where the judgment was felt in a perfection known and possible nowhere else! He expiates as well as purifies, and He does both by His death.

As regards forgiveness: it can never be obtained without the shedding of blood. Notice that the verse does not say "application" here. It speaks of the accomplishment of the work of true propitiation.

The point here is not sprinkling with blood, but shedding of blood, and without it there can be no forgiveness. The power of that blood, shed once for all, is presented to God and brings forgiveness to man. It is the ground of divine righteousness, at a time when human righteousness had proved wholly at fault. It is the righteousness of God to all, and on all who believe. It sweeps away every distinction, so that God may bless anyone — and He does bless all who believe.

Sin is an offence against God. It is an insult to His supreme power and authority. That is why we need forgiveness. And when we have offended the Creator of heaven and earth, forgiveness is impossible without a true basis for it. That fully satisfactory basis is "the precious blood of Christ." In Him "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1:7). But "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Heb. 9:22). God forgives because He sees perfect virtue in the blood of Christ.

Think of all the tears of sorrow that ever poured out of broken hearts, from the days of Joseph's brothers to the day of Acts 3 and to this present moment. Not one of them could form the just foundation of a sinner's acceptance and peace with God. Not one could wash away a single stain from the human conscience. The blood of the divine Victim, and that alone — nothing except that precious blood, that atoning death, that matchless sacrifice — could justify a holy God in forgiving one sin.

Many people think that Christ's keeping of the law is put to the believer's account, so that God counts him righteous. But it was the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat that spoke of righteousness being met. True, if the Lord had not kept the law perfectly He could never have been the Saviour. But we must always insist on this: His death alone secured righteousness for the believing sinner.

Come testing, come trial, come what may, the ground of my peace is never touched. If it were not already settled and done, it never could be. Why? Because God says that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." So if the work were not fully done, Christ would have to die again and shed His blood again. But it is finished.