Is pleading the blood of Jesus biblical?

And is it true, that, even when the true Christian sins, that he not only still has Christ, but that Christ stands up to plead and maintain his cause? Yes, it is written so. "Oh!" says the believer, "on whatever ground can Christ maintain my cause, in the high court of heaven? Whatever can He plead, when I sin?" He pleads His own prevailing blood. He is the righteous One. And He is the propitiation for our sins. And, mark, whom he pleads with: it does not say, with His Father; no with the Father. Even when we sin, still he owns us brethren. It is my Father, and your Father, the Father. Oh, what a secure resting-place for the weary heart is this endearing name, the Father! He does chasten us, as sons, but is ever the Father. How perfect this living work of Christ! Oh, blessed, loving, watchful shepherd! oh, thou all-prevailing priest and advocate! my only security is thy faithfulness to me, not my faithfulness to thee.

And, accordingly, the sinner that pleads this blood is "perfected for ever." His sins are purged, and he is sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (See chap. 10)

What a dreadful life this would be had we no Redeemer! To be sinners—aye, dying sinners, the heavens as brass above our heads, and hell yawning to engulf us, and each step taking us nearer to an awful eternity, would be sad indeed. How different! God in heaven ready to forgive each sinner pleading the blood of Jesus; nay, a God who beseeches us to be reconciled; a triumphant Saviour sitting on God’s throne, who can say, “Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out”; there is no excuse for any missing the blessing.

This is a plea and a weapon that Satan cannot withstand. If he declares that one of these beloved ones of the Lord is too great a sinner to be saved; the blood of the Lamb is the answer: it cleanses from all sin. If he claims that he has a right to keep that one in bondage, for he is his lawful captive, the blood of the Lamb is the answer: by it we are redeemed. If he declares that God must punish sin and cannot possibly love the sinner: the blood of the Lamb is the answer, for it tells of the great sacrifice that has for ever glorified God's inflexible justice and is the pledge and token of His great love. When Satan made his great attack on Martin Luther in his Wartburg prison, pressing his many sins upon him, he was put to flight by the intrepid reformer by these words, "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses ME from all sin."

Further, as God is above, so is the devil helped by "all that is in the world." See John 8:23, 44. Evil power is "from beneath." The blood of "Christ our passover" was not shed and sprinkled to shelter the believer from the assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil, but from the righteous judgment of God. Those Israelites very early found that the blood did not insure them against the attack of Pharaoh and his host. So is it with every believer while in the world. From God's judgment he is now and eternally sheltered (John 5:24); but so far is he from not being exposed to attacks from spiritual wickedness that God has provided a complete suit of armour for him, which only avails with prayer and dependence on God (Eph. 6:11-17). D. T.

There is another reason why prayer is not more frequently answered. God has marked out the ground of approach worthy of Himself, and of the relationship His grace has formed; viz., the name of His beloved Son. Several times in our Lord's last address to His disciples, He especially taught them to ask the Father in His name. There is no limit to blessing to those who come in His name. "If ye shall ask anything in. My name, I will do it." (John 14:14.) The fact is that Jesus has so infinitely glorified God in His work on the cross, that He is righteously worthy of all blessing. There is nothing too much for God to do, or to give, because of the infinite worthiness of His beloved Son. How simple this is, and how encouraging! Vile and helpless in self, yet so pleading the all-worthy name of Jesus, as to have joyful answers to prayer. He said to His disciples, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:24.) Saints of old were wont to approach God by a sacrifice; we bring the name of Him who offered Himself without spot to God — a sacrifice and an offering of such infinite and eternal efficacy, that it never needed to be repeated.

They opened not their mouths; and the very mention of the blood of Jesus stops the mouth of 'the accuser of the brethren'. 'They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb' (Rev. 12:11). Believer, do think of this. Your utmost efforts to justify yourself can never stop the mouth of the accuser — it can only be stopped by the blood of the Lamb.

The blood of the Lamb is pointed out in Revelation as the means of victory over Satan. He is represented as seeking, by accusing before God, to compass the condemnation of the saints who will then be on the earth, and it is added that 'they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony' (Rev. 12:11). So should it be with us now. Satan, as we know from several Scriptures, is constantly accusing the people of God; and our own hearts will confess that, if some of his accusations are false, others are true. But what if they are true? 'The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.' There may be much need for humiliation and self-judgment, but with all his enmity he cannot raise again the question of our guilt, for the blood has made us before God whiter than snow. 'And we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous' (1 John 1:1), who meets all the accusations of our adversary with the abiding and everlasting efficacy of the blood. We may therefore quietly rest; for though we are weak and failing, our Advocate is strong, and never fails: He knows all the subtleties of the accuser, and loves to refute all his accusations, and to clear us from all his aspersions.

Some of my hearers may remember the teaching founded on the bullock, and perhaps wonder that the scapegoat seems applied to the same purport. Let us look for a few moments how the truth is told us. We all begin standing without, just like Israel; we who believe were no less guilty of sins and iniquities. The bullock is seen when we come to the knowledge that we are made free of entrance into the sanctuary, and so can as priests draw near where God is. This is very far from being our apprehension when first, however truly, awakened. The soul then feels itself without the sanctuary, and cries for mercy, while owning itself a just object of divine judgment. Such is the state to which the two goats apply. Not only do we plead the blood as vindicating God on the one hand, but need the remission of our sins on the other to give us assurance that they are gone.

Thus in the last place the divine way of blessing is traced in chapter 7. Samuel, the vessel and witness of the Spirit, instructs the people in this way. It, is the very contradiction of the human way. We saw that in chapter 4, how man will trust in an ordinance, a carnal piece of religiousness, a rudiment of the world, and that, too, in the midst of his practical uncleanness. Man will be religious and worldly, religious and polluted at the same time. But God's way, witnessed and taught by Samuel, is the way of faith and righteousness. Samuel requires of them to be honest with the Lord by putting away the strange gods. He then will have them take the place of good-for-nothing ones, like water spilt on the ground. Then, on their cry, he pleads the blood. sacrifice, and then God answering the sacrifice with deliverance, he raises the Pillar that tells how the Lord Himself had done it all for His people.