What does the blood of Christ have to do with our salvation?

Justification by the Blood. Men may try to justify themselves before their fellow-men, and sometimes succeed in doing so, but we cannot justify ourselves before God. He knows that we are all guilty and unrighteous, and we cannot truthfully take any other ground. But the Scriptures teach us that those only who believe in the Lord Jesus are justified, and that they are justified from all things by Him. In the blood, God declares that He is just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. God justifies us through the blood; for the blood of Jesus not only tells us of sin put away, but also of One who was perfectly obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; so that, by the obedience of One, many are made righteous. Therefore we are also told, that "being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." We have, then, present justification, not by our own devotedness, or good intentions, but by the blood; so that all who believe in Christ are justified, now justified, by the blood of Jesus. How clear it is, then, that "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul!"

When we come to the Lord Jesus as sinners and accept Him as our Savior, God forgives our sins and justifies us because of the shed blood of Christ (Rom. 3:23-26).

The Blood sets before us the death of Christ in atonement for our sins, thus cancelling our guilt and bringing us forgiveness. We are thereby cleansed judicially.

Such was the character of the death of Christ; and hence His precious blood is of such infinite value before God that on this foundation He can meet and justify the ungodly; yea, be "just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus;" and consequently the "righteousness of" God is "upon all them that believe." (Rom. 3:22, 26.) That is to say, "God is just, and justifies in virtue of Christ. He is just, because sin has been met in the cross; sin has been judged of God; it has been suffered and atoned for by Christ. More than that: the Lord Jesus has so magnified God, and so glorified His character, that, … instead of the obligation being, as it was, altogether on man's side, who was accumulating that which never could be paid for by him, God now has interposed, and, having been so magnified in the man Christ Jesus in His death, He is now positively just when He justifies the soul which believes in Jesus. It is consequently the righteousness of God; for God is now approving Himself righteous to the claims of Christ."* For Christ died for sinners; and those who believe stand before God in all the infinite value of that precious blood which He shed for them as their substitute. God therefore righteously pardons, accepts, justifies every believer: that righteousness which flowed out to Christ, raised Him from the dead, and glorified Him at His right hand, meets also and embraces every one who believes in Jesus, and brings him where Christ is in the presence of God. It could not be otherwise; for since the blood has met all God's claims, and even glorified Him, every sinner, the moment he believes, stands invested with all its infinite value. It is, therefore, in response to the value of the blood, that God's righteousness — for it is due to Christ — flows out rejoicingly, and invests the sinner with its own perfection, so that in Christ he is justified for ever before God. Yea, he is accepted in the Beloved.

But how, it may further be enquired, can God's righteousness be possessed? The answer is given in the same scripture. The apostle proceeds, "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth a propitiation (mercy-seat) through faith in His blood … to declare at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (vv. 24-26.) Can anything be more divinely simple? The blood of Christ is the foundation. It is through its virtue, through its value before God as making propitiation, that He can be just, that He can act in perfect harmony with all that He is, in perfect consistency with His holy being, and justify, righteously justify, every one "which believeth in Jesus." We are therefore justified by, through the virtue of, the blood of Christ. We are also "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;" for it was God, acting from His own heart, in the exercise of pure, sovereign, and blessed grace, who provided the sacrifice whose precious blood made atonement for sin, so adequate and complete, that God could come out of His place, seek and bring back the sinner to Himself, pardon his sins, and righteously justify him on the exercise of faith in the blood of Christ. Hence it is only believers who are justified. But the moment a soul receives God's testimony to the value of the blood, His testimony to His own appreciation of it, and, trusting in it, comes into His presence, that soul is justified, justified in the righteousness of God, even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. (Rom. 4:3.)

The blood as thus, first, upon, and, secondly, before, the mercy-seat, expresses (as in all the Old Testament sacrifices wherein atonement was made), the two great uses of the blood. The first, as connected with God, the way opened and the means provided by Himself, wherein He could be just and yet the justifier of the sinner: this is shown by God to man. The second is connected by God, through His grace connected, I say, with him that believeth; and so the thing which gives such an one boldness to draw near to God. The former also washing the books in heaven, as a poor dumb boy once described in writing his view of pardon: "The bleeding hand of Jesus passed over each page in my account, so that none can read it through the stain of His blood." The second cleansing also the conscience. Read the chapter from verse 19-26, and see whether this is not the outline of it. Verse 19 having said that God had pronounced the whole world to be guilty in His sight, that every mouth might be stopped, Paul first shows (ver. 20) that this is a proof the law could not justify a man — for then the Jew would not be guilty, but justified, for he had the law. And if the law, which was a round of duties, given to man by God, could not justify him, how much less can a round of duties, of a man's own devising, which God never gave, do so! Well, but if God (in so summary a way) pronounces all to be guilty, and, as far as they are concerned, irrecoverably so (so that every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before him), what can any one do? Why (ver. 21), he may have recourse to that method of justification which is, not by law, though witness of both by law and prophets, even (ver. 22) trust to God Himself, graciously to justify him by Jesus Christ. And then Paul goes over the ground, in measure, a second time. (Ver. 23.) All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; yet (ver. 24) any man may be justified by God's grace, freely, through the redemption that is in Christ. — "What is that?" says the soul. Why (Ver. 25) it is the person of Jesus in heaven (compare Rom. 8:32-34) set forth as a propitiation — and it is the property (made so by God) of every one that trusts to His blood: it is set forth to show God's way of justifying those He has pronounced guilty — and tells how God completely remits all past sins — forbearing to see them even. And verse 26, it is a way which tells the justice as much as the mercy of God to the sinner — that He is just, though He does Himself justify the very one He has pronounced guilty, if so be he trusts to Jesus; for it shows Jesus actually to have borne the sinner's punishment, and to have paid his debt. Has God already said, we are all guilty? that there is no hope for us in ourselves? Has He raised Jesus from the dead? And does He say, that if I have taken Christ's blood as my trust, then Christ bore my sins in His own body on the tree? is risen for me? and intercedes for me? Yes, He has said so, and through His grace I have said, "The blood of Jesus Christ is my trust." Reader, have You also said so?

The blood of Jesus Christ is the finished justification of every one that believeth. As it is written: "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being or rather, having been now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Rom. 5:8-10.)

But this early ceremony was typical, foreshadowing as it did the one perfect sacrifice of Christ. (See Heb. 9, 10; also Heb. 13:11-13.) The apostle John therefore tells us that Jesus Christ, the righteous, is the propitiation for our sins and also for the whole world. (1 John 2:2; also 1 John 4:10.) And from this we learn that the blood of Christ has done once and for all what the blood of the sin-offering accomplished in type for the year on the day of atonement; that is, it has made propitiation. It is true that John says that Christ Himself is the propitiation; but we also read that God has set Him forth a propitiatory (or mercy-seat) through faith, in His blood (Rom. 3:25), whence we understand that the blood of Christ, deriving, as we have before seen, all its ineffable value from what He was in Himself, has answered all the claims of God on sinful men, has glorified Him in all that He is concerning the question of sin and sins. Hence it is that God can now righteously justify everyone who believes in Jesus (Rom. 3:26), and that He can send forth the gospel of His grace to the whole world.

The blood of Christ not only brings God down in grace to us, it brings us up to God. "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." A ruined sinner washed in the blood of Jesus, is immediately brought into the presence of God. All the great things of God are very simple. By one and the same blood a sinner who believes in Jesus is washed from his sins, justified and brought nigh to God! And in the glory the theme of the redeemed will be, "the blood of the Lamb." "Thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

But in ver. 9 of the same chapter we are told that we were justified in virtue of (ἐν) His blood. Here the adequate power comes forward. Without the blood of Christ no sin could be purged really and for ever before God. But the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses from every sin, as 1 John 1:7 declares. Hence if God justifies us, it is in virtue, or in the power, of Christ's blood; and as being now justified in or by His blood, "we shall be saved from wrath through Him." Our sins were the great difficulty, as the believer truly felt; but now they are gone, we were justified and shall be saved. Such is the confident assurance to us of the apostle: a monstrous piece of presumption and cruel cheat, if he had not been inspired of God to declare it as righteous and true.

Then, in the 7th verse, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." Notice these two first words, "In Whom." God has not simply given you a document saying, "Here is the forgiveness of your sins," but, He says, "I have worked out that question in a Person. There He was with your sins upon Him, and upon Him fell all the just judgment in view of My claims in righteousness and holiness; He bore it all, and the sins that He bore were yours. They are all gone, and the very Person who bore them is risen from the dead, enthroned in glory. It is in Him you have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." That is the measure of the redemption that He has wrought out for us: the question is never to be reopened. And so He acts according to the riches of His grace. I know some people have the idea, "Yes my sins are all forgiven up to the time of my conversion; but what about the sins that I may commit after my conversion?" But from this standpoint in Ephesians, God would have you to understand that when He did take up that matter, He did not divide your life into two or three sections — your past, present, and future sins; but undertook the settlement of that question according to the wealth of His grace, taking it all up at one and the same time, and settling it all in that One Person, so that every believer can say, "In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the wealth of His grace." God took into account all our history from start to finish; at that moment knowing all the sins beforehand, and dealing with them according to His own glory.