The Blood of Christ — Roy Hession

The Passover Lamb as a Picture of Christ's Blood

Now, one of the great pictures as to the meaning of the blood of Christ is the famous incident of the deliverance of the people of Israel from the judgment of God on the Passover night. Could we read just a few verses to refresh our memory?

Exodus chapter 12 verse 3,. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a land, according to the house of their fathers, a land, foreign house.

And if the household be too little for the land, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of souls. Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the land.

It's interesting that the household might be too little for the land. There might not be enough people to be able to consume the land. But it never says that the land is too little for the household. Lord, I believe within us more than sands upon the ocean shore.

Thou hast for all a ransom paid. Thou hast for all atonement made. Thank God the land is never too little for the household. But if the household be too little for the land, then get the other fellow, bring him in and eat this land together.

Your land shall be without blemish. A male of the first year, ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

Not kill them. To the eye of God it was one lamb that they were slain. That lamb that he had in mind from all eternity. And they shall take up the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the other door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it.

Verse twelve,. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.

I am the Lord. And in that dread hour of judgment, when the gods of this world are falling, the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.

There was God's way of deliverance and peace for his people in the midst of an Egypt which was suffering his judgment. And the means was the fact that as the evening sun set on that special day, every house was to take a lamb.

Father and son were to go to the door and to slay it there. But it wasn't enough to slay the lamb and shed its blood. That blood had to be sprinkled with hyssop upon the door posts of those houses. And then as they remained in that house, God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

Christ's Sacrifice and the Personal Application of His Blood

We saw last night that that same lamb is God's provision for his people's peace and blessing and deliverance in a world under judgment. We haven't got to slay the lamb. Wicked hands have already done that for us by the determinate foreknowledge and counsel of God.

So the blood has been shed. But the blood that has been shed has personally by each one of us to be sprinkled on the door posts of our house. And when God sees the blood, he will pass over us. Now that word, pass over, I understand in the Hebrew is a much fuller word than what we would think it was as we read it here.

It isn't pass over in the sense of omitting, but passing over in the sense of standing over, hovering over, being on guard over. And God said that night, I will be on guard over you. I will stand over you.

I will not suffer the destroying angel to come to you. I will be your salvation. And you can be at peace. And all on one simple condition. When I see. Now I believe that what God really wants to see at any given moment is the blood of the Lord Jesus newly freshly sprinkled upon the door posts of our house.

Not merely way back when we first repented, but right up to this moment, fresh sprinkling of the blood of the Lord Jesus upon our house. And when he sees the blood thus sprinkled there in our daily walk, he stands on guard over us.

He fights our battles for us. He bids us rest and be at peace. He becomes our righteousness. Who is he that shall say anything to the charge of God's elect? He becomes the one who justifies me. Woe betide him who would accuse me if God is for me.

In fact God becomes our all. We aren't expected to struggle on in our own strength. And all that on one simple condition. When I see the blood. He comes to become that man's everything. He can rest indeed if God sees the blood sprinkled on the door post of the house.

Sin, Conscience, and the Need for Fresh Cleansing

Now too often when God looks into our hearts, I know when he looks into mine, he doesn't see a fresh application of the precious blood of Jesus. Rather he sees sin. Unrepentant of it. Standing there. Perhaps things that have been there a long time.

Which I've not been willing to call by their right name. Which I've not been willing to judge. Things I know about. Perhaps things I'm only dimly aware because I'm so blind. Things way back. That old quarrel with that old family.

And as we get to our knees, that's what God looks at. The God of light. For the light is that which shows things up. It may be an old dishonesty, an old thing that's never been put right. And although I may think that I've progressed a good deal since those days, that thing is still seen by the eye of God.

Or it may be those day to day things that can come so easily. How often I've sat in the house of God and tried to worship, but my heart wasn't at peace. Sins had been said before I left the house. And there I stood with a defiled conscience.

Not at peace with God. For God was seeing those things. How often I've had to preach in that condition. In the old days I never saw my tenseness to be sin. I never saw my attitude to my wife when I was tense to be sin.

I never saw striving to be sin. And I had to go to work with those things still there. And when God sees these things upon the doorpost of the heart, he's unable to stand over us. He's unable to be our all.

He's unable to give us a conscious experience of him as our righteousness. And we're left to struggle on and on. There's that verse of Paul's, if God before us, who can be against us? But remember there's an if.

If! He's not always able to be for us. If he is, then you need fear nothing. But when is God for the weakling such as I? When is God for the sinner? When is God for the failing self? When he sees the blood.

And when he sees the blood, be those failures what they may, no matter how long they've been there, on that man's side. Wasn't that the case with regard to that publican who beat upon his breast and said, God be merciful to me the sinner?

That day God saw the blood sprinkled on that man's heart. And God was for that man, the self-confessed sinner and failure, when he wasn't for that other man who couldn't see there was anything wrong for him.

Here is the only ground of peace. We can only have peace with God as sinners. Not every man's wrong. But not every man sees it. Only those who see it and see that there's a place at the cross for such who have peace with God.

Peace Comes Through the Blood, Not Human Effort

How often I've had to come back to this. I've been so concerned that I might have power, that I might be used, that the work of the Lord might go on all right. It doesn't go on all right because of my efforts.

It's when God sees me, a repentant man, and the blood sprinkled there, he says, now you can rest. That's all I want. I do the rest. When I see the blood, I will stand over, I will hover over you. I'll be all to you that you need.

Now I believe it's fairly easy to understand that when God sees sin, he cannot speak peace to us. He cannot declare the Lord's will with us. He cannot become our righteousness. It's pretty obvious. But I think it is after that point where we make a mistake.

At least I know I do. I reason, sometimes unconsciously, like this. I understand that the things that hinder God, anybody can list the things that hinder revival. The man who tells it that it's a distinction among the saints that hinders the revival, it doesn't need any illumination to say that.

We can tell the things that hinder revival. Can we tell the things or the things that bring revival? Well it's at that point that I think we naturally make a mistake. We say, well if when God sees these wrong things, this irritation, these resentments towards those, then no wonder he can't bless me.

And we think that the alternative for God seeing sin in the heart is for him to see no sin. That the alternative for him to see defeat in our lives is for him to see victory. That the alternative for him to see resentment and jealousy and bitterness is for him to see kindness and love among the saints.

And if he can at last see the saints loving one another, and he can see us becoming victorious where we've been defeated, then we should expect God to move in and bless us. That's not an utterly sane hope.

And yet it's a natural way of reasoning with every one of us. And that is not how much we've been informed in our minds. I know myself, I can go back to that old, old ground. And I feel that where I've been nasty, God wants me to see me being nice.

And if I'm nice, that'll put it right. And I shall have peace and the Holy Spirit will move into my heart again. Now, because that's our natural reasoning, our lives become an effort to hang those things on the door.

If only I can get the victory over certain things, when God sees that I'm not that impatient tense man that I seem, then God, the Holy Ghost will come. And therefore I try to get to that place, try to control it, try to get rid of it.

And in the hope that if I can, that's going to bring blessing. The same is true that if where there's been that bitter spirit, that hardness toward another, if God will see me being gracious and kind there and forgiving, then when God sees that, he will move in to my heart and life in a new way.

And so it can go on. And it seems so reasonable. And I believe it's a natural way of reasoning. And some people's Christian life is one more attempt to hang up something of holiness, something of victory, something of sweetness, something of love on the door.

So that when God sees that, God will move in. Now it's so natural. Now I'm sure there are preachers here, you've told the people what hinders revival. Have you told them what brings revival? Be assured it's not those things.

The Futility of Establishing Our Own Righteousness

By thinking that we begin in one way or another, some more conscious of another, we're going about to establish our own righteousness. Maybe you have a certain besetting sin in your life. If only I was able to go back to the Lord with this thing, if only I could get the benches and it would be a great day dawning for me.

Would it? Is that enough to cause God to move in? Saints getting victory, does that bring the Holy Spirit? I don't think so. I doubt that the saints do get victory as God regards victory. Not as He regards it.

And actually the attempt to produce this righteousness, this holiness of our own, which we think is going to put things right, only becomes a burden and only condemns us the more. Paul said that which was ordained to life, the high standard, if he could keep them, I found to be unto death, for try as I would, I couldn't.

And all he got from those high standards which he espoused was condemnation in his heart. And we could talk along about how in so many different subtle ways we seek to have something like that upon the door.

Well, thank God this verse tells us what the answer is, when I see the blood. When I see the blood. Not when I see your humility, but even when I see your brokenness. Brokenness doesn't give us peace.

Repentance doesn't give us peace. When you've repented you yet need peace. When you've repented you yet need God to move in. And He only does so when He sees the blood. Newly, freshly sprinkled upon the doorpost.

Oh, how wonderfully does this short circuit those weary efforts to become the better Christians we ought to become in the hope that that's going to make a difference. Listen, you are going to become a better Christian.

There's only one victorious Christian and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And He'll become that to us when we repent and when the blood is sprinkled upon our hearts. Everything vows on that condition. Now, you say, what do you mean?

The Blood as the Token That Judgment Has Been Satisfied

What would you really mean about the blood of Jesus Christ? This is making such a lot of that precious blood, but what do we mean by it? Well, this verse here gives us a very helpful explanation. We read here, the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are.

Now, it isn't the physical blood of the Lord Jesus that has power in our lives. That blood is a token of something. And it is that of which it is a token that is aimed. Well, what was that blood a token of that night?

The blood shall be to you for a token. A token that the judgment which is to come upon all Egypt in your case has already been met. The judgment for that house was met that day when the sun was setting, when father and son went through that painful ceremony.

That boy hated to see the pet die. He said, oh dad, don't do it. And the father said, either that lamb dies or you do. And so it had to be done. And the little creature breathed its last and his blood was sprinkled on the door and judgment fell upon that house in the person of that innocent lamb.

And the blood was simply a token of that fact. The lamb wasn't there. They were actually eating the lamb. But what was left was the blood as a token of the fact that judgment had already been there. As if it said you cannot come in here or destroy an angel.

Judgment has already been and been satisfied. Well that's the simple meaning of the blood of Jesus. It says nothing that any instructed Christian doesn't already know. But oh the peace and rest to learn to sprinkle that blood to receive it as the only ground of peace and victory and everything else.

I know that when God wants to see in me as I go to His work, it's not me having prepared a wonderful sermon or done a terrific lot of praying beforehand. He wants to see me with the blood. And so often there's occasion for that blood to be sprinkled.

So often there is. Here I go. And you know I've so often said that people only knew how little I prayed, how little I prepared in the rush of things. But I got a better plea with God than all the prayers in the world had come just newly over something.

And God was looking upon that for which He has infinite regard, newly sprinkled upon the doorpost of my heart. Now I believe this is something we miss. Thank God there's much helpful teaching today about Christ as our all.

We nothing, Christ everything, Christ I. But I don't find it altogether works in my experience unless He sees the blood. I'm less striving to appropriate Christ as all these wonderful things. But I find that when He sees the blood I don't need to appropriate, He is that to me.

I've got to hire Him. I know with regard to my own wife when she nearly died back in 51, I was convicted of many things in which I'd been at fault and shouldn't have been away from England at the time when it was a very precarious time in that pregnancy.

And I felt so bad about it when the whole thing went wrong and when she was hovering between life and death. I'm not at all sure now whether it was the Holy Spirit which showed me that and other things or whether it was the devil accusing me.

The answer was the same in any case. I didn't argue it's right. It's right. And a lot more than I don't see maybe. And as I was on my knees I forgot to pray about my wife's recovery. I just went to Calvary.

And that day over those things that I saw was sprinkled with blood. And I had an amazing peace. I knew that God would do for the sake of the blood of Jesus what He wouldn't do for my prayers. And I like to say that my own dear wife was raised up from the dead by the blood of the everlasting covenant.

I repented of a number of things. There was an old besetting sin of mine and when I knew that we were so ill I found myself, oh God, oh God, I haven't been judging that thing. And there was a new application of the blood that day.

And a new peace in my heart with regard to the whole situation that God would do for the sake of that precious blood what He wouldn't do for my prayers. Well, I believe that's how it is. And that's the way.

Repentance, Breaking, and Returning to God

All the way along. Not striving but repenting. Not striving but repenting. I'm a terrible striver. I'm a pain by nature. I'm a tiller of the ground. Tiller of the ground. But oh God it's helping me to see this way.

This way. I've discovered the way of gladness. This way. It's the sinner's way. It's the way that fits me when I see the blood. Maybe it's a long time before he does see the blood because we're a long time applying it.

There's that lovely hymn in our hymn books, you know, when I see the blood, when I see the blood. And as I've sung that hymn I've often thought about that word when, when, when, when, when does God see the blood?

When I break. That's when. Well, a long time breaking is a long time seeing the blood and a long time drying. Sometimes it's costly getting things under that flood. We've got to go back on things we've said, attitudes we've adopted.

We've got to use our words. Isn't it easy going back on things we've said? When you're on the committee, going back to I'm bread and I'm wrong. The word of a Christian life is not forward but back. Back.

Back. Our way back to God. The word to Adam. Back. Back. And when we're willing to go back and go to Jesus in repentance and break over that thing, he sees the blood. There's no need to strive then. The Holy Spirit enters, Christ is my all, my vine, he bears the fruit.

But only as I'm willing to break quickly and apply that precious blood. We were thinking last night about Cain and Abel. Many of us were here so I won't say much about that. Except to say this, when you read and hear these stories spoken about Cain and Abel, the Pharisee and the Publican, the elder son and the prodigal son, in which character do you see yourself as a ruler?

Seeing Our Need for Grace in Cain, the Pharisee, and the Prodigal

Take the case of the Publican and the Pharisee. Well I think we like to imagine we're not that Pharisee, we're the Publican. We like to imagine we're not Cain with a stiff neck but Abel with a bowed head.

And so on. But you know it's helped me so much to see that's not right in my case. The other day in Brazil I was reading that story in the meeting about Cain and Abel. And God says you're a Cain. If there were two offerings here today, your offering and the offering of that brother that perhaps you don't think too highly of, whose offering would I have respect to?

Whose offering, to which of them would I not have respect? My heart says you wouldn't have respect to my Lord. And I want to say the only way to be an Abel is to see that you're a Cain. To be the Publican who got peace with God is to see that really you're a Pharisee.

But then the blood supply. Then you have peace. I'm sorry to say that that is all there is of this recording.