Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. I. IT IS A VERY HARD THING TO PUT AWAY SIN. 1. All the Jewish sacrifices could not do it. 2. Repentance itself cannot do it. 3. No form of suffering in this world can do it. 4. Nor any form of self-denial. 5. Nor holy living. 6. Nor death. 7. Nor hell. II. CHRIST HAS PUT AWAY THE SIN OF ALL HIS PEOPLE. By what image shall I set forth the abolishing of sin! I do not know what metaphor to use about it, but one suggests itself which is far from complete. When Pompey was killed, Julius Caesar obtained possession of a large casket, which contained a vast amount of correspondence which had been carried on with Pompey. There is no doubt, whatever, that in that casket there were many letters from certain of Caesar's followers making overtures to Pompey, and had Caesar read those letters it is probable that he would have been so angry with many of his friends that he would have put them to death for playing him false. Fearing this, he magnanimously took the casket and destroyed it without reading a single line. What a splendid way of putting away and annihilating all their offences against him! Why, he did not even know them, he could not be angry, for he did not know that they had offended. He consumed all their offences and destroyed their iniquities, so that he could treat them all as if they were innocent and faithful. The Lord Jesus Christ has made just such an end of your sins and mine. III. How SIN WAS PUT AWAY. 1. The text tells us that our Lord put it away by a sacrifice. Substitution is the very pith and marrow of the revelation of God. 2. Notice that the text tells us what His sacrifice was, it was Himself. Sin was not put away by the offering of His living works, nor by the incense of His prayer, nor by the oblation of His tears, nor even by the presentation of His pains before God, but by the sacrifice of Himself. The Lord Christ gave up for you His human body and soul and spirit, all that constituted " Himself" was given up freely to the death that the punishment due to our sin might be borne. This leads you to remember who He was. He was God over all, blessed for ever; the Maker of all worlds, but He gave Himself. See the majesty of His sacrifice, He gave Himself; and then behold the infinite merit that there must be in that sacrifice. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. |
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