By John Hames
"And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." - Heb. 12:24
In the above passage I want to call your attention to three remarkable statements.
I. The Apostle is drawing a contrast between the two Pentecosts. The first Pentecost was at Mount Sinai when the law was given and when God wrote the Ten Commandments on tables of stone.
At the Pentecost at Mount Zion the Holy Ghost was poured out in all of His fullness, and He wrote the law of God in the hearts of believers and filled them with an inward power, enabling them to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments.
The full baptism of the Holy Spirit puts the believer into a whole world of supernatural things in his heart and mind and the interior depths of his character. Another effect of Pentecost was that of clarifying all the Christian graces in the soul. Before Pentecost we know the Disciples had faith, humility, love, hope, zeal, and good works, and other Christian virtues; but we notice in their conduct there was a tremendous mixedness. However, after Pentecost they manifested in their lives the various graces free from admixture; so the graces of the Lord Jesus were poured into them and ran through them like a clear, limpid stream without any other mud in the current.
II. The contrast between the two covenants. "And Jesus the mediator of the new covenant." The first covenant, properly speaking, began at Sinai, and under it Israel flourished and grew to be a great nation. But concerning the first covenant, the Apostle brought several objections to it. One was that it could not make the "Comers (Worshipers) perfect." Second, the old sin was not "purged away." Third, there was a constant "remembrance of sins." All of which is well understood by the regenerated man. He feels and knows that he is a Child of God; yet, there is a lack. The first blessing does not bring satisfaction and Christian perfection. In spite of all the preaching and trying to make himself believe that he got it all at conversion and that he has no need for a second work of grace, there is still that painful fact that the "old man" is not yet purged or burned out of the soul with the baptism of fire and that he has a constant remembrance of an inward foe.
The second covenant began at Pentecost. The distinguishing feature of this new covenant is in the fact that God promises to write His law upon our hearts and to "put it in our inward parts." The old covenant was written on tables of stone, but did not give power to obey God's laws. But the new covenant is put within our innermost being and becomes a part of our very nature. It enters into our affections and our desires. In Ezekiel we read: "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." This is something different from the new spirit and the new heart. It is God Himself coming to dwell in the new spirit by His own Spirit and bringing a constraining and efficient power that causes the soul to walk in holiness and enables him to keep His commandments. Notice in this new covenant God is the causing power. As the mainspring in a fine watch which causes all the delicate works to move in harmony and to keep correct time, God's Spirit within the believer causes him to be patient, Heavenly-minded, even tempered, sweet-spirited, and victorious under all circumstances. This is the great work of the Holy Ghost. This is the meaning of Sanctification.
God's Spirit within us with His radiating light and glory constitutes a Pentecostal experience. Dr. B. Carradine says:
"The law of God is written in the heart and mind. it would be hard to describe this to one not having the second covenant experience. The Bible becomes a new book, an illustrated one at that, and seems to be embedded in the mind. There seems to be a Bible within. There is a delightful agreement with the soul of such a man and all that is written in the printed word of God. Truly, the Word is now hidden in the heart, and he finds it sweeter than honey or the honeycomb.
"In the better covenant of Sanctification, the principle of decay is taken out; the balm of Gilead is placed within the soul; there is a constant conscious stream of life, strength, health in the Spirit; a welling-up joy in the heart; freshness in the experience, hallelujahs in the soul and on the lips; and Christ and Heaven everywhere."
III. The third thing we want to notice is the contrast between the two kinds of blood; that which was shed under the law and cried for justice and that which was shed for the sins of the whole world and cried for mercy.
With relation to the blood of Jesus there are two statements made: First, it is the blood of "sprinkling" and second, it is the blood that "speaks." Let us notice prayerfully "The Blood of Sprinkling." Here is a truth almost too deep for human brain to fathom. The blood of Jesus Christ means the life of Christ. The life of Christ was given for us through the shedding of His blood and the atonement of His death on Calvary. But the life of Christ is imparted to as through the blessed Holy Ghost. This truth was brought out in the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus. When Moses was about to take the leaders of Israel up into the Mount, he offered sacrifices of oxen, pouring out half of their blood at the base of the Mount on the Altar, thus signifying Christ's blood for us on the cross. But he took the other half of the blood in basins and carried it up into the Mount, sprinkled it upon the people and the book of the covenant; thus sprinkled with blood, they went up into the very presence of God; and were received with love and favor.
Instead of the thunders and lightning and the voice of trumpet which waxed louder and louder, which the day before made Mount Sinai a scene of terror, the blue Heavens without a cloud hovered over them as a celestial dome, and God received them into His presence, feasted them at the royal banquet; and we read "Upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand, and they saw God and did eat and drink." Now the sprinkled blood in this beautiful scene is different from the shed blood poured out on the altar. It represents the life of Christ imparted to us, making us partakers of the Divine nature and fitting us for His presence. It brings us into vital union with His Divine person and reproduces in us the Christlike life within us.
Says Dr. G. D. Watson:
"Jesus washes our sins away by His own blood, His blood is His life. You take a grape and look at it. It is full of juice. You then squeeze it and out comes the juice. Jesus Christ, figuratively speaking, was that grape, and He allowed the law of God and Divine justice to break Him on Calvary. and in the Garden till out came the blood, and the blood is the life. Every atom of life in your body is in the blood. His blood washes away sins and original sin. Ignorant people that do not know God nor the Bible say they do not like the blood; Unitarians, Christian Scientists, and higher critics do not like the blood. It is the blood that is the life in everything. The life of that tree is in the blood - the sap. The blood is the sweetest part of the bogy, the best part, the grandest part, the fundamental part. God makes the blood first, then builds and builds, and that is life The best, the sweetest, and most valuable thing in every living creature is the blood. Jesus washes us with His own blood, opens up His own being, takes the sweetest, the warmest, the innermost of His own body and pours the juices of His own existence to wash away our sins and our depravity."
Listen to the words of Jesus: "Whosoever drinketh my blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up in the last day. He that drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him." It is not merely the death of Jesus for us, but it is His risen life imparted to us every moment. Just as in medical science, they can take blood from one person's veins and transfer it to another's veins, and the patient receives new and fresh life. The life is in the blood. That is the reason that God makes so much of the blood of His Son. Oh, how we need that Divine life poured into our weary souls and into our cold affections and every power of our being, quickening and keeping the heart warm and clean from day to day.
One more thing about the blood. It is the blood that "speaks." Blood not only has life, but blood has a voice. The blood of Abel could talk; God could hear the blood drops as they fell and God said, "Cain, where is thy brother .... I hear the voice, a feeble, painful, pitiful cry coming up from the ground." You may wonder why the Apostle speaks of the blood of Abel in connection with Mount Zion. The Apostle in describing Mount Zion suddenly goes back and talks about the blood of Abel. He mentions the two Mounts - Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. Why does he do this? Because Mount Sinai was law, righteousness, and justice; and the blood of Abel cried for law and justice. But when Jesus hung on the cross, the blood flowing from His hands and feet, he cried, "Father, forgive them."
Every drop of blood that flowed from His precious veins cried for mercy and forgiveness. Oh, that blood talked then and is talking today. Every time a penitent sinner pleads the blood, the blood is on the mercy seat to meet his cry with forgiveness. Then, when the believer comes with a heart cry for purity and when the conditions are met, the Holy Ghost is right there to apply the blood in sanctifying power. It avails not only for our sins and our depravity, but for our mistakes, failures, and shortcomings. As long as we live and walk in the light we are under the mercy seat of the precious blood, which cleanseth now and will continue to cleanse as we keep step with God forevermore.
