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Tonight I want to read just one verse to you from the Old Testament book of Leviticus 17:11. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
I want to talk to you tonight about the blood of Christ. There is nothing more precious to the Christian than the blood of Christ. It brings us so many benefits and blessings. No wonder the devil hates it! No wonder he wants to take the blood of Christ out of our hymn books. No wonder he wants to take it out of our Bibles. The devil wants us to have a humanistic, bloodless religion; but thank God for the precious blood of Jesus!
What are some of the benefits of the blood of Christ? What are some of the blessings that can only come to us because of the shed blood of Jesus? One of the first things is ATONEMENT—covering for our sin. Others are RECONCILIATION, FORGIVENESS, JUSTIFICATION, REMISSION, REDEMPTION, SANCTIFICATION, ACCESS TO GOD, and VICTORY.
Tonight I want to look for a few moments at just one of these blood-bought benefits: Atonement.
The word atonement means “to cover.” In Genesis 6:14 God told Noah to build an ark of gopher wood and to cover it with pitch or tar. What does a covering do? It hides from sight. The pitch that Noah put on the ark would hide the gopher wood from sight so that no one would see it. And that is exactly what the blood of Christ does to our sins—it hides them from God’s sight. It covers them. You’ve heard and used the saying many times, “Out of sight, out of mind,” and this is never more true than when the blood of Jesus Christ covers our sins. Someone has called it THE GREATEST COVER UP IN HISTORY! The covering of our sins.
There’s a similar word used in the Bible which means to smear over and erase a record. In Psalm 109:13 it says, “Let their name be blotted out.” In the same way, the blood of Christ smears and covers over the record of our sins and blots them out—just as the record of a name can be smeared over and blotted out of a book.
In Isaiah 44:22 it says, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.” A thick cloud hides the earth from the view of the one on the mountaintop or in an airplane. In the same way, the blood of Christ hides our sins from the view of the God of heaven.
Here’s an Old Testament picture that helps us to understand this concept a little more clearly. You remember that the Ark of the Covenant was kept in the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle. This Ark was a closed box that hid from sight the tables of the law which man had broken and which cried against him for vengeance. The covering or lid for this ark was called the mercy seat. The word mercy seat can also be translated “propitiatory” or propitiation. The New Testament teaches us that Christ is the true propitiatory or covering that hides from view the broken law of God. The verse I read to you earlier from Romans contains this thought: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.”
But there’s a further thought I want to mention. The mercy seat or covering for the ark was made of gold, and while this gold covering sufficiently hid from sight the tables of the law, this did not by itself deliver sinful people from God’s righteous judgment. Something more than gold was required. Yes, you guessed it! That something more was blood. Every year that golden lid had to be sprinkled with the blood of an innocent victim in order for the record of sins to be blotted out from God’s sight.
Our Lord’s divinity was not enough by itself to save us. His divine nature was like the golden lid of the mercy seat. It wasn’t just a divine, holy, spotless life that was required to atone for our sins; it took blood. The blood of God’s Son must be shed. There was a penalty to be paid that could only be paid in blood, and thank God, Jesus Christ paid it when He shed His precious blood on the cross of Calvary.
Hebrews 10:15-17 says, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
He will remember our sins no more. Remember what I said a few moments ago, “Out of sight out of mind.”
Psalm 32:1 says, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
Only the blood of Christ can hide anything from an Omniscient, all-seeing, all-knowing God. Only the blood of Christ can cause the Infinite Mind of God to forget.
Thank God tonight for the precious atoning blood of Christ that covers our sins, that blots them out, and causes God to forget them.
You know, there are many ways that we can cover our sins tonight. For instance, we can cover them by concealing them—by hiding them. You remember the story of our first parents, Adam and Eve—how they sinned in the garden of Eden by eating of the forbidden fruit. You remember that they tried to atone for their sin, or cover their sin, with fig leaves. “They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” And then they hid themselves. But what happened? God discovered their hiding place, and He saw right through their covering. Their fig leaves didn’t avail to hide their sin from God. Only the blood of Christ can hide our sins from the eyes of God.
There are other ways that we try to cover our sins. We try to cover them by good works. We think that if we do some good in the world that this will somehow cause God to overlook our sins and not see them. We think that our good deeds will somehow create a buffer between us and God’s holy wrath against sin. But how wrong we are. Only the blood of Christ can cover our sins!
How thankful we should be that God Himself provided a way for our sins to be covered. If you’re a Christian tonight, rejoice that your sins are covered by the blood of Christ. The penalty has been paid. Your sins have been blotted out forever. Your record is as clean as if you had never committed any sins. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from ALL sin.” Praise God!
On the other hand, if you’re here tonight and you haven’t yet placed your faith and trust in the atoning blood of Christ and received Him as your Saviour and Lord, may I encourage you to do that tonight. Confess to Him that you’re a sinner. Acknowledge that all your efforts to cover your sin have been unavailing. Ask Him to forgive you for Christ’s sake. Put your trust in the blood of Christ alone. Receive His blood as the perfect covering for your sins.