The Blood of Jesus Christ

1 Peter 1:18-19

When I was working as an assistant pastor, my pastor told me if I ever read John MacArthur, I was to disregard his teaching on the blood. I never really knew what that meant, so I just filed it away. Well, I was visiting a couple who had come to church, and somehow that name came up. And I very boldly said, “Our pastor rejects his teaching about the blood.” Then I started getting questions of why not. I felt fairly helpless, and needless to say, that couple did not come back to the church. In 1976, JM wrote an article called, “Not his bleeding but his dying.” Some people ran more with the title than the content and JM ended up recanting his position, and admitting that the spirit of the article was not proper teaching. So many have said all is forgiven lets move on etc. But the error does not lie in one article, it lies in the whole foundation of his teaching concerning the blood of Christ. If you study dispensationalism, you will come across a man named JN Darby. Darby was a proponent of the blood being a figurative symbol of the death of Christ. Macarthur has picked up the ball and run with it. He has chosen to follow the Wescott and Hort translation and it has led much of his theology astray.

Revelation 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, Instead of being washed we are delivered. Instead of the literal blood we are given words like sacrifice, death, or just removing the word or reference altogether. When we sing, and preach, and teach about the blood of Christ, we mean the literal blood of Christ. Why?

Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. You cannot separate the death of Christ from His blood. If Christ had been hanged from a gallows like Haman, we are still in our sins, and we have no hope.

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Romans 3:23-25 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Once you lay that foundation, you have to realize what happened to the shed blood of Christ. If you follow JM’s line of thinking, you believe that the blood simply congealed, dried up, and blew away in the hot winds of Palestine. Where is the blood of Christ today? Hebrews 9:6-12. The blood on the mercy seat in heaven is as fresh as it was when it flowed through the veins of our Saviour.

I just want to take one thought and try to drive it home tonight. So instead of looking at the four truths brought out in our text, I am just going to single out the one that makes the other three possible. Purity, Permanence, Power, and Precious.

1. The blood of Christ is incorruptible. When I think of the word corrupt, to things come to my mind—politicians and computers. Once a file is corrupt, it cannot be used again. You may as well delete it and star over. First question: Where did corruption come from? I think you will find that it stems from the events of Genesis 3, where there was sin, then death, and then corruption. By the time we get to Genesis 6, we are finally introduced to the first use of the word.

Genesis 6:11-12 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. There is moral corruption that basically teaches us that everyone that is born is born into sin, subject to death, and therefore corrupt.

Psalms 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Then the fact of physical corruption teaches us that as soon as we are born, we are beginning to die.

The blood of Christ is incorruptible because Jesus Christ was incorruptible. I alluded to this in the morning service, it was the virgin birth that allows Jesus Christ to be a sinless man. If man can explain away the virgin birth, then the need of an incorruptible sacrifice is taken away, and the blood is not necessary, and religious services can become great social gatherings. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He was just as human as you and I, except His humanity was absent of sin, and therefore had no corruption. Darby called it a heavenly humanity, but if that is the case then we are still bound in our sins, and have no hope. Do not try to separate the humanity and deity of Christ, they must remain together. Christ was born without a sin nature, and He lived without sinning. This is known as being impeccable. Because He was able not to sin. Because He was not able to sin.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. They will try to trip you up by saying, “If He could not sin, then He could not be tempted.” Just say—Hogwash. How much temptation does it take to cause a person to give in? It depends upon the soul’s opposition to sin. The stronger the opposition to sin, the greater the temptation needs to be. Demas, Joseph.

When we speak of the death of Jesus, we do not say that He died because of His own sins. He died for the sins of the whole world.John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. We have a prophecy in the Psalms that close the book on the incorruptible blood of Christ.

Ps 16:10. We get the interpretation in Acts 2:31. It is referring to His resurrection. His flesh did not see corruption means that He was resurrected. The whole Christ, the flesh the bones, the blood, was raised from the dead. You cannot have life outside of the blood.

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. We are going to keep on singing and preaching about the literal blood of Jesus Christ—they are doing it in Heaven.

Revelation 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;