AN UNALTERABLE LAW

                               Delivered by                                      

                              C. H. Spurgeon

     "Without shedding of blood there is no remission."--Hebrews 9:22. 
 
Everwhere under the old figurative dispensation, blood was sure to greet 
your eyes. It was the one most prominent thing under the Jewish economy, 
scarcely a ceremony was observed without it. You could not enter into any 
part of the tabernacle, but you saw traces of the blood-sprinkling. 
Sometimes there were bowls of blood cast at the foot of the altar. The 
place looked so like a shambles, that to visit it must have been far from 
attractive to the natural taste, and to delight in it, a man had need of 
a spiritual understanding and a lively faith. The slaughter of animals 
was the manner of worship; the effusion of blood was the appointed rite, 
and the diffusion of that blood on the floor, on the curtains, and on the 
vestments of the priests, was the constant memorial. When Paul says that 
almost all things were, under the law, purged with blood, he alludes to a 
few things that were exempted. Thus you will find in several passages the 
people were exhorted to wash their clothes, and certain persons who had 
been unclean from physical causes were bidden to wash their clothes with 
water. Garments worn by men were usually cleansed with water. After the 
defeat of the Midianites, of which you read in the book of Numbers, the 
spoil, which had been polluted, had to be purified before it was claimed 
by the victorious Israelites. According to the ordinance of the law, 
which the Lord commanded Moses, some of the goods, such as raiment and 
articles made of skins or goat's hair, were purified with water, while 
other things that were of metal that could abide the fire, were purified 
by fire. Still, the apostle refers to a literal fact, when he says that 
almost all things, garments being the only exception, were purged, under 
the law, with blood. Then he refers to it as a general truth, under the 
old legal dispensation, that there was never any pardoning of sin, except 
by blood. In one case only was there an apparent exception, and even that 
goes to prove the universality of the rule, because the reason for the 
exception is so fully given. The trespass offering, referred to as an 
alternative, in Leviticus 5:11, might, in extreme cases of excessive 
poverty, be a bloodless offering. If a man was too poor to bring an 
offering from the flock, he was to bring two turtle-doves or young 
pigeons; but if he was too poor even for that, he might offer the tenth 
part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering, without oil or 
frankincense, and it was cast upon the fire. That is the one solitary 
exception through all the types. In every place, at every time, in every 
instance where sin had to be removed, blood must flow, life must be 
given. The one exception we have noticed gives emphasis to the statute 
that, "without shedding of blood, there is no remission." Under the 
gospel there is no exception, not such an isolated one as there was under 
the law; no, not even for the extremely poor. Such we all are 
spiritually. Since we have not any of us to bring an offering, any more 
than an offering to bring; but we have all of us to take the offering 
which has already been presented, and to accept the sacrifice which 
Christ has, of himself, made in our stead; there is now no cause or 
ground for exemption to any man or woman born, nor ever shall there be, 
either in this world or in that which is to come,--"Without shedding of 
blood, there is no remission." With great simplicity, then, as it 
concerns our salvation, may I ask the attention of each one here present, 
to this great matter which intimately concerns our everlasting interests? 
I gather from the text, first of all, the encouraging fact that:-- 
 
I.  THERE IS SUCH A THING AS REMISSION--that is to say, the remission of 
sins. "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." 

Blood has been shed, and there is, therefore, hope concerning such a 
thing. Remission, notwithstanding the stern requirements of the law, is 
not to be abandoned in sheer despair. The word remission means the 
putting away of debts. Just as sin may be regarded as a debt incurred to 
God, so that debt may be blotted out, cancelled, and obliterated. The 
sinner, God's debtor, may cease to be in debt by compensation, by full 
acquittance, and may be set free by virtue of such remission. Such a 
thing is possible. Glory be to God, the remission of all sin, of which it 
is possible to repent, is possible to be obtained. Whatever the 
transgression of any man may be, pardon is possible to him if repentance 
be possible to him. Unrepented sin is unforgivable sin. If he confess his 
sin and forsake it, then shall he find mercy. God hath so declared it, 
and he will not be unfaithful to his word. "But is there not," saith one, 
"a sin which is unto death?" Yea, verily, though I know not what it is; 
nor do we think that any who have enquired into the subject have been 
able to discover what that sin is; this much seems clear, that 
practically the sin is unforgivable because it is never repented of. The 
man who commits it becomes, to all intents and purposes, dead in sin in a 
more deep and lasting sense even than the human race is as a whole, and 
he is given up case-hardened--his conscience seared, as it were, with a 
hot iron, and henceforth he will seek no mercy. But all manner of sin and 
blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. For lust, for robbery, for 
adultery--yea, for murder, there is forgiveness with God, that he may be 
feared. He is the Lord God, merciful and gracious, passing by 
transgression, iniquity, and sin. 
 
And this forgiveness which is possible is, according to the Scriptures, 
complete; that is to say, when God forgives a man his sin, he does it 
outright. He blots out the debt without any back reckoning. He does not put 
away a part of the man's sin, and have him accountable for the rest; but in 
the moment in which a sin is forgiven, his iniquity is as though it had 
never been committed; he is received in the Father's house and embraced 
with the Father's love as if he had never erred; he is made to stand before 
God as accepted, and in the same condition as though he had never 
transgressed. Blessed be God, believer, there is no sin in God's Book 
against thee. If thou hast believed, thou art forgiven--forgiven not 
partially, but altogether. The handwriting that was against thee is blotted 
out, nailed to the cross of Christ, and can never be pleaded against thee 
any more for ever. The pardon is complete. 
 
Moreover, this is a present pardon. It is an imagination of some (very 
derogatory to the gospel) that you cannot get pardon till you come 
to die, and, perhaps, then in some mysterious way, in the last few 
minutes, you may be absolved; but we preach to you, in the name of Jesus, 
immediate and present pardon for all transgressions--a pardon given in an 
instant--the moment that a sinner believes in Jesus; not as though a 
disease were healed gradually and required months and long years of 
progress. True, the corruption of our nature is such a disease, and the 
sin that dwelleth in us must be daily and hourly mortified; but as for 
the guilt of our transgressions before God, and the debt incurred to his 
justice, the remission thereof is not a thing of progress and degree. The 
pardon of a sinner is granted at once; it will be given to any of you 
tonight who accept it--yea, and given you in such a way that you shall 
never lose it. Once forgiven, you shall be forgiven for ever, and none of 
the consequences of sin shall be visited upon you. You shall be absolved 
unreservedly and eternally, so that when the heavens are on a blaze, and 
the great white throne is set up, and the last great assize is held, you 
may stand boldly before the judgment-seat and fear no accusation, for the 
forgiveness which God himself vouchsafes he will never revoke. 
 
I will add to this one other remark. The man who gets this pardon may know 
he has it. Did he merely hope he had it, that hope might often struggle 
with fear. Did he merely trust he had it, many a qualm might startle him; 
but to know that he has it is a sure ground of peace to the heart. Glory be 
to God, the privileges of the covenant of grace are not only matters of 
hope and surmise, but they are matters of faith, conviction, and assurance. 
Count it not presumption for a man to believe God's Word. God's own Word it 
is that says, "Whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ is not condemned." If I 
believe in Jesus Christ, then I am not condemned. What right have I to 
think I am? If God says I am not, it would be presumption on my part to 
think I am condemned. It cannot be presumption to take God's Word just as 
he gives it to me. "Oh!" saith one, "how happy should I be if this might be 
my case." Thou hast well spoken, for blessed is he whose transgression is 
forgiven, and whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord 
doth not impute iniquity.
 
"But," saith another, "I should hardly think such a great thing could be 
possible to such an one as I am." Thou reasonest after the manner of the 
sons of men. Know then that as high as the heavens are above the earth, 
so high are God's ways above your ways, and his thoughts above your 
thoughts. It is yours to err; it is God's to forgive. You err like a man, 
but God does not pardon like a man; he pardons like a God, so that we 
burst forth with wonder, and sing, "Who is a God like unto thee, that 
passeth by transgression, iniquity, and sin?" When you make anything, it 
is some little work suitable to your abilities, but our God made the 
heavens. When you forgive, it is some forgiveness suitable to your nature 
and circumstances; but when he forgives, he displays the riches of his 
grace on a grander scale than your finite mind can comprehend. Ten 
thousand sins of blackest dye, sins of a hellish hue he doth in a moment 
put away, for he delighteth in mercy; and judgment is his strange work. 
"As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that 
dieth, but had rather that he turn unto me and live." This is a joyful 
note with which my text furnishes me. There is no remission, except with 
blood; but there is remission, for the blood has been shed. 
 
Coming more closely to the text, we have now to insist on its great lesson, 
that:-- 
 
II.  THOUGH THERE BE PARDON OF SIN, IT IS NEVER WITHOUT BLOOD. 

That is a sweeping sentence, for there are some in this world that are 
trusting for the pardon of sin to their repentance. It, beyond question, 
is your duty to repent of your sin. If you have disobeyed God, you should 
be sorry for it. To cease from sin is but the duty of the creature, else 
sin is not the violation of God's holy law. But be it known unto you, 
that all the repentance in the world cannot blot out the smallest sin. If 
you had only one sinful thought cross your mind, and you should grieve 
over that all the days of your life, yet the stain of that sin could not 
be removed even by the anguish it cost you. Where repentance is the work 
of the Spirit of God, it is a very precious gift, and is a sign of grace; 
but there is no atoning power in repentance. In a sea full of penitential 
tears, there is not the power or the virtue to wash out one spot of this 
hideous uncleanness. Without the blood-shedding, there is no remission. 
But others suppose that, at any rate, active reformation growing out of 
repentance may achieve the task. What if drunkenness be given up, and 
temperance become the rule? What if licentiousness be abandoned, and 
chastity adorn the character? What if dishonest dealing be relinquished, 
and integrity be scrupulously maintained in every action? I say, 'tis 
well; I would to God such reformations took place everywhere--yet for all 
that, debts already incurred are not paid by our not getting into debt 
further, and past delinquencies are not condoned by future good 
behaviour. So sin is not remitted by reformation. Though you should 
suddenly become immaculate as angels (not that such a thing is possible 
to you, for the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his 
spots), your reformations could make no atonement to God for the sins 
that are past in the days that you have transgressed against him. "What 
then," saith the man, "shall I do?" There are those who think that now 
their prayers and their umblings of soul may, perhaps, effect something 
for them. Your prayers, if they be sincere, I would not stay; rather do I 
hope they may be such prayers as betoken spiritual life. But oh! dear 
hearer, there is no efficacy in prayer to blot out sin. I will put it 
strongly. All the prayers of all the saints on earth, and, if the saints 
in heaven could all join, all their prayers could not blot out through 
their own natural efficacy the sin of a single evil word. No, there is no 
deterrent power in prayer. God has never set it to be a cleanser. It has 
its uses, and its valuable uses. It is one of the privileges of the man 
who prays, that he prays acceptably, but prayer itself can never blot out 
the sin without the blood. "Without the shedding of blood there is no 
remission," pray as you may. 
 
There are persons who have thought that self-denial and mortifications of 
an extraordinary kind might rid them of their guilt. We do not often come 
across such people in our circle, yet there be those who, in order to purge 
themselves of sin, flagellate their bodies, observe protracted fasts, wear 
sackcloth and hair shirts next to their skin, and even some have gone so 
far as to imagine that to refrain from ablutions, and to allow their body 
to be filthy, was the readiest mode of purifying their soul. A strange 
infatuation certainly! Yet today, in Hindostan, you shall find the fakir 
passing his body through marvellous sufferings and distortions, in the hope 
of getting rid of sin. To what purpose is it all? Methinks I hear the Lord 
say, "What is this to me that thou didst bow thy head like a bulrush, and 
wrapt thyself in sackcloth, and eat ashes with thy bread, and mingle 
wormwood with thy drink? Thou hast broken my law; these things cannot 
repair it; thou hast done injury to my honour by thy sin; but where is the 
righteousness that reflects honour upon my name?" The old cry in the olden 
days was, "Wherewithal shall we come before God?" and they said, "Shall we 
give our firstborn for our transgression, the fruit of our body for the sin 
of our soul?" 

Alas! it was all in vain. Here stands the sentence. Here for ever must it 
stand, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." It is the life 
God demands as the penalty due for sin, and nothing but the life 
indicated in the blood-shedding will ever satisfy him. 
 
Observe, again, how this sweeping text puts away all confidence in 
ceremony, even the ceremonies of God's own ordinance. There are some who 
suppose that sin can be washed away in baptism. Ah! futile fancy! The 
expression where it is once used in Scripture implies nothing of the 
kind--it has no such meaning as some attach to it, for that very apostle, 
of whom it was said, gloried that he had not baptized many persons lest 
they should suppose there was some efficacy in his administration of the 
rite. Baptism is an admirable ordinance, in which the believer holds 
fellowship with Christ in his death. It is a symbol; it is nothing more. 
Tens of thousands and millions have been baptized and have died in their 
sins. Or what profit is there in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass, as 
Antichrist puts it? Do any say it is "an unbloody sacrifice," yet at the 
same time offer it for a propitiation for sin--we fling this text in 
their faces, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." Do they 
reply that the blood is there in the body of Christ? We answer that even 
were it so, that would not meet the case, for it is without the shedding 
of blood--without the blood-shedding; the blood as distinct from the 
flesh; without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. 
 
And here I must pass on to make a distinction that will go deeper still. 
Jesus Christ himself cannot save us, apart from his blood. It is a 
supposition which only folly has ever made, but we must refute even the 
hypothesis of folly, when it affirms that the example of Christ can put 
away human sin, that the holy life of Jesus Christ has put the race on 
such a good footing with God that now he can forgive its faults and its 
transgression. Not so; not the holiness of Jesus, not the life of Jesus, 
not the death of Jesus, but the blood of Jesus only; for "Without 
shedding of blood there is no remission." 
 
And I have met with some who think so much of the second coming of 
Christ, that they seem to have fixed their entire faith upon Christ in 
his glory. I believe this to be the fault of Irvingism--that, too much it 
holds before the sinner's eye Christ on the throne, whereas, though 
Christ on the throne is ever the loved and adorable, yet we must see 
Christ upon the cross, or we never can be saved. Thy faith must not be 
placed merely in Christ glorified, but in Christ crucified. "God forbid 
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." "We 
preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks 
foolishness." I remember one person who was united with this church (the 
dear sister may be present now), that had been for some years a 
professor, and had never enjoyed peace with God, nor produced any of the 
fruits of the Spirit. She said, "I have been in a church where I was 
taught to rest upon Christ glorified, and I did so fix my confidence, 
such as it was, upon him, that I neither had a sense of sin, nor a sense 
of pardon, from Christ crucified! I did not know, and until I had seen 
him as shedding his blood and making a propitiation, I never entered into 
rest." Yes, we will say it again, for the text is vitally important: 
"Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission," not even with 
Christ himself. It is the sacrifice that he has offered for us, that is 
the means of putting away our sin--this, and nothing else. Let us pass on 
a little further with the same truth:-- 
 
III.  THIS REMISSION OF SIN IS TO BE FOUND AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS. 

There is remission to be had through Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed. 
The hymn we sang at the commencement of the service gave you the marrow 
of the doctrine. We owe to God a debt of punishment for sin. Was that 
debt due or not? If the law was right, the penalty ought to be exacted. 
If the penalty was too severe, and the law inaccurate, then God made a 
mistake. But it is blasphemy to suppose that. The law, then, being a 
righteous law, and the penalty just, shall God do an unjust thing? It 
will be an unjust thing for him not to carry out the penalty. Would you 
have him to be unjust? He had declared that the soul that sinned should 
die; would you have God to be a liar? Shall he eat his words to save his 
creatures? "Let God be true, and every man a liar." The law's sentence 
must be arried out. It was inevitable that if God maintained the 
prerogative of his holiness, he must punish the sins that men have 
committed. How, then, should he save us? Behold the plan! His dear Son, 
the Lord of glory, takes upon himself human nature, comes into the place 
of as many as the Father gave him, stands in their standing, and when the 
sentence of justice has been proclaimed, and the sword of vengeance has 
leaped out of its scabbard, behold the glorious Substitute bares his arm, 
and he says, "Strike, O sword, but strike me, and let my people go." Into 
the very soul of Jesus the sword of the law pierced, and his blood was 
shed, the blood, not of one who was man only, but of One who, by his 
being an eternal Spirit was able to offer up himself without spot unto 
God, in a way which gave infinite efficacy to his sufferings. He, through 
the eternal Spirit, we are told, offered himself without spot to God. 
Being in his own nature infinitely beyond the nature of man, 
comprehending all the natures of man, as it were, within himself, by 
reason of the majesty of his person, he was able to offer an atonement to 
God of infinite, boundless, inconceivable sufficiency. 
 
What our Lord suffered none of us can tell. I am sure of this: I would not 
disparage or under-estimate his physical sufferings--the tortures he 
endured in his body--but I am equally sure that we can none of us 
exaggerate or over-value the sufferings of such a soul as his; they 
are beyond all conception. So pure and so perfect, so exquisitely 
sensitive, and so immaculately holy was he, that to be numbered with 
transgressors, to be smitten by his Father, to die (shall I say it?) the 
death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, was the very essence 
of bitterness, the consummation of anguish. "Yet it pleased the Father to 
bruise him; he hath put him to grief." His sorrows in themselves were 
what the Greek liturgy well calls them, "unknown sufferings, great 
griefs." Hence, too, their efficacy is boundless, without limit. Now, 
therefore, God is able to forgive sin. He has punished the sin on Christ; 
it becomes justice, as well as mercy, that God should blot out those 
debts which have been paid. It were unjust--I speak with reverence, but 
yet with holy boldness--it were unjust on the part of the infinite 
Majesty, to lay to my charge a single sin which was laid to the charge of 
my Substitute. If my Surety took my sin, he released me, and I am clear. 
Who shall resuscitate judgment against me when I have been condemned in 
the person of my Saviour? Who shall commit me to the flames of Gehenna, 
when Christ, my Substitute, has suffered the tantamount of hell for me? 
Who shall lay anything to my charge when Christ has had all my crimes 
laid to his charge, answered for them, expiated them, and received the 
token of quittance from them, in that he was raised from the dead that he 
might openly vindicate that justification in which by grace I am called 
and privileged to share? This is all very simple, it lies in a nutshell, 
but do we all receive it--have we all accepted it? Oh! my dear hearers, 
the text is full of warning to some of you. You may have an amiable 
disposition, an excellent character, a serious turn of mind, but you 
scruple at accepting Christ; you stumble at this stumbling-stone; you 
split on this rock. How can I meet your hapless case? I shall not reason 
with you. I forbear to enter into any argument. I ask you one question. 
Do you believe this Bible to be inspired of God? Look, then, at that 
passage, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission." What say 
you? Is it not plain, absolute, conclusive? Allow me to draw the 
inference. If you have not an interest in the blood-shedding, which I 
have briefly endeavoured to describe, is there any remission for you? Can 
there be? Your own sins are on your head now. Of your hand shall they be 
demanded at the coming of the great Judge. You may labour, you may toil, 
you may be sincere in your convictions, and quiet in your conscience, or 
you may be tossed about with your scruples; but as the Lord liveth, there 
is no pardon for you, except through this shedding of blood. Do you 
reject it? On your own head will lie the peril! God has spoken. It cannot 
be said that your ruin is designed by him when your own remedy is 
revealed by him. 
 
He bids you take the way which he appoints, and if you reject it, you must 
die. Your death is suicide, be it deliberate, accidental, or through error 
of judgment. Your blood be on your own head. You are warned. 
 
On the other hand, what a far-reaching consolation the text gives us! 
"Without shedding of blood there is no remission," but where there is 
the blood-shedding, there is remission. If thou hast come to Christ, thou 
art saved. If thou canst say from thy very heart:-- 
 
                       ""My faith doth lay her hand
                        On that dear head of thine,
                      While like a penitent I stand,
                         And here confess my sin."
                                                                           
Then, your sin is gone. Where is that young man? where is that 
young woman? where are those anxious hearts that have been saying, "We 
would be pardoned now"? Oh! look, look, look, look to the crucified 
Saviour, and you are pardoned. Ye may go your way, inasmuch as you have 
accepted God's atonement. Daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins, which are 
many, are forgiven thee. Son, rejoice, for thy transgressions are blotted 
out. 
 
My last word shall be this. You that are teachers of others and trying to 
do good, cleave fast to this doctrine. Let this be the front, the centre, 
the pith, and the marrow of all you have to testify. I often preach it, but 
there is never a Sabbath in which I go to my bed with such inward content 
as when I have preached the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. Then I 
feel, "If sinners are lost, I have none of their blood upon me." This is 
the soul-saving doctrine; grip it, and you shall have laid hold of eternal 
life; reject it, and you reject it to your confusion. Oh! keep to this. 
Martin Luther used to say that every sermon ought to have the doctrine of 
justification by faith in it. True; but let it have the doctrine of 
atonement in it. He says he could not get the doctrine of justification by 
faith in to the Wurtembergers' heads, and he felt half inclined to take the 
book into the pulpit and fling it at their heads, in order to get it in. I 
am afraid he would not have succeeded if he had. But oh! how would I try to 
hammer again, and again, and again upon this one nail, "The blood is the 
life thereof." "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." 
 
Christ giving up his life in pouring out his blood--it is this that 
gives pardon and peace to every one of you, if you will but look to him--
pardon now, complete pardon; pardon for ever. Look away from all other 
confidences, and rely upon the sufferings and the death of the Incarnate 
God, who has gone into the heavens, and who lives today to plead before 
his Father's throne, the merit of the blood which, on Calvary, he poured 
forth for sinners. As I shall meet you all in that great day, when the 
crucified One shall come as the King and Lord of all, which day is 
hastening on apace, as I shall meet you then, I pray you bear me witness 
that I have striven to tell you in all simplicity what is the way of 
salvation; and if you reject it, do me this favour, to say that at least 
I have proffered to you in Jehovah's name this, his gospel, and have 
earnestly urged you to accept it, that you may be saved. But the rather I 
would God that I might meet you there, all covered in the one atonement, 
clothed in the one righteousness, and accepted in the one Saviour, and 
then together will we sing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath 
redeemed us to God by his blood to receive honour, and power, and 
dominion for ever and ever." Amen.

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