The Right View of the Blood
The blood of Jesus must have the same place in our hearts which it has with God.
From the beginning of God's dealings with man, yes, from before the foundation of the world, the heart of God has rejoiced in that blood. Our heart will never rest, nor find salvation, till we too learn to walk, and glory in the power of that blood.
It is not only the penitent sinner, longing for pardon, who must thus value it. No --the redeemed will experience that just as God in His temple sits upon a throne of grace, where the blood is ever in evidence, so there is nothing that draws our hearts nearer to God, filling them with God's love, and joy, and glory, as living in constant, spiritual view of that blood.
The Blessing and Power of the Blood
Let us take time and trouble to learn the full blessing and power of that blood.
The blood of Jesus is the greatest mystery of eternity, the deepest mystery of the divine wisdom. Let us not imagine that we can easily grasp its meaning. God thought 4,000 years necessary to prepare men for it, and we also must take time, if we are to gain a knowledge of the power of the blood.
Even taking time is of no avail, unless there is definite taking of sacrificial trouble. Sacrificial blood always meant the offering of a life. The Israelite could not obtain blood for the pardon of his sin, unless the life of something that belonged to him was offered in sacrifice. The Lord Jesus did not offer up His own life and shed His blood to spare us from the sacrifice of our lives. No, indeed but to make the sacrifice of our lives possible and desirable.
The hidden value of His blood is the spirit of self-sacrifice, and where the blood really touches the heart, it works out in that heart, a like spirit of self-sacrifice. We learn to give up ourselves and our lives, so as to press into the full power of that new life, which the blood has provided.
We give our time in order that we may become acquainted with these things by God's Word. We separate ourselves from sin and worldly-mindedness, and self-will, that the power of the blood may not be hindered, for it is just these things that the blood seeks to remove.
We surrender ourselves wholly to God in prayer and faith, so as not to think our own thoughts, and not to hold our own lives as a prize, but as possessing nothing save what He bestows. Then He reveals to us the glorious and blessed life which has been prepared for us by the blood.
The Revelation of the Power of the Blood
We can rely upon the Lord Jesus to reveal to us the power of His blood. It is by this confident trust in Him that the blessing obtained by the blood becomes ours.
We must never, in thought, separate the blood from the High Priest who shed it, and ever lives to apply it. He who once gave His blood for us, will, oh I so surely, every moment,
impart its efficacy. Trust Him to do this. Trust Him to open your eyes, and to give you a deeper spiritual insight. Trust Him to teach you to think about the blood as God thinks about it. Trust Him to impart to you, and to make effective in you, all that He enables you to see.
Trust Him above all, in the power of His eternal High Priesthood, to work out in you, unceasingly, the full merits of His blood, so that your whole life may be an uninterrupted abiding in the sanctuary of God's presence.
Believer, you who have come to the knowledge of the precious blood, hearken to the invitation of your Lord. Come nearer. Let Him teach you; let Him bless you. Let Him cause His blood to become to you spirit, and life, and power, and truth.
Begin now, at once, to open your soul in faith, to receive the full, mighty, heavenly effects of the precious blood, in have ever experienced. He Himself will work these things out in your life.
(From "The Power of the Blood of Jesus" - by Andrew Murray, 1828-1917)
Doc: I was thinking also that my title might have been
"Toward Basic Revival 101." But Brother Murray got it right. Way right.