NOTHING but the Blood!

6/21/2005

Every one of us knows what a precious thing it is to have a conscience void of offence in our dealings with God.  A heart of faith and conscience clear of any and every accusation are both equally essential to us, since they are interdependent.  As soon as we find our conscience is uneasy, our faith leaks away, and immediately we know we cannot face God.  In order therefore to keep going on with God we must know the up-to-date value of the Blood.  God keeps short accounts, and we are made right by the Blood every day, every hour and every minute.  It never loses its efficacy as our ground of access if we will but lay hold upon it.  When we enter the Most Holy Place, on what ground dare we enter but by the Blood?

But I want to ask myself, am I really seeking the way into the presence of God by the Blood or by something else?  What do I mean when I say, “by the Blood”? I mean simply that I recognize my sins that I confess that I have need of cleansing and of atonement, and that I come to God on the basis of the finished work of the Lord Jesus.  I approach God through his merit alone, and never on the basis of my attainment: never, for example, on the ground that I have been extra kind or patient today, or that I have done something for the Lord this morning.  I have to come by way of the Blood every time.  The temptation to so many of us when we try to approach God is to think that because God has been taking steps to bring us into something more of himself and has been teaching us deeper lessons of the Cross-he has thereby set before us new standards, and that only by attaining to these can we have a clear conscience before him.  No!  A clear conscience is never based upon our attainment: it can only be based on the work of the Lord Jesus in the shedding of His Blood.

I may be mistaken, but I feel very strongly that some of us are thinking in terms such as these: “Today I have been a little more careful; today I have been doing a little better; this morning I have been reading the Word of God in a warmer way, so today I can pray better!” Or again, “Today I have had a little difficulty with the family; I began the day feeling very gloomy and depressed; I am not feeling too bright now; it seems there must be something ‘wrong’ therefore the way is not clear for me to approach God.”

What, after all, is your basis of approach to God?  Do you come to him on the uncertain ground of your feeling, the feeling that you may have achieved something for God today?  Or is your approach based on something far more secure, namely, the fact that the Blood has been shed, and that God looks on the Blood and is satisfied?  Of course, were it conceivably possible for the Blood to suffer any change, the basis of your approach to God might be less trustworthy.  But the Blood has never changed and never will.  If then you are truly Saved in letting go for Him in Covenant, your approach to God then is therefore always in boldness; and that boldness is yours through the Blood and never through your personal attainment.  Whatever be your measure of attainment today or yesterday or the day before, as soon as you make a conscious move into the Most Holy Place, immediately you have to take your stand upon the safe and only ground of the shed Blood.  Whether you have had a good day or a bad day, whether you have consciously sinned or not, your basis of approach is always the same—the Blood of Christ.  God’s acceptance of the Blood is the ground upon which you may enter and there is no other.