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(10)
Made Nigh (Eph. 2:13).
(11)
Made Peace (Col. 1:20).
(12)
Boldness to enter (Heb. 10:19).
Such is the summary of the way in which the blood of Christ is used in
the New Testament. It cannot be set aside. Life, forgiveness and peace are
vitally linked with this evidence of precious life laid down, the Scriptural
evidence that righteousness has not been flouted, that Love has had its way,
and that the Saviour's death was neither by accident nor disease, but was a
voluntary offering, vicarious and substitutionary. May the Spirit of truth
make these 'dry bones' (the mere list given above) live to every reader.
Blot Out. This term is used in both Old and New Testaments either for the
blotting out of a name, a remembrance, transgression, sin and ordinances.
The word used in the Old Testament is the Hebrew machah whose first
occurrences are in Genesis 6:7 and 7:4, where the latter reads, 'Every living
substance that I have made will I destroy (margin, Heb. blot out) from off
the face of the earth'. This word is used of wiping away tears, of wiping a
dish or a mouth (Isa. 25:8; 2 Kings 21:13 and Prov. 30:20). Where David uses
it in Psalm 51:1,9, he seems to differentiate between blotting out the record
of his transgressions, from the cleansing of his sin. Isaiah 43:25 employs
the figure in a similar way, but Isaiah 44:22 needs a little attention:
'I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a
cloud, thy sins'.
It is not that God employs a thick cloud to blot out the sins of His
people, it is the cloud itself that is blotted out. Jenour's translation has
much in its favour:
'I have dispelled thy transgressions as a mist, and thy sins as a
cloud'.
The use of the word in Colossians 2:14, 'Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances' refers to the completeness of the believer in Christ, who is
no longer under the necessity to observe holy days, new moons or sabbaths,
who, having died with Christ from the elements of the world, is no longer
subject to ordinances, either Divine or human (Col. 2:20 -22). All such are
shadows and have no place in the dispensation of the Mystery, where every
believer is complete in Christ. The one other occurrence of this term is
found in Revelation 3:5, 'I will not blot out his name out of the book of
life'. This seems to be an echo of the earlier promise, 'He that overcometh
shall not be hurt of the second death' (Rev. 2:11). It is contrary to the
intention, as it is contrary to the universal testimony of the Scriptures, to
suggest that anyone's name will ever be blotted out of the book of life. As
Revelation 2:11, with its promise that the overcomer shall not be hurt of the
second death, looks back to verse 10, where there is the prospect of
suffering a martyr's death for the truth's sake, so here in Revelation 3:5,
this reference to the book of life is set over against the statements of
verses 1 and 2, where the church in Sardis had a name that it lived, and yet
was dead, and in which much that remained was 'ready to die'. For fuller
examination of these passages, see Millennial Studies9. Wiped out, blotted
out, put out of remembrance are our sins; blotted out, cancelled, abolished
(see use of word in Ezek. 6:6) are all ordinances, observances, rites,
ceremonies, whether found earlier in the pages of Scripture, or imposed by