of Christ. A fuller examination of this passage will be found in the series of expositions

on The Epistle to the Romans.

The references in Hebrews to the High Priest entering within the vail once a year, and

to the great Antitype entering "heaven itself", "neither by the blood of goats or calves,

but by His own blood", teach us the preciousness and the fullness of this wondrous

propitiation. The subject is too vast and too important for us to attempt to summarize, so

we will leave the remaining references to be dealt with in another paper. Meanwhile let

us ponder the depths of grace that are found in the words, "the precious blood of Christ".

We have already seen that the blood of Christ is most intimately associated with the

new covenant, life, redemption, and propitiation, and were nothing else revealed these

four items, with all for which they stand, would more than justify the expression, "The

precious blood of Christ". We have further blessings, however, to consider, and so we

proceed to:--

Justification by faith, without works of law, is fundamental to the gospel of God as

preached by Paul. It is, moreover, important to realize that justification is not said to be

derived from the life-long obedience of Christ to the law, neither is it said to be based

upon His resurrection or present intercession, it is bound in His blood. When the Lord

rose from the dead it was "because of our justifying" (Rom. 4: 25), not to obtain it.

Closely allied with justification is sanctification, and this, though having wide and

deep spiritual and experimental aspects which are very closely connected with the work

of the Holy Spirit, finds its foundation and beginning in the blood of Christ:--

We have the typical foreshadowing of this in verse 11 "without the gate" answering to

the Old Testament ritual: "The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the

sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp." This is the sin