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This thought is limited to the circumcision, being connected either with the ratification
of a covenant people, or their cleansing and deliverance.
"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the
Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 1: 2).
"Having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience" (Heb. 10: 22).
"If . . . . . the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of
the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ . . . . . purge your conscience"
(Heb. 9: 13, 14).
"Moses . . . . . sprinkled . . . . . all the people, saying, this is the blood of the covenant,
which God has enjoined unto you" (Heb. 9: 19, 20).
"Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood" (Heb. 11: 28).
These features have been seen before, but it is necessary that the reader should be
stimulated to discover the meaning of this sprinkling, so that no phase of the blessed
work of Christ should be unseen or unappreciated.
10.
Made nigh.
"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood
of Christ" (Eph. 2: 13).
The church of the mystery, which is a new creation, a spiritual unity, indeed the
unity of the Spirit, is made not by the Holy Spirit Himself, but by the blood of Christ, the
Holy Spirit recognizing and hallowing that precious blood, and building into the holy
temple only such living stones as bear that sacred mark. No member of the one body is
redeemed other than by that precious blood of Christ (Eph. 1: 7). No member but is made
nigh by that precious blood (Eph. 2: 13), and as we shall see in the next paragraph, there
is no bond of peace apart from that same shed blood.
11.
Peace.
"And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all
things unto Himself" (Col. 1: 20).
The reconciliation of all things (even those that are invisible and heavenly) finds its
basis in the blood of His cross. The laying down of that life, the pouring out of that
blood were absolutely necessary before one member of the body of Christ could know
peace. There is no higher spiritual place than that reached in these prison epistles, yet
may we remember at all times that even here, in the climax of the purpose of the ages,
this thin red line, started at Gen. 3:, is found interwoven.
12.
Boldness to enter.
In Heb. 10: 19 the Epistle reaches a goal. It has emphasized the glorious fullness of
Christ in every chapter. Above angels, above Adam, above Moses, above Joshua, above
Melchisedec, above all typical sacrifices. The culminating point is the establishing of the
"better covenant" upon "better promises" (Heb. 10: 1-18), and immediately this has been