Notes on the book of NumbersMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Notes on the book of Numbers
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Bible. Numbers -- Commentaries
“And every priest _standeth daily_ ministering and _offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins_: but this Man, after
He had offered _one sacrifice_ for sins, _forever sat down_ on the right
hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His
footstool. For _by one offering_ He hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified.” It is due to the blood of Christ that it should impart
eternal perfection; and, we may surely add, it is due to it likewise that
our souls should taste that perfection. No one need ever imagine that
he is doing honor to the work of Christ, or to the Spirit’s testimony
respecting that work, when he refuses to accept that perfect remission of
sins which is proclaimed to him through the blood of the cross. It is no
sign of true piety, or of pure religion, to deny what the grace of God
has done for us in Christ, and what the record of the Eternal Spirit has
presented to our souls on the page of inspiration.
Christian reader, anxious inquirer, does it not seem strange that when
the Word of God presents to our view Christ seated at the right hand of
God, in virtue of accomplished redemption, we should be virtually in no
wise better off than those who had merely a human priest standing daily
ministering, and offering the same round of sacrifices? We have a divine
Priest, who has sat down forever. They had a merely human priest, who
could never, in his official capacity, sit down at all; and yet are we,
in the state of the mind, in the apprehension of the soul, in the actual
condition of the conscience, in no respect better off than they? Can it
be possible that, with a perfect work to rest upon, our souls should
never know perfect rest? The Holy Ghost, as we have seen in these various
quotations taken from the epistle to the Hebrews, has left nothing unsaid
to satisfy our souls as to the question of the complete putting away
of sin by the precious blood of Christ. Why, then, should you not this
moment enjoy full, settled peace of conscience? Has the blood of Jesus
done nothing more for you than the blood of a bullock did for a Jewish
worshiper?
It may be, however, that the reader is ready to say, in reply to all that
we have been seeking to urge upon him, “I do not, in the least, doubt
the efficacy of the blood of Jesus. I believe it cleanseth from all sin.
I believe, most thoroughly, that all who simply put their trust in that
blood are perfectly safe, and will be eternally happy. My difficulty does
not lie here at all. What troubles me is not the efficacy of the blood,
in which I fully believe, but _my own personal interest in that blood_,
of which I have no satisfactory evidence. This is the secret of all my
trouble. The doctrine of the blood is as clear as a sunbeam, but the
question of _my_ interest therein is involved in hopeless obscurity.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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