23 DECEMBER
The blood of God
‘Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’ Isaiah 7:14
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Leviticus 16:6–22
The Messiah was not only to obey, but to expiate, to sustain and exhaust the curse due to sin (Galatians 3). In this attempt no mere creature could have endured. Nor could the sufferings of a creature have been proposed to the universe as a sufficient consideration to vindicate the righteousness of God in the remission of sin, after he had determined and declared that the wages of sin is death. Upon the same ground that the apostle tells us it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin, we may assert the same of the blood of man, or of angels, if angels could bleed. But the atoning blood is the blood of Emmanuel, the blood of God (Acts 20[:28])—of God with us [Matthew 1:23]. And no sinner obtains forgiveness in this way, but he obtains by it such a knowledge of the evil of sin, and of the displeasure of God against it, as teaches and disposes him from that hour to fear and forsake it.
Behold the character of the Messiah in this prophecy: a man, a God-Man, a divine person in the human nature, God manifested in the flesh, God with us [Matthew 1:23]. As fallen creatures we had lost the true knowledge of God and were unable to conceive of him to our comfort. His glory shines in the heavens and fills the earth, yet he is to us unknown and unnoticed. But he is known and found when the Messiah is known. To us his glory shines in the person of Jesus Christ the Messiah.
FOR MEDITATION:
That dear blood, for sinners spilt,
Farewell world, thy gold is dross,
Shows my sin in all its guilt:
Now I see the bleeding cross;
Ah, my soul, he bore thy load,
JESUS died to set me free
Thou hast slain the Lamb of GOD.
From the law, and sin, and thee!
He has dearly bought my soul
LORD, accept, and claim the whole!
To thy will I all resign,
Now, no more my own, but thine.
SERMON SERIES: MESSIAH, NO. 5 [5/6], ISAIAH 7:14
Milo 