Some thoughts on the Blood of Christ.  “Blood” of course refers to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

1. Revelation 7:13 – 15a:  “Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?’ I (John) said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’  And he said to me, ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  Therefore they are before the throne of God…'”

2. Stephen Charnock (1628 – 1680).  “Heaven is cemented and prepared by the blood of Christ.  By the law against sin we were to have our bodies reduced to dust, and our souls lie under the sentence of the wrath of God.  But our crucified Savior hath purchased the redemption of our body, to be evidenced by a resurrection, Romans 8:23, and a standing security of our souls in a place of bliss, to which believers shall have a real ascent, and in which they shall have a local residence, which is called the purchased possession… We lost a paradise by sin, and have gained a heaven by the cross.”

3. Isaac Ambrose (17th century).  “It is the blood of Christ that rends the veil, and makes a way into the holy of holies, that is, into the kingdom of heaven; without this blood there is no access to God; it is only by the blood of Christ that heaven is open to our prayers, and that heaven is open to our persons.  This blood is the key that unlocks heaven, and lets in the souls of his redeemed ones.”

4. Isaac Ambrose (17th century).  “Many an humble soul is apt enough to complain, ‘Oh! if I had not been so great a sinner, if I had not committed such and such transgressions there might have been hope.’  This is to undervalue Christ’s redemption; this is to think there is more in sin to damn, than in Christ’s sufferings to save, whereas all thy sins to Christ are but as a little cloud to the glorious sun, yea all the sins of all the men in the world, are but to Christ’s merits as a drop to the ocean.  I speak this not to encourage the presumptuous sinner, for alas, he hath no part in this satisfaction, but to comfort the humbled sinner, who is loadened with a sense of his sins; what though they were a burden greater than he can bear, yet they are not a burden greater than Christ can bear.  There is in Christ’s blood an infinite treasure, able to sanctify thee and all the world; there is in Christ’s death a ransom, a counter-price sufficient to redeem all the sinners that ever were or ever shall be.”

5. Saint Paul (1st century AD). “Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it.  You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you – unless you believed for no purpose.  For I passed on to you as most important what I also received:  that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the Twelve.  Then He appeared to over 500 brothers at one time…” (1 Corinthians 15:1 – 6a, HCSB).

All salvation is 100% through God’s grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone!  There is no other gospel.

[The quotes from Charnock and Ambrose are taken from A Puritan Theology, by Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones; pages 368 – 369.  Reformation Heritage Books; Grand Rapids, Michigan].