The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

midnight; between those gloomy olive trees I see a man, I hear him groan out his life in prayer; listen, angels, listen men, and wonder; it is the Saviour groaning out his soul! Come and see him. Behold his brow! Oh heavens! drops of blood are streaming down his face, and from his body; every pore is open, and it sweats! but not the sweat of men that toil for bread; it is the sweat of one that toils for heaven — he “sweats great drops of blood!” That is the blood shedding, without which there is no remission. Follow that man further; they have dragged him with sacrilegious hands from the place of his prayer and his agony, and they have taken him to the hall of Pilate; they seat him in a chair and mock him; a robe of purple is put on his shoulders in mockery; and see his brow — they have put on it a crown of thorns, and the crimson drops of gore are rushing down his cheeks! You angels! the drops of blood are running down his cheeks! But turn aside that purple robe for a moment. His back is bleeding. Tell me, demons who did this. They lift up the thongs, still dripping clots of gore; they scourge and tear his flesh, and make a river of blood to run down his shoulders! That is the shedding of blood without which there is no remission. I am not finished yet — they hurry him through the streets; they fling him on the ground; they nail his hands and feet to the transverse wood, they hoist it in the air, they dash it into its socket, it is fixed, and there he hangs the Christ of God. Blood from his head, blood from his hands, blood from his feet! In agony unknown he bleeds away his life; in terrible throes he exhausts his soul. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” And then see! they pierce his side, and now runs out blood and water. This is the shedding of blood, sinners and saints; this is the awful shedding of blood, the terrible pouring out of blood, without which for you, and for the whole human race, there is no remission.

      5. I have then, I hope, expounded my text accurately; without this shedding of blood there is no remission. Now I shall come to dwell upon it in more detail.

      6. Why is it that this story does not make men weep? I told it poorly, you say. Indeed, so I did; I will take all the blame. But, sirs, if it were told as poorly as men could speak, if our hearts were what they should be, we would bleed away our lives in sorrow. Oh! that was a horrid murder! It was not an act of regicide; it was not the deed of a fratricide, or of a parricide; it was — what shall I say? — I must make a word — a deicide; the killing of a God; the slaying of him who became incarnate for our sins. Oh! if our hearts were only soft as iron, we must weep, if they were only as tender as the marble of the mountains, we would shed great drops of grief; but they are harder than the nether millstone; we forget the griefs of him who died this ignominious death, we do not pity his sorrows, nor do we value the interest we have in him as though he suffered and accomplished all for us. Nevertheless, here stands the principle — “Without shedding of blood is no remission.”

      7. Now, I take it, there are two things here. First, there is a negative expressed: “No remission without shedding of blood.” And then there is a positive implied, truly, with shedding of blood there is remission.

      8. I. First, I say, here is A NEGATIVE EXPRESSED: there is no remission without blood — without the blood of Jesus Christ. This is of divine authority; when I utter this sentence I have divinity to plead. It is not a thing which you may doubt, or which you may believe; it must be believed and received, otherwise you have denied the Scriptures and turned aside from God. Some truths I utter, perhaps, have little better basis than my own reasoning and inference, which are of little value enough; but this I utter, not with quotations from God’s Word to back up my assertion, but from the lips of God himself. Here it stands in great letters, “There is no remission.” So divine is its authority. Perhaps you will kick at it: but remember, your rebellion is not against me, but against God. If any of you reject this truth, I shall not argue; God forbid I should turn aside from proclaiming his gospel, to dispute with men. I have God’s irrevocable statute to plead now, here it stands: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” You may believe or disbelieve many things the preacher utters; but this you disbelieve at the peril of your souls. It is God’s utterance: will you tell God to his face you do not believe it? That would be impious. The negative is divine in its authority; bow yourselves to it, and accept its solemn warning.

      9. But some men will say that God’s way of saving men, by shedding of blood, is a cruel way, an unjust way, an unkind way; and all kinds of things they will say of it. Sirs, I have nothing to do with your opinion on the matter; it is so. If you have any faults to find with your Maker, fight your battles out with him at last. But take heed before you throw the gauntlet down; it will go badly with a worm when he fights with his Maker, and it will go badly with you when you contend with him. The doctrine of atonement when correctly understood and faithfully received, is delightful, for it exhibits boundless love, immeasurable goodness, and infinite truth; but to unbelievers it will always be a hated doctrine. So it must be sirs; you hate your own mercies; you despise your own salvation. I do not pause to dispute with you: I affirm it in God’s name: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

      10. And note how decisive this is in its character: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” “But, sir, cannot I get my sins forgiven by my repentance? if I weep, and plead, and pray, will not God forgive me for the sake of my tears?” “No remission,” says the text, “without shedding of blood.” “But, sir, if I never sin again, and if I serve God more zealously than other men, will he not forgive me for the sake of my obedience?” “No remission,” says the text, “without shedding of blood.” “But, sir, may I not trust that God is merciful, and will forgive me without the shedding of blood?” “No,” says the text, “without shedding of blood there is no remission”; none whatever. It cuts off every other hope. Bring your hopes here, and if they are not based in blood, and stamped with blood, they are as useless as castles in the air, and dreams of the night. “There is no remission,” says the text, in positive and plain words; and yet men will be trying to get remission in fifty other ways, until their special pleading becomes as irksome to us as it is useless for them. Sirs, do what you like, say what you please, but you are as far off from remission when you have done your best, as you were when you began, except you put confidence in the shedding of our Saviour’s blood, and in the blood shedding alone, for without it there is no remission.

      11. And note again how universal it is in its character. “What! may not I get remission without blood shedding?” says the king; and he comes with the crown on his head; “May not I in all my robes, with this rich ransom, get pardon without the blood shedding?” “None,” is the reply; “none.” Now comes the wise man, with a number of letters after his name — “Can I not get remission by these grand titles of my learning?” “None; none.” Then comes the benevolent man — “I have dispersed my money to the poor, and given my bounty to feed them; shall not I get remission?” “None”; says the text, “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” How this puts everyone on the same level! My lord, you are no bigger than your coachman. Sir, squire, you are no better off than John that ploughs the ground; minister, your office does not serve you with any exemption — your poorest hearer stands on the very same footing. “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” No hope for the best, any more than for the worst, without this shedding of blood. Oh! I love the gospel, for this reason among others, because it is such a levelling gospel. Some people do not like a levelling gospel; nor would I, in some senses of the word. Let men have their rank, and their titles, and their riches, if they will; but I do like, and I am sure all good men like, to see rich and poor meet together and feel that they are on the same level; the gospel makes them so. It says, “Keep your money bags, they will not procure you remission; roll up your diploma, that will not get you remission; forget your farm and your park, they will not get you remission; just cover up that escutcheon, that coat of arms will not get you remission. Come, you ragged beggars, filthy offscourings of the world, penniless; come here; here is remission as much for you, ill-bred and ill-mannered though you are, as for the noble, the honourable, the titled, and the wealthy.” All stand on the same level here; the text is universal: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

      12. Notice too, how perpetual my text is. Paul said, “there is no remission!” I must repeat this testimony too. When thousands of years have rolled