My emphasis in this present article has to do with the way we are attempting to use the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus. We often use the expression "under the blood" or "covered with the blood" or "plead the blood." These are not scriptural expressions.

I am not in any manner detracting from the importance of the atoning blood of the Lord in our salvation. What I am saying is that we are using the blood to avoid the judgment of God on our sins. We are employing the blood as an alternative to deliverance from sin, an alternative to righteous behavior, an alternative to moral transformation.

Do you think the Lord Jesus intends for us to use His blood as a means of living an unholy life? Well, that is what is being done today.

One way of thinking of the blood is as soap. When we use soap to clean our hands the soap is not a covering for dirt. The soap washes away the dirt. So it is true that the blood is not supposed to cover the dirt. The purpose of the blood is to wash away the dirt. I think any sincere Christian would agree with this idea.

Of course it is possible that the concept of being "under the blood" or "God sees us through the blood" could be correct even though the terminology is not scriptural. But the concept itself is not correct. Whenever we are emphasizing terminology that is not found in the Scriptures we have to be careful that the concept being presented is found in the Scriptures in other terms.

You will not find the concept, in either the Old Testament or the New, that the sin offering is a covering that hides the behavior of the sinner from God's eyes. Rather the blood of the sin offering is a redemption payment, we might say, that cancels the debt we owe God because of our sin.

The soul that sins shall die. The blood of the cross appeases the wrath of God concerning our sin and pays the debt we owe.

But the blood does not "cover" us such that God does not notice our personality or behavior.

In today's preaching we are trying to use the blood of the cross to hide our sins, to conceal what we are doing from God.

The truth appears to be that when we begin the program of redemption the blood covers our transgressions. We see this prefigured in the red ram skins that covered the black goat hair of the tent over the Tabernacle of the Congregation. However, as we mature, the blood instead of only covering our sins actually cleanses us from them.

It may be true that in past time the emphasis of the Spirit was on our receiving by faith the covering of the blood of atonement. Now God is giving us the Spirit of judgment so we can confess our sins, the result being that the blood of Christ not only forgives our sins but actually cleanses us from all unrighteousness

We readily can understand that we have been kept by faith to the Day of Redemption. Now the Day of Redemption is at hand and the Spirit of God is directing us to confess our sins that they may be put to death and finally purged from us altogether. This is the doctrine of eternal judgment, the eternal judgment of sin and Satan.

The idea that God no longer sees us is not new.

He said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, "The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land." (Ezekiel 8:12—NIV)

God certainly was seeing the deeds of the seven churches of Asia!

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! (Revelation 3:15—NIV)

Does the above verse sound like God did not see the works of the Christians in Laodicea?

To be continued.