Remission of Sins

Remission of Sins
by Sylvester Hassell

THE GOSPEL  MESSENGER
Devoted to the Primitive Baptist Cause
Sylvester Hassell,  Editor



Williamston N. C., October 1913
  
THE REMISSION OF SINS IS ALONE BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST
  In the book of Leviticus, where the blood of the victim was offered, it always became an atonement for the soul. The blood is the life; and the life having been taken, the law, the penalty for whose transgression is death, was satisfied. The sins remitted by the blood, were not only forgiven but forgotten, and separated from the sinner as far as the east is from the west. By his knowledge, or the knowledge of Christ's atoning sacrifice which He gives them by His Spirit, His people, whose transgressions He bore in His own body, are freely justified (Isa. 53; Rom. 3:23-31; Acts 13:38-39). In the Last Supper, Christ declares, speaking of the wine which was symbolical of His blood, 'This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins' (Matt. 26:28). Paul says to the Ephesian saints, 'in whom (that is, in Christ) we (that is, the elect) have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace' (Eph. 1:7). And to the Hebrews, he says Christ 'by Himself purged our sins' (Heb. 1:3); and 'without shedding of blood is no remission' (Heb. 9:22), and 'once in the end of the world Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself' (Heb. 9:26). And, John the Apostle said, 'The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sins' (I John 1:7); and Christ 'loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood' (Rev. 1:5). And when John the Baptist said, 'I baptize you with (or in) water unto repentance' (cis inclanoian, Matt. 3:11), but he did not mean 'to make you repentant,' or 'to procure your repentance,' but he meant 'in reference to repentance,' or, because and symbolical of their profession of repentance, for he would not baptize them unless they 'brought forth fruits meet for repentance,' that is, unless their lives were suitable to, or expressive of, repentance; and so, when Peter said, on the day of Pentecost, to his believing hearers, 'Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins' (Acts 2:38), he did not mean that their baptism was to procure the remission of their sins, but that it was in reference to the remission of their sins through faith in Christ as having borne and made an end to their sins, and as expressive and symbolical of such faith.
Sylvester Hassell
  
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