Andrew Murray- Entering the Secret Place-Not without Blood
In the Book of Hebrews, we read:
“But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, NOT WITHOUT BLOOD, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance.”
Hebrews 9: 7
The writer talked about the Holy of Holies and how the high priest could only enter it if he had the blood. The holy of Holies is a type and shadow of the Secret Place. From the moment of the Fall, we see that there was a consequence of sin, and that sin created a barrier between us and the Lord. For Adam and Even to stand before the Lord they had to cover themselves with animal skins, which means an animal had to die and blood was shed. The Lord had to take what was on the earth and make a provision, which clearly means that blood was shed.
The blood of animals could only provide a covering and not a cure. Throughout the Old Testament, we see the importance of the blood for us to draw close to Him and to truly receive what He has for us. We see that sin has a price and that blood revealed the need for something to become a substitute in our place and pay the price to meet the legal demands or cost of our sin.
“And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”
Exodus 24: 8
The Lord made a clear legal means by which the blood of an animal could be used as a substitution to cover for sins. The Lord clarified how they were to use the blood as a covering and how they could enjoy fellowship with Him.
The Lord would dwell among them in a tabernacle or Temple behind a veil. Think about it and how the God of all Creation, the Lord God, was so close and yet so far away. Every answer they needed was right there beyond a veil. That veil protected man from the absolute holiness of God, who dwells in unapproachable light.
“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings of the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.”
Genesis 8: 20-21
We think about all the death that had just occurred because of men’s evil and sin. Then with only so few animals left, Noah took the extras of the clean animals to make a sacrifice to the Lord in faith. It would have been a bloody event, and it took absolute faith on Noah’s part because they had to trust the Lord for food and that He would not destroy them.
Andrew Murray explained:
On Moriah, the life was redeemed by the shedding of the blood. In Egypt, it was sprinkled on the doorposts of the houses, but at Sinai, it was sprinkled on the persons themselves. The contact was closer, the application more powerful.
We must recognize our sin and that while we need Him, we in our sin can’t draw nigh. Our sin and fallen flesh created a veil that can’t be penetrated. Now listen to Murray again:
First notice that when John the Baptist announced His coming, he spoke of Him as filling a dual office: the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world and then he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit (John 1:29, 33). The outpouring of the blood of the Lamb of God had to take place before the outpouring of the Spirit could be given. Only when all that the Old Testament taught about the blood had been fulfilled could the Spirit begin its work.
Many argue that the Old Testament does not apply to us, but we must remember that everything in the New Testament was built upon the Old. Throughout the New, the writers quote and build their case from the Old and revealed that God would share a little here and a little there. The Old Testament must be read in light of the New, but the Old is critically relevant to us as well.
To understand the ministry of Jesus, we must understand the Old along with the types and shadows. Jesus came as the Lamb or God or the Passover Lamb, thereby declaring that His blood would be shed and sprinkled to redeem us. If we are to come into the Secret Place of His Presence and be filled with the Holy Spirit and found in the Spirit, we must come by way of the blood.
Remember that in the Holy of Holies, the high priest had to go alone. Jesus went alone and paid the price that we could not pay. Now we must come alone and personally receive the washing and redeeming power of the blood in our lives that, individually, we might go beyond the veil. We must go beyond the veil and meet with Him face to face.
In John chapter six, the people want to crown Jesus as King, but Jesus withdraws. They find Him and, having them in the palm of His hands, turns and offends them with a powerful message on the blood. They were relying on the fact that they were the Children of Israel, but now they would have to come individually and receive Him and the blood He would shed.
“Whoever eats Me flesh ad drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6: 54
Andrew Murray said this:
In the synagogue at Capernaum, Jesus spoke of Himself as the bread of life that He would give for the life of the world (John 6:35). Four times He said most emphatically, Unless ye . . . drink his blood, ye shall have no life in you. . . . Whosoever . . . drinks my blood has eternal life, . . . my blood is drink indeed. He that . . . drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him (John 6:53-56).
Coming into the Secret Place and having a holy intimacy with Jesus is not the result of what church you were born into, or what church you have membership of, or what family you belong to. It is a personal application of the price Jesus paid and the blood. The Children of Israel were to eat the whole of the Passover lamb and not pick and choose. We too must eat the whole Word and submit fully to the blood. Many parts of the Gospel may offend us but if we are to draw nigh to Him and enjoy true unity with Him, then we must fully yield to Him.
As we look at the design of the Tabernacle, we see the outer court with the bronze altar and laver, then the inner court with the golden table of Presence bread, the golden altar and the golden Menorah, and then finally, there is the Holy of Holies, in which we find only the Ark of Testimony.
Murray beautifully states:
Without shedding of blood there is no remission [of sins] (Hebrews 9:22). Without remission of sins there is no life. But by the shedding of His blood, He has obtained a new life for us. By what He calls the drinking of His blood, He shares His life with us. The blood, which was shed in the atonement, frees us from the guilt of sin and from death, the punishment of sin. The blood, which by faith we receive into our soul, gives us His life. The blood He shed was first for us and then given to us.
It is no wonder that so many revivals have broken out during a love feast or communion service. The blood redeems, and the blood brings life.
When we look at the blood of Jesus by which we are redeemed, and we became the blood-bought Church, we see that the blood speaks of His love. In the Book of Hebrews, it says:
“To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”
Hebrews 12: 24
The blood contains life, and the blood has a voice. Today the blood will speak loudly over us, declaring our redemption and that we are sons and daughters. Today the blood of Jesus, instead of condemning us and holding us afar off, calls us to come near. That excellent blood speaks of our new life, new hope, and new nature because of His love. Today that blood, just as in days old, tells the enemy, “Do not touch, this belongs to the Lord!”
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Hebrews 9: 14
There is no looking back as we enter the Secret Place of His Presence. The old is gone, and we enter into the new. Murray said:
By such words the Holy Spirit teaches us that the blood is the central power of our entire redemption. Not without blood is as valid in the New Testament as in the Old. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, shed in His death for sin, can cover sin on God’s side or remove it on ours. We find the same teaching in the writings of the apostles. Paul writes of being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus, the Christ, whom God purposed for reconciliation through faith in his blood (Romans 3:24-25).
The wonderful blood has reconciled us to the Lord God! Murray then so wonderfully explains:
He reminds the Ephesians that we have redemption through his blood and that we are made near by the blood of the Christ (Ephesians 1:7; 2:13).
Let us hear the call of the Secret Place and draw near to Him that we might have life, true life. Yes, we can draw nigh as we submit, and we are washed by the eternal blood of Jesus.
