When Is The Blood Applied?

There is an ongoing debate among some apostolics concerning the question of when the blood is applied to a believer. Many assert that the blood is applied solely at water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Careful study of the scripture, however, reveals that while baptism represents the initial natural or physical application of the blood, it is not the only application of the blood. For if anything at all is certain about the lesson of Old Testament typology it is that the blood is applied to the believer in atonement just as surely as it is applied in redemption.

When the Children of Israel were in Egypt, the blood of the Passover lamb was applied to the doorposts and lintel of each of their houses. This was the act of divine redemption, whereby the people of God were redeemed out of the bondage of Egypt. Notice that before the blood of the lamb could be applied it had to be shed – i.e., the lamb had to be slain. It should also be noted that the work was not finished simply by applying the blood to the doorposts and lintel of the house. The completion of the natural application (man’s job) merely set the stage for the spiritual application (God’s job), in which the Spirit of God worked actively “passing over” every blood-marked dwelling to deliver the house from the avenging work of the Death Angel – thereby causing it to avoid the house and not destroy its firstborn occupant.

After leaving Egypt, the Children of Israel were then a redeemed people, even though they did not immediately take possession of the Promised Land (as a result of their unbelief). However, God made a covenant with them and gave to them His Laws, which made provision for a structured place of worship and sacrifice (the Tabernacle) as well as a ministry to oversee and serve in it (the Priesthood). All these provisions were made for a redeemed people partly so that when they were estranged from God because of their sins they could once again be brought back into oneness with him through the atoning work of the blood of the covenant, which ultimately was to be sprinkled upon the lid of the Ark of the Covenant – the Mercy Seat – in the Holy of Holies by the High Priest once a year every year on the Day of Atonement.

Christ was our Passover—“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!” As sinners, we were redeemed out of the world by His blood when we repented (crucified with Christ), were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins (buried with Christ), and received the gift of the Holy Ghost (risen with Christ). This is the awesome process of New Testament redemption: the innocent Lamb shed its blood, dying at the hands of those whose own sins had condemned them to death; the blood of the slain Lamb is applied to the house of the condemned; and in glorious victory the risen Lamb frees the house from the looming threat of imminent death and destruction.

However, Christ’s blood also answers to the blood of atonement, and furthermore, He who was the Lamb of God is also now our High Priest, ever living to make intercession for the redeemed saints with His own blood. Indeed, John tells us that the blood of Jesus “cleanseth” us from our sin in a continual and perpetual work of atonement.

So we see that as sinners, the blood of redemption was initially applied when we were converted or born again of the water and the spirit – per Acts 2:38. As saints, the blood of atonement (“blood of sprinkling”) is subsequently applied continually to us as members of the Body of Christ by our fellowship (“communion”) with the saints walking in the light (which represents the Truth preached from the blood-sprinkled Word of God) – per 1 John 1:7.

 

 

Pastor Tim D. Cormier
18 August, 2004

(C) Copyright held by Tim D. Cormier. This document may not be reproduced in whole or in part, except for personal use, without the express written permission of the author.

The Passover

 

Exodus 12

³Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

⁷And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

⁸And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

¹¹And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’s passover.

¹²For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

¹³And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

²³For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

²⁶And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?

²⁷That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.

 

Just a few thoughts about the Passover….

1. The LORD went to a great deal of ‘trouble’ to deliver the nation of Israel from Egypt. It is clear from this and other events in the Bible that the greater the significance of the spiritual truth being conveyed, the greater the pains that were taken to convey it symbolically. The specific means by which the LORD chose to deliver His OT People from Egypt teach us specific things about the means by which the LORD chose to deliver His NT People.
2. The symbolic Passover elements of a pure lamb being slain, its blood being applied to each dwelling and the removal of leaven from each dwelling all have rather obvious spiritual applications in the NT Plan of Salvation.
3. In order to deliver the nation of Israel from Egypt, the LORD delivered each individual house from the destroyer that visited death upon the nation of Egypt that night. The ultimate aim was corporate or national deliverance, but it was achieved personally and individually.
4. The historical context of the word “Passover” is sometimes misunderstood. The Hebrew word pesach as a noun denotes the original deliverance event and the yearly commemoration of it; as a verb (“pass over”), it denotes the actions of the LORD passing over or leaping over each blood-stained doorway and preventing the destroyer from entering the house. These symbols foretold Repentance, Water Baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost.
5. The Passover was not – as is often represented in the popular religious media – an act of the LORD making a detour around each of the ritually protected households of Israel as He went through the land executing judgment; rather, the Passover was a deliberate act of personal deliverance at the doorway of each house that was in compliance with the LORD’s commandments – in which the LORD personally prevented the destroyer (labeled by some as the Angel of Death) from entering that house and slaying the firstborn as it traveled through the land of Egypt executing judgment.
6. The Passover deliverance was but the first stage of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land as a Redeemed People. After they left Egypt, the Lord began to give them His Laws, an anointed priesthood, and a divinely appointed place of worship. These things were never mentioned while Israel was in Egypt. After the Passover, these became part and parcel of the covenant between God and Israel.
7. The Passover is to be distinguished from the Atonement in that God used the Passover to deliver His People when they were in bondage, while the Atonement was given to a Redeemed people as the means of bringing them back into oneness with their Redeemer whenever they became estranged from Him by sin. At Calvary, Jesus Christ was our Passover – the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world – as well as the Sin Offering of Atonement; since Pentecost, He is our High Priest and continually makes intercession for us.

 

Rev. Tim D. Cormier

(C) Copyright held by Tim D. Cormier. This document may not be reproduced in whole or in part, except for personal use, without the express written permission of the author.