5 Sermon Illustrations on The Blood of Christ

“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

A friend of mine, himself an evangelist, lay for many weary months in a Roman Catholic hospital in the city of Oakland, California, because of injuries received in an automobile accident. On a nearby bed lay a young priest, evidently a sincere and earnest man, but he was greatly troubled in view of possible death. An aged priest came from time to time to hear his confessions, and to grant him absolution. My friend longed to speak to him, but found him very difficult to approach.

One day, however, as the older priest was about to leave, he overheard the young one say to him, something like this, “Father, it is very strange: I have done everything I know to do. I have sought to carry out all that the church has asked, and yet I have no peace. How can I be sure that God has put away my sins?”

The other looked at him compassionately, and then exclaimed, “Surely the blood of Christ ought to count for something!”

As though a flash of divine light had entered his soul, the young priest’s countenance changed. He looked up eagerly to exclaim, “Ah, yes, it counts for everything. I can trust that.”

And it was evident afterward that his soul had entered into peace. Can you trust the precious blood shed by that Holy Son, who drank the cup of judgment for your sins upon the cross? If so, God declares that your sins which are many are all forgiven.

Thus, redeemed to God and justified, you will enter, as never before, into the inner meaning of the garden and the Cross.

“Gethsemane, can I forget,

Or there Thy conflict see,

Thine agony and blood-like sweat,

And not remember Thee?

When to the Cross I turn mine eyes

And rest on Calvary,

O Lamb of God, my sacrifice,

I must remember Thee.”

I dare assert, without fear of successful contradiction, that the inspired writers attribute all the blessings of salvation to the precious blood of Jesus Christ. If we have redemption, it is through his blood; if we are justified, it is by his blood; if washed from our moral stains, it is by his blood, which cleanseth us from all sin; if we have victory over the last enemy, we obtain it not only by the word of the divine testimony, but through the blood of the Lamb; and, if we gain admittance into heaven, it is because we "have washed our robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and therefore are we before the throne of God." Every thing depends on the blood of Christ; and "without shedding of blood is no remission." Dr. R. Newton.

There is a tree called the manchaneel, which grows in the West Indies. Its appearance is very attractive, and the wood of it peculiarly beautiful; it bears a kind of apple resembling the golden pippin. This fruit looks very tempting, and smells very fragrant; but to eat of it is instant death; and its sap, or juice, is so poisonous, that, if a few drops of it fall on the skin, it raises blisters, and occasions great pain. The Indians dip their arrows in the juice, that they may poison their enemies when they wound them. Providence hath so appointed it, that one of these trees is never found, but near it there also grows a white wood or a fig-tree; the juice of either of which, if applied in time, is a remedy for the disease produced by the manchaneel. Sin, like this poisonous apple, looks pleasant to the eye, and men desire it, eat of it, and die; but there is a remedy at hand: it is the precious blood of the Son of God, which soothes the troubled conscience, and cleanses it from all sin.

— Bible Treasury