Q. “H W. T.” You ask (1) “When is a person sprinkled by the blood of Christ?” and also, (2) “Is the unbeliever quickened?”
A. 1. As to the first question: the only passages in the New Testament where παντιξω to sprinkle; or πάντισμός — sprinkling, are used definitely with reference to Christians, are Hebrews 10:22, “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience”; in Hebrews 12:24, “To the blood of sprinkling”; also in 1 Peter 1:2, “Unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”
In the first passage, there is reference in the writer’s mind to the triple action of washing with water, sprinkling with blood, and anointing with oil observed in the ceremonial consecration of the priests (Ex. 29; Lev. 8). He omits the last mentioned, which was typical of the anointing of the Holy Spirit; for, while teaching Christians as to their own privileges, he leaves it open, as far as the knowledge of remission of sins reaches for Israel’s blessing in the kingdom. Then the veil will not be rent for them, and while there may be access by faith within it to God, they do not draw nigh as we do, with purged consciences, and through a veil which has been rent, into the presence of God in the holiest. The glory will have then come out to them, instead of their going in to it — which is our portion; therefore, the anointing with the Holy Spirit is not mentioned. Israel’s blessings are founded on water and blood. I notice this important difference in passing.
In Hebrews 12:24, he unfolds the richer value of the blood of Jesus Christ, than that of Abel; called here the blood of sprinkling, in connection with the New Covenant, as there had been the analogous sprinkling of the book and the people when Moses inaugurated the Old. The blood of Jesus spake of fullest grace to those who shed it; that of Abel cried from the ground for vengeance against the murderer, Cain.
In 1 Peter 1:2, the apostle states, that believers out of the nation of Israel, being born of God, are sanctified unto two things; (1) To obey after the pattern of Jesus, in giving up their own wills for God’s; in contradistinction to the obedience of the law, to which they had been sanctified under the Old Covenant, and (2) thus sanctified, or separated absolutely to God, they come under the value and efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ, through which they are cleansed from their sins, in contrast with the blood of the Old Covenant, which sealed their condemnation.
Thus far, as to the passages where the expression is used. Now I think that you will find, that in the Old Testament the blood is always presented to God, when it is a question of sins — sprinkled on the mercy-seat; before the mercy-seat; at the altar of burnt-offering; on the altar of incense, &c., &c. — to give a righteous ground for the Lord’s relationship with His people, His dwelling amongst them, or of their worship; also, to restore those relationships when interrupted. The only exception seems to have been in the ceremony of the cleansing of the leper (Lev. 14).
But in the New Testament the blood is always, without exception, presented to God, though we see it by faith. In Romans 3:25, Christ has been set forth as a propitiatory, or mercy seat, which answers to the propitiatory in the ark of the covenant, where God’s manifested presence was seen in the Holiest of all (see Lev. 16). And this rightly so in this chapter, for Paul is laying a righteous ground for God’s action in justifying the ungodly who believe in Jesus. Romans 3 is all God’s side; Romans 4 gives our side as sinners. On the day of Atonement (Lev. 16) the first goat’s blood was carried within the veil, to meet the claims of the throne of God; the blood was only presented for His eye. Also, in the Passover, He was to see it; and His passing over them was righteous, because it met His eye, and answered the claims of His holiness. So in Colossians 1:20, the peace of the throne of God was made through the blood of the Cross, on the ground of which creation will be, and we are reconciled. In Hebrews 9:12, Christ enters heaven through His own blood. In Hebrews 10:19, we enter into the holiest because of it. In 1 John 1:7, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from every sin, giving God a righteous ground to have us in the light with Himself; and so on.
I do not find in the New Testament the thought, that it was ever sprinkled on the person at all, to cleanse away his sins. He was justified because of it, has redemption through it, and forgiveness; access to the holiest, etc., because it has been offered to God. On this ground the Word of God (which is the water) comes, and by it we are born again — but born of God on the ground of the redemption which has been accomplished through the blood. This accounts for the different order of presentation of the water and blood in John’s gospel, and his epistle. In the former the blood comes first in order: — “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water.” The blood expiates, and answers God’s claims — and because of its value, He sends out the water of the word (compare Eph. 5:26); and through it we receive conviction of our sins, and cleansing in the value of the blood. The epistle being our side, as the gospel was God’s, the order is reversed. The water and blood is the order (1 John 5); the water has reached our consciences first, to bring us to God in the value of the blood.
I would, therefore, conclude that sprinkling of the person to cleanse away his sins, is not a New Testament thought; and I would also say that the moment the water of the word has reached the conscience of a sinner he is clean in God’s sight because of the blood, on the ground of which God has acted, though his conscience may not yet have entered upon the value of it. In fact the first action of the word is to make the conscience bad, creating unhappiness as to one’s state — conviction of sins — anxiety, &c. When the word has been received with joy at the first, it has only reached the natural conscience, or the intellect; there is no divine work, and the blade withers. A stony ground hearer has probably been produced. This is constantly the case in the ordinary preaching of the day in which we live. When there is a real searching of the conscience by the word of God, unhappiness and exercise is produced; then the value of the blood with God having been learned, the conscience is purged and there is peace.
2. Most assuredly it is an unbeliever who is quickened, otherwise he would be a believer of his own act. Where, then would be the truth of John 1:10-12; James 1:18? If God did not quicken us by the word, we never should be saved. No doubt, on the other side, man is responsible to believe; but that is beside this question. It is the action of the word of God by the Holy Spirit, on the conscience of the individual producing conviction of its state, and repentance or moral judgment of this state by the quickened one. God has acted on the ground of the blood in quickening him. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). The person who has thus received life may not have the conscious knowledge of redemption for many a day. The throes of a new birth may last long enough, indeed, before the soul is at liberty. When the conscience is purged, and the forgiveness of sins known, the Holy Spirit dwells personally as a seal (a further action) in the person who has believed. It is the knowledge of forgiveness which is thus sealed. Deliverance may not be known at the time.
Before the deliverance of the Red Sea, the cloud and pillar came down. Before the learning of deliverance from a sinful state (Rom. 5:12-21; 6; 7:8), and after the person’s sins are forgiven in Romans 4, the Holy Spirit is given unto us (Rom. 5:5). Forgiveness of sins would be followed by the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38. It was so, historically, in Acts 10:43, 44, 45. Just as the words “forgiveness of sins” fell from Peter’s lips on the ears and hearts of those previously quickened, the gift of the Holy Spirit followed as a seal.