The Chemistry of Calvary
Roy Blizzard III © 2104
Through the Bible, from cover to cover, runs an unbroken, continuous scarlet red stream of blood from an atoning sacrifice. It begins in the sacrifice spoken of in Genesis 3:21 where we read that God made coats of skin thru the sacrifice of an innocent animal, that Adam and Eve might be covered. It runs in a continuous stream thru the sacrifices of Noah, Abraham, the Exodus, Leviticus, and the whole Old Testament system until it bursts forth in the supreme sacrifice of Calvary and runs on in an ever increasing and widening course thru the years and will flow on thru the countless ages of eternity. The song in eternity will be: “Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”
I.) The First Sacrifice – The first recorded sacrifice in the Bible is in Genesis 3:21 where we read “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin, and clothe them.” This verse teaches us that after man had sinned, God supplied and animal and shed its blood and used the skin as a covering for Adam and Eve’s nakedness. In this brief record we have the plan of all subsequent scriptural sacrifice. We have in the Bible a law which we call the “Law of First Mention”. When applied to this particular verse, it gives us the key to the meaning of sacrifice in the Bible. This Law of First Mention might be stated as follows; the first use of a word, a phrase, or incident in the Bible gives us the key to the exact meaning everywhere else in the Word of God.
Apply this law to Genesis 3:21 and we find that it teaches three things:
- Salvation Must Be Of The Lord
- Salvation Must Be By The Death Of An Innocent Substitute
- Salvation Must Be By Blood
Every acceptable sacrifice must meet these three conditions. It must not be man’s work, but God’s work. It must not be man’s provisions, but only God’s provisions. It must not be the Fig Leaves of man’s own righteousness, but the bloody covering of God’s providing from His own righteousness. Every true sacrifice mentioned in the Bible will have these three essential features.
We find that Abel’s sacrifice met the conditions of Genesis3:21 whereas Cain’s did not. Cain brought a sacrifice of his own reality; it was not a substitute’s innocent life. Abel on the other hand, brought a Lamb, an innocent substitute, in his place, and was justified before God in the shedding of its blood in death.
II.) Other Instances
This same plan holds true in every sacrifice mentioned in the Old Testament. Noah took one of the clean animals, which God had commanded him to take seven of instead of two, and thus it was a sacrifice of God’s provision. It was the death of an innocent substitute, and acceptable by virtue of its blood.
As we read in Genesis 22, when Abraham was ready to slay his son, God showed him a
ram caught by the horns in a thicket. Again God provided the sacrifice, and the sacrifice was an innocent substitute and accomplished by the shedding of blood. All through Leviticus we have the same plan clearly set forth in the burnt offerings, the peace offerings, the sin offerings, and the trespass offerings. All through the Old Testament this scarlet line runs unbroken until it ends at the cross with the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God. Jesus fulfills the three requirements of an acceptable sacrifice.
1) It must be God’s Gift. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
2) It must be by the death of an innocent sacrifice. 22“ Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” I Peter 2:22-24
3) It must be by blood. “18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,” I Peter 1:18-20
That stream of incorruptible blood is still flowing and will avail all through all eternity. In the words of William Cowper, penned after God had saved him from 4 attempts at suicide, in that great camp meeting song Cleansing Fountain “Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more. Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more; Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.”
Jesus’ Blood avails much for all men, regardless of their circumstances!
III.) The Necessity of the Blood
The reason why the Lord must demand blood for atonement of sin lies in the nature of God and in the nature of sin. Since God is perfectly and unimpeachably holy, sin can never be passed over without a satisfaction of the justice of God, and since sin is rebellion against an infinite God, the Highest Being, only the greatest and the highest price can be accepted as an atonement for sin. God gave unto Israel a holy, a perfect and a just Law upon Mt. Sinai.
Disobedience to this Law demanded the greatest penalty in payment. It was for this reason that God gave in the Tabernacle Service the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. You will remember that this Ark consisted of an oblong box made of acacia wood and it was covered in beaten gold. In this Ark was the Law which had been broken by Israel when Moses was upon Mt. Sinai. This broken Law demanded the eternal damnation of Israel, but God had made a provision and so planned the Mercy Seat of beaten gold to cover this broken Law.
Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur in Hebrew, the high priest took the blood of the animal sacrifice, God’s provision, from the Altar of Burnt Offering and sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat. The broken law was covered by the blood of a sacrifice. God was appeased; and atonement had been made. God’s justice was satisfied. His Mercy could flow out unhindered to His erring people for another year.
To look upon the broken Law of God without the blood means certain death for those who have broken it. The sacrifice that covers must be by blood.
A very striking illustration which will set forth this truth in a clear way is in the atonement which Moses offered after the people had broken God’s Law by the making of the golden calf at Mt. Sinai. Moses and Joshua had been up upon the Mountain for 40 days and nights. During their absence, Israel had given up on them as dead and they demanded that Aaron, Moses’ brother, construct a god of gold to lead them on their way out of the wilderness.
When Moses had come down from Mt. Sinai with the tablets of the testimony in his hands he found out that Israel had already placed themselves under the curse of God’s Law. Moses knew nothing but a blood atonement could avert disaster for the children of Israel, and so we find a very unique account of Moses’ blood sacrifice for Israel’s sin.
In Exodus 32:20 we read, “And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.” You will notice from this verse that Moses took the golden calf and he did the following; a) He melted it b) He had it ground to a powder c) He had it put in the water d) He made the children of Israel drink it.
In Deuteronomy 9:21 we have the same record given in a bit more detail. “And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.”
You will notice in the greater detail here that there are six things mentioned about the golden calf, 1) Moses had it melted 2) Moses had it stamped 3) Moses had it ground 4) Moses had it ground again 5) Moses had it put into the brook coming out from Mt. Sinai 6) Moses made the children of Israel drink it. Then as we shall see in a moment, Moses took some of the water with gold in it out of the brook and presented it to God for a blood sacrifice and atonement of the sins of Israel.
IV.) Moses’ Knowledge of Chemistry
It is very evident from this record that Moses had a high degree of chemistry education at the court of the Egyptians. God had put Moses there for a reason in the house of the Pharaoh. Perhaps you have never known or considered this story as true, but there was a purpose behind everything Moses did in this account. Moses’ melting, pounding, and grinding of the golden calf resulted in a powdered gold that when spread upon the waters of the brook resulted in a suspension which became a vivid type of the blood sacrifice.
In Chemistry, there are three types of mixtures:
1) A Mechanical Mixture – If I were to drop a chunk of metallic gold in water, no solution occurs. The gold remains in the water because pure gold is insoluble in water.
2) A Suspension or Emulsion – Finely divided particles of a metallic substance may, by the addition of another chemical, be suspended in water. There is no solution as the finely ground particles are merely suspended in the water. This is called an emulsion.
3) A Chemical Solution – If I take a spoonful of sugar and put it into water the sugar will not mix or be suspended, but will enter into a solution so that the result will be an increase in weight but not an increase in volume. The sugar dissolves and the molecules take their place in the spaces among the water molecules. This is called a solution.
V.) Gold is Insoluble in Water
Gold is insoluble in water, being 19 times heavier than water. However, in very fine powder gold assumes a “Colloidal Condition”, and added to water it results in a coloration that appears to be a solution. As the particles are made finer, the bulk of gold is greatly increased and it acquires an apparent specific gravity permitting its suspension in water, and thereby giving the water a deep red color.
Scientific records indicate that colloidal gold in water is a rose red color when the particles are of 10 micron size in a dilution of 1 to 100,000. From this scientific record you will see that gold in dust size particles will color the water as blood, which means that the calf of gold need not have been very large to color sufficient water blood red to furnish drinks to at least two or more million people. If each person drank one ounce of the liquid it would have only been about 15,600 gallons or less water than in a 30 ft round swimming pool about 4 feet deep. Not a lot of water.
Colloidal gold can be made in many ways, but the method of Moses was the best under the circumstances of the wilderness. The burning removed any impurities and was symbolic of the bull offering upon the altar. The stamping of the gold reduced the gold to thin sheets due to its ductability. The thin sheets were then easier to grind and we can see that Moses had it ground very fine indeed, as fine as dust or flour, reducing it to the size of at least 10 microns or about 4 ten thousandths of an inch. When Moses had this cast into the brook, the brook became blood red.
All this was a fitting type of the blood of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. John 1:29
VI.) Moses’ Offering
This blood red solution was taken by Moses before the Lord and presented to God as an atonement for the children of Israel’s sins. We have the story clearly given in Exodus 32:30-32. Upon the Mt. Moses would present his atonement saying, “Peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.” God saw the blood red solution, the type of blood sacrifice and offering and He accepted it and His wrath was averted, His justice was appeased and His love flowed freely again.
VII.) Appropriation
One other thing that remains to be said concerning this blood that Moses made as a covering for their sins, although Moses made an atonement and God accepted it, only those who by faith appropriated it were saved. All the other people who refused it died in their sin as suggested in Exodus 32:26-28.
Here it is intimated that the 3,000 who were killed by the swords of the Levites were those who had refused to bow down and drink of the crimson brook of blood coming from the side of the Mountain of God. Those who accepted God’s provision thru the molten, golden calf sacrifice were saved. Those who rejected it were lost. Although it is true that Jesus died for the sins of all the world and that he tasted death for every man, it still remains a fact that only those who appropriate Jesus’ blood will be saved.
Almost 2,000 years ago on a cross at Calvary, the stream of crimson and water flowed forth from Jesus’ side. From that day to this that stream has been flowing, into which all who will may plunge and receive remission of their sins and eternal salvation. To accept this blood is to live, to reject it is to die.
In the beautiful words of Horatio Bonar,
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold, I freely give
the living water; thirsty one,
stoop down and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
and now I live in him.