Spurgeon on the Substitutionary Atonement

Tony Reinke Atonement, C.H. Spurgeon, Cross of Christ, Cross-centered life

tss-john-calvin-coffee.jpg“If you take away the blood of sprinkling from the gospel, you have silenced it. It has no voice if this be gone. ‘Oh,’ they say, ‘the gospel has lost its power!’ What wonder when they have made it a dumb gospel! How can it have power when they take away that which is its life and speech?

Unless the preacher is evermore preaching this blood, and sprinkling it by the doctrine of faith, his teaching has no voice either to rouse the careless or to cheer the anxious. If ever there should come a wretched day when all our pulpits shall be full of modern thought, and the old doctrine of a substitutionary sacrifice shall be exploded, then will there remain no word of comfort for the guilty or hope for the despairing.

Hushed will be forever those silver notes which now console the living, and cheer the dying; a dumb spirit will possess this sullen world, and no voice of joy will break the blank silence of despair. The gospel speaks through the propitiation for sin, and if that be denied, it speaketh no more. Those who preach not the atonement exhibit a dumb and dummy gospel; a mouth it hath, but speaketh not; they that make it are like unto their idol. …

Would you have me silence the doctrine of the blood of sprinkling? Would any one of you attempt so horrible a deed?

Shall we be censured if we continually proclaim the heaven-sent message of the blood of Jesus? Shall we speak with bated breath because some affected person shudders at the sound of the word ‘blood’ or some ‘cultured’ individual rebels at the old-fashioned thought of sacrifice?

Nay, verily, we will sooner have our tongue cut out than cease to speak of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. For me there is nothing worth thinking of or preaching about but this grand truth, which is the beginning and the end of the whole Christian system, namely, that God gave his Son to die that sinners might live.”

– C.H. Spurgeon, sermon 1888, “The Blood of Sprinkling” in volume 32 of sermons (1886).

7 thoughts on “Spurgeon on the Substitutionary Atonement”

  1. Hey Tony,

    This is an awesome quote. Thanks! I have a question about Spurgeon resources. I have the AGES product, which is very good and searchable in pdf form. But I find it hard to read on the computer. I have the Baker set of the New Park Street Pulpit, but the print is small and hard to read. I am not that old, but bifocals seem to be in my near future! How are the Pilgrim Publications books? Any comments or feedback on them? Thanks for your help.

    Brett

  3. “Unless the preacher is evermore preaching this blood, and sprinkling it by the doctrine of faith, his teaching has no voice either to rouse the careless or to cheer the anxious.”

    Thanks for posting this…this section, it stands out to me, it’s a serious issue and I pray the pastors in the churches around the world, and in our case especially America realize this… Lest their preaching be like vain babbles and nothing more.

  4. Hello Brett. I would recommend printing out sermons from the Ages CD. The Banner and Pilgrim versions of Spurgeon’s Works are facsimile reprints and the text is too old and too small to read comfortably. BTW, does anyone know why Banner only publishes vol. 38? There must be something behind this. T

  5. Hey Tony; Thanks! That is what I have been doing, but I am quickly building up a collection of printed sermons! That is OK, because I can refer back to them and my notes. Appreciate the advice. Great site, as usual!!

    Brett

  7. Enjoyed my visit to your site where I have been blessed. Where are the non-apologetic preachers today who will under The Holy Spirit’s Guidance, proclaim the unseasrchable merits of The Blood;without which there is no gospel, no salvation and no Heaven.
    The Lord bless you,

    Jim

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