Wesley Corpus

(4) From all which it appears that Christ was not only a pattern, but first and principally the surety of the new covenant -- yea, a sacrifice and a victim for the sins of His people; ‘whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood’ (Rom. iii. 25). And that precious sacrifice offered on the cross is the very center and marrow of the gospel. To that one offering whereby our great High-priest ‘hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified’ (Heb. x. 14) all the ancient sacrifices referred as well as numberless other types and figures. ‘All these,' says the Apostle, 'were shadows of things to come; but the body is Christ’ (Col. ii. 17). He it was who, ‘not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by His own blood, entered into the holiest, having obtained eternal redemption for us’ (Heb. ix. 12). In consequence of this we are accepted ‘through the offering of the body of Christ once for all’ (x. 10). In all the ancient types and figures, ‘without shedding of blood there was no remission’; which was intended to show there never could be any without the blood of the great Antitype, without that grand propitiatory sacrifice which (like the figure of it) was to be offered ‘without the gate.’ Indeed, the whole worship of the Old Testament teaches nothing else but the satisfaction made by the blood of Christ, and our reconciliation with God thereby: hence He is styled ‘The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,’ with a view to the paschal lamb and the other lambs that were offered in sacrifice; on which account the inhabitants of heaven likewise ‘give glory, and sing a new song, because He hath redeemed’ them ‘unto God by His blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation’ (Rev. v. 9).