"Without shedding of blood is no remission." — Hebrews 9: 22.

[James and Terry Hamilton]

This is a continuation regarding from the Video presentation here...If you missed it..then start here..and then this will fill-in the blanks for you...at least hopefully:/James

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As received:

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Mr Madewell writes:::
"Without shedding of blood is no remission." — Hebrews 9: 22.

In 1857, Rev. C.H. Spurgeon delivered an interesting sermon on this verse regarding the Shedding of Blood.

Sadly, like most Christian preachers, he makes everything out to be ALL ABOUT JESUS. Yet, within his sermon he briefly touches on something that could be used to put a decidedly more Jewish understanding on the above verse from Hebrews 9:22, especially, if one understands that one's nefesh (soul) is to be found in one's blood.


In his sermon, Rev. Spurgeon states:

"First, let me show you the blood-shedding, before I begin to dwell upon the text. Is there not a special blood-shedding meant? Yes, there was a shedding of most precious blood, to which I must forthwith refer you. I shall not tell you now of massacres and murders, nor of rivers of blood of goats and rams. There was a blood-shedding once, which did all other shedding of blood by far outvie; it was a man—a God—that shed his blood at that memorable season. Come and see it. Here is a garden dark and gloomy; the ground is crisp with the cold frost of midnight; between those gloomy olive trees I see a man, I hear him groan out his life in prayer; hearken, angels, hearken men, and wonder; it is the Saviour groaning out his soul! Come and see him. Behold his brow! O heavens! drops of blood are streaming down his face, and from his body; every pore is open, and it sweats! but not the sweat of men that toil for bread; it is the sweat of one that toils for heaven—he 'sweats great drops of blood!' That is the blood-shedding, without which there is no remission."

If Rev. Spurgeon had started and ended his sermon with these words, then ... one might well be able to reconcile this verse in Hebrew 9:22 with Judaism's understanding of the purpose and efficacy of teshuvah (repentance) and bitul (self-nullification).


In other words, one might take Hebrews 9:22 as a reference to the repentant individual literally "groaning out his soul" with such fervor that his soul's affliction is evidenced by a physical manifestation, that is to say, hematidrosis, wherein one sweats blood due to extreme levels of stress.

Turning to HaShem (teshuvah) and self-nullification (bitul) are actions that should not be approached in a casual or flippant manner. Each requires a high degree of directed focus (kavanah). In fact, by definition, self-nullification (bitul) requires one to be steadfast throughout the process.


Clearly, as demonstrated in the above video, Rev. Spurgeon is wrong in claiming that the phrase "without the shedding of blood there is no remission" is a Jewish maxim. And his error is compounded by his stating:

"Never in any time, never in any place, never in any person, can there be remission apart from shedding of blood. This great fact, I say, is stamped on nature; it is an essential law of God's moral government, it is one of the fundamental principles which can neither be shaken nor denied. Never can there be any exception to it; it stands the same in every place throughout all ages—'Without shedding of blood there is no remission.' It was so with the Jews; they had no remission without the shedding of blood. Some things under the Jewish law might be cleansed by water or by fire, but in no case where absolute sin was concerned was there ever purification without blood—teaching this doctrine, that blood, and blood alone, must be applied for the remission of sin."

I think that it's time for Christians and Messianics to get a real handle on the Tanakh and actually strive to reach a better understanding of what the purpose and efficacy was in Yeshua's martyrdom.

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Feel free to chime in...