the Jews felt relieved
that they had now, as they thought, put their enemy out of sight. But
on the morning of the third day after this some women came to the tomb
to anoint the body of Jesus, and, behold! it was not there; but a
bright and shining angel of glory was there, who said to those good
women: "He is not here; he is risen from the dead." They could hardly
believe for joy. Soon, however, they, with many others, saw the risen
Lord for themselves, with their own eyes, and never doubted any more.

All that I have said so far is intended as an introduction to my text.
My text says: "We were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ."
The Lord told his disciples, who were his loving friends, the reason
why he suffered the Jews to put him to death. It was, he told them,
that all the things written in the law of Moses and the prophets and
the psalms concerning him might be fulfilled. He also said to two of
them as they journeyed to Emmaus: "Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into his glory?" The blood he shed on the
cross was necessary to his glorification. Without it he could not have
been glorified. The blood of Christ is called the blood of the
covenant. Now what is a covenant? A covenant is a union of one mind
and heart with another. It is literally _a going together_, as a man
and woman join heart and hand in the _covenant_ of marriage. When God
and man enter into a covenant they unite and become as one. In this
union God loves man with unspeakable love, and man loves the Lord his
God with all his heart. Love is what unites. Love unites a husband and
wife. When this union is perfect, what the one loves the other
likewise loves; and when we are in covenant union with our glorified
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, what he loves we love, and what he hates
we also hate. As man enters into a covenant with the Lord he enters a
state of salvation from sin, death and hell. But all covenants between
God and men must be sealed or made with blood: and whereas a covenant
with the Lord Jesus Christ redeems and saves man from death and hell,
therefore the blood of Christ redeems and saves man because it is the
blood of the covenant between him and God.

But let us carry this thought a little further. Jesus said to the
Jews, "Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man,
ye have no life in you." By blood here the Lord does not mean natural
blood: he means the blood of the covenant by w