Exodus 12:29-"And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle." (There was no exception—every house was filled with lamentation except where the blood-mark was over and beside the door. The angel passed over that house, smiting none there, and we are expressly told that it was God's sight of the sprinkled blood by which the firstborn in Israel were preserved from destruction. This is the main type of Christ's atonement. Christ Jesus died as the substitute for all who believe in him, and God righteously withholds punishment for their sin because Christ bore it. How could he twice demand payment of sin's debt, first at the bleeding substitute's hand and then again at the hand of those for whom he stood? Christ is the substitute for all his elect. His elect are all those who believe in him, and by this sign we may know them; they are sheltering beneath his sprinkled blood, he passes over them. So let each one of us ask himself, "Am I hiding behind the blood of Jesus? Is my confidence entirely fixed in the great reconciliation and propitiation Christ has made? If so, I will live; no destroyer can ever strike me. God himself must pass over me in the day of judgment, and I will be ( "accepted in the beloved.")

~ Charles H. Spurgeon