Blood is just as essential to spiritual life as it is to physical life. The blood of Jesus is atoning blood.
Two months ago I was in the emergency room suffering from what I later learned was a kidney stone. One of the first things the doctor did was order blood work. The phlebotomist wrapped an elastic cord around my arm and stuck a needle in my vein.
I looked away. I always look at the wall on the other side of the room when phlebotomists draw my blood. I don’t like to see that mysterious red liquid being taken from my body. I’ve never gotten lightheaded or fainted at the sight, but it’s disturbing, so I look the other way.
Anyone’s blood is disturbing to look at. War movies with blood splattering everywhere? No thank you.
A few years ago I saw a National Geographic photo of a room where animals were slain for religious sacrifice in India. A puddle of blood covered the floor.
The photo was shocking to me because I have grown up in the West. I have never witnessed animal sacrifice. Educated Americans generally regard it as a mark of primitive religion and superstition. Blood is even used in occult practices.
Atoning blood
Yet, at the center of the Christian gospel is the importance of blood. Not that we shed the blood of animals or humans today. But the gospel speaks of the importance of the blood of the Son of God shed 2,000 years ago on the cross.
One New Testament verse that summarizes the message of the gospel says: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25, NIV).
What sophisticated Westerners today regard as primitive is actually a necessary element of how God redeemed sinful mankind. But it’s still disturbing. In fact over the last century, liberal “Christian” denominations expunged blood from hymns and polite preaching. But you cannot remove blood from its prominent place in the Bible without rewriting it.
Why?
Why at the Last Supper did Jesus call attention to his blood when he announced the enactment of a New Covenant with God?
“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20, ESV).
Why was Jesus willing to offend and lose dozens of disciples with a similar statement at an earlier time?
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (John 6:66).
Why?
Why did the apostle John call special attention to the blood that flowed from the side of Jesus when pierced by the spear of the Roman soldier?
“So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe” (John 19:32–35).
Why?
Why does the Christian church today regularly practice the ordinance/sacrament of Communion with the symbolic drinking of the blood of Jesus at the center of the ritual?
“As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:26–27).
Why?
Why did Jesus need his shed blood to enter the true temple in heaven itself as our high priest?
“When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11–12).
Why?
Why, when Jesus appears in glory in the sky at his Second Coming, will he be wearing a bloody robe?
“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God” (Revelation 19:11–13).
Why?
Why do Christians need the blood of Jesus in order to defeat Satan?
“They have conquered him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11).
Why?
Why is Jesus’ blood necessary for healing?
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
Why?
Why does blood make peace between God and sinners?
God was pleased “through him [Christ] to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20).
Why?
Why does the eternal covenant that Christians have with God depend on blood?
“May the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant…” (Hebrews 13:20).
Why?
Why is the blood of Jesus one of the three great witnesses given by God himself to mankind?
“This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son” (1 John 5:6–9).
Why? Why? Why?
Why did Old Testament law forbid eating blood? (Leviticus 17:12)
Why for the original Passover did God tell the Jews in Egypt to smear blood on the door posts and lintels of their homes on the night the death angel would pass through the land? (Exodus 12:7, 22–23)
Why at Mt. Sinai when Moses established the Old Covenant between God and Israel did he fling basins of blood over the gathered people? (Exodus 24:5–8)
Why on the holiest day in Israel’s annual calendar, the Day of Atonement, in the holiest moment of the ritual, did the high priest sprinkle blood seven times on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle/temple? (Leviticus 16:14)
Why did Abel’s blood, shed in murder by Cain, cry out to God from the ground? (Genesis 4:10)
Because
Because blood is more than its natural elements, more than proteins, more than white and red blood cells, more than hemoglobin.
Blood is life. “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Leviticus 17:11).
Blood is spiritual.
The blood of Jesus is necessary for the salvation of sinners, for it satisfies the demands of God’s holy justice and transforms his righteous wrath into favor. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22).
Therefore blood is sacred. It is just as essential to spiritual life as it is to physical life. No medical doctor treats human blood as too primitive for attention or as something to do away with.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: Westerners want salvation without the cross, without messy, disturbing, atoning blood.
God’s way: Blood is important. Blood is central to all life and salvation. It is central to the gospel. If you don’t understand the sacredness of blood in God’s sight, you don’t understand God’s ways with mankind.
Life principle: Put faith in the blood of Jesus. When you wonder whether God will forgive some great sinful failure, when you wonder whether God will heal your disease, when you wonder why God would accept you and welcome you gladly into his heavenly presence, put your hope and confidence in the atoning blood of the Son of God.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)