The Blood of Christ
Welcome back, my awesome Bessies!
What makes the blood of Christ efficacious? Why did Jesus have to die on the cross to shed His blood to save humanity? Read along as I attempt to answer these questions.
Blood is the fluid of life and is usually required in sacrifices, especially for sins. It is the “nephesh” (the soul of life). Leviticus 17:11 says “For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement. ” This statement by God explains why eating blood was prohibited and why blood sacrifices of the Old Testament ritual had a substitutionary significance, hence indispensable to atonement. [1] According to John Stott, there are three important affirmations about blood in this text.
The Blood of Christ as a symbol of life
First, blood is the symbol of life. This understanding that ‘blood is life’ seems to be very ancient. It goes back at least to Noah, whom God forbade to eat meat which had its lifeblood still in it (Genesis 9:4), and was later repeated in the formula “the blood is the life” (Deut. 12:23). The emphasis, however, was not on blood flowing in the veins, the symbol of life being lived, but on blood shed, the symbol of life ended, usually by violent means.
Secondly, blood makes atonement, and the reason for its atoning significance is given in the repetition of the word “life”. It is only because “the life of a creature is in the blood” that ‘it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. One life is forfeit; another life is sacrificed instead. What makes atonement on the altar is the shedding of substitutionary lifeblood. T. J. Crawford expressed it well: “The text, then, according to its plain and obvious import, teaches the vicarious nature of the rite of sacrifice. Life was given for life, the life of the victim for the life of the offerer”, indeed “the life of the innocent victim for the life of the sinful offerer”.
Blood is for atonement
Thirdly, blood was given by God for this atoning purpose. “I have given it to you”, He says, “to make atonement for yourselves on the altar.” So we are to think of the sacrificial system as God-given, not man-made, and of the individual sacrifices not as a human device to placate God but as a means of atonement provided by God himself [1].
The Old Testament sets the stage for us to understand two crucial texts in the letter to the Hebrews. The first is that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22), and the second is that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).
No forgiveness without blood meant no atonement without substitution. There had to be life for life or blood for blood. But the Old Testament blood sacrifices were only shadows; the substance. was Christ. For a substitute to be effective, it must be an appropriate equivalent. Animal sacrifices could not atone for human beings, because a human being is “much more valuable than a sheep'” as Jesus himself said in (Mt, 12:12). Only “the precious blood of Christ” was valuable enough (1 Pet. 1:19).
Jesus is His Blood
Whatever Jesus is, His blood is. This is what makes the blood of Jesus power. It was required that the animal that was used for sacrifice must be clean. Blood that has the power to cleanse must come from a clean source, and the blood of Jesus has no equivalence because He is holy. And therefore, His blood is holy and cannot be compared to any other.
It is the blood of Jesus that brought us forgiveness of sin and brought us near to God. Romans 5:9 reads “Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by His blood, will we be saved through Him from the wrath of God”. Every bondage and oppression terminates in the blood. The blood of the Passover lamb in the Old Testament was a shadow of the blood of Jesus in the New Testament. When Moses employed the blood of the Passover lamb, he never again said to Pharaoh, “God says let my people God.”
The Passover Lamb
The key to Israel’s sacrificial system was the Passover in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-30). God commanded each Hebrew household to slay an unblemished yearling lamb or goat at twilight and to apply the blood of the victim to the door frame. For the Israelites who obeyed God’s instructions, the sprinkled blood secured exemption from the divine judgment. But in the case of the unbelieving Egyptians who were not sheltered by the blood, the Lord struck dead all their firstborn human beings and animals. This atoning sacrifice resulted in Israel’s deliverance from the land of bondage (Exodus 14). We may say that the blood of the Passover sacrifice had a certain atoning power and anticipated the blood of the Lamb shed on Calvary that would remove sins and avert the divine wrath [2].
The Judge and the Saviour are the same person
The New Testament, however, identifies the death of Christ as the fulfilment of the Passover. In John 1:29, John the Baptist hailed Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. Also, according to John’s chronology of the end, Jesus was hanging on the cross at the precise time when the Passover lambs were being slaughtered (John 13:1; 18:28; 19:14, 31).
The Passover story (Ex. 11 – 13) is a self-disclosure of the God of Israel in three roles. First, Yahweh revealed himself as the Judge. Secondly, Yahweh revealed himself as the Redeemer. Thirdly, Yahweh revealed himself as Israel’s covenant God. He had redeemed them to make them His own people. The message must have been absolutely clear to the Israelites; it is equally clear to us who see the fulfilment of the Passover in the sacrifice of Christ. First, the Judge and the Saviour are the same person. It was the God who “passed through” Egypt to judge the firstborn, who “passed over” Israelite homes to protect them. We must never characterise the Father as Judge and the Son as Saviour.
Through the Blood of Christ, God saved us from Himself
It is one and the same God who through Christ saves us from Himself. Secondly, salvation was (and is) by substitution. The only firstborn males who were spared were those in whose families a firstborn lamb had died instead. Thirdly, the lamb’s blood had to be sprinkled after it had been shed. There had to be an individual appropriation of the divine provision. God had to ‘see the blood’ before he would save the family. Fourthly, each family rescued by God was thereby purchased for God. Their whole life now belonged to Him. So does ours. And consecration leads to celebration. The life of the redeemed is a feast, ritually expressed in Communion, the Christian festival of thanksgiving.
The blood of Jesus is what terminates every oppression and enforces our complete emancipation. It is the trump card for the righteous. It is the last straw that breaks the back of every camel. In Revelation 5:9, John saw a vision and “in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals; ” but no one was worthy to open the scroll or look into it.
Do not weep
John began to weep but one of the elders said to him “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.” John says he saw the Lamb who was slaughtered and that “ He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. ” Afterwards, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb and began to sing. “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God, saints from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelations 5:9). It is evident here that what warranted the lamb to take the scroll was the fact that He died and by His blood purchased humanity for God.
Conclusion
The blood of Christ is an essential element for the salvation of humanity. There was not other way for God to reconcile humanity back to Himself than the death of a human being without sin. This was because human beings had sinned, and human beings needed to die. The blood of animals used in sacrifices in the Old Testament was just a temporary fix. If Jesus was going to accomplish the work that the Father sent Him to do, and if people were going to be redeemed for God, then it was necessary for Him to die on the cross and shed His blood. The author of Hebrews also argues that since “it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” (Heb.10:4), a better sacrifice is required (Heb. 9:23). Only the blood of Christ, that is, His death, would be able really to take away sins (Heb. 9:25–26). There was no other way for God to save us than for Christ to die in our place [3].
References
[1] John, R. W. Stott. The Cross of Christ. Downers Grove, Iuinois: Intervarsity Press, 1986.
[2] Bruce, The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation, 168-169
[3] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. ( Michigan: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1994), 582
Post a comment: