What we are going to talk about today is the blood of Jesus. Someone may perhaps get upset and say, “Why do we have to talk about blood, of all things, right now? What kind of cannibals are these who talk about blood?” But wait a moment—stay with me to the end of the message, and you will understand that the blood of Jesus is the most precious thing in the whole universe, and that it is the price of your life. You have need of it, and if you grasp its true meaning, your whole outlook on things will change.
The Blood — The Spiritual Equivalent of Life
Right at the beginning of the Bible—in the book of Genesis, chapter three—an interesting detail is recorded about the fall of man. When he broke God’s command, he decided that he could hide and cover his sin by sewing himself clothes out of fig leaves. But we read that God made garments of skin for the man and his wife and clothed them.
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)
Why did God do this? Why did He have to kill animals and make coverings from their skins, when Adam and Eve had already made themselves clothes out of plant material? The answer to this question is not that the plants were insufficient to cover their nakedness, but that they were insufficient to cover their sin. There was one single thing that could cover that sin, and that was blood—in this case, the blood of an animal. It does not say exactly what the animal was, but in order to make clothing from its skin, God sacrificed it and shed its blood. This spiritual truth is recorded in the letter to the Hebrews—without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)
By making garments of skin for the people who had broken His command, God showed them this spiritual law—sin can be atoned for only through blood. Perhaps you will say, but why through blood, of all things? I will answer you. Sin, once it has developed, leads to death.
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:15)
Therefore, in order to neutralize it, something is needed that leads to life. And the thing that gives life is—perhaps you are already thinking of it—the blood.
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. (Leviticus 17:11)
because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, “You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.” (Leviticus 17:14)
It is the blood that circulates through the whole body and delivers the oxygen every one of its cells vitally needs. As long as our blood circulates in our body, we will be alive. By not killing the man for his sin, but killing an animal instead, God showed us the principle of redemption—that someone else pays for your sin. This can be easily explained by looking at the material world—if you have money, you can have anything. You can turn it into whatever you want—into food, clothes, a car, a house, anything else. How? Simply by going and paying for these things. You do not have those things, but if you have money—you go, you pay, and you have them. What does this money do? How can these things, which are only little pieces of paper with symbols on them, have such an extraordinary ability to be turned into anything at all? Not anymore, but at one time it was written on money that “the banknote is backed by gold.” And what is gold—it is the material equivalent of a certain amount of invested labor. So, after you work for a month and a month of your life passes, you receive a certain amount of money—this is the equivalent, or the counter-value, of your life and your labor. Things in the spiritual world stand in a similar way—only there the spiritual equivalent is the blood, in which there is a certain amount of invested life. This explains the thought of the apostle Peter, who says:
Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:17-19)
Silver and gold are not enough to redeem us from sin; the blood of animals or of human beings is likewise not enough. The one and only thing that is fully sufficient for our sins to be paid and for us to be set free from the bonds of death is the blood of Jesus. And God so loved the world, so loved you and me, that He gave this blood, so that we could be redeemed and have eternal life.
The Working of the Blood
The working of the blood is directed in three directions—toward God, toward our conscience, and toward the devil. In the first place, it has to do with God’s righteousness. God is holy and righteous, and He cannot look upon evil or have contact with sin. But when He looks at us through the blood of Jesus, He sees in us Christ’s holiness and righteousness.
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:10-14)
So we have the boldness to enter into God’s presence and free access to our Heavenly Father.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, (Hebrews 10:19)
In the second place, the blood of Jesus works upon our conscience. It is cleansed from its failed attempts to make us righteous. By receiving the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and His blood personally for ourselves, we are freed from our sense of guilt, since we are assured that all our sins are paid for and covered by the blood of Jesus.
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:14)
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)
In the third place, the blood of Jesus works against our accuser—that old slanderer, Satan. In the book of Revelation of John, he is described as the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. (Revelation 12:10)
He does nothing other than watch us, and as soon as he notices something amiss, go to God the Father to ask permission to harm us because of our mistake. But we can conquer him through the blood of Jesus.
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Revelation 12:11)
If you have taken your stand under the protection, under the shelter of the blood, Satan, together with all the powers of darkness, can only leap about around you, but he can do nothing to you. So then, if until now you have neglected the might of this blood, it is time to change and to receive it, so that you may live the new, divine life that God has for you through the blood of Jesus.
If you reject it, you will be punished for insulting the Spirit of grace.
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:26-29)
Do not insult the Spirit of grace—receive this blood, which is given for you, and live a life with God, who is your Heavenly Father. He loves you and He is waiting for you. Will you reject this change? Will you not receive it? It depends on you.