Revelation 5:8-10
8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:8-10)
There is a story told about a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same illness the boy himself had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance of getting well was a transfusion from someone who had already overcome the disease. Because the two children shared the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.
“Would you give your blood to Mary?” the doctor asked. Johnny hesitated. His chin began to tremble. Then he smiled and said, “Yes, I’ll give it, if it’s for my sister.”
Soon the two children were brought into the special hospital room where the transfusion would take place — Mary pale and weak; Johnny strong and healthy. They did not speak, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned. Yet as the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, his smile faded. He watched his blood flow through the tube.
When the ordeal was almost over, his voice, a little shaky, broke the silence. “Doctor, when will I die?” Only then did the doctor understand why Johnny had hesitated and why his chin had trembled when he agreed to the transfusion. He had thought that giving his blood to his sister meant giving her his life. In that brief moment he had made a decision that was, to him, that costly.
Thankfully, Johnny did not have to die to save his sister. Every one of us, however, is in a situation far more serious than Mary’s — a situation that requires Jesus not merely to give us some of His blood, but to give His very life for us.
THE PRECIOUSNESS OF THE BLOOD
Blood is a symbol of life. We could not live without blood. If our blood drains away, we die (Leviticus 17:14).
14 because the life of every creature is its blood. (Leviticus 17:14)
Precisely because of this value of blood, because it symbolizes life, God chose it to serve as atonement for sins (Leviticus 17:11).
11 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)
Blood is a spiritual equivalent. Just as gold is the economic equivalent of a certain amount of invested labor or the cost of some product, so blood is a spiritual equivalent that can redeem sin. In 1 Peter 1:18-19 the apostle Peter says:
18 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, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19)
The only thing that can redeem us from sin is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He is God’s spotless Lamb, who shed His blood for the atonement of our sins.
THE CRY OF THE BLOOD
What we see in the Bible is that human blood shed on the earth “cries out” to God. Innocent human blood that is spilled calls on God for retribution.
Genesis 4:1-15 tells of the first fratricide. Adam and Eve had two sons, one named Cain and the other Abel. Abel became a keeper of livestock, raising animals. Cain became a farmer, working the ground.
When the time came to bring an offering to the Lord, Cain decided to bring fruits and vegetables. Abel also brought an offering — the best lamb of his flock. The Lord received Abel’s offering with favor, but He was not pleased with Cain. We do not know why, except that Hebrews 11:4 tells us that Abel brought his offering by faith:
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. (Hebrews 11:4)
When Cain saw that his offering was not accepted by God, he grew angry and downcast. Then God said to him: “Cain, why are you angry? If you simply do what is right, you will be accepted and glad. But if not, you are sinning. Sin is lying in wait for you. It has crouched at the door like a predator, ready at any moment to spring on you and become your master. Instead, you must be the one who has mastery over it.”
A few days later Cain and Abel were out in the field, talking about the situation that had arisen. Cain was provoked; he turned, attacked his brother, and in his anger killed him.
Later that same day God asked Cain, “Where is your brother?” Cain snapped back at Him: “How should I know? Am I supposed to watch over him all the time?” God answered: “Cain, what have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! Oh, you have loved this soil, but from now on it will be cursed, because it is soaked with your brother’s blood. You will go on working it, but it will no longer be so generous to you or yield its best to you. So you will become an aimlessly wandering vagrant.”
Hearing his sentence, Cain fell to the ground before the Lord and said: “O God, my punishment is too harsh. I will be cut off both from the land and from Your presence! I will be a wanderer, sent into exile. In the end someone will kill me!”
So God placed a mark on Cain and said: “Anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over!”
Between Abel and Jesus Christ there are some striking similarities and differences.
- Both were innocent;
- Both were victims of the actions of evil men;
- Both gave God the best of themselves — service and obedience;
- At the death of each, righteous blood was shed;
- The blood of each carried its own testimony;
Abel was the first pointedly tragic victim of sin’s entrance into God’s perfect creation. His blood cried out to God from the ground (Genesis 4:10). What did it cry for? It cried for retribution, it cried for justice, it cried for judgment.
And there is another blood that was shed — the blood of Jesus. This blood, however, does not cry for repayment; it calls on God for mercy. The author of the letter to the Hebrews says that we have not come to Mount Sinai, which is a symbol of the Old Covenant, but to Mount Zion, a symbol of the church, and “to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:24)
24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:24)
What does the blood of Jesus say? It speaks of peace, it speaks of forgiveness, it speaks of freedom. It tells us that the way into God’s presence is open for us.
THE SHEDDING OF CHRIST’S BLOOD
Offering Himself as a sacrifice for us, Jesus shed His blood so many times. First, while He was in Gethsemane and prayed, such a fierce inner struggle was waged in Him that His sweat turned to blood. Luke 22:41-44 says:
41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22:41-44)
Those “drops of blood” reveal to us the pain that Jesus felt. He was fully aware of the enormous responsibility He had taken up. Why did His sweat turn to blood? Was it out of fear of death? No! Out of the betrayal? No! Out of the sufferings He was about to endure? No! His sweat turned to blood because Jesus knew that He had to bear the sin of the world. There is nothing more repulsive than this. Nothing more degrading, nothing filthier than the sin that was about to be laid upon His shoulders.
After Jesus was seized and condemned to death by the Sanhedrin, the contempt for Him was expressed with spitting, humiliation, and a beating inflicted on Him by the temple guard. In Mark 14:65 we read:
65 Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him. (Mark 14:65)
The next morning Jesus was flogged by the Roman soldiers at Pilate’s command (John 19:1-3):
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face. (John 19:1-3)
The Jews had a law that no one should be beaten with more than 40 lashes. But the Romans had no such law. So they often flogged those condemned to death. Given their hatred of the Jews and the fact that they surely wanted to shorten the time they would have to stand guard at the cross, they were probably as brutal with Jesus as they could possibly be.
The whip the Roman soldiers used had a short wooden handle to which several leather thongs were tied. Each one ended in sharp pieces of lead or bone. The one being flogged was bound to a post. Often the punishment was carried out by two soldiers — one on each side. They struck their blows one after another. Muscles were torn, veins and arteries ripped open. Sometimes to such a degree that even some of the internal organs could be seen. In many cases not only was the skin of the back torn open, but teeth were knocked out and the face and chest were savagely bloodied. As might be expected, many people died during the flogging itself, before they were even led out to the execution.
Under this beating, Jesus’ back became one enormous wound (Psalm 129:3). Later the apostle Peter wrote the following about Jesus (1 Peter 2:24):
24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
Through this flogging Jesus paid for our ultimate healing. Every trauma, pain, wound, and illness of ours will be healed forever when we receive our resurrected bodies. But even now God heals the sick. If you are sick, weak, or frail, this blood is for you!
After all this beating, Jesus was made to carry His own cross, but because after only a few dozen meters He simply collapsed under its weight, the soldiers forced Simon of Cyrene to carry it (Mark 15:20-21).
20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. 21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. (Mark 15:20-21)
There, on Golgotha, at the place called “the Place of a Skull” or “the hill of the skull,” Jesus was laid on the cross. His hands and feet were nailed to the wood, and He was hung up to suffer until He breathed His last. For three agonizing hours the blood from His head, from His back, from His hands, and from His feet ran down the cross and fell to the ground. Finally, after Jesus died, to make sure that He was indeed dead, one of the soldiers pierced Him in the side (John 19:34). Jesus’ body was crushed, His blood drained away. Why? For you and for me, so that we might have access to the throne of God.
THIS BLOOD IS FOR YOU
In one of his songs, called “This Blood Is for You,” Carman describes in an artistic way what happened. In vivid detail the song portrays how Jesus’ hands were bound and a soldier tore His back with a heavy, lead-tipped whip while onlookers laughed; how His skin was ripped open and His blood flowed with every blow; how, though He kept falling and could scarcely bear it, He lifted His head and spoke words that froze the soldiers with fear — “This blood is for you.” It goes on to depict how they laid the cross on Him, how His holy blood dripped into the dust, and how, too weak from the loss of blood to carry it, He sank to His knees and His blood fell on Simon’s feet — and when Simon sought to hide it, he heard a voice: “Simon, this blood is for you.” The song then pictures the nailing of His hands and feet, the body wracked with pain, and sufferings no one had ever seen, which He had to endure alone on the cross at Golgotha. Out of a love no mind could contain, He lifted His head, fixed His gaze on the grey sky, and cried, “Father, forgive them! They do not know what they are doing!” And as He gave up His life for those who were dead in sin, He said, “People, this blood is for you.” The song closes by declaring that this blood removes sin, cleanses the heart, gives us access to the throne of the Father, and takes away all enmity — this blood is for you: the blood of Jesus.
THE BLOOD OF JESUS IN OUR DAILY LIFE
The blood of Jesus is for us. But how do we apply its power in our lives? By accepting that it was shed for us, by believing in its power, by remembering it every day.
The blood of Jesus frees us from our sins. In Revelation 1:5-6 the apostle John says:
5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. (Revelation 1:5-6)
There is a story about how the devil once came to Martin Luther to torment and harass him with feelings of guilt and condemnation. He reminded him of various sins. Luther sat down and began to write them out. Quite a long list came together. When he had finished, Luther asked Satan: “Is there any other sin you can think of?” The devil answered: “No.” Then Luther drew a line and wrote “1 John 1:7”:
7 the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
Seeing this, the adversary turned and never came again to harass Luther about this matter. In Revelation 12:7-11 it says:
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10 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. 11 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 12:7-11)
You too can overcome Satan “by the blood of the Lamb.” Speak of the blood of Jesus in your prayer — there, where the whole invisible spiritual world, with all its powers of light and darkness, is listening to you. Boldly confess:
- Through the blood of Jesus all my sins are forgiven!
- Through the blood of Jesus I am freed from the slavery of Satan!
- As I walk in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses me now and continually from all sin!
- Through the blood of Jesus I am justified and declared righteous by God — as though I had never sinned!
- Through the blood of Jesus I am sanctified and set apart for God!
- Through the blood of Jesus I have boldness and confidence to enter God’s presence and to worship Him!