Doctrine
"...the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
1 John 1:7
The old hymns are full of it. The Bible, from beginning to end, is stained with it. There is a fountain filled with it, and the saints of God have always gloried in it — the blood. To the modern ear it may sound strange, even offensive, that so much should hinge upon blood. Yet here is a truth that reaches to the very foundation of our salvation: without the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no forgiveness, no redemption, no heaven. Let us see why the blood is so precious, and so necessary.
Follow the Bible from its first pages and you will find a scarlet thread running through it all. When Adam and Eve sinned, God clothed them with the skins of slain beasts — the first death, that the guilty might be covered. Abel brought a lamb, and was accepted. In Egypt, Israel was spared by the blood of the Passover lamb struck upon the doorposts. At Sinai, the whole tabernacle service ran red with the blood of countless sacrifices. Every drop was pointing forward, like a finger, to one great sacrifice yet to come. And the lesson of it all was fixed and unchanging:
"...without shedding of blood is no remission." (Hebrews 9:22)
No blood, no forgiveness. That was true in Eden, true at the Passover, true at the altar — and it is true today. The whole river of sacrifice in the Old Testament was crying out for the one sacrifice that could truly take sin away.
Why should God require blood at all? The answer is given plainly: because life itself is in the blood, and it is a life poured out in death that atones for sin.
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." (Leviticus 17:11)
Sin earns death — the forfeiting of life. So for a sinner to be spared, a life must be given in his place, and the shed blood is the proof and evidence that a life was laid down in death. The wage of sin is death, and only a death could ever answer it.
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)
The blood of bulls and goats could picture this, but it could never truly accomplish it. An animal is not the equal of a man, and rivers of animal blood could not wash one human sin away. A greater blood was needed — the blood of a spotless substitute of infinite worth.
That greater blood was found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible calls it precious — for no earthly treasure could purchase what it purchased, and no created thing could match its worth.
"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Peter 1:18-19)
Why is it so precious? Because of whose blood it is. It is the blood of God's own Son — so that the Bible can say, with holy boldness, that God purchased the church with His own blood.
"...the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." (Acts 20:28)
Here is the wonder: the blood shed at Calvary was the blood of One who is very God, and therefore of infinite, measureless value — enough to pay for the sins of the whole world.
The word "redemption" means to buy back, to ransom, to set free by the payment of a price. We were slaves to sin, held under its guilt and its power, unable to free ourselves. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the ransom to set us free — and the price He paid was His own blood.
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." (Ephesians 1:7)
The redeemed in heaven sing of it forever — not of their own goodness, but of the blood that bought them out of every nation under heaven.
"...for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." (Revelation 5:9)
To be justified is to be declared righteous before God — as though we had never sinned. And the ground of that justification is the blood of Christ. Having been justified by His blood, the believer is saved from the wrath to come.
"Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." (Romans 5:9)
The wrath of God against sin is real, and it is coming; but the one who is under the blood of Christ shall never face it, for his sin has already been judged in his Substitute.
By nature we were far from God, strangers and enemies through sin. But the blood of the cross has made peace, reconciling us to God and bringing us near to Him who was once so far away.
"And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself." (Colossians 1:20)
"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." (Ephesians 2:13)
What sin drove apart, the blood has brought together. The far-off sinner is made nigh — not by his own climbing up to God, but by the blood that reaches down to him.
The blood of Christ does not merely cover sin; it cleanses it away. The guilty conscience, stained and defiled, is washed and made clean by that precious blood.
"...and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)
Mark the word: all sin. Not some sins, not the small ones only, but all — every sin of the past, the present, and the future, washed away in the blood of the Lamb.
"...unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." (Revelation 1:5)
It reaches even to the conscience, purging the inward man so that the believer may serve God freely, no longer crushed by the guilt of dead works.
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:14)
Under the old covenant, only the high priest could enter the holiest place, and only once a year, and never without blood. But when the Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood, the veil was torn, and now every believer may draw near to God with boldness — because of the blood.
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." (Hebrews 10:19)
The blood that once kept sinners at a distance now brings them boldly into the very presence of God.
The blood of Christ has a voice. The blood of Abel, murdered by his brother, cried out from the ground for justice; but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ speaks better things — it cries out for mercy, pardon, and peace for all who trust in Him.
"And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." (Hebrews 12:24)
And it is by that same blood that the people of God overcome the accuser of the brethren, who can bring no charge that the blood has not already answered.
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." (Revelation 12:11)
On the night before He died, the Lord Jesus Christ took the cup and gave it to His disciples, and told them what His blood would do. It would seal a new covenant between God and man, and secure the remission — the sending away — of sins.
"For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matthew 26:28)
The old covenant was ratified with the blood of animals, offered again and again, year after year, because it could never finish the work. But the Lord Jesus Christ entered the true holy place by His own blood, once for all, and obtained not a temporary covering but an eternal redemption.
"Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." (Hebrews 9:12)
Once for all — it need never be repeated, for it can never be improved. The redemption He obtained is eternal, and the covenant sealed in His blood can never be broken.
On the night of the Passover, God's word to Israel was simple and searching. It was not enough that a lamb had died; the blood had to be applied — struck upon the doorposts of each house — and God's promise was tied to the blood alone.
"...and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you." (Exodus 12:13)
Notice: "when I see the blood." Not your goodness, not your religion, not your best efforts — the blood. And so the question for your soul is not whether you are sincere, or moral, or religious, but this: are you under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Has the precious blood been applied to your heart by faith? For only the blood can shelter you in the day of judgment.
Come, then, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust the blood He shed for you, and every stain of your sin shall be washed away forever, and you shall be redeemed, justified, cleansed, brought nigh, and made safe under the blood that can never lose its power.
"...ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."1 Peter 1:18-19