One of my favorite worship songs is titled “The Blood.” The chorus says, “Hallelujah. I know it was the blood, could have only been the blood.” As I read these verses in Ephesians, this song began to repeat in my mind.
I am in awe of the sacrifice and abuse that Jesus endured for me and for you. It’s beyond my comprehension that the God of the universe took on flesh and chose to die a sinner’s brutal death in order to reconcile us to Himself.
Our finite minds can’t fully understand the scope of this lavish grace. As humans we are limited, selfish, and foolish. Like sheep, we easily forget all that God has done for us. Oftentimes it takes dramatic circumstances in order for us to begin to understand and turn to the will and plans of God.
Perhaps that’s one reason something as significant as our eternal salvation came through something as shocking as a crucifixion. Because, to be honest, the fact that our redemption came through the blood of Jesus feels a bit gory to me.
The movie “The Passion of the Christ” depicts the gruesome, inhuman, and savage historical accuracies of all that Jesus endured. It’s difficult to watch, to say the least. But it’s true.
The Power of Atonement
Jesus’s death was the only way to salvation. Why? Why did it have to be by the blood of Christ? What is the significance of the blood? Leviticus 17:11 tells us that ” for the life of every living thing is in the blood…for the blood that makes atonement by means of the life.”
The first act of atonement occured in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and they quickly realized they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness. What they were actually doing was attempting to cover their sin.
God stepped in and made garments of skin to clothe them. Have you ever thought about the fact that a garment of skin would have had to come from an animal? In order to use the skin, an animal would have had to die. Blood would have been shed to cover the sins of Adam and Eve.
Even back then, it was about the shedding of blood to atone for sin.
Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, the shedding of blood to atone for the sins of the Israelites was, well, quite prolific. Day after day, year after year, the Temple sacrifices involved the killing, cutting up, and burning of thousands upon thousands of bulls, sheep, goats, doves, and pigeons.
Blood was on and around the altar, the horns, the Mercy Seat, the doorpost, before the veil, sprinkled on the curtains, and even on certain body parts of the priests. Can you imagine what that must have looked like? It was a very visual reminder of the seriousness of our sin. It showed humanity that every sin must be accounted for. Every sin must be covered by the blood of a perfect sacrifice.
The Power of the New Covenant
Yet these sacrifices would only cover sins temporarily. They were a foreshadowing of what Christ would do once and for all on the cross. So when Jesus arrived at the “administration of the fullness of the times”, He came as the mediator of the New Covenant.
The Old Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, created the sacrificial system. The New Covenant was ushered in by the blood of Jesus. It promises that our sins will be fully forgiven. We will know the law of God in our hearts. We will be given hearts of flesh rather than stone, and the Holy Spirit will guide us in all truth (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:26-27).
The Power of Reconciliation
The book of Hebrews says that “a will takes effect only at death, since it carries no force while the one who made it is alive” (9:17). When God made a covenant with Abraham, He established a will with humanity. That will could only take effect upon the death of the establisher of the will. But the establisher of the will was God Himself.
He knew all along that in order for us to be reconciled to Him to eternal salvation, He would have to sacrifice Himself. So He sent Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ, taking on human flesh and shedding His holy blood.
God did for us what we could never do for ourselves. He atoned for our sins and made a way back to Him. He made us sons and daughters of the King of Kings, heirs to the great riches of our Father in heaven.
It’s in these truths that the blood of Christ has atoned for our sins so that we can be reconciled to God and live in a way that honors Him that we find purpose and life. May we never grow tired of the blood of Christ.
