The Blood Of Christ
"And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself..."
In this article we are striving to place emphasis upon the importance of the blood of Christ in the scheme of human redemption. In the text just quoted, we learn that it is by the blood of Christ that men are reconciled to God. Inasmuch as that is a truth, a study on the subject of blood should prove beneficial. Now let us consider:
1. God's scheme of redemption has ever been one of blood. In Genesis 4:4, we learn that the sacrifice Abel offered, and which God readily received, was a blood sacrifice. Cain's was rejected because it was not according to God's command that an animal be offered. When Moses led Israel from Egyptian bondage, the blood was used in their deliverance. God commanded that blood be placed on the doorposts that the angel might spare the first sons among faithful Israel. In Leviticus alone, blood is commanded more than seventy five times. So important, indeed was blood during the Jewish age, that no sin was to be "rolled forward" until blood was shed in the sacrifice offered. Commenting upon such, the Hebrew writer writes, "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission." (Heb. 9:2) However, those who appropriated the blood of animals were only "ceremonially" clean. (cf. Heb. 10:4) Only Christ's blood availeth now. (Heb. 9:6-16) To fail to appropriate the blood of Christ is to curse it and die without hope. The Hebrew writer astonishes us by suggesting the horrible punishment awaiting those who "count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing..." (Heb. 10:28, 29)
2. What the blood of Christ means to man. "The blood is the life thereof." So Christ has given his life that we might live with the redeemed. It becomes, then, the purchase price of man's salvation. Says Paul, "...for you are not your own, but are bought with a price." (1 Cor. 6: 19, 20) Paul said again, Acts 20:28, that the blood of Christ was the purchase price of the church. John tells us, 1 John 2:2, that Christ is the propitiation for our sins—satisfactory covering. God provided covering for Adam and Eve. This covering cost the life of an animal. In order to properly atone for our sins, Jesus died. In Col. 1:14 and 1 Peter 1:18, 20, we learn that "...the blood of Christ his son cleanses us from all sins." Hence, we see in the above what the blood of Christ means in the redemption of mankind.
3. How man may come in contact with, and appropriate the blood of Christ. First of all, the blood of Christ was shed in his death. Therefore, I cannot come in contact with that blood unless I contact the death. The only way one can do so is by Christian baptism. Paul tells us that as many of us as are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death. (Rom. 6:3) Since there is no other way, and indeed that is true, to contact the blood of Christ it becomes most foolish and fatal, indeed, to minimize the importance of Christian baptism. Gospel preachers do not teach that atonement for sin is in the water nor as for that matter, in the act of baptism. Rather, we know it is not. We teach, as does the Bible, that the atoning power is in the blood. Knowing that there is no other way to come in contact with that blood, we continue to preach the necessity of baptism. Peter said that; "baptism also now saves us." However, he is careful to explain that there is no BODILY washing not even SOUL cleansing in the water. He simply says that it is "in answer of a good conscience toward God."
May we insist that you study the subject of blood in man's redemption and that you soon appropriate that blood—that its cleansing power may lift from your soul the taint left by sin.
Jesus said, "For this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matt. 26:28)