The Trail Of Blood
No one can read the word of God, and study God's plan for the redemption of the human race, without being impressed with the fact that blood has occupied a most important place in that scheme. In the very beginning of man's existence on the earth, God required an animal sacrifice, a lamb. "By faith" Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than did Cain. Abel's offering was accepted; Cain's was rejected. Abel brought his offering "by faith"; Cain brought his without faith. The contrast here between the sacrifices of these two men is a contrast between faith and the lack of faith. But "faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Abel's sacrifice was a sacrifice "by faith" simply because it was the kind of sacrifice God had ordained, and that his word had required. Cain's sacrifice was not "by faith" because it was not the kind of sacrifice God had instructed him to offer.
The kind of sacrifice God required, and which Abel offered, was a lamb — a lamb without spot or blemish, as we find later required by the law. This lamb was slain as a type of the Lamb of God who later was to be manifested and sacrificed for the sins of the world. Thus, from the very beginning, God required a sacrifice of blood; he would not accept a bloodless sacrifice such as Cain offered. While a sheaf from the field might later come to be accepted under certain circumstances, it was God's desire and will now, at the very first, to set forth the importance of a sacrifice of blood. He would accept no other kind. Abel was accepted; Cain was not. And the difference was that one did what God told him to; the other did not.
We may follow the trail of blood right on down through all the pages of the Old Testament, and it is never absent. Over and over a lamb had to be offered in order that God's requirements might be met. Bleeding victims were sacrificed in order that blood might be given in part, and emphasis placed upon it. Thus the world was kept, by the power of blood, through all the long centuries before Christ; the shadows of the old law, and the old covenant, and the Old Testament religions, all looked forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who would die for the sins of the whole world.
When God reached down into Egypt by the leadership of Moses to bring his children out of bondage, it was by the shedding of blood that the firstborn of Israel were saved from destruction. The story is one familiar to all of us. It was by the sprinkling of the blood on the door-posts and upon the lintel that the sign was given. And when the angel of death that night passed over the land of Egypt, he stopped in no house where he saw the sign of blood. If the blood had not been applied, in keeping with God's requirements, then the angel of death did stop, and the life of the eldest child was forfeited. This was the final consummating proof God gave to Pharaoh and the Egyptians that God's people were to be released and delivered from their bondage.
Many centuries later the Apostle Paul alluded to the fact that Christ is our "passover" (1 Corinthians, chapter 5), and that we ought to keep Him as our passover with the unleavened cake of sincerity and truth. Jesus Christ is our passover lamb, and when the blood of the Lord Jesus is applied to our hearts, as the blood of that first lamb was sprinkled upon the door-posts back there in Egypt, God does indeed pass over our sins, forgives, forgets, and remembers them against us no more forever. Paul speaks of this again (Hebrews 10) when he tells us that by the sprinkling of the blood upon our hearts, and the washing of our bodies with pure water, we are enabled to draw nigh to God, "having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." It is the blood of Christ applied to the heart of the sinner which causes God to pass over our sins; and we sing of that sublime promise and hope in the language of the familiar song, "When I see the Blood, I will pass, I will pass over you."
But if we follow the trail of blood on down through the Old Testament, we will see that when God brought Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness, they came after fifty days travel to the foot of Mt. Sinai. It was there the law was given through Moses, and God ordained there that upon the same day in every ensuing year, (the day on which the passover occurred in Egypt), they were to keep again the feast of the passover. It was to be a perpetual memorial "throughout your generations." It was to be observed on the same day of the same month each year; and was to have as its central theme the slaying of the passover lamb. This was a type or shadow of the Lamb of God who was one day to be slain for the sins of all mankind. Year after year, as the sacrifices were offered, and as blood was shed, the importance of blood was emphasized upon the minds and hearts of God's people.
Without the shedding of blood there could be no peaceful relationship with God; there could be no hope of salvation. The blood of animals, offered for the sins of the people, all pointed forward to the blood of Christ, which was to be poured out for all the people. God required that everything should be sanctified by blood.
How foolish then the man today who attempts to please God, and thinks he can have forgiveness of sins and hope of eternal salvation apart from the blood of Christ! He is following a vain and foolish fancy. It is only by blood — Christ's blood — that guilt can be removed. And it is only by baptism into Christ, into his death, that the benefits of his shed blood can be had.
— Roy E. Cogdill