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We live in gospel light; the wondrous death is no more veiled in mystic types.

We gaze with open vision on the blood-stained cross; may approach the fountain opened in the Savior’s side; may there wash our every sin away. Shall we, thus privileged, fall short in reverence? Christ’s blood; ponder its worth, its use, its mighty power, its unspeakable results.

Its glorious worth. Enter the Garden. The Sufferer seems a lowly man. Man verily He is, or He could possess no human blood. But in that lowly body Deity dwells. He is the Mighty God. It is the “blood of God” (Act_20:28).

Its gracious use. The sinner is justly sentenced to woe. Nothing but boundless substitution can release. Jesus is God, and He brings blood divinely efficacious. He is an able Saviour, for blood flows in the channel of omnipotence.

Its effectual power. It is the ransom price of all the saved. Their number baffles number. Each was defiled with darkest stains of guilt. But now behold them. Robes white; not one stain spoils; penalties all paid. The blood has saved.

Its precious results. 1. It is the peace of all believing souls. The day of awakened conscience was one of bitter woe. The thundering law denounced, the wrath of God menaced. But the Spirit led the trembler to the cross. Faith heard the assurance, “Though your sins,” etc. (Isa_1:18); faith gazed, and found full repose. 2. It is the source of sanctifying grace. He must flee sin whose eye is fixed on the blood. Can he love that which gave those wounds to Christ? The sight of Calvary slays the love of sin

Make it your study. For every thought here is food. Angels gaze and they adore. But they glean no advantage from it. To you it is salvation’s price; the gate of heaven.

Love it. It is proof of God’s love, that Jesus loves you better than Himself. That mind is rock which is not melted by such flame.

Praise it. All lips commend the charms of beauty and heroic deeds. But what so beauteous as grace leading Jesus to the cross? Where is noble act like His surrender of Himself for you?

Use it. Every hour, when temptation’s darts are flying round; it will “quench the fiery darts.” When you seek light from scripture’s pages; those lines are brightest in which blood is seen. Use it in prayer; it is the plea of pleas. In sanctuary rites: the service is cast out which is not hallowed with blood. Use it in all holy work for God: it consecrates the motive, way, end; and harvests grow from seeds sown in blood. And when death draws near use it: it ensures heaven, where it may be the eternal theme.

~ Dean Law

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The Chemistry Of The Blood

All men are related by the blood of Adam, sinful and polluted blood, dead in trespasses and in sins… Adam's sin called for God's intervention. It must be God's work and not man's. GOD MADE THE COAT OF SKINS. Salvation must be ALL of the Lord… Salvation must be by the DEATH of an innocent substitute. 

~ Martin R. DeHaan

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The Old Testament saints anticipated the death of Christ for their sins by offering animal sacrifices. Jesus Christ is the substitute that has met the holy demands against the sinner. The sinner was forgiven only after the priest offered the bloody sacrifice anticipating the death of Christ for sin (Leviticus 4:20, 26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7; 19:22; Numbers 15:22-28). Paul said, "In Him (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us" (Ephesians 1:7-8).

By offering the sacrificial blood, the worshiper was acknowledging his own guilt and the just penalty of death. By the atonement, God was "passing over," "overlooking" and "covering" sins until Christ came. When Christ came and died He did not pass over or cover it, but took it away (John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:24). God's infinite holiness was satisfied in the death of Christ (John 19:30). The sacrifices in the Old Testament anticipated the efficacious blood of the perfect Lamb of God. The atoning blood of the animal sacrifices, by symbolizing the shed blood of Christ, served to cover (atone) sin until the day when Christ would actually deal with the sin. The death of Christ proved that God was righteous in passing over the sins for which the animal sacrifices had been shed before His coming. God had forgiven sin based on the promise of a sufficient Lamb. The death of Christ proved God to be righteous in all that He promised to the Old Testament saints.

Peter had the sacrificial system of the Old Testament in mind when he wrote 1 Peter 1:18-19. So did Paul in Romans 3:24-25 and John in Revelation 5:6-9. Jesus is clearly reminiscent of Isaiah 52:13-53:12 when He speaks of the "ransom" in Mark 10:45.

The expression "blood" and "cross" are synonyms for the substitutionary death of Christ. The expression "blood of Christ" is used more frequently in the New Testament than either the death of Christ or the cross of Christ. Christ made an atoning sacrifice by the offering up of His blood (Romans 3:25). We have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:2). The only remedy for sin is the shed blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ (John 1:29). The blood of Christ refers to the violent, voluntary, substitutionary death upon the cross for men. The "blood of Christ" reveals the significance which His death bears for sinful men (Rom. 5:9). It is a once-for-all accomplishment. We have been "sprinkled" by His blood (Heb. 9:14; 10:19-23; 12:24; 13:20; 1 Pet. 1:2, 7). We have "redemption" through His blood (Rom. 3:24), "propitiation in His blood through faith" (3:25; 1 John 4:10), "justified by His blood" (Rom. 5:9), "peace through the blood of the cross" (Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20, 22). The death of Christ has effected our reconciliation with God.

The blood of Jesus removes from the believing sinner the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9). God is the one who removes His own wrath by the sacrifice He provides. To "propitiate" signifies "the turning away of anger," usually by an offering. Christ is that offering provided by God.

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Leviticus is a bloody book. You read only a few verses and you are into blood, sacrifices and offerings. There is the shedding of blood and sprinkling of blood on altars and veils. You can't escape it. It is not beautiful, but it was never meant to be beautiful. It fully meant to paint a picture of the awfulness of sin. Sin is not so beautiful as portrayed every night on our TV. It is ugly and it is deadly. "The wages of sin is death." "The soul that sins will surely die."

Abide in Christ

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A criminal is never turned loose until his debts paid. A man is never released justified from prison until he served his sentence. You and I as sinners, criminals in God’s kingdom, are not going to be released, we are not going to be justified, we are not going to be accepted of God until our debt is paid until the law has been honored and satisfied. That’s what Christ did in reference to us...

The very fact that Christ had blood, shows that He was identified with us, He had to be a man to have blood. God became a man and that shows His identification with us: “He was numbered with the transgressors;” (Isaiah 53:12) He became a man...

“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

~ Test All Things

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Blood as food is absolutely forbidden. The prohibition is among the Noachian precepts (Gen_9:4, Gen_9:5). The prohibition of blood was formally incorporated into the Levitical code (see Lev_17:10; 3:17; 7:26; Deu_12:25). So far from being repealed, this precept is re-enforced under the gospel (Act_15:28-29). What, then, can be said for a Church which professes literally to drink the blood of Christ in the cup of the Mass? Is not that Church thereby guilty of outraging the law of all the dispensations?

J.A. MacDonald

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When we are told that the blood maketh atonement, we learn that it does so because it represents the soul of the victim. Life is given for life, soul for soul. Thus our Lord gave His blood, i.e., His life or soul, a ransom for many. “He poured out His soul unto death,” see Isa_53:12. It was His blood, not as it was in His veins, but as poured out, that effected the reconciliation, see Eph_1:7. It is the death of Christ in which the sinner finds peace.

F.B. Meyer