Dear friends:

I am a blood Christian.  I am blood-bought.  I love the blood of Jesus.  It is my favorite biblical subject.  Nothing consumes me like my Savior's blood.  On the blood of Jesus plus nothing rests my entire redemption and eternal life.  It is everything.  The blood is not preached enough.  It should be constantly blared from every pulpit and every podium.  If it offends, let it offend.  The blood is an offense to the proud, the self-sufficient, often even the religious, caught up in their own works.  The blood is the essence of the gospel.

This is the first part of a series on the blood of Jesus, mostly taken from my 1988 book, The World's Greatest Truths.  Be blessed, and praise God for His precious blood.

Jim
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THE BLOOD OF JESUS

In all the world, there is only one substance that truly represents life.  Ironically, this same substance is also thought of as representing death.

Actually, the substance itself contains and sustains life, and the absence or loss of it is usually associated with death.  It is a miraculous substance.

Strangely, however, in spite of is marvelous and miraculous nature and unlike any other substance, just the sight of it often makes people sick!  Some even faint.  Just seeing it traumatizes some people.  And even though the substance gives life, when life ends this same substance can create a frightful and messy scene.  It can cause a sickening sight.

Also, strangely, scientific statements were made about this substance in the writings of the Bible thousands of years before science as we know it really existed.  From Genesis, the first book, to Revelation, the last, the wonderful substance is mentioned in what some call a "scarlet thread" that runs throughout the entire Bible.

The substance is liquid.  The substance is red.  The substance is…
 

B  L  O  O D !
 Some say that Christianity is a "bloody" religion because of its emphasis on Jesus' blood, a mystery which will be explained in this chapter.  Actually Judaism, which gave birth to Christianity, is even bloodier.  Today blood sacrifices are no longer offered, but for centuries animal sacrifice was a common practice in Judaism.  The Jewish-Roman historian, Josephus, records that there were 255,600 animals slaughtered in Jerusalem at one Jewish Passover observance in the first century.  Blood from the altar actually ran in the streets.

But there is a critically important reason why blood is foundational to both Judaism and Christianity -- the symbolism seen in the former foreshadowed the reality to come in the latter!  The latter finally gave needed meaning to the former; without the meaning, the rituals would have been nonsensical and are probably considered such by those who do not understand.

The Passover was an annual event.  If approximately that many lambs were slain each year, think how many died over the centuries from this practice.  Yet, each little lamb was symbolic and prophetic of a human Lamb, the coming Messiah, about whom the prophet Isaiah had said, "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter."

Just think, for centuries the Israelites were obedient to God in their blood sacrifice rituals, not having any idea of their symbolism or their real and ultimate purpose (a lesson for us to be obedient even though we may not understand everything).  But blood sacrifice didn't start with the Israelites; it is traced to the beginning of human history.

The reverence for blood seems universal throughout all cultures.  Anthropologists find widespread practices of blood sacrifice to idols from earliest human history and even through today, and also the use of blood as a means of ratifying an agreement, or "covenant," between people. There is an innate human awareness, put there by God Himself, of the solemn importance and spiritual ramifications of blood.  But only hints of truth, combined with superstition and paganism, produce perversions of belief and practice as exist in some of the world today.  Without full revelation, the peoples of the world have seen only shadows of spiritual truth.  And with the spiritual significance of blood, as with other spiritual truths, God used the Hebrew people to most clearly communicate and implement His plan and purpose.

"The Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God."
 

Life is in the Blood

Medical science now knows that it is blood which transports oxygen and other nutrients throughout the entire body via an ingenious 60,000 mile circulatory network.  Vessels ranging from major arteries down to capillaries measuring one-tenth the diameter of a human hair carry life to each of the approximately one hundred trillion cells in our bodies.  The food is carried along in this stream of liquid by blood cells, like containers sloshing through a gigantic pipeline.  There may be five million or more red blood cells in just one drop of blood.  Upon this continuous, moment by moment, supply of food, our entire body depends for life itself.  For example, our brain will remain alive only for about five minutes without it.  The blood carries life to our whole body.  What is equally amazing, however, is that some 3,500 years ago and before modern medical knowledge, the Lord said to Moses:

"The life of the flesh is in the blood."

The scientific accuracy of the statement at that time in history confirms its divine origin.  Moses had no way of knowing of its truth.

But blood sustains life in another way besides transporting food and oxygen.  After the blood delivers its cargo, it picks up waste material to transport on the return trip!  It not only nourishes but cleanses every cell in the human body, removing toxic material that, if not removed, would otherwise quickly accumulate and kill us.  The blood literally washes each cell, then carries the waste material away for filtering and disposal.  Again, it is equally amazing that almost 2,000 years ago the apostle John wrote that the Messiah

"washed us from our sins in his own blood."

In those days blood was logically looked upon as something that soiled and stained.  Other than from divine inspiration, there was no rational basis for attributing such a "cleansing" function to blood.  John also wrote:

"The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."

This gives a totally new perspective to sin and its consequence.  Bodily poisons and waste can bring physical death unless continually "washed" away by the blood.  Similarly, sin can bring spiritual death unless continually "washed" away by the blood.  And like human blood in our human bodies, in a mystical sense the blood of Messiah is continually washing and cleansing His spiritual body.

In another fascinating anatomical comparison, believers in Christ are referred to in the Bible as the "body" of Christ, with Christ the head and everyone else as members.  The blood of Christ is continually supplying life to His body, and simultaneously cleansing from impurities -- the very functions of actual blood.  And all this was written almost 2,000 years ago before science really knew anything of bodily functions!

World-renowned surgeon, Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey skillfully describe the medical marvels of the human body and its metaphorical counterpart, the spiritual body, in their book, In His Image. I highly recommend this fascinating volume.
 

Continued....