01.02.04 - The Blood of Christ

4. The Blood of Christ: As explained in section I. 5.l. 2.2 above, “The Blood of Christ”, the efficacious and atoning work of our Lord in dying for our sins, consists in what He endured in the darkness for us while still physically alive (that is, His spiritual death in being judged for our sins in our place; see the section immediately following). So while Jesus’ physical sufferings on our account visible to all before the darkness descended on Golgotha were immense and beyond true appreciation, the intensity of the sufferings He endured under that darkness in dying for the sins of the world, dying spiritually in a way we cannot even adequately conjecture, must exceed those preliminary sufferings to an incalculable degree. This work, this death by which He provided redemption for us all, is termed in scripture “the blood of Christ”.

Throughout the Bible, blood is a symbol of life for the very simple and understandable reason that when blood is fatally shed, life comes to an end. This is why even the consuming of animal blood is forbidden – because blood represents the life of the creature; and this also explains the principle of “blood guilt”: for shedding blood and taking life are one and the same thing (Genesis 9:4-6; Leviticus 17:11; Deuteronomy 12:23; cf. Genesis 4:10). This principle was developed under the Mosaic Law wherein “nearly all things are cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). The blood of the sacrifice was necessary to procure forgiveness, not because of any magical power resident in animal blood, but because the blood of animals shed in sacrifice provides us with a very potent and graphic symbol of the need for death (i. e., blood representing life lost), of substitutionary death on our behalf, of someone else’s blood atoning for our sins, if we are to be forgiven and saved.

Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” Genesis 22:7-14 NIV The passage above from Genesis 22:1-24 looks forward perspicuously and unswervingly not only to the rites of animal sacrifice which the Law of Moses would ordain, but much more importantly to the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, dying for our sins. He is the “lamb” which “God will provide for Himself” (Genesis 22:8), “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). For you know that it was not with perishable things [like] silver or gold that you were ransomed from the futile manner of life passed down to you by your ancestors, but [you were redeemed] with precious blood, like that of a lamb without spot or blemish, [that is, by the blood] of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19. And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing [there, looking] as if He had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes (which are the seven spirits of God sent out into the entire earth). And He came and took [the scroll] from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne. And when He took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell [down] before the Lamb, each with a lyre and golden bowls of incense, which [incense] are as prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and have purchased with your blood for our God [men] from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will rule upon the earth!” And I looked and heard, as it were, the voice of many angels around the throne and [around] the [living] creatures and [around] the [twenty-four] elders, and their number was myriads upon myriads and thousands upon thousands, [and they were] saying in a loud voice, “The Lamb who has been slain is worthy to take the power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing and every created thing in heaven and on the earth and in the sea and everything in them.” Revelation 5:6-12.

It is extremely important for all Christians to understand clearly that this is a metaphor. Jesus Christ is nota literal “lamb”; and His “blood”, the “blood” by which we are saved, is not literal blood. Just as from the beginning of the Old Testament blood represented life and its loss represented death, so in the case of our dear Lord Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross the “blood” scripture mentions refers to His giving up of His life on our behalf, that is, it refers to His spiritual death in the darkness on the cross whereby He “washed away” all of our sins (see section II. 5 directly following). By the use of this metaphor, the New Testament ineluctably connects the real sacrifice of Christ on the cross with the representative sacrifices of the Law which foreshadowed that true and efficacious sacrifice to come. For it was the Lord’s good pleasure (i. e., “will”) to crush Him, to subject Him to torment. But though you make His life a guilt offering, He will see His seed, He will lengthen His days, and the good pleasure (i. e., “will”) of the Lord will prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53:10.

Few metaphors in the Bible have been as badly misunderstood as the “blood of Christ”, often with very disturbing consequences in the form of false doctrine (“transubstantiation” being the most famous but by no means the only one). The “blood of Christ” is, in scripture, always a symbol and never refers to literal blood. It cannot and should not be taken literally any more than the corresponding symbol of the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6; Revelation 13:8). This is not to diminish in any way what our Lord did for us on Golgotha – far from it. Rather, a proper understanding of precisely what He did do to win us back from death and hell can only be gained by first appreciated what this metaphor really means. The “blood of Christ” is a symbolic phrase which graphically sums up for us Jesus’ saving work on the cross, His sacrificial death on our behalf which is foreshadowed by the Mosaic Law, and most clearly in the Tabernacle, its furniture, and the animal sacrifices which attend thereto. Just as Old Testament believers offered up animals “without spot or blemish” – pictures of Christ in His perfection – so the blood shed by these animals depicts the precious sacrifice of Christ in giving up His own life. The animals represent Christ (so He is called “the Lamb of God”). The animal blood represents Christ’s giving of His life for us, His spiritual death (so this death is referred to as “the blood of Christ” – because blood shed stands for the loss of life). In his gospel, John makes a very deliberate point of demonstrating that Jesus did not bleed to death on the cross. Not only did Jesus of His own volition “breath out” His spirit once the sacrifice was complete (so that there can be no question of death through loss of blood: Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:36; Luke 23:46; John 19:30), but John very clearly testifies that after His physical death His blood had still been retained in His body (John 19:33-35; cf. 1 John 5:6-8). It is thus critical for Christians to understand that it is not through Jesus’ literal blood but through His genuine suffering in paying the penalty for our sins being judged for them in our place, that is, through His spiritual death wherein He was condemned and punished for all our sins, that we are saved. That is what “the blood of Christ means”, with blood representing the loss of life or death, a spiritual death of a sort so intense and profound that we can scarcely come to anything close to a proper comprehension of it this side of heaven. By understanding “the blood of Christ” in these true, biblical terms, we enhance our appreciation of what Jesus did for us, not diminish it.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who, though outcasts dispersed throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, were yet selected in the foreknowledge of God the Father, by means of the Holy Spirit’s consecration, for the obedience in and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you! 1 Peter 1:1-2. The symbol of sprinkled blood is also taken from the Old Testament sacrifices, specifically from the rituals God instituted among the Israelites to teach them about Himself and the coming sacrifice of His Son. When Moses had finished reading the “book of the covenant” (that is, the Mosaic Law as outlined in summary in Exodus 20:1-26, Exodus 21:1-36, Exodus 22:1-31, Exodus 23:1-33), he had sacrifices of “peace offerings” made, and had all the blood from them collected. Then Moses sprinkled this blood upon all the people, saying “behold, the blood of the covenant”. The blood represented a violent death (as it does in all the Old Testament sacrifices), and the phrase “blood of the covenant” meant that by the death of someone else, the Israelites had entered into a special agreement with God. This fact was visibly and dramatically portrayed to them by Moses when he literally sprinkled blood from the animal sacrifices upon all the people. Although this may seem a somewhat shocking thing to us, it was meant to be just so. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross cost Him more than we can ever know. We did nothing to help Him, we are merely “spattered” with His blood, so to speak. We receive the benefit of His sacrificial death when we believe in Him, accepting His work on our behalf. But it is of extreme importance that we understand that this sacrifice by which our sins were “washed away” entailed far more than “bleeding to death” (which our Lord most emphatically did not do) – it entailed being judged for all our sins and paying the price and penalty for them. That is what the “blood of Christ” means, His spiritual death on our behalf whereby we are delivered from the coming wrath and judgment whose end is the lake of fire. And that is why when we drink the cup of communion we are not drinking blood or anything that represents real blood; rather, we are demonstrating our appropriation by faith of Christ’s saving work on our behalf: This is My blood of the [New] Covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins concerning many people. Matthew 26:28.