Chapter Four
The Precious Blood of Jesus
Without blood there is no life.
Blood is what delivers essential nutrients and oxygen to our body’s cells. It also helps transport carbon dioxide and other waste material from our cells along with infections.
We can’t live without blood. It aids in keeping the body functioning and it’s what sustains life.
The church today has ignored the doctrine of the blood of Jesus or made it without power and significance.
The topic of the blood of Jesus is rarely talked about or even mentioned within the walls of today’s church. This was not the case in the past. The blood of Christ was so vital to a Christian’s life that several classic hymns were written exclusively about it, including, “Nothing But The Blood of Jesus,” and “There Is Power In The Blood.”
In the church’s attempt to stay relevant with the cultural changes of society, however, and not wanting to offend a seeker’s sensibilities, it has left behind one of its greatest and most powerful teachings.
For many the blood of Jesus is considered old, outdated, and offensive.
Blood, however, is mentioned over 400 times in the Bible, so it’s not a minor biblical theme. Without blood, God’s gospel of grace through faith is dead, depriving humanity of eternal life.
Taking the blood of Jesus out of the gospel message makes His sacrifice a bloodless one, making the cross of Christ powerless. But from the scourging Jesus received to the cross He hung upon, all a person sees is a blood soaked Savior.
The power God gave humanity is in the blood Jesus shed upon the cross. There is power in the blood of Jesus for everyone who wants to be free from the guilty stains of sin.
“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’” (Isaiah 1:18)
It is only the blood of Jesus, the blood of the Lamb that cleanses us from sin.
When John the Baptist first saw Jesus he proclaimed, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
Of His own blood Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28 NIV)
This doctrine also wasn’t lost upon the Apostles. They mentioned it often.
Paul said it is through the blood of Jesus that we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins, Colossians 1:14.
Peter said, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, … but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19)
John said, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7b)
The writer of Hebrews said, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22 NIV)
Therefore, just as there is no physical life without blood, there’s also no spiritual life without the blood of Jesus.
God’s sacrifice of blood
Seeing there is no one righteous enough to enter into God’s presence, Romans 3:9; 3:23, the Lord set up the sacrificial system whereby the blood of an innocent animal would need to be shed so a person’s sins could be forgiven.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11)
But the blood of these sacrifices could never offer a permanent solution to the problem of sin; therefore they needed to be offered again and again.
The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were continuous. The blood of bulls and goats provided temporary forgiveness and pardon because it pointed to a greater sacrifice that was going to come, a sacrifice of a true innocent, the Lamb of God, the Messiah whose sacrifice would forgive our sins and make us right with God.
The prophet Isaiah speaks of the Messiah’s sacrifice.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all … For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken … Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin.” (Isaiah 53:6, 8b, 10a)
In comparing Jesus’ sacrifice to that performed by the Jewish high priests in accordance to the law, the writer of Hebrews says, “Who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” (Hebrews 7:27)
“But now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Hebrews 9:26)
“But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12)
Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant between God and humanity, but He isn’t like the priests of old who continually offered up sacrifices, but rather through His sacrifice upon the cross He made atonement for all those who would believe.
“And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” (Hebrews 9:15)
Jesus became God’s innocent lamb whose sacrifice of blood takes away the sins of the world as John the Baptist had proclaimed.
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
Without Jesus’ blood, the Gospel message that our sins can be forgiven is dead, and all who believe are thereby deprived of eternal life.
Blood speaks
Blood has no vocal cords, nor lungs to bring forth sound; yet it speaks louder than any human or angelic being. And Jesus’ blood speaks volumes if we would listen.
Taking the chorus of “Nothing But The Blood,” Matt Redman adds a new refrain:
“Your blood speaks a better word
Than all the empty claims I’ve heard upon this earth
Speaks righteousness for me
And stands in my defense
Jesus it’s Your blood”
The writer of Hebrews says the blood of Jesus speaks better things than Abel’s, Hebrews 12:24.
This takes us back to Adam and Eve’s two sons, Cain and Able. Cain was jealous of his brother, because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but not his. So Cain murdered and buried Able.
The Lord confronted Cain saying, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10)
But while Abel’s blood cried out for justice, the blood of Jesus says, “Paid in full.”
The blood of Jesus’ sacrifice speaks forgiveness saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
Jesus never came to this world to condemn it, but that the world might be saved through Him, John 3:17.
Jesus’ blood speaks on behalf of sinners; but it doesn’t cry out for vengeance, but mercy.
The blood of Jesus speaks better things than Abel’s because it speaks life, whereas Abel’s spoke death.
And while the blood shed by millions through violence and war cries out for justice, the blood of Jesus speaks of reconciliation with God. It doesn’t demand justice; instead it speaks of God’s mercy and grace.
The blood of Jesus also speaks to our fallen condition. Our heredity and genetic makeup speaks of illness, disease, and death, but the blood of Jesus speaks healing and life.
The blood of Jesus speaks with tenderness of God’s love for us, and for all those who believe, Jesus’ blood speaks of salvation and peace with God.
There is power in the blood
The world possesses great weapons of mass destruction but their power to destroy doesn’t match God’s power to save. That power is in the blood Jesus shed on the cross so that all who believe will not perish but have eternal life, John 3:16.
In the song, “There Is Power In the Blood,” Lewis E. Jones’ writes:
“There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.”
There is power in the blood of Jesus to redeem, transform, and heal.
Power to redeem
In heaven the elders surrounding the throne sing:
“You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9)
It takes power to bring redemption, and we’re told the only power that can overcome Satan is the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and loving God more than life, Revelation 12:11.
False religion, however, denies that Jesus’ blood has the power to redeem.
Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science said in Science and Health, 25:6-8:
“The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon ‘the accursed tree,’ than when it was flowing in his veins as he went daily about his Father’s business.”[1]
But the blood of Jesus is God’s power of redemption.
In the hymn, “Nothing But The Blood,” Robert Lowry wrote:
“What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
“O precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know;
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
The Bible teaches that nothing can redeem a person’s soul apart from the blood of Jesus.
“Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19)
There’s a saying that money is power, but the power of money is limited. It cannot save a person from death, nor can it ransom a person’s soul before God.
“None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him –for the redemption of their souls is costly.” (Psalm 49:7-8a)
The blood of Jesus, however, has power the like of which this world has never seen.
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” (Galatians 3:13)
The word “redeemed” is commonly used of buying a slave’s freedom. In the same way God has bought us by the ransom price Jesus paid upon the cross.
The word “ransom” means to pay a stipulated price to obtain a release, and upon receiving the payment to be set free.
To be set free from the bondage and slavery to sin and death, a ransom needs to be paid, and Jesus came for this very purpose. Jesus came to pay the ransom price to redeem us, that is, to set us free.
The Bible says that God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, 2 Corinthians 5:21.
In Matthew 20:28 Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Jesus didn’t come to be served, which was His right since He is God, rather He came to serve, and He served by becoming the ransom price for our souls.
The only way God could forgive our sins is through paying the penalty Himself.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
God doesn’t ask humanity to make the atoning sacrifice because we don’t have it within us to make the necessary payment; there is no one who is righteous enough.
Since no one can pay the soul’s ransom because it’s too costly, Psalm 49:7-8, the Lord gives Himself as the atoning sacrifice. The Bible says that while we were still in our sins, God demonstrates His love by sending Jesus to come and die for us, Romans 5:8.
We have been redeemed. We’ve been set free from the curse of the law, which is death, and from the power of sin and Satan because of the ransom Jesus paid. We were all slaves to sin, but now we’ve been set free to live for Christ.
Jesus Christ has set us free; therefore let us live in the freedom that was bought through His blood.
Power to transform
There is also power in the blood of Jesus Christ to transform.
Transformation isn’t easy. It’s not like putting on a new set of clothes to change what we look like. It’s a work that begins on the inside, starting with our hearts, which transcends into what others see.
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14)
It is the blood of Jesus Christ that transforms us from sinners bound for hell into the image of Jesus Christ, where the old person of sin is transformed into a new creation of grace that’s now headed for heaven, 2 Corinthians 5:17.
In Galatians 2:19-20, Paul said, “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
The blood of Jesus Christ transforms us. It gives us life. Before we were dead in our sins, but through the blood Jesus we have been made alive.
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.”(Colossians 2:13 NIV)
Through our faith in Jesus Christ, God has taken our own righteousness and replaced it with His.
“For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
The Bible says that no one is righteous, no not one, Romans 3:10. In other words, there’s nothing we can do, there’s no work we can perform to make ourselves right with God.
None of us are righteous on our own or in our own power. But righteousness is what we need if we ever want to stand before God who is holy and righteous.
The prophet Habakkuk in 1:13 said of the Lord, “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.”
Through our faith in Jesus Christ, God puts Jesus’ righteousness onto our account. Therefore we stand before a holy and righteousness God in the righteousness of Christ.
Paul said, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.” (Romans 3:21-22)
Therefore we are transformed, from glory to glory through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
But how does the blood of Christ do it?
It’s because His blood is pure, that is, without sin. The writer of Hebrews tells us Jesus was tempted like everyone else, but was without sin, Hebrews 4:15. This means that while the temptations were there, Jesus didn’t succumb to them.
But there is more. Jesus was never born with the sin nature. Because Jesus was born of a virgin He didn’t have the sin gene.
The prophet Isaiah gave this prophecy concerning the birth of the Messiah.
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)
Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah saying this child that was to be born; this son that was to be given would be called “Emmanuel,” or “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)
This is important because if Jesus were born of a natural father, the father would have passed onto Jesus the sin nature, which is humanity’s curse when Adam and Eve sinned.
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam.” (Romans 5:14a)
The idea that Jesus blood was not compromised with the sin gene is seen again in what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus was born of God the Father through the intermediary of the Holy Spirit through Mary, who was a virgin. He was born without sin running through His veins. He was the perfect sinless sacrifice.
Therefore we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without spot or blemish, 1 Peter 1:19.
There is so much more that could be said about just how precious and powerful the blood of Jesus is. Not only does it redeem and transform, but
But I would be remiss if I didn’t bring out this last point.
Power to heal
One of the great needs of our day is that of healing, which isn’t just physical in nature, but also emotional and spiritual, and they are all interconnected.
When a person is diagnosed with high blood pressure they are a candidate for a heart attack or stroke. This high blood pressure was brought on by stress and the reason for the stress is because they’re trying to work out life’s problems on their own.
There is a need for a spiritual, emotional, and physical healing. For all three to take place we must go to the ultimate healer, Jesus, and what He provided through His blood.
Now this doesn’t discount our need for doctors, but have we taken our need and request to the Lord first? Have we prayed about it?
Concerning the coming Messiah, the prophet Isaiah in 53:5 said, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”
In 1 Peter 2:24 it says, “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were healed.”
If there had been no blood in those stripes, there would be no healing.
The word “healed” translated from both Hebrew and Greek can mean either a spiritual or physical healing. The contexts of Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24 seem to make it clear that they are referring to spiritual healing.
But God had more in mind. Right before our verse in Isaiah 53:5, the prophet says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” (Isaiah 53:4a)
In Matthew’s gospel it says, “They brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.’” (Matthew 8:16-17)
The Bible says that not only does God forgive all our sins, but also He heals all of our diseases.
“Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits — who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:2-3 NIV)
So it’s the blood Jesus that not only forgives sins, but also brings healing.
Conclusion
Humanity is in need of God’s remedy as never before. Today we have science to help us live but we are more miserable now than ever before. Countless millions are addicted to any number of things including drugs, alcohol, food, and gambling, to name a few of the top vote getters.
We have a record number of children and adults who have been traumatized living in fear, or not really living because of sexual, emotional, or physical abuse.
The family unit is dissolving right before our eyes as society has deemed the family unnecessary, causing not only a record number of divorces, but children growing up with one parent, or worse, fending for themselves.
Dysfunction is now the new catch phrase for lives out of control.
And nothing humanity has developed in a lab or clinic has helped. There’s no self-help program that can remove the stain of sin. Nothing can help but the blood of Jesus.
“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’” (Isaiah 1:18)
Humanity is messed up and we’re headed for disaster unless we start taking the way prescribed by God through faith in Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made upon the cross, applying the blood He shed for us.
If we weren’t so messed up there would be no need for a Savior. But we are messed up, and it’s by the blood of Jesus Christ that we can be redeemed, transformed, and healed.
Therefore the blood of Christ is way too precious to be stopped up or closed. It is truly a well of living water that needs to be reopened in the church.
The blood of Jesus saves.
[1] “Interesting Quotes from Mary Baker Eddy”, https://carm.org/interesting-quotes-mary-baker-eddy
