Light and Life are in the Blood

Prayer:  Father, it is only through the sacrificial blood of Your Son that my sins are forgiven. My guilty stains are plunged into the bottom of the ocean never to resurface again. We thank You for Jesus who freely shed His blood on our behalf.  Amen.[1]

Main Scripture:

And the blood of Jesus, his Son (1 John 1:7d).

Associated Scriptures:

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).

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life (Leviticus 17:11-12).

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven (Hebrews 9:14).

Correlative Quotes:

This blood is the most mysterious of all tissues, being composed of scores of elements and compounds and strange chemical bodies, whose function is not yet fully understood, but all of which have to do with the mystery of life for the "life is in the blood." Once the blood fails to reach the cells and members of the body, they promptly die and no man ever dies until his blood ceases to circulate.[2] – Martin R. DeHann, M.D.

Look to Jesus now, and you shall be saved then. Oh! I would to God that some of you would look to him! It is not for the eyes of your body to do it, but for the eyes of your mind to do it.[3]  – Charles Spurgeon

Leviticus 17:11 gives two reasons for the prohibition against eating blood: (1) The life of a creature is in the blood.  …(2) The blood... makes atonement for one's life.[4] – John Walvoord

Study:

The nurse arrived with a bottle of blood, which she buckled into a high metal stand as the doctor punctured the woman's vein with a large needle. They had mounted the bottle high and were using an extra-long tube so that the increase in pressure would push the blood into her body faster. The staff told me to keep watch over the emptying bottle while they scurried off for more blood.

Nothing in my memory can compare to the excitement of what happened next. Certainly, the precise details of that scene remain vividly with me to this day. As I nervously held her wrist while the others were gone, suddenly I could feel the faintest press of a pulse. Or was it my own pulse? I searched again—it was there, barely perceptible but regular, at least.

The next bottle of blood arrived and was quickly connected. A spot of pink appeared on her cheek and spread into a beautiful flush. Her lips darkened pink, then red, and her body quivered in a kind of sighing breath.

Then her eyelids fluttered lightly and at last parted. She squinted at first, as her pupils adjusted to the bright lights of the room, and at last, she looked directly at me. To my enormous surprise, in a very short time, she spoke, asking for water. That young woman entered my life for only an hour or so, but the experience left me utterly changed.

When we come to the table (The Lord’s Supper) we come pale, with light breath, a weakened pulse. …We muddle along with our weaknesses, our repeated failings, our unconquerable sins, our aches, and pains. In that condition, bruised and pale, we are invited by Christ to his table to celebrate life. We experience the gracious flow of his forgiveness and love and healing—a murmur to us that we are accepted and made alive, transfused.[5] – Paul Brandt with Phillip Yancey

The life is in the blood.  The sacrifice that Jesus made, giving His blood for us on the cross, brought atonement.

1. The Atonement Surpasses works (Titus 3:5): There is nothing we could do, there is nothing we could say to justify and redeem ourselves before a Holy, Almighty God. There is only this, “confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
2. The Atonement is Superior to the blood goats (Hebrews 10:4): The sacrifice of animals on the altar in the Holy of Holies was only a reminder of the sins Israel had committed against God, not the total absolution brings eternal life (Hebrews 10:3). God was not pleased with animal sacrifices (Hebrews 10:6).  Jesus stepped forward and said, “Here am I, I have come to do Your will” (Hebrews 10:9).  It was through the blood of Jesus that we find complete atonement.
3. The Atonement is Secured in the Garden (Luke 22:42-44): Jesus had the authority to lay down His life or to take it back (John 10:18). Therefore, the decision was not whether to go to the cross, He had made that determination, Jesus would die. The suffering He was to experience would be the cup, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me” (Luke 22:42). The cup represented the full wrath of God (Isaiah 51:17, Revelation 14:9-10).  Jesus would experience this wrath as a result of becoming sin for us.  He understood the incredible cost of receiving the wrath of God.  But, He said, “Yet not My will, but Your will be done” (Luke 22:42).  Knowing the gravity of the punishment that He would feel, Jesus, surrendered Himself willingly for us.
4. The atonement is Sealed on the Cross (John 19:30). When Jesus said, “It is finished,” the final sacrifice was made, the curtain was torn, the way to eternal life was opened, redemption was made possible, the price had been paid, salvation was a reality. Three words, three simple words that satisfied the penalty and payment for sin forever; forever.
5. Settled by the Resurrection Without the resurrection there is no redemption. There is no Savior of the world. There is no eternal life in Christ.  We are still in our sin (1 Corinthians 15:17).

Summary Statement:

Atonement was necessary because mankind chose disobedience to God and service to self over righteousness and justice for all.  Since life is in the blood, God required death and the shedding of blood to pay the price for the sin of man.  Life comes through death.  The unrighteousness of the many must be atoned by the righteousness of the One; Jesus.

Lesson within the Lesson:

Why was the shedding of blood necessary for the atonement of sin?

Were alter sacrifices for Israel’s sin enough to redeem them?  Why?

What is meant by the “cup” and why did Jesus have to drink it?

How did the cross change our relationship with God?

[1] A Daily Prayer, A Prayer of Thanks for Christ’s Blood, adailyprayer.wordpress .com

[2] Martin R. DeHann, M.D., The Chemistry of the Blood, jesus-is-savior.com/BTP/Dr.mrDeHaan.

[3] Spurgeon's Sermons, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.

[4] John Walvoord, Bible Knowledge Commentary/Old Testament Copyright © 1983, 2000 Cook Communications Ministries; Bible Knowledge Commentary/New Testament Copyright © 1983, 2000 Cook Communications Ministries. All rights reserved.

[5] Paul Brandt with Phillip Yancey, Part 3: Life in the Blood, Christianity Today, © 1983, christianitytoday.com/.