What Really Matters About Blood

02.11.13

Leviticus 17.11 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (ESV)

My friend Jim Stephens came up with four questions: Who is God? Who am I? What really Matters? And, How much is enough? I thought about the third question this morning as I read the passage in Leviticus 17 regarding blood. What really matters about blood?

Take the blood from anybody’s body and that person dies, right now. Years ago my wife suffered from a condition that caused her to bleed and when we sought medical treatment for it all the medicos were freaking out because her body blood level was dangerously too low. We thought: huh, who knew? Then she had to have a transfusion. Who knew?

I’ve read in the Old Testament about the eating of blood and today I think I finally got it: “…I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” Hmmm. The reason blood is so sacred is because it is the life of the body – without blood, there ain’t no life. And physically and symbolically blood is the medium of payment God required from them for the atonement of their sins.

And it all points to Jesus who shed His own blood for our sins on the cross: Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9.22 ESV) Blood made the sacrifice complete. And to eat the blood is to attempt to take something from God that doesn’t belong to us. There may have been some superstitious reasons as well. (On their part, not God’s.)

The reason God put blood in His creatures is because blood carries within it the life of the creature. And without it, the creature dies. And to eat blood is to disrespect God’s intention for it…I think. The sacrifices were substitutionary because to kill (sacrifice) a human was to rob that person of the potential for which God created them in the first place: dead people cannot enjoy God’s forgiveness. Our potential is to know and enjoy God forever.

So God made a way for us to be atoned for (forgiven) and still live and beat the penalty for sin. A sinless and perfect God offered a solution for the sin issue of humanity: the sacrifice. The blood of the sacrifice was poured out to appease God’s anger and wrath against sin. And the blood wasn’t supposed to be kept aside as an item for the menu – it was to be treated as special and used only to make atonement.

What really matters about blood is I can’t live without it. What really matters about blood is that somehow it became the substitutionary substance to atone for my sin. What really, really matters about it is without the shedding of blood, my sins cannot be atoned for. But if I shed my own blood, then the other questions come into play: Who is then God? Who am I? And, How much of my blood is enough? The Answer: Jesus. Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. Sin in my life left a crimson stain, but His own blood shed for me, made it white as snow.

There isn’t enough blood in me to make amends for my sin, but there is in Him. Jesus’ shedding of His own blood paid the price for me I could never repay. His blood is precious, efficacious and complete. All I have to do is believe that.