Opus 2017-151: It’s in the Blood

Christians have a lot of ideas that seem strange to modern minds.  One of the obsessions that we have is with blood.  It isn’t that we are violent or perverted.  We are not talking zombie makeup.  It is because of the teachings rooted in the history of Israel about God’s character and humanity’s needs.

One attribute of God is justice.  This is tied in with His immutability.  God is thus locked by His character into a consistency that does not allow for Him to violate His principles.  We may not always understand them but they are consistent.  The laws of science and nature are a result of this consistency.  Thus we have such ideas as cause and effect, action and reaction and a refusal to accept that life could come from nothing.  We might get a deeper understanding through research and experimentation but at the core are unchanging laws.

As a just God, there is a requirement that breaking His laws demands punishment.  When we sin we must be punished. 

(Romans 3:23 KJV)  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

So that means that all must be punished.  That is what a just God demands.  But a loving God provides a way out.

(Romans 6:23 KJV)  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In order to be consistent, God won’t just forgive the sin.  The sin must be paid for.

(Hebrews 9:22 NAS77)  And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

So you end up in a paradox.  We sin.  Sin must be punished.  The punishment must be death.  Blood must be shed.

(Leviticus 17:11 KJV)  For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

Thus blood becomes of vital importance to Christians.  Blood must be shed.  It can be ours or it can be the blood of the Perfect Lamb of God.  Is it the shedding of the blood or the sprinkling, application, that makes the difference?  That is for another day.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-58, Key Scriptures: Hebrews 9:22

(Hebrews 9:22 KJV)  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

If sin is the problem and Jesus is the answer, why was it necessary for Him to die on a cross?  To modern city dwellers this seems to be some type of primitive barbarism.  Couldn’t this have been taken care of a different way?

That is a mute question.  Who is to say how God could have done things?  Maybe someday we can ask Him.

Take a look at the last part of the verse.  It tells us that there can be no forgiveness for sin without blood being shed.  Why would this be?  Look at this verse from the Old Testament:

(Leviticus 17:11 KJV)  For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

This is some incredibly accurate scientific knowledge for a supposedly primitive culture.  If there is any one thing that is necessary for animal life it is the blood.  It transports food, removes waste and provides defenses against disease.  All this without a microscope.  It is forbidden as a food.  In communion it is raised to the sacred. 

If sin is evil, then it deserves the ultimate punishment.  God cannot overlook the pollution of sin.  It must be cleansed.  It is a law of the universe.  Newton said it in his laws of thermodynamics.  “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”  What is true in physics is true in theology, after all the same God laid down both.

This is where Jesus gets into the picture.  Sin must be paid for by the shedding of blood.  In the Old Testament a temporary system was set up in the sacrifice of animals.  Jesus became the perfect Lamb.  He became the perfect sacrifice.  His blood was enough to pay for the sins of the world.  The bad news is that sin demands death.  The good news is that Jesus met the demand.

Now the ball is in your court.

homo unius libri