Hebrews 9: 22
And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
This is the defining fact concerning salvation. God gave the blood for the animal to be sacrificed and sprinkle the blood on the sides of the altar, or to be splattered over all the holy items of the Tabernacle, or to be daubed on the thumbs and big toes of the priests, or for everything else that needed to be "cleansed" or set apart for God.
That includes us. If we are to belong to God, then it must be blood that will qualify us to be forgiven and cleansed and made right with God, to be born into His family.
All through the Old Testament, almost everything that was to be set aside had to have blood used in some way. But we are looking at our situation today. How are we sanctified, or made holy, or set aside for God?
Let's look at some of the verses and see how it works.
Hebrews 10: 4
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Everyone who brought his personal sacrifice to the priest, following the Law in Leviticus 1, when the animal's blood was sprinkled on the sides of the altar (v. 5), that blood would cover his sins, so that he could be forgiven, but he could not enter Heaven when he died, because his sin was still there, under that blood; so he went to Sheol, the place of the dead.
That's why Jesus had to come, as both God and Man; to be the eternal Person who could pay our eternal debt in time, and to die a genuine human death in our place.
Romans 3: 24-25a
(24) Being justified [is] a gift by His grace through the Redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
(25) whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
This means that our Redemption, being saved, means that His blood provides the propitiation, hilasmos, "atonement, expiation, propitiation." This is the payment in full of our total debt we owe God for sin. This payment included His death, but it was specifically His blood that was the currency of the payment.
This is repeated several times:
Romans 5: 8-9
(8) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
(9) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Ephesians 1: 7
In Him we have Redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.
Ephesians 2: 13
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Colossians 1: 13-14
(13) For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son,
(14) in whom we have Redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1: 19-20
(19) For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
(20) and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His Cross.
Hebrews 10: 19-22
(19) Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
(20) by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
(21) and since we have a great Priest over the house of God,
(22) let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Here we see that we can only enter by the blood, and that our hearts are sprinkled by the blood shed on the Cross, and only our physical bodies can be washed with water.
Hebrews 13: 12
Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
Hebrews 13: 20
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord.
I John 1: 7
But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Revelation 1: 5b
To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.
Revelation 5: 9
And they sang a new song, saying,
Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your own blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Revelation 7: 13-14
(13) Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?" (14) I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
Revelation 12: 11
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
All this is to say that Jesus is the Son of God who came to this Earth by being born as a human baby like all the rest of the human race. He came to fulfill all of the Law and the Prophets and Psalms (see Matthew 5: 17, and Luke 24: 44, and others) as the sacrificial Lamb of God.
He is our personal Sacrifice, as when his blood sprinkled the sides of His altar, the Cross, He was fulfilling the personal sacrifice that was described in Leviticus 1.
And when His blood was poured out at the foot of the Cross, He fulfilled the sacrifice for the nation to be done when they corporately committed sin (Leviticus 4), to purchase the whole human race. We are all His property, He owns us, so He is our rightful Judge.
To participate in the group whose hearts and souls are sprinkled with His blood for Salvation, we need to repent and agree that we deserve death, letting Him take that upon Himself in our place, as our Substitute.
Otherwise, we will be in the other group, by default, under God's wrath.
John 3: 16-18 says that the whole world can be saved, one by one (whosoever), but whoever will not judge himself as deserving of this execution has already been judged, as a sinner.
We all have been born in sin, having inherited Adam's damaged DNA, which has become more damaged with every generation. The term "sin" is an archery term, that simply means "missed the mark," missed the bulls eye of perfection. The paycheck for sin is death. So the "sinful flesh" we all live in will one day die, all except Jesus Himself, because He did not have a human father, so He didn't have to die. He chose to die, to take our place, so we wouldn't have to die.
That's how much God loves us, and how much Jesus loves us and wants us to spend eternity with Him. John 17: 24 tells us Jesus' wish, His desire, "That they also whom You have given Me be with Me where I am." Jesus not only loves us, but He likes each one of us, and wants us to be with Him forever. This is the "joy" that impelled Him to go through with the whole crucifixion, because He knew there was no other way (Matthew 26: 39, 42 and Mark 14: 35-36) for us to be able to be "with Him," to withstand His full Presence.
O my Father, thank You for loving us so much, to send Your only begotten Son to go through leaving His glory and coming as one of His own creatures, and being a mere Man, He humbled Himself even further to be painfully executed as the criminal we all are, as our substitute!
O Father, please show all of Your children who You are and what You have already done for us, that we could never earn or deserve. Open our eyes to see Your reality that all Your earthly pictures represent. Help all those who have been led astray to return to You, knowing the Truth that sets us free from all the sin and error and deception that has gotten hold of so many!
My Father, use even me to tell others and to help them to realize how You see them, and how You want to lavish upon them all of the benefits and blessings of Your generous abundance! O Father, You want so much good for us, that we cannot even stand to receive even a small portion of what You have for us, until we shed these mortal bodies of flesh to be swallowed up by the new spiritual bodies You have prepared for us.
Father, let us as Your children share with all the others who are looking for You, even when they don't realize that it is You they're looking for. Help the ones who think they are Christians to come to You in repentance and to be born into Your family. Help us to tell the world how much You love all of us, to give every living person in all the nations an informed choice to accept Your gracious and generous gift.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King of the World and all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
