Blood of Jesus

Some Christians seem to be embarrassed by the blood of Jesus. This is sad because the blood is at the heart of the gospel.

We need to distinguish three things with regard to the blood.

1. What the blood actually does in situ.
2. How it is offered
3. What it does when offered.

1. When it is in the body, of person or animal, it is life. We cannot live without it. It also carries antibodies to kill viruses. Once blood is outside the body, it quickly dries up and dies.

2. The only way it can be offered is by a death (of the animal or Jesus) if you exclude the other possibilities of the bloodletting by physicians in the 19th century, cannulation at a blood bank, or self-harming. I presume that the Bible has none of the latter in mind, so death is necessary for blood to be shared.

3. What blood achieves can only be discovered through revelation. 1) can only partially inform 3).

The translation of Hebrews 9:22 is misleading. Saying that blood produces “forgiveness”, makes it sound like the blood changes God’s attitude to us, ie God is changed. The word translated as forgiveness is “aphesis” which also means freedom. “Without blood there is no freedom”. This makes it clear that it is our situation that is changed by the blood, not God.

We are redeemed by the blood, ie bought back (Eph 1:7). If blood changes our situation and sets us free, the big question is who we are set free from. God does not enslave, so it must be the spiritual powers of evil that we are set free from.

More at Propititation and Redemption.