Power Mighty in the Blood - Part 1: The Need for Blood

With this article, I begin a series digging into the mightiness of Jesus’ blood in bringing salvation to mankind and in the life of every believer. People have asked, “Why did Jesus have to die? Couldn’t God have waved His hands and forgiven the sin of everyone?” Well, it’s not as simple as that.

Going back to the beginning, we understand from the Book of Genesis (Genesis 1:26, 28) that God made man for a purpose. He created man to bring to pass His will upon the earth. To man, God said, “Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over everything.” (Summarized). Shortly after, God put man in the garden of Eden and gave him some instructions, including the instruction not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Obeying this instruction was going to make man in a position to fulfill the purpose of God on the earth as recorded in Genesis 1:28. God’s desire, and in fact, covenant with man, was that while He was the Source, man lived and reigned as god on the earth. From Genesis 3, we see that man broke his own end of the covenant by disobeying God – an outright rebellion against the instruction of God. In doing this, man committed high treason and handed over dominion to the devil; to the point that following the destruction of the earth, when God wanted to bless Noah with the original blessings He bestowed on Adam, God only told Noah that he’d be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth.

“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” – Genesis 9:1.

God couldn’t tell him to subdue and have dominion anymore because the dominion over the earth legally belongs to the devil (as at right now). This is why Satan could promise Jesus dominion in the temptation of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 4:8-9 and Luke 4:5-7. If Satan lied, Jesus would have told him it didn’t belong to him.

Man had sinned and lost his rightful place as god of this world. Satan became the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), which was completely against God’s purpose and will.

God was not going to leave it that way. He would send Jesus’ (which is literally Himself) to come and pay the penalty for sin – by living as a man on the earth and dying as man.

However, before God would do this, He carved out a people for Himself. A people through whom He would live out His purpose on the earth. He called / selected Abraham, purely out of grace, and through Abraham’s descendants, God would make His name known throughout the earth. The Messiah (Jesus) was also going to come through this race.

In preparing His people for the arrival of the Messiah, God gave specific instructions on how sin was to be atoned for. Remember, man had sinned. And because Adam (the first man) sinned, all men had sinned (born and unborn).

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.” – Romans 5:12, 14.

So, for man to relate with God, there had to be atonement for sin.

WHY BLOOD?

The penalty for sin is death. God clearly told Adam, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17). By this, God was saying, in the day you disobey, the day you sin, you will die. Romans 6:23a – the wages of sin is death. This death was going to be both spiritual and then, physical. It’s interesting to know that man was not created to die physically. But sin corrupted the nature of man. Spiritual death had to happen before physical death could take place.

Now, for sin to be washed away there had to be a payment for it and that payment was death. The sinner had to die. The soul that sinneth it shall die – Ezekiel 18:20a.

If man would live, the life of something or someone still had to be given to pay for man’s sins. In the Levitical order, it was the lives of bulls and goats; but those could only "cover" sins for a moment (Hebrews 10:4). Sacrifices for sin had to be made every year.

But God had a better and permanent plan. Rather than have sacrifices done every year with blood of animals that could never resolve the sin issue, God decided to give Himself. He came in flesh as Jesus and gave His own life in exchange of man’s life to resolve the sin issue once for all.

Remember, death had to happen. The sprinkling of the blood in the old testament and the pouring out of Jesus’ blood under the new covenant, was a proof that life had been given, that death had occurred, and that the penalty of sin had been paid off.

So, why blood? Blood was the proof that life was given. The life of a thing is in its blood - Leviticus 17:11.

In the next part, we’ll look at how the sin was atoned for in the order of the Levitical priesthood.

Nourish Your Spirit