The Blood of Christ

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” Leviticus 17:11

“For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:13-14

Christ’s blood which was shed on Calvary is an offense to the natural man. As a result, he has long adopted the view that what actually took place on the cross was something quite different from atonement for the sin of every confessing, repenting sinner.

It is much easier on the conscience and the hard heart of man to think of Christ’s crucifixion in terms of martyrdom. He was just another man.

That idea strips Calvary of its most holy and redemptive purpose. What took place on Calvary has the power to transform men and women today. What power. What victory from seeming defeat.

Some try to diminish the meaning of the cross and Christ’s blood as, for example, how Jesus taught to love your enemy and lay down your life for others. His death was just a graphic illustration of that principle. What an empty, hopeless thought.

No, the blood which Jesus shed on Calvary was not just human blood but it was the very life of God poured out for the forgiveness of the sin of all mankind. The power of His blood is that it possesses the life of God, transferred to those who believe and identify with Christ.