Blood Atonement

In urbanized Western cultures we feel a bit queasy when we think about blood sacrifices. Farmers and hunters are more familiar with the utilitarian aspects of life and death with animals. Blood must be quickly drained from the bodies of fish when caught and deer when they are killed.

The instruction of God from the beginning of modern civilizations made clear that spilled blood meant a loss of life. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning (Genesis 9:4-5 ESV). God defined blood as "the life of the flesh." These instructions are found on page 4 of my Bible. So this instruction of God goes way back into time. Just before that, on page 3, I read how Cain killed his brother Abel.

God said to Cain, What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. Genesis 4:10-11 ESV.

At the first murder, God pointed to the blood of the slain. Many generations later, Genesis chapter 9 recorded the words of God to Noah after the worldwide flood. God laid out the principles governing civilization for the coming post-flood era. We are living in the latter days of that era.

Two of God’s instructions to Noah mentioned blood. Firstly, people should not think of it as food. Secondly, it is the lifeblood of mankind made in God’s image. It must be respected. Those who shed innocent blood will be judged guilty of a capital offense.

These principles of civilization were given at the beginning of the re-population of the earth after the worldwide flood judgment. They were God’s laws to prevent a return to the worldwide wickedness of the chaotic pre-flood world. They were given to Noah about 2000 years before Moses received the detailed sacrificial laws when God unified the children of Abraham into the nation of Israel.

The themes of lifeblood, accountability for sin, and judgment upon sin, were laid out at the beginning of our era when God said, And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man (Genesis 9:5 ESV). The moral principle of capital punishment for murderers was universally understood for 2000 years before the law of Moses. Death was the general judgment on all persons since Adam, but murderers could have that reckoning for their sins come more quickly.

The apostle Paul in the New Testament differentiated the epochs of pre-Mosaic law and post-Mosaic law when he wrote his letter to the church at Rome. Although no person was guilty of breaking Mosaic law before Moses received it, Paul taught that death reigned on the earth. Therefore, the problem of sin bringing death into creation is universally pervasive, predating capital punishment for murder and the ten commandments.

All death in creation started back at Adam’s disobedience when he earned the death sentence in the garden (Genesis 3:19). Therefore, Paul wrote, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men...death reigned...” (Romans 5:12-14 ESV).

A murderer may meet an early death sentence for his crime, but every person is under a death sentence now (John 3:18). Every person must find forgiveness for their sins or else die unforgiven and face a second death that is eternal.

Jesus taught, For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. John 5:26-29 ESV.

Jesus said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins." John 8:23-24 ESV.

There is a life in our body that is in the blood and that is physical life. Then there is also the life that is in Jesus Christ. That is the eternal life of God. Jesus came to solve the problem of physical death, because if we die unforgiven then physical death will be followed by a "second death" that is unending.

How does Jesus "save" us? He did this by being a “new”, or a “second,” Adam. Jesus became the Savior by not being a sinner like Adam. Therefore, Paul taught that “the gift (of reconciliation with God) is not like that which came through the one who sinned” (Romans 5:16). More sin will never solve mankind’s sin problem. Jesus came to remove sin and death.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2 ESV.

The effective power of Christ’s intercessory mission had nothing to do with an identical substitution, that is, one sinner dying for another sinner. Instead, Paul called the death of Jesus “one man’s righteous act” (Romans 5:18). The sinless righteousness of Christ was the qualification of the Savior who paid the debt of death owed by another person who sinned.

If God turned Jesus into a sinner, or worse yet, into “sin” itself, Jesus would have no virtuous stature to offer his life on behalf of another person. If Jesus was a sinner, he must die for his own sins, and he would have no life left to offer for the payment of a sinner who is already condemned to death.

Thank God that Jesus had "life in himself." That is the eternal life we need. But before Jesus could give us that life he had to pay off our old debts. The old debt was our natural life in the flesh. God condemned Adam's sin with the judgment that he would turn back to the dust from which he was formed. The Old Testament sacrifices demonstrated a sinless Lamb dying as a sin-offering. It's blood was shed until it died.

In the Old Testament, God carefully classified the sacrifice for sin as holy to God before, during and after its death.

Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering. In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the LORD; it is most holy. The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. In a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the tent of meeting. Whatever touches its flesh shall be holy, and when any of its blood is splashed on a garment, you shall wash that on which it was splashed in a holy place. Leviticus 6:25-27 ESV.

Anyone can see the idea of holiness was God’s emphasis here. Offering anything less than perfection was an affront to God.

Paul wrote in Romans 5, For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous (Romans 5:19 ESV). Again, Paul contrasted Adam’s sinfulness to the holiness of the atonement in Christ. This passage is Paul’s theology of atonement, and it is ignored in today’s pulpits in favor of saying Jesus became “sin.” What a contrast it is!

This discussion of the intercessory work of Jesus Christ brings us back to our opening remarks about blood and death.

From the beginning God pronounced physical death as his judgment for sin (Genesis 9:5,6; Genesis 3:19). Paul connected this Old Testament teaching with the Gospel declaration that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (I Corinthians 15:3,4 ESV). Paul was speaking literally of a dead body that was resurrected back alive, and who was physically witnessed as alive. Jesus died on the patterns laid out in the Law and the Prophets (Luke 24:27). This is why Paul twice repeated the phrase “according to the scriptures.”

This was the substitution: the physical death of the Savior for the sinner’s guilt and condemnation, just as God told Adam. Jesus paid the price by the shedding of his life’s blood unto death, to satisfy the declaration of God that “for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Jesus was officially physically crucified by the authority of the greatest governmental power in those days. He died in our place, for our guilt, entirely without sin of his own.

There is a substitutionary principle that is applicable to the death of Christ for our sins. Jesus did not have to become “a substitute sinner” to die a substitutionary death. Jesus was qualified to be our substitute by his incarnation.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Hebrews 2:14-15 ESV.

Jesus is described in the New Testament as a high priest for us who need the forgiveness of God lest we die unforgiven to face God’s final sentencing to eternal death (Revelation 20:11-15). Jesus is called “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26 ESV). Jesus died as our substitute to bear the penalty of death we deserved, but he redeemed us by remaining “unstained and separate from sinners” in his death on the cross. This is the apostolic teaching on the atonement.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7 ESV.

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

Do not treat lightly the physical death of Jesus Christ because Jesus was dying the death we deserved. Paul wrote that the death of Jesus on the cross fulfilled the judgment of God on our sin. If we died "in our sins" (John 8:24) then there would be no more opportunity to repent before the future final judgment of God pronounced a "second death" on sinners for eternity.

God's gift of forgiveness was that Christ died for our sins. When we are credited with the righteousness of Jesus we are guaranteed that the prosecution against us is ended forever. The eternal lake of fire is not populated yet, but it will be full. Paul wrote that Jesus "blotted out the ordinances" that called for our first and second deaths. The prosecution has ended. We are saved from the wrath of God and will never go to hell. Praise God!

Blog #20250317