Reimar A.C. Schultze

Past Issues of the Call To Obedience

"The Blood of Jesus"

By Pastor Reimar Schultze

  “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission”—Hebrews 9:22.

     As I write to you about the blood of Jesus, I can sense a greater inadequacy in my heart than on almost anything I have ever written.  Yet, necessity and divine imperative demand that every preacher of righteousness preach on the blood, whether he feels qualified or not: for, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.  The blood is God’s most powerful means of communication to man.  Robert Coleman in his book, Written in Blood, said that the blood covenant is the most powerful covenant known to man.  But, before I get into this, let me share a little about physical blood for through it we can better grasp the spiritual meaning of our blood-bought salvation.  We all understand blood transfusions.  As blood is passed from donor to recipient, we actually have the transfer of life from one person to another for the blood carries the very essentials of life.  It brings nourishment and oxygen, sustains various physical functions and fights disease.  It assists the body in dumping wastes. The blood circulates through the body every two minutes.  So, the blood gives life, it sustains, cleanses.  Therefore God said in Leviticus 17:11 that “life is in the blood”.  John the Beloved says, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

     As the heart pumps the blood through the human network of arteries, veins, and capillaries, every part of the body is continually cleansed and supplied.  No part of the body, not even one single cell, can live without the blood.  Most adults have 5 to 6 liters of blood, which is about 7-8% of our body weight.  Every cubic millimeter has 5,500,000 living cells of plasma, corpuscles and platelets of blood.  Blood cells live 110-120 days, so the blood is renewed every four months.  To replenish worn-out cells, the body produces 2,000,000 new cells every second. Blood is the essential ingredient of life. Life becomes visible in the blood.  When you see a doctor, he checks your blood.  He orders a blood test with laboratory analysis.  The heart is the center of the blood circulatory system so it becomes the epitome of life.  The heart is mentioned 823 times in the Bible. Here are just a few references for you to look up:  Deut. 5:29, Pro. 4:23, Jer. 17:9, Eze.11:19, Joel 2:13, Matt.5:8, 28, 6:21, 12:34, 2:35.

     Oh, what is there to be learned about the blood and the heart?  Some of us remember the first heart transplant.  Dr. Christiaan Barnard did it in South Africa .  After the successful operation, the patient said to the doctor, “Show me my heart.”  Reluctantly, the doctor brought in the patient’s heart, now in a glass jar.  After a pause, the patient said, “I am glad I don’t have that old heart any more!” Dr. Barnard realized that this was the first time a man had ever seen his own heart. Oh, if we could only see our own hearts!  What would we do if we could see the result of our spiritual blood work?  God knows our hearts. He says, “The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9).  The deceitfulness of sin, our disobedience, prevents us from seeing our own hearts.  May we be willing to come to Jesus confessing the despicable condition of our hearts, which are laden with lies, pride, lust, selfishness, greed, criticism, anger, and resentment.

What can wash away my sin, what can make me whole again?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon this I see; for my cleansing this my plea- Nothing but the blood of Jesus.—Robert Lowry

     Because life is in the blood, blood should be considered with reverence.  Israel was commanded not to consume blood. Flesh could only be eaten after the blood had been drained from it. “Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood” (Lev. 19:26).  The penalty for eating blood was expulsion from the Jewish community.  God wanted to teach the people that the BLOOD HAD A DIVINE ESSENCE. It was the symbol of life.  Since God created life, only he has the right to take it away so man was forbidden to shed innocent blood. Innocent blood cries from the earth to God for revenge (Gen. 4:10). This is why abortion is such a terrible sin.

     Now we come to the blood sacrifice. Because God is holy, he cannot accept anything in his presence that is the least bit imperfect.  Sin is rebellion against the holy God, and demands the death of the transgressor.  The Bible says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze 18:22).  But, God also being merciful, has made a way for a vicarious sacrifice. 

    What is a vicarious sacrifice?  It is when somebody else’s lifeblood is accepted on behalf of the transgressor.  To shed your blood for someone or something is the ultimate sacrifice.  So, a sacrificial death was accepted by God so that the transgressor could be saved from the wrath of God, provided that the sacrifice was perfect, spotless, and that the transgressor repented of his sin.  When man, sinful Adam and Eve, were cast out of the Garden of God for their sin, God instituted a vicarious sacrifice to give them an open door to get back into fellowship with Him.  At the first sacrifice when Abel offered a perfect lamb for his sin; his guilt fell upon the sacrificial lamb instead of on himself. The lambs slain on the altar from then on were a type of Christ being slain as a sin offering for you and me.   God gave us this example thousands of years before Jesus came to earth.  God accepted Abel’s sacrifice!  It was the blood sacrifice of a perfect lamb. So, in essence, Abel accepted Christ’s blood for the remission of his sins thousands of years before Jesus came to the cross. But Cain had rebellion in his heart; he did not repent of his sins, and so he offered a grain sacrifice.  Therefore he received no forgiveness from God. Again, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. God accepts nothing but a blood sacrifice for the life is in the blood.

     This concept of blood sacrifice was given to the Hebrews, God’s covenant people.  It always had to be a perfect sacrifice, a trophy lamb.  So we in turn must lay all our trophies at His feet.  Hence these beautiful words from Edward Perronet from his hymn, All Hail the Power of Jesus Name:  “Go spread your trophies at His feet.” Or as H.M. Hull said, “Jesus paid it all, ALL TO HIM I OWE” (emphasis added).  To obtain salvation, a sinner in the Old Testament had to put his hand on the head of the sacrificial lamb. Then his sin and guilt passed to the animal as it died this violent death on his behalf.  Again, all sacrifices pointed to Jesus, the ultimate Sacrifice for the remission of our sins. After he came to give his life, no other sacrifice was acceptable ever again. 

     Now, the question has often been asked, who killed Jesus? The Jews?  The Romans? You and I? The answer is NO to all of them: It is God the father acting as the Priest who offered His own Son as the Sacrifice for sin. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isa. 53:4). We didn’t kill Jesus: God did! God put Him on the Cross.  Further, what is so wonderful is that Jesus volunteered to go to the Cross.  The vicarious sacrifice on behalf of you and me came out of an agreement between the Father and the Son.  It says,”God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son”, (John. 3:16) and the Son responds, “Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do Thy will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7) So, these are Jesus’ words to his Father, volunteering to come to be our sacrificial Lamb. “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth” (Acts 8:32).  There was no resistance in Jesus as he went to the cross. Oh, how he loves you; how much he wants to save you at any cost even to the shedding of his blood.  The Revelation tells us the extent to which his holy blood was poured out for us.  It says that his garment was dipped in blood. Remember, even before he was nailed to the cross, he was beaten and scourged on his back, his robe was as if it had been dipped in blood.

     After we have received Jesus’ blood sacrifice for the remission of sins, there is a clear call from God “to go and sin no more”.  Jesus said this to the adulterous woman and he said it to all of us (John. 8:11). When John said, ‘he that committeth sin is of the devil” he spoke to all of us (I John. 3:8).  When Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, he answered the question, “Shall we continue in sin?” with “God forbid!”  (Rom. 6:2)   The Book of Hebrews sums up the seriousness of deliberate sinning after we have been washed by the holy blood of Jesus: “For if we go on deliberately and willingly sinning after once acquiring the knowledge of Truth, there is no longer any sacrifice left to atone for (our sins) - no further offering to which to look forward.  “There is nothing left for us then but a kind of awful and fearful prospect and expectation of divine judgment and the fury of burning wrath and indignation which will consume those who put themselves in opposition to God  (Isa. 26:11 Amp.).  “Any person who has violated and thus rejected and set at naught the Law of Moses is put to death without pity or mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses (Deut. 17:2-6 Amp.).  “How much worse (sterner and heavier) punishment do you suppose he will be judged to deserve who has spurned and thus trampled underfoot the Son of God, and who has considered the covenant blood by which he was consecrated common and unhallowed, thus profaning it and insulting, and outraging the Holy Spirit (Who imparts) grace. . .? (Ex. 24:8 Amp.).  “For we know Him Who said, Vengeance is Mine -retribution and the meting out of full justice rest with Me; I will repay,-I will exact the compensation, says the Lord.  And again, The Lord will judge and determine and solve and settle the cause and the cases of His people (Deut. 32:35, 36 Amp.).  “It is a fearful (formidable and terrible) thing to incur the divine penalties and be cast into the hands of the living God!” (Heb. 10:26-31; Amplified Bible)

     Remember, the blood of Jesus is exceedingly precious and Christ’s sacrifice must be held in high reverence.  Don’t abuse it.  Once it has cleansed you, it demands “holiness without which no man shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).  Know what the blood is for: To remove your guilt and sin, to restore you to fellowship with God and to keep you in it.  Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen (Jude 24, 25).