It’s In the Blood

This past week I began dialysis treatments. For those unfamiliar with dialysis, it is a procedure which cleans the blood of people with advanced kidney disease. In effect, it uses a mechanical device to do what the kidneys usually do, which is remove the waste materials which the body normally produces. While not pleasant to go through, after three sessions I have already felt some improvement in my energy level and overall condition.

During one of my treatments, a nurse came and drew blood for testing. As she did, I thought about how significant blood really is. Not only did my blood need to be cleaned, the sample she took would give vital information about many aspects of my health. By such samples, they have a window into my body’s functions. A verse from the Bible came to mind: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Leviticus 17:11).

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood.”

How true! For not only is blood needed to route oxygen and nutrients to keep cells alive, it also removes those cells’ waste products. If a person is cut and loses too much blood, he or she will die. If a person has too little blood, a transfusion of someone else’s blood will restore their life. And as I said above, a person’s blood will reveal a lot about that person’s condition. As it says in Leviticus 17, the life is truly in the blood.

Of course, if you have read any of my blogs, you know I haven’t said this just to discuss biology or medical practices.  And you would be correct. The connection between life and blood is also a spiritual one, one which is declared in the last part of the same verse from Leviticus. That verse continues and says, “for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”

How can blood make atonement, that is, atonement for one’s sins? This verse refers to the blood sacrifices which the Old Testament commanded. Hebrews 9:22 explains that, “under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” A guilty person would either pay for their sins with their own blood, or provide the blood of a sinless animal to take their place. Thus, by such sacrifices, the blood of innocent animals was shed to pay for, or cover, the sins of the person offering the animal. This practice actually began back in the Garden of Eden, when God himself provided animal skins to cover the naked and sinful first couple. It continued until the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in A.D. 70.

Although God commanded and honored this practice throughout the Old Testament, there is one verse which reveals that the blood of animals is not the end of the story. Hebrews 10:4 says, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The blood sacrifices which God ordered were but a foreshadowing, a preparation for the one true blood sacrifice which was coming, and that is the sacrifice of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. By shedding his own blood, Jesus provided the one, true, complete, and final sacrifice to atone for all of our sins. While our sins condemned us to eternal death and separation from God, Christ’s death brought us full forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. Hebrews 10:14 concludes, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” And 1 John 1:7 affirms, “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

In the words of Charles Wesley’s great hymn, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, “His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.” But how do we gain the benefit of Christ’s great blood sacrifice? How do we know his blood avails for us?

“His blood availed for me.”

The answer is very simple. It is through faith in the One who died for us. Just as God provided the covering for Adam and Eve, so he provides the covering for us through the gift of his Son. It is by God’s grace, and not by any of our works that we are forgiven. As John 3:16 proclaims, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Finally, as Christians, we have the privilege of participating in Christ’s blood by the sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus offered his body and blood at the Last Supper when he said, “This is my body; take and eat” and “this is my blood; take and drink,” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). Likewise, in  John 6:53 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Whenever we receive Christ’s body and blood in Communion, we are strengthened in our faith and “transfused” by the life-giving blood of our Savior.

Our life is in the blood – in the blood of Christ.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Hebrews 9  and 10.