Blood Sacrifice & Jesus’ Blood
Seek the Truth with all your heart.
The Blood Sacrificial System was instituted by GOD as the result of sin entering all of humanity, including every aspect of HIS Creation. HE set it up as a shadow --- a type or symbol of something pointing forward or towards --- an event to come, in this case: Jesus allowing and devoting Himself to being sacrificed on behalf of humanity, as the lamb of GOD.
The sacrificial lamb had to be a perfect specimen because it symbolically represented Jesus, Who was and is perfect.
The Blood Sacrificial System, for 4,000 years from the time of Adam and Eve’s sin until Jesus’ sacrifice; fore-shadowed Jesus’ sacrificial death with the: -
Shedding of His blood – Crucifixion on the cross - Burial in a tomb for three days and nights; and Resurrection back to life; to pay on human behalf, our ultimate punishment and cost of death. This forever completed and therefore ended the requirement for the Blood Sacrificial System.
Every book in the Old Testament points toward the Great Sacrifice that was to come - that of Jesus’ sacrificially giving of His own life on our behalf, which completed the Old Testament’s central statement about the significance of blood in the sacrificial system.
GOD, speaking to Moses, declared:
Leviticus 17:11-12 “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I (GOD) have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.
Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.”
The very act of Jesus shedding His blood is further evidence of His having given – sacrificed - His life for us.
A “sacrifice” is defined as the offering up of something precious for a cause or a reason. Making atonement is satisfying someone or something for an offense committed. The Leviticus verse can be read more clearly now: GOD said, “I have given it to you - the creature’s life, which is in its blood - to make atonement for yourselves - covering the offense you have committed against Me.” In other words, those who are covered by the blood sacrifice are set free from the consequences of sin.
Accepting the covering of Jesus’ blood and making Him the Lord of your life, is the best choice possible for every human being.
Of course, the Israelites did not know of Jesus, or how He would die on their behalf and then rise again, but they did believe GOD would be sending them a Saviour. All of the many, many blood sacrifices seen throughout the Old Testament were foreshadowing the true, ‘once-for-all-time’ sacrifice of Jesus to come, so that the Israelites would never forget that without the blood, there is no forgiveness. This shedding of blood is a substitutionary act. Therefore, the last clause of Leviticus 17:11 could be read as either: “the blood ‘makes atonement’ at the cost of a life” (i.e., the animal’s life) OR “the blood makes atonement in the place of the cost of a life - the sinner’s life, with Jesus Christ being the One standing in our place, giving TRUE LIFE through His shed blood.
Hebrews 9:11-18 ‘But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremoniously unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will he blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to GOD, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living GOD.
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.’
This confirms the symbolism of blood as life, and applies Leviticus 17:11-12 to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12 states clearly that the Old Testament blood sacrifices were temporary and only atoned for sin partially and for a short time, hence the need to repeat the sacrifices yearly. However when Christ entered the Most Holy Place, He did so to offer His own blood once-for-all-time, making future sacrifices unnecessary, never to be required again. This is what Jesus meant by His dying words on the cross: “It is finished.”
John 19:30 ‘When He had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.’
Never again would the blood of bulls and goats cleanse men from their sin. Only by accepting Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross for the remission of sins, can we stand before GOD covered in the righteousness of Christ:
2 Corinthians 5:21 ‘GOD made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of GOD.’
Other sacrificial matters.
1 Corinthians 10:18-24 ‘Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifice of pagans are offered to demons, not to GOD, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than He?’
1 John 1:7 ‘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, purifies us from all sin.’
Every one of GOD’s blessings flows to HIS children because of Jesus’ blood. When we are born from above, and Jesus is in us and we are in Jesus, His blood stands as proof that we are GOD’s redeemed child. This enables each of us to stand before GOD as being righteous and qualified because HE accepts us when HE sees us through Jesus’ and His shed blood.
Jesus’ shed blood stands as the seal of His having paid our debt of death, thus opening the door for us to regain eternal life, which GOD had planned for us prior to Adam and Eve’s allowing sin to introduce death.
The blood sacrificial system, tracing it from its inception through to Jesus shedding His blood at His crucifixion, is very clearly and fully explained in the book ‘The Ark of The Covenant’ by Jonathan Gray. Available from Amazon.