“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph 1:7). In instituting the Lord’s Supper the night He was betrayed, Jesus said regarding the cup, the fruit of the vine, “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt 26:28). Clearly, forgiveness of sins is through the shed blood of Christ. But what is meant by the shed blood of Christ? And how does that relate to forgiveness of our sins?
Blood is a symbol of life. “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (Gen. 9:4). “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11). While blood is a symbol of life, it is not equivalent to it, for a dead body can still possess blood: consider when the side of the body of Jesus was pierced; He was already dead (John 19:33).
To “shed blood” is to kill, to take life. Paul said to the Lord, “And when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him” (Acts 22:20). Shed blood then refers to killing, the taking of a life.
To say that Christ shed His blood is to say that He was killed, He died, His life was taken. Of course He gave it freely (John 10:18)!
Now what about our sins? What can forgive our sins? “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb. 9:22). The answer is that only the shedding of blood – a death – could bring remission of sins. Under the law of Moses, animals were slain in sacrifices – their blood was shed, they were killed, a life was taken. But it is impossible that the blood of animals – the sacrifice of the life of animals – could take away sins (Heb 10:4).
The only blood – the only life – that could be sacrificed to forgive our sins was Jesus Christ’s. “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption…. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation” (Heb. 9:11-12, 24-28)
When we talk about the truth that we are saved by the blood of Christ, let us remember that we are saved by the sacrifice of His life, by the death of Christ, because He shed his blood, which means He died. And He died for us! “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom 5:9-10).
-Larry Jones