THE BLOOD OF JESUS 101

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According to God, the life of a creature is in its blood and that is why from the very beginning, when God gave man animals as food, He forbid the eating of animals with their life blood still in them (Genesis 9:4) . Later, the Jews of old were told not to drink blood or eat meat with blood still in it. The life of that animal was in the blood and in the same way the life of a human being is in their blood (Leviticus 17:11-14). When blood is shed it means a life is “shed”; it is either taken away or forfeited or offered, whichever the case may be.

From the time of the Old Mosaic Covenant, the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies with Blood once a year to make atonement for the people’s sin. He would sprinkle the blood on the Mercy Seat on top of the Ark of the Covenant. This was a shadow pointing to the substance – Jesus, the Lamb of God and our High Priest who would come later.

When Jesus went into the true Holy of Holies in Heaven with His Blood to atone for the sin of the entire human race, that Old Covenant practice was effectively done away with, as a shadow of what was to come, it had already served its purpose. Jesus sprinkled His blood on the Mercy Seat once and for all – never to be repeated again, it is done, and sin has been fully, conclusively and decisively dealt with by God, it has been put away for good. (Hebrews 9:24-26)

The Lord Jesus told us exactly what to do with His blood and what it would accomplish in us:

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. – John 6:53-56 NIV

These words of the Master offended many people, remember they had been taught for generations not to eat blood, and they certainly weren't cannibals. They didn't get the spiritual significance of what He was telling them. Even His disciples said of His words “this is a hard teaching, who can accept it?”. Many of them left Him, that’s how offended they were:

⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. – John 5:66 NIV

You see beloved, we've gone the other way, we repeatedly plead and plaster the blood of Jesus on stuff, this shouldn't be so. We are to drink it, as it were; His life is in us and has now become ours. We are one with Deity; we are not to call on the Blood of Jesus superstitiously, as a charm to protect us or our stuff as some of us have ignorantly done in the past. We are kept safe by His Name – Our Strong Tower! We are protected by the power of God through faith (1 Peter 1:5)

Let’s not forget this truth: In Him we live and move and have our being. We are in Him already, how much more protected can we ever be?

For far too long we have been listening to the lies of the enemy who seeks to distract us from believing the truth that we are complete in Christ. The devil wants us to keep on living beggarly, lacking, unfulfilled lives; second guessing our Father’s love for us, doubting His Word and ultimately being ineffective in doing what we've been called and equipped to do.

If you are in Christ and He is in you, then you have eaten of His flesh and drank of His blood and His

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blood is cleansing you as you live your life, fellowship and interact with other saints. And as His blood is cleansing you it is ushering you into the Father’s presence at all times so that you can stand confidently before your Abba Father, without feelings of guilt, shame or condemnation and live your life from that place of victory.    

The blood of Jesus was shed for the remission of our sins, and it inaugurated the New Covenant of which we are beneficiaries.

²⁷ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, ²⁸ for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. – Matthew 26:27-28 ESV