Limitless Word

Blood and Atonement

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Why blood — from Abel, through the Passover and the altar, to the cross.

From the first pages, blood marks the cost of sin and the means of covering it: Abel's blood cries from the ground, a lamb's blood spares Israel at the Passover, and the whole sacrificial system turns on the truth that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." It all reaches toward one offering — "the blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish." The trail ends with a multitude who "have washed their robes... in the blood of the Lamb."
  1. 1

    Garments of skin in the garden

    Genesis 3:21

    Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

    After the first sin, God himself clothes Adam and Eve with garments of skin — the first death, an innocent life given to cover their shame, foreshadowing the covering Christ would provide.
  2. 2

    Abel's blood cries out

    Genesis 4:10

    And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.

    The first death: innocent blood crying from the ground for justice.
  3. 3

    The blood of the Passover lamb

    Exodus 12:13

    And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

    Blood on the doorposts turns away death — Israel is spared and set free.
  4. 4

    The Day of Atonement

    Leviticus 16:30

    For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.

    On one day a year, blood makes atonement to cleanse the people from all their sins.
  5. 5

    "Without blood, no forgiveness"

    Hebrews 9:22

    And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

    Hebrews names the principle running through the whole law — and the better blood that fulfils it.
  6. 6

    Redeemed by the blood of Christ

    1 Peter 1:19

    But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

    Peter: ransomed not with silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish.
  7. 7

    Robes washed in the blood of the Lamb

    Revelation 7:14

    And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

    The redeemed in glory are those cleansed by the Lamb's own blood.