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

    Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, 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 have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to 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

    Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike 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 the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you 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 according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there 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 to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and 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.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.