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

    Yahweh God made coats of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, 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

    Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries 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

    The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague 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 this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before Yahweh.

    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

    According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from 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 precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ;

    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

    I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.

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