1.    The Value of the blood:

The Word “blood” itself may give to most people an unpleasant and unsettling feeling. The sense of violence and death associated with it.

But for believers in Jesus Christ it has taken a whole new meaning that brings forth unrestrained gratitude, joy and hope.

When we begin to read the Bible we discover in its very opening chapters of the first book of Genesis right through almost every book in the OT through into the NT a crimson line as of a thick thread of blood running thru its pages unifying the central plan of God to save people from sin and its devastating consequences.

And it’s truly an eye and a heart opener to see “blood” as God sees it in the Book of Leviticus 17.
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

For fallen mankind blood denotes “death”. But for God our Creator it denotes “the streams of life” in our flesh.

Fallen sinful mankind is in desperate need of experiencing God’s love and forgiveness. Yesterday I read and saw two sad accounts of two separate men: one a captain / leader of his national cricket team and one a Christian, leader of a large organization. Oh! The pain and weight of sin and the guilt and shame it brings with me. Not only those two men, but each of us is in desperate need of love, forgiveness and restoration.

But the love of man, not matter how sincere, is not strong enough to deal with the weight and pain of sin and its consequences. Only the love of God can do that for us!

There is no free lunch, either in economics or salvation. Someone always pays. What has not been paid for has no value. The only reason we can be freely forgiven and are free to forgive without sacrifice is because Jesus already paid for that forgiveness by His suffering and death on a cross.

How? We come back to the blood.

As we read through the pages of the world we unmistakably see that the path that leads to the forgiveness of our sins and the free gift of new life is paved in “red”.

The Bible records in Romans 6: 23 “that the wages (consequence) of sin is death...”

So we see from the very start God helping us see that sin requires forgiveness. But forgiveness doesn’t come free.
Hebrews 9:22 - And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (remission means cancellation of debt, charge or penalty)

On this Good Friday, we remember that the sacrifice of Jesus isn’t an act of love without a price. Jesus shedding His blood on the cross is the price of our forgiveness. Love is only love when it does something of value. Jesus’ blood shed for us was the value of our salvation.

So there are verses in the Bible that records the preciousness of this price paid for us:

Matthew 26:28 - For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (remission means cancellation of debt, charge or penalty)

1 Corinthians 6:
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Ephesians 1: 7
In love 5 he predestined us[b]for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us,

Colossians 1:14 - In whom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins:

1 Peter 1
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Hebrews 10:19-22 - Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way...

Revelation 1:5 - And from Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, [and] the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

The Blood does much more that than we can grasp at once. It brings to us God’s forgiveness, redeems us from slave market of sin, cleanses us from sin and its shame, protect from Satan and his onslaught, for its the mark of God’s ownership of our lives, it’s the seal upon God’s everlasting covenant with us (blood of the covenant)...and the guarantee of the fulfilment of all His promises.

2.    The View through the blood:

What was the nature of the work of God in saving us from our sins and giving us new life. We need to see it through blood coloured lens (e.g. as transparent coloured paper)

 

Through the colour of the blood the way we see God, ourselves and others changes completely forever.

 

In the Bible there is a continual record of sacrifices before and after the giving of God’s law that are meant to pint us to Jesus Christ – His sacrifice!

What these records or sacrifices don’t do, is reveal precisely who Jesus is. Many people outside of Church think that Jesus was a good man who symbolically showed us God’s love by dying on the cross; whole even some believers imagine that Jesus was somehow independent of God the Father in His sacrifice. Both are not seeing clearly.

 

Never think that, on the cross, Jesus was trying to pacify an angry God the Father who hated us and was trying to grasp a begrudging salvation. And never think that an unjust God the Father killed an innocent Jesus in place of the real culprits.

The wills of both, God the Father and God the Son were one. The Father gave the Son and the Son freely gave Himself. The sacrificed the Son and the Son willingly sacrificed Himself

 

Romans 5: 6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; [d]though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

2 Corinthians 5: 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and [i]He has [j]committed to us the word of reconciliation.

God’s anger is towards sin but God’s love is towards us. God abhors sin but He loves people.

This should help us realize that the blood sacrifice on the cross was not made by Christ alone or by God the Father alone, but by God the Father acting in Christ for us.

In their love for you my friend, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit worked together in grace and harmony in their priceless sacrifice. Immortal God could not die. So God the Son sent by the loving Father, willingly came to become our substitute atoning sacrifice  (Phil 2: 6 – 8)

Only a human should atone for our sins for we are human. But only God could accomplish the necessary atonement (since its He who justly demanded it). God-in-Christ is the only one who could accomplish our atonement for Jesus is the only one in whom the should and could are perfectly united by His fully human and fully divine nature.

Matthew 8: 17 & Acts 8: 26 – 40 (Isaiah 53 requoted in NT)

Romans 4: 25; 1 Cor 15: 3; 1 Peter 2: 24; 1 John 2; 2 (Christ was the necessary sacrifice required by God for our sins)

Conclusion:

So here’s the good news my friend...

Is that a substitute has taken your place, offered your confession, borne the pain and weight of your sin and endured the penalty due to your disobedience.  And this substitute wasn’t an animal, nor was it Christ alone or God the Father alone...

But God-in-Christ!

So, how do we respond...

Forsake sin, receive forgiveness, worship Him in gratitude, tell the world that there is forgiveness and new life in Jesus!