What does Blood symbolize with God?

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, sin entered the world and they immediately became aware and ashamed of their nakedness. This made them to fashion coverings for themselves using fig leaves Gen 3:7. When God told them what they had done, he placed a curse on them, and passed judgment upon them for their disobedience. But because of his love for mankind, and in order not to break fellowship with man, God made “unto Adam and also his wife…coats of skin and clothed them” Genesis 3:21.

The questions we need to ask ourselves here is, ‘why did God have to cover them with skin of animals?’ What was wrong with the fig leaves Adam and Eve used to cover themselves initially? The answer can be seen in Hebrews 9:22 – without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Also, Leviticus 17:11says ‘it is blood that makes atonement for the soul’. This same principle was repeated with Cain and Abel, but something peculiar happened with the children of Adam and Eve. Something that will today, reflect what the blood of Jesus means to God.

Cain and Abel brought offering to God and since Abel was a keeper of sheep, he presented a lamb from his flock to God. Cain, on the other hand, was a tiller of the ground and offered produce from the ground. The bible says, God rejected Cain’s offering and accepted Abel’s. Remember Ephesians 6:9 says “God is not a respecter of persons”. Also, remember that both Cain and Abel were sinners in the eyes of God. So why accept one person’s sacrifice and reject the other? God asked Cain, “why is thou countenance fallen? If thou does well, shall thou not be accepted”Gen 4:6. Obviously, Cain did not offer sacrifice to God with knowledge. He did not know that God always requires blood sacrifice.

Cain immediately killed his brother and when God asked him about the whereabouts of his brother, he denied any knowledge of his brother’s whereabouts. In response to this, God said to him “the voice of thy brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground”Genesis 4:10. This tells us that blood has a voice and an innocent blood has an even louder voice. I can imagine the sound of Abel’s voice shouting to God ‘VENGEANCE! VENGEANCE!! VENGEANCE!!!’ and God, being a just God, cursed Cain. The curse was so severe that Cain had to complain Genesis 4:13.

The importance of blood to God can also be seen in the case of Noah, after God destroyed the world with flood. Immediately Noah stepped his feet on dry ground, the first thing God made him do was to offer blood sacrifice Genesis 8:20. With God, blood means beginning of new things, it is usually a sign of a new relationship and most importantly blood serves as a symbol of a covenant.

With the Abraham’s covenant, the symbol was circumcision, which also involves blood. In Genesis 22:2, God said to Abraham “Take now thy son, Isaac, whom you love and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering.” In this instance, God told Abraham to offer his only son as sacrifice to him in order to test his faith. And when Abraham passed the test, God provided for him, a lamb instead.

There are two very important points that has to be pointed out about God from the story of Abraham in order to understand him better. Abraham today is called the father of faith and the father of many nations because of this test. Christians today are called seeds of Abraham because one-night God told Abraham to look across the night sky, promising to bless him as far as he could see. In faith, Abraham saw the whole world. This act of faith by our father Abraham is the reason why any man, irrespective of race, tribe, color all over the world can be part of Gods plan – a new and everlasting covenant. A once-and-for-all-covenant.

I strongly believe that God used Abraham to show us the concept of sacrificing an ‘ONLY SON’. John 3:16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Since God planned to sacrifice his only son for the sins of the world in the future, it is safe to think God wanted to see if Abraham could be like him. And we later learnt that because of his faith Gen. 15:1–6, Abraham was chosen and blessed by God to be the “father of many nations” Gen. 12:1–3; 17:1–8; 18:19; 22:1–18; 26:4; 28:13–14. The revelation of this scripture reaches its combination in Galatians 3:8which says “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed.”

THE OLD COVENANT

A Covenant is an agreement between two people. It is a bond, or a pact between two parties over a specified set of ideas or things. Everyone knows the Bible is divided into the Old and New Testament, but just a few know that Covenant can be used to replace the word Testament. Hence, we could say the bible is divided into the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Under the old covenant, altogether, there were 613 laws, covering every aspect of human behavior or interaction. Males had to be circumcised, Sabbaths had to be observed, and people had to obey hundreds of dietary, social, and hygiene rules. Also, to atone for the sins of the people, God gave them guidelines on using cattle, sheep, and doves as blood sacrifices. The atonement for sin required blood sacrifices.

Humanly speaking, it is impossible to keep 613 laws. But what is most intriguing, being the fact that according to James 2:10, the person who keeps all the law but is guilty of one is guilty of all. Let us think about it for a moment, was God being wicked when he stipulated all of these laws? Of course not! The bible clearly points out that God is love 1 John 4:7.

God knew that no man could keep all of his laws, and that no animal sacrifice can really cleanse a man and make him holy. So, the big question we need to ask ourselves here is, what was our Heavenly Father trying to achieve by this? I can confidently say God was preparing the Israelites for the New covenant, God wanted them to see  that they could not keep his laws, and to see the need for a Messiah, a Savior – the perfect offering and perfect sacrifice – that will involve the death of his own son. God already knew from the beginning that the perfect purification for man’s sins would involve the blood of one that was perfect. It is with this knowledge and authority that Jesus declared in John 14: 6“I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME”.

Just before the old covenant was established, the intriguing story of Moses and how he led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt pops up and also sheds light on the importance of blood to God. Before I go into details of how God wonderfully set his firstborn, Israel, free from Egypt, I would like to quickly point out something that happened to Moses. This reference tells us that no matter who you are, God will only spare you if you are in a relationship with him through a covenant. In Exodus 4:24-26, when God almost killed Moses, his wife, who was not even an Israelite, quickly took a flint knife and circumcised their son. Then she touched his feet with the foreskin and said “now, you are a bridegroom of blood to me”, thereby making her family a part of Gods covenant.

If you are familiar with this story, we can notice that Egypt was the most powerful nation in the world at that time. powerful in terms of culture, wealth and gods. At this time in history, the wealth of a particular nation was seen as a direct indication of the strength of their god(s). And Egypt was known to have various gods and goddesses with varying job functions. There were Anubis, Apophis, Baast, Isis, Ma‘at to mention a few. Knowing this, it is now clear why God chose Egypt to display his mighty power to show to the whole world, not only who the one and only God is, but also whom his chosen people are, God made an example of Egypt.

God needed to show to the whole world that there was only ONE GOD. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the ‘I AM, THAT I AM’, as he told Moses when Moses inquired of him in Exodus 3:14. God needed to do something no other god could do, something to point to the whole world that the Jews are not only his chosen people but also THE WAY to salvation. He needed to do something impossible, spectacular, like parting the Red Sea which has an average depth of 1,610ft. Hence it was miracle after miracle until Pharaoh was forced to let God’s people go. The last miracle which eventually forced Pharaoh to free the Israelites is worth mentioning because it also points out the importance of blood to God.

According to the Bible in Exodus 22:21, Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them ‘go and get lambs from your flock, kill the lamb, drain the blood into a basin, then take a cluster of hyssop branches and deep them into the lamb’s blood and strike the hyssop against the lintel above the door and against the two side panels, so that there will be blood upon them and none of you shall go outside all night, for JEHOVAH will pass through the land and kill the Egyptians, BUT WHEN HE SEES THE BLOOD UPON THE PANEL OF YOUR DOOR, HE WILL PASS OVER THAT HOME AND NOT PERMIT THE DESTROYER TO ENTER AND KILL YOUR FIRST BORN”.

From this, we can easily understand that blood covering offers protection under God, as his ways are the same. We can understand Psalm 91which says “he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”. The secret place of God MUST have a blood covering and today, that secret place is under the blood of Jesus Christ. And as stated in Hebrews 10:4, It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Think about it like this, if I knew that no matter what I do, all I needed to do was offer the blood of an animal and God will immediately forgive me, I will continue in sin which will eventually lead to death. But if I knew that it is the blood of God’s only begotten son that was sacrificed for my sins, I would naturally make Jesus my Lord and savior and get to know him so my relationship with him will cause me to love him, and my love for him will make me want to obey him. Then I will understand how precious his Blood is to God. At this point, I can say that I am part of the new covenant of God.

THE NEW AND EVERLASTING COVENANT

Jesus said “for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many”. In order to begin to understand the scope of God’s love for everyone of us, we need to understand, not only how but why, he sent his only son to die for the sins of the world. In the early days of my life as a Christian, it took me a very long time to comprehend how God can have a son, then one day it dawned on my spirit. Think about it like this and ask yourself, how did God create the world? By simply speaking.For example, as we see in Genesis, God said “let there be light and there was light”. That is exactly the same way it will be if God wants to have a son. God will simply say, “I want a son to be born of a virgin” and that is exactly what will happen. Or do we expect God to have sex to have a son? If no, then why is it difficult to understand that Jesus is the son of God? I can say with all confidence that Jesus is the only son of God and God loves him so much. But because of the love he has for you and I, he had to offer his only son as a sacrifice so that any man irrespective of tribe, race, or color can be adopted into his family  and dwell with him in his kingdom.

John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life…” The first time John the Baptist set eyes on Jesus, he said “here comes the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world”John 1:29.

Have you ever heard this saying before, that Jesus Christ is the word of God made flesh? There is a very popular misconception about God that has to be corrected. Most people think there is always something to decipher, or there is something more to what God says, we tend to think very spiritual, hence this hinders our understanding of God and makes us not study his word because we think it is complicated. Brethren believe me when I say God is the easiest to deal with. Who will create someone in his own image and want to confuse the person? God gave us his word to study so we can know him and as we get to know him, we begin to see him as father and no more as God.When we see simple terms like Jesus is the word of God made flesh, we want to think there is something more, but I am here to tell you that it literally means that Jesus Christ is the word of God in flesh. Thus, Jesus Christ is the Bible in flesh, because, as we read earlier, God started to point us towards the blood of his son, Jesus as far back as the beginning of the world – from the story of Adam and Eve.  Furthermore, the beginning part of the book of John says, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the word was God, then chapter 14 says, ‘and the word became flesh, and dwelt among men”. Also, Colossians 1:15 says Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

Before going further, let me quickly point out that there was no prophet of God that didn’t prophesy about the coming of a messiah. But, most importantly, all these prophets were very specific about his birth, life, death and resurrection. Hence, the fulfillment of all these prophesies makes JESUS literally, the word of God in flesh as those prophesies spoke about Jesus Christ of Nazareth , thousands of years before his birth.

Prophesies About Jesus thousands of years before He was Born

• He would be born of a virgin Isaiah 7:14
• His Birth would be in Bethlehem Micah 5:2
• He will be heir to the throne of David Isaiah 9:7
• He will have a triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey Zechariah 9:9
• He would be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver Zechariah 11:12
• He would be accused by false witnesses Psalm 27:12
• He would be spat on and beaten Isaiah 50:6
• Soldiers would gamble for his clothes Psalm 22:18
• He would be crucified and pierced through his hand and feet Psalm 22:16
• His side would be pierced Zechariah 12:10
• He would be buried with the rich Isaiah 53:9
• His followers will desert him Zechariah 13:7
• He would resurrect on the third day Hosea 6:2
• He would ascend to Heaven Psalm 68:18
• He would sit at the right hand of God the father Psalm 110:1

In the history of mankind, since this world began it is very important to say that nobody, either prophet, priest or any man, ever spoke like Jesus Christ of Nazareth. According to John 7:46, the temple guards had been sent to go and arrest Jesus. These people were under authority but they came back without carrying out the order they were given, and chapter 45 says “When the Temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus, the leading priests and Pharisees demanded, ‘why haven’t you arrested him as instructed, and the soldiers replied “we have never heard anyone speak like this”.

To be the complete expression of God, Jesus had to be God, to communicate and understand man, Jesus had to be human also. Hence the title “SON OF GOD, SON OF MAN”.  God used Christ’s blood as a ransom to reconcile the whole world to himself ONCE AND FOR ALL. If we study closely the way Jesus Christ of Nazareth was crucified, you will notice that his blood was shed as a sacrifice. The blood in him was literally emptied, that when he was pierced in the side by a Roman soldier, water came out of him. Furthermore, he bled from his head, body, hands and legs. He was beaten and stripped and he looked so bad, that if we had seen the cross on which he hung before he was put down, all we would see is BLOOD.

To confirm this, let us quickly go through Psalm 22:14as it describes how Jesus Christ felt on the cross of Calvary. “My life is poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax melting within me, my strength has dried up like sunbaked clay, my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead, my enemies surround me, like a pack of dogs, an evil gang closes on me, they have pierced my hands and feet.” Also, John 19:34says One of the soldiers however pierced his side with a spear and Blood and Water flowed out.

THINGS WE MUST KNOW ABOUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS

• The Blood covers sin: No matter what the sin is, the blood of Jesus has the power to cleanse us and make us pure and holy. Hebrews 10:4 says “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to forgive sin.” Then Chapter 9:14 says “for by the power of the eternal spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. This is why he (JESUS) is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people.”  Brethren no matter what sin you have committed; the blood of Jesus has the power to forgive you in the twinkling of an eye. Remember the thief that was crucified beside Jesus? A man that had lived a life of crime, and just like that, he was forgiven. Why? Because he believed in Jesus. It is as simple as that. Furthermore, the twenty-four elders of God in Revelation 5:9 had this to say about Jesus. “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it, for you were slaughtered and YOUR BLOOD has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”No matter the sin or iniquity in our blood line, the Blood of Jesus has the power to make us new creations, new born children of God. New born children, not born of the flesh this time (earthly parents), but Born of the Spirit of God (Water Baptism). As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:17“Therefore if ANY MAN, be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away and all things have become New.”

• The Blood has a voice: Recall that when Cain killed Abel, and God inquired of him, where his brother was, Cain was bold enough to lie to God that he didn’t know. In response, God said to him, “the voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground”. From this we can deduce that blood has a voice and an innocent blood has a louder voice. While Cain’s blood was shouting VENGEANCE! VENGEANCE!! VENGEANCE!!! The blood of Jesus shouts “MERCY MY FATHER, I DIED FOR HIM/HER, HE BELIEVES IN MY BLOOD, MY BLOOD THAT WAS SHED, YOUR SPOTLESS LAMB, LETS FORGIVE HIM AND CLEANSE HIM/HER, YOU LOVE HIM/HER, YOU DON’T WISH FOR ANY SOUL TO PERISH MY FATHER, BECAUSE YOU ARE LOVE, HAVE MERCY ON HIM/HER MY FATHER, LETS CLEANSE HIM/HER, LETS SANCTIFY HIM/HER AND ADOPT HIM/HER INTO OUR FAMILY.” Also remember that despite the fact that Jesus was beaten, mocked, and spat on for no just cause, he still prayed for the people that crucified him. The blood of Jesus is the perfect voice that can speak for us in the courts of Heaven. Remember we have an adversary, an accuser, the Devil, who accuses us in the courts of Heaven. Every man needs to accept the finished works of Christ so the blood of Jesus can speak for him and cleanse him of all sin, iniquity and unrighteousness. What is also very important to note is THE DEVIL FEARS ONLY THE BLOOD OF JESUS. That is any Christian’s weapon of warfare against the Devil and his demons.

• The Blood gives us eternal life:Once any man accepts salvation by the blood of Jesus, he has passed from death to life. We seriously need to understand that what we call death is not what God calls death. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but in our eyes, these fathers of our faith are long “dead’. Does this mean, God is a God of the dead? Of course not. What God calls death is a spiritual death for those that will burn in Hell. Hence the first thing THE BLOOD OF JESUS does for us is, it gives us eternal life, and adopts us into the family of God, causing us to dwell in God’s kingdom. You cannot begin to understand how beautiful the Kingdom of God will be. I can tell you with all confidence that it will be the definition of the word Beautiful.

• The Blood was literally shed/poured out: For just a moment, anybody reading this should immediately open the Bible and read Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 to really have a glimpse of what Jesus went through on the cross of Calvary. He was bruised, wounded, pierced from his head, hands and feet, he was whipped and brutally wounded. I am very sure if we looked at the cross of Jesus as he hung there, all we would see is blood, just like a sacrifice. At the end of the day a soldier pierced his side and blood and water came out of him. Biologically, at the point where water starts to flow from the body instead of blood, it implies a complete drainage of blood. One of the most fascinating things about the crucifixion of Jesus our Lord is that Jesus died at a time when the people of Israel were celebrating the feast of Passover. God is perfect and accurate as we can see.
• The Blood gives us boldness to come to God: Once we accept the finished work of Christ’s blood, we are immediately adopted into the family of God. The word “adoption” means the placement of a child to one whom he/she does not biologically belong to. By law the adopted person has the same privileges, benefits, position, responsibilities and obligations as a biological born son. The use of this word is found in Romans 8:15, 23,9:4, Galatians 4:5, Ephesians 1:5. Believers in Jesus Christ are adopted sons Galatians 4:5,  Ephesians  1:5, not slaves of fear Galatians 4:7. Romans 8:15says: “So, you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead you received God’s Spirit, when he Adopted you as his own children, NOW WE CALL HIM, ABBA FATHER!” Once we understand and know this, then we start to relate with God as father and no longer as a fearful deity. We understand his love for us, by sacrificing his only son. At this point you will notice you stop practicing religion and you begin a relationship with your father in Heaven through the Blood of Jesus.

• The Blood is Insurance for our Soul: These days we hear a lot of things in the world that makes us scared and we tend to look for solutions to these things that gives us concern. We have different schemes of insurance. We can insure our houses, our cars, our businesses, and even our life. We hear health tips every day, imploring us to eat fruits, drink lots of water, exercise, and generally live healthy. While these things can be efficient to keep the body for a time, the best bet is to INSURE OUR SOUL. What do I mean by this? In the midst of the chaos in the world, the insecurity and so on, everyone ought to be sure that at ‘death’, their soul is going to Jesus. The biggest risk on earth any man can take is to live his life every day without the assurance of being with Jesus if he drops dead. That is what I call SOUL INSURANCE. How long do we get to live on this earth? 100 years? 80 years? 60 years? 120years? The Bible says in the eyes of God, a thousand years is like a day and a day is like a thousand years. We should live our life here on earth with the knowledge that this world is cursed and nothing lasts forever. No matter how much I have, it won’t last forever. No matter how beautiful my family is, it’s just for a short while. Hence everything on earth is vanity upon vanity, so we must INSURE OUR SOUL and be wise. All you need to do is believe that God sent his son to die for you, and accept the son, Jesus Christ, into your heart. You can accept him into your heart by saying and meaning these words “Lord Jesus, come into my heart and be real to me, let your blood wash me. Accept me and write my name in your Book of Life.”

• The Blood of Jesus puts your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life: One of the beautiful things I love about God is that his ways are exactly the same. We can evidently see and understand the concept of a book with God. Scriptures talks about God’s book, it also talks about God blotting out a name from his book, and later in the new testament, it talks about ‘THE LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE’.Exodus 32:31-33 reads So Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold, but now, if you will forgive their sin – but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.’ But the Lord said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book”.Then Revelation 20:12 reads “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done”. On most occasions where the Lamb’s book of life is mentioned, it refers to the register of those who have been chosen for salvation from eternity past. It is not temporal or earthly blessings that are in view, but participation in the eternal kingdom of God as recipients of eternal life. For example: Hebrews 12:22-23“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in Heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect”. Revelations 21:27“ But nothing unclean will ever enter it [the New Jerusalem on the New Earth], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life”

In conclusion, I implore anyone and everyone to read this material closely with an open mind as a child, and check out the Bible reference. The secret about these thing is, we can only be shown the door, but we are the ones that have to walk through it. Accept Jesus, believe in his blood, live for him, literally make him your LORD and he will make your life beautiful. The beautiful thing about God is he doesn’t ask for perfection, but he asks for progress in our walk with him. He wants us to Love his son Jesus Christ, he wants us to live for him and have a relationship with him while we are here on earth. Because he- Jesus, God has said he will prosper his plans through him. Brethren, it is a win-win situation. Nevertheless, if by any chance anybody should reject Jesus, if you are wrong about Jesus, YOU HAVE A VERY LONG TIME TO BE WRONG. PLEASE DO NOT DIE IN YOUR SINS, BECAUSE THE GRACE OF GOD ONLY COVERS THE LIVING, SO IF YOU DIE IN YOUR SINS, YOU WILL NEED BLOOD TO OVERCOME ALL THE ACCUSATIONS SATAN WILL BRING AGAINST YOU IN JUDGMENT…ACCEPT JESUS NOW, HE IS THE SPOTLESS LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD!!!