Nothing But the Blood
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:25
We are familiar with the thought that Jesus’ blood washes away sin, cleanses, opens the door to the kingdom of heaven, prepares us for communion with God. The words of the hymn “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” are firmly planted in our minds:
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus. “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus,” Robert Lowery (1876)
Where do we see this in Scripture? What does God’s holy word say about the blood?
Through the cross, through the blood, through Jesus, we gain life. And this is not a concept introduced as an afterthought. It was planned well in advance. It was part of God’s plan. The foundation is presented in the Torah where we see images foreshadowing the cleansing blood of Jesus.
Noah. In Genesis we see the thought that blood is the fluid of life. God speaks to Noah saying,
“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” Genesis 9:3-7
At v.9:4 Genesis equates blood and life. Blood is life and God forbids its consumption.
The Passover. In Exodus, we see blood providing life. The Passover blends images of God’s saving grace through the lamb’s blood and God’s assertion of ownership of the lives saved. After the first nine plagues, God gives detailed instructions to Moses and Aaron. On a certain day, each household was to select a one-year-old male lamb without blemish and take it home. Four days later, at a specific time, each household would kill the lamb, mark the doorposts and lintel of their house with blood from the lamb, roast the lamb and eat it all that night with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. Any food remaining the following morning was to be burned. During the final plague of Egypt, the first Passover, blood on doorposts provides life. After Moses and Aaron hear the instructions, we read the following:
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. Exodus 12:21-28
At midnight that night, God killed the first born of everyone in Egypt including humans and livestock, saving only those who were in a house marked with the lamb’s blood. The lamb’s blood saved certain people.
Through Moses, God instructed His people to observe the ritual of the Passover each year forever to remember what God did for His people that day – He saved His people through the blood of the lamb. The Passover feast was a ritual of remembrance.
The following day, God asserted ownership of the firstborn of the nation including people and livestock. God said, “Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine” (Exodus 13:2). He claimed ownership of the lives saved through the blood of the lamb.
Blood of the Covenant. Later in Exodus, at chapter 24, as God’s people camped at Mount Sinai, we see blood sealing a covenant between God and His people, and blood cleansing His people so they might share a meal with Him in communion. The passage follows:
Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”
Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. Exodus 24:1-18
God delivered His instructions for how people should live. His people agreed to follow His commands. After that, they killed animals as a sacrifice to God, threw half the blood on an altar fashioned for the purpose, and threw half the blood on the people (or possibly on twelve pillars set up as representatives for the people). After that, God appeared before them and they ate and drank in God’s presence. They feasted in communion with God.
The blood of the sacrifice sealed the covenant and purified them so that they could commune with Him. The life of the lamb, which is its blood, cleansed, purified, and enabled them to commune with God and enjoy the abundance of His presence, symbolized by the feast.
Leviticus. In Leviticus, God explains that He gives life through blood on the altar saying,
“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.” Leviticus 17:11
Way back in the books of Moses, we see God connecting life and blood. Blood is life. Blood provides life. We see God’s saving grace through the blood of the lamb, and God’s assertion of ownership of the lives saved. We see blood sealing a covenant between God and His people, and blood cleansing His people so they might share a meal with Him in communion. Images presented in the Torah foreshadow Jesus’ blood, God’s holy grace, and the life offered through it.
New Testament. The blood is life. We gain life through Jesus’ blood. Jesus says,
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:54
Jesus’ blood provides life to those who drink it, and not just any life but eternal life, life abundant, the kingdom of God, but how do we drink it?
On the night of the Last Supper, just before surrendering Himself to death so that we might live, Jesus celebrated the Passover feast with the disciples. After the feast He took a cup of wine and said,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 1 Corinthians 11:25
After the first Passover in Egypt, God instructed His people to repeat the ritual of the Passover feast annually as a reminder of what God did for them that night. God wanted His people to remember that He saved them through the blood of the lamb and claimed ownership of each life saved. As part of that feast of remembrance, Jesus instructed His followers to drink His blood in remembrance of Him and His mighty acts of saving grace.
Jesus also referred to the cup as “the new covenant in [His] blood.” His words harken back to Exodus 24 and the episode of the Blood of the Covenant, which sealed the covenant between God’s people and God and cleansed His people so that they could commune with Him and enjoy the feast in His holy presence. Through the blood of the new covenant, we similarly commune with God the Father through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We are cleansed and purified, and we are allowed to commune and feast with Him.
The New Testament refers to the saving, cleansing, redeeming power of Jesus’ blood in a variety of ways. Here are a few passages:
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, Ephesians 1:7
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:20
he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:12
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Revelation 1:5-6
Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…. Revelation 5:9
Through Christ’s blood, we have redemption, we are reconciled with God, we gain eternal life, we are cleansed from sin, we are forgiven. All of this was foreshadowed in the Torah, and Jesus directly referred to two of the images by sharing in the Passover feast and referring to His cup as blood of the new covenant.
“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Amen.