God is not only the personification of perfect holiness (whose holy character we can never attain on our own or by our works of righteousness) but He is also the epitome of perfect love and full of grace and mercy. Because of His love and grace, He has not left us without hope and solution. The book of Genesis sets out the Lord’s blueprint for the reconciliation and salvation of fallen humanity. Since God is love, He could not let man be doomed. He therefore opened the door to salvation and eternal life.
Let us again look into the aspects of sin. How sin results in death how sin demands its penalty and wages and finally how God circumvents this tragic irony. When our first parents broke the law of God; sin entered and demanded its wages viz death. After all, God had said that if you eat the forbidden fruit you shall die. Thus, sin claimed its due which is death. As sinners, when we die, we only pay the wages of sin. Something more was needed to shut the mouth of sins demand once and for all.
In the Scriptures, we are told that life is in the blood. Leviticus 17:11 states “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Thus, not only is life in the blood, but it also makes atonement. Atonement for sin was achieved by sacrificing an animal’s life in substitution for one’s own life. The shedding of blood was the most critical element. It was the blood of the guiltless substitute offered on the altar that served as payment for the people’s sins. Through God’s ordained system of sacrifice in the Old Testament, the Lord laid the groundwork for a message that would not be fully grasped until later:
The full meaning of “the life is in the blood” would only be revealed in Jesus Christ: Hebrews 10:4-5 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:” It has always been God’s will for humans to be made right with God by the sacrifice of the body of sinless Jesus Christ, once for all. Hebrews 10:10 “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
When Jesus came and offered up His sinless life, pouring out His blood on the cross, the perfect sacrifice was finally consummated: Hebrews 9:14 “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Believers are cleansed, forgiven, and made right with God by the blood of the Lamb, God’s guiltless substitute.
Dr Ashwin Drummond
laddertoheaven.co.in