The Shedding of His Blood

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22 NIV

There is no other way. Today we see the importance of the shedding of blood. Without it, there would be no forgiveness. Can you thank God for the shedding of blood?

When my youngest son was little, he was really into bandages. He constantly wanted me to bandage his finger, or his toe, or his leg, or any other part of his body. It was usually over nothing visible to the naked eye, but it was important to him at the time. I remember one time when he was actually bleeding. You would have thought he was already near death! Mere bandages wouldn’t do!

We don’t usually like to see blood flowing. I would suspect it was not a pleasant sight to see the blood flow from the scarred skin of Jesus, either. Even if you were there, and had fully known the truth within the shed blood, I doubt you would be applauding the event! Yet, His blood did shed. As they scoured His back with lash after vicious lash, the flogging must have taken huge toils on His skin. I’ve read that flogging was a science to the Romans. They knew just how to tear the skin, producing blood, but not yet taking the life. They reserved that for the Cross. I suspect Jesus, while He hung on the Cross, was not all cleaned up as modern pictures would suggest, but was rather brutal and bloody looking. It was not a pretty sight!

But, aren’t you glad the blood flowed? After all, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Had Jesus not come, had the blood not flowed, you and I would still be sacrificing lambs and goats today! Our sins would still not be forgiven completely. The shedding of Jesus’ blood made available to us the perfect sacrifice.

Praise God for the shedding of blood!