The Life is in the Blood —

Modern science now acknowledges and understands that the life of the flesh quite literally is in the blood as it “transmits the very ‘breath of life,’ [by] carrying the oxygen from the lungs throughout the body to all its cells.”[5] The blood also carries food and water and defends us against disease producing organisms as well as repairing injured tissues. And rather than bloodletting, doctors now prescribe blood transfusions to help with blood loss and to fight sickness and disease.

The fact that the Bible revealed the importance of blood many millennia before scientists fully described and elaborated on it truly is a wonderful testimony that it is not the mere product of men but is inspired by the Creator God Himself. However, God’s primary concern is not to give us a biology lesson but rather to teach a more important spiritual truth. As Leviticus 17:11 (and similar passages) goes on to explain, without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins. Because, as Romans 6:23 explains, “the wages (I.e., cost/price) of sin is death.” And since “the life is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11a) then “without shedding of [the life] blood there is no remission” of sin (Hebrews 9:22, Leviticus 17:11b). So the cost for sin (even just one sin) is nothing short of our life. However, not wanting us to perish, God in His love instituted substitutionary sacrifice in which he would accept one life in place of another. This began with animal sacrifices in the Old Testament but was ultimately fulfilled by God Himself who gave His own lifeblood in place of ours on the cross through the God-man Jesus Christ — the sinless “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29) for “whoever believes” (John 3:16).

Jesus Christ is the only solution to our sin problem, which the Bible describes as a spiritual and terminal disease. And just as I began by quoting Dr. Henry Morris, so do I want to conclude because this important spiritual truth is again paralleled by a physical biological truth. As Morris points out, “The blood, which is the channel of life, becomes also the carrier of disease and infection through the body when they gain the upper hand in the system. Physical life and death symbolize spiritual life and death, just as physical disease and injury symbolize the spiritual disease of sin. As the infection of sin spreads throughout the soul, it will eventually, “when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:15), and this is spiritual death, eternal separation from God in hell. If spiritual life is to be created and maintained, it must come from outside. It must be life untainted with sin and containing the power to combat the sin-disease in the spiritually dying soul. Figuratively speaking, a blood transfusion is essential from a qualified donor whose blood possesses the purity and efficacy required for the cleansing and healing of the mortally sin-sick soul.”[6] And that qualified doner is none other than Christ Jesus!