“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1John 1:7 NKJV). 

What is the Significance of the Blood of Jesus Christ? 

1. We have been purchased by the Blood of Christ. “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).  
2. Since we have been purchased by the Blood of Christ, we are not our own to do as we please with our lives, but we must always consult God concerning what must best be done to promote His glory. “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1Corinthians 6:20). 
3. Based upon God purchasing us, even our OT counterparts, the nation of Israel, were taught a heavenly mindedness for themselves and an otherworldly mindedness for the world that observed them. “Fear and dread will fall on them; By the greatness of Your arm They will be as still as a stone, Till Your people pass over, O LORD, Till the people pass over Whom You have purchased” (Exodus 15:16). 
4. Our entire conduct has been redirected from aimlessness to focused upon Christ’s “holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14) through the Blood of Christ. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1Peter 1:18-19).  
5. Through the Blood of Christ, we have been elevated to be called “children of God” (John 1:12), though we have become bonded to God like a servant or slave, as Jesus did. “But made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). 

The Blood of Jesus Speaks 

“To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24). 

When Cain slew his brother Abel, God said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper? And He said, What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand” (Genesis 4:9-11). 

1. According to these passages from Genesis 4:9-11 and Hebrews 12:24, blood speaks to the Almighty, since He is God and accordingly, He has pronounced sentence from the Courts of Heaven as Judge of All the Earth (Genesis 18:25) because of the significance of the vitality of that blood. 
2. Blood is indispensable for physical, human life, but it also teaches us of the essential bond between the Father and His Only Begotten Son, who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), “for the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11). 
3. Supernaturally, “in Him we have redemption through His blood” (Ephesians 1:7), because God has chosen this to best represent our means of achieving a restored relationship with Him. 
4. Consequently, the Blood of Christ represents the breaking of our adversary the devil’s claim over us, who became our lord, when we rebelled against God. “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16). 
5. Again, this begs the question, Why did faithful Abel offer, and God received of him, a blood sacrifice, which was a “more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4)? Was it “not without blood” (9:7) because only by death and the shedding of blood could freedom from the self-life be obtained (from Andrew Murray’s “The Power of the Blood of Jesus”)? Notice also Abel’s pleasing act of faith in shedding the blood in sacrifice “still speaks” (11:4) because blood speaks and cries out to God, even when human mouths are silent. 
6. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13) illustrated to Israel and us the necessity of the death and shedding of the blood of a substitute, the Paschal lamb, for their Passover deliverance, and by way of extension, our deliverance through the death of Christ the Lamb of God, “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). 
7. All the great scenes of Scripture find some kind of connection to the Blood of Christ. It is just that we have so trivialized their significance in the repeated telling of the Scriptural narrative that its familiarity has bred a kind of contempt, which the adversary exploits for the purpose of robbing God’s people of their zeal for Christ and the truth. “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1Corinthians 2:14). “They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them” (1John 4:5). “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (5:19). 

Conclusion 

“There Is Power in the Blood” (1899) is a hymn sung for over 100 years from camp meetings to Nashville. Since we live in Laodicean times, both hot and cold conduct predominate in the Church. We know the language without consistently experiencing the power — “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2Timothy 3:5). 

Sin is the fundamental problem of the universe, and the Blood of Jesus is the only cure. 

Angels fell from heaven without redemption. Man transgressed, and animal sacrifices were required and given to cover sin and avert God’s wrath; however, not until the Blood of the Messiah was shed could sin be cleansed, erased, or annihilated. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1John 1:7). 

Father, we die for lack of appreciation of the efficacy of the Blood of Jesus. Revive us. Awaken us. Open our eyes and teach us that we have possessed the cure all along. Cause Your Spirit to illuminate our understanding. Take away from us the seeking of any and every thing as the cure for what ails us, other than the Blood of Jesus. Build Your Kingdom. Rapture Your Church. Lord Jesus, return quickly. In Your Name, we pray. Amen and amen. 

NOTE: I introduced thoughts on the Blood of Jesus in my previous blog entry, Most Valuable Resource.