The blood of Jesus has washed away our sins, being the price that was paid for our sin debt. And as a result, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Eph 1:7). We have all that God offers only through the blood of Jesus. Redemption here refers to God’s recovery of His ownership of us (the redeemed) by having bought us back. He paid the full ransom for our liberation from the captivity of Satan. The shedding of the blood of Jesus was a legal transaction by which our freedom was purchased. This is why we have redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins.
Sin is a grievous and terrible thing that entered human history through human submission to Satan’s deceptive tactics. Sin corrupted humanity in toto, thereby occasioning spiritual death in mankind. Man was estranged from God the moment he ate fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The result was that the human race became a slave to Satan and his demons. Under Satan’s rule, human beings became subject to the triple torments of sicknesses/diseases, poverty and death.
However, God mercifully set in motion His redemptive plans by killing an innocent animal and using its bloody skin to cloth Adam and Eve as a covering of righteousness. Hence, we see that the foreshadowing of the redemptive work of Christ began right then and there in the garden of Eden.
The fact that God Himself performed the first animal sacrifice on man’s behalf clearly confirms that, “… without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Heb 9:22). The Amplified version puts it this way: “… without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins.” (Heb 9:22). Adam’s sin necessitated the infliction of “the due and merited punishment for sins.” The claims of divine justice ⚖ can neither be ignored nor denied. It can only be satisfied by the shedding of blood for atonement, otherwise God ceases to be just.
Consequently, the Bible is replete with subsequent animal sacrifices which were made to atone for the sins of mankind. In fact, prior and preparatory to the Exodus from Egypt, God announced the imminent death of every firstborn in Egypt, both of man and animal (Ex11:4-5). However, God would make a distinction between Egyptians and Israelites: “But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’” (Ex 11:7). That, however, would be on one condition: the shedding of blood. There was no other way to escape the coming tragedy.
Accordingly, God commanded Moses to “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. NOW THE BLOOD SHALL BE A SIGN FOR YOU on the houses where you are. And WHEN I SEE THE BLOOD, I WILL PASS OVER YOU; AND THE PLAGUE SHALL NOT BE ON YOU to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Ex 12:3,12-13) (emphasis mine). What the blood of the lamb was to Israelites then, the blood of Jesus is to us today, and more. Shalom.
