Why Is Blood So Important in Christianity?
- Clarence L. Haynes Jr. Contributing Writer
- Updated Jul 20, 2023
“What can wash away my sins
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
O Precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow
No other fount I know
Nothing but the blood of Jesus”
Robert Lowry wrote this hymn in 1876 and we have been singing it ever since. For centuries, Christians have been talking and singing about the blood of Jesus. When you turn through the pages of Scripture, so much is written about the blood.
Why is blood so important in Christianity? For starters, there is no Christianity without the blood. Beyond that, as you are about to see, the blood of Jesus has many applications in your life which behooves you to understand the importance of the blood.
7 Reasons Blood Is So Important in Christianity
1. The Blood Cleanses Your Sin, aka the Oxymoron of Blood
One of the most fascinating things about the blood of Jesus is the Bible calls it a cleansing agent.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
I call this the blood oxymoron. As you know, one of the most difficult stains to get out of your clothes or your carpets is blood. If someone is bleeding in your house, if possible, you try to keep them from bleeding on your favorite couch because you know how challenging it is to remove those stains.
Here is the oxymoron. If you are in Christ, his blood doesn’t stain you, it cleanses you. This blood that Jesus spilled, when applied to your life, cleanses and washes away all your sin. We may never use blood like this in a natural sense, but for sinners the blood of Jesus is the only cleansing agent.
2. The Blood Cleanses Your Conscience, aka the Qualifying Blood
“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (Hebrews 9:14).
One of the most important aspects of the blood is that it doesn’t just cleanse your sins, it cleanses your conscience. I could make the case that after the cleansing of your sins, this work of the blood might be the most important work. Without applying this aspect of the blood to your life, then you will always carry around with you a guilty conscience. Just thinking about the sins of the past can keep you trapped in them – even though you know you have repented.
A guilty conscience will affect every aspect of your relationship with God. It will affect how you pray, how you live, and how you serve him. If your conscience is guilty, then you are on a hamster wheel living and serving to alleviate the guilt and shame of your sinful past. This doesn’t work. If you live in your guilt, your relationship with God will never flourish, because the last thing you would ever want to do is come close to a perfect and holy God with a guilty conscience. Just think about Adam and Eve in the garden. This pushes you away from God and does not draw you near him.
Thankfully, the blood deals with this and frees you so you can approach God, live for him, and serve him. The best part is you can serve from a place of freedom and love, and not from a place of guilt.
3. The Blood Forgives, aka the Restoring Blood
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
“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).
If you are in Christ, today you are forgiven. God's grace and mercy, exercised through the blood of Jesus, have forgiven you. When God sees the blood applied to your life, he knows it has dealt with your sins. The blood of Jesus, which brings forgiveness, has forever restored the fellowship with the Father that was lost in the garden.
4. The Blood Redeems aka the Purchasing Blood
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Your salvation is free. However, it came at an exorbitant price. Jesus had to shed his blood to redeem you. There are two definitions of the word redeem that I love.
- To compensate for the faults or bad aspects of something
- To regain possession of something for a payment
When Jesus was shedding his blood, he was doing so as compensation for our sin. His blood was not the price for his faults, it was the price for yours and mine. However, he did this because we were sinners and to regain possession of us, a payment had to be made. His blood was that payment and by him choosing to give it, he purchased our salvation and bought us back from the sin that had enslaved us.
5. The Blood Conquers, aka the Fighting Blood
“They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony”
Another reason the blood is so important in Christianity is because we have an adversary named Satan. One thing Satan likes to do is remind you of your past.
(Just a quick side note. If God has forgiven your sins, he will never remind you of them. If you are feeling guilty over sins you know you have repented of, that is not the Holy Spirit. Just thought you should know that.)
When the enemy comes to bring up your sins, how do you confront him? You confront him with the blood of Jesus. When he tries to remind you of your sin, you remind him of the blood that has cleansed you from all your sins. In this fashion, you conquer the enemy and overcome him by the blood.
6. The Blood Remains, aka the Marking Blood
One of the worst characteristics about blood in the natural becomes one of its best characteristics about blood in the spiritual. As I mentioned earlier, blood is not easily removed and even when you try to clean it, the evidence remains. As a fan of crime shows, I always find it fascinating how detectives go about solving mysteries. When there is a murder mystery where someone was killed in a house, one thing they look for is blood stains. Criminals who are trying to cover their tracks will often try to clean up the blood stains so investigators cannot find any. However, there is a substance called luminol, and when you spray it in an area and turn the lights out, it will glow with a pale blue color. The glowing spots are the places where there was blood. The blood remains, and it leaves markers where it has been.
The good news for you and me is the blood remains. His blood forever marks your account as proof that your sins are forgiven and that you belong to Jesus because you have been washed in His blood.
7. The Blood Endures, aka the Blood of the Eternal Covenant
“Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20).
The last thing I will highlight as to why blood is important in Christianity is because the blood of Jesus is the foundation of our new covenant. This covenant is better than the old one, and this covenant is eternal. One day, we who are in Christ will enjoy his presence forever. This won’t be because of anything we have done. It will be because he has established an eternal covenant in blood that will never go away. The sins of yesterday are cleansed forever because of his blood. We stand in relationship and service to the Lord today because of his blood. We will live forever with Jesus because of his blood.
Final Thought
There is more I can say about the blood, but with what I shared, I hope you can see why blood is so important in Christianity. I know in some 21st century versions of church, they have stopped singing or preaching about the blood. What a tragedy. My prayer is we would even more proclaim the wonder and necessity of the blood of Jesus. Let us declare louder than ever before “O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow, no other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Regardless of what anyone else chooses to do I will embrace the blood of Jesus forever and I pray you will do the same.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/jchizhe
