The Life-giving Power of Jesus’ Blood

Your blood is incredible and unique. Often we associate blood with injury and even death. But God reveals that blood is all about life! ‘For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life’ (Leviticus 17:11). And as we read in today’s Scripture, Jesus also teaches us that blood is all about life.

Your blood feeds every cell in your body. It also cleanses waste and transports poisons away. In the same way Jesus Christ’s blood cleanses away the waste and poisons of the sins that damage your health.

Your blood also battles against your body’s foreign invaders. When you contract disease or infection, an alarm signal sounds throughout your entire body marshalling together billions of white cells to come against the invaders. If necessary, billions more white cells are produced, until the infection is conquered. Most of these remarkable white cells have a lifespan of just a few days. You also have a smaller number of specialist white cells that live for many years. They survive an infectious attack, such as measles, and are then programmed to recognise and destroy the measles virus if it should try to return.

Now if you were struggling to win the battle against measles, a doctor could give you an injection made from the blood of another person who has conquered the measles virus. The donor’s antibodies fight the virus until your body is armed sufficiently to carry on its own fight. You have then overcome the measles, not by your own blood’s resistance, but as the result of a battle won within the body of someone else! It is like that with us and Jesus.

Dr Paul Brand, a specialist surgeon in hand reconstruction among lepers, wrote about the remarkable healing in Jesus’ blood. ‘At Communion the wine represents the blood of Jesus. It is Jesus saying to us: “This is my blood, strengthened and prepared for you. This is My life which was lived for you and can now be shared by you. I was weary, irritated, tempted, persecuted and abandoned. When you are, you may use My strength and share My Spirit. I have overcome the world for you.”’

The battle that Jesus won in His body can be transferred to yours, through His death, His blood. This is represented by the wine at Communion. Because of His death, we can receive His life. The ascended Lord Jesus declared, ‘I am the Living One, I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!’ (Revelation 1:18). Communion sums up all three tenses of this statement: the life that was and died for us; the life that is and lives in us; and the life that will be and will come for us. Jesus Christ is life itself.

Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, that you were willing to die for me. Thank You that Your shed blood means life for me and all who believe. Help me Lord to never forget what You did for me on the cross – I’m so grateful. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.