Very important, in Scripture language, is the mention made of blood. So much so, indeed, that perhaps the perfect apprehension of it is not known. From the beginning of the creation of God, the Lord himself pointed to the blood as the life of the creature. And in a peculiar and special manner, the Lord intimated somewhat of an high nature in the blood, when speaking to Cain concerning the blood of his brother Abel, which he had shed; the Lord said, "What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." In the margin of the Bible, the word is rendered bloods, in the plural number. (Genesis 4:10) In Deuteronomy 12:23, the prohibition of eating blood is mentioned with peculiar emphasis, and the reason assigned; "because it is the life." And it is again and again forbidden. There can be no question but that much of the Lord Jesus, and his precious blood-shedding, was veiled under it; though the subject is too mysterious to explain.
It is, no doubt, a wonderful dispensation from beginning to end, that of redemption by the blood of Christ. That blood should be an appointed laver for uncleanness, so that, "without shedding of blood there is no remission;" and that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin," (1 John 1:7) whereas according to all our natural ideas of blood, it defiles. Yea, the Lord himself, speaking of defilements in his people Israel, he expresseth their uncleanness under this figure: "Your hands are full of blood;" and instantly adds, "wash you, make you clean: put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes." (Isaiah 1:15-16) But here we stop; the subject is mysterious, and beyond our scanty line of knowledge to fathom. It is enough for us to know that that blood which Christ shed, as a sacrifice for sin, is, the only "fountain opened to the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for all uncleanness." In this the church on earth are beheld clean; and in this the church in heaven are accepted before God, having "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:14) And hence, those strong expressions we every where meet with in the Scripture, "of the blood of the covenant, the blood of sprinkling, and the like." (Zechariah 9:11; Hebrews 12:24)