Love Bleeds

“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

Love bleeds? Wait… what? Please don’t misunderstand this. It’s not meant to encourage violent behavior or any such thing. This blog post is to delve deeper into areas of theology that maybe some of you have never even contemplated before— why God chose ‘blood’ as the element of restoring humanity back into fellowship with Him. Why blood?

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Life is in the blood. When humanity rejected its Creator, this was an act of rebellion or sin. God is the Divine Lawmaker and so, His laws state that sin is a crime punishable by death. This is not merely a physical death but a spiritual death, too. Now people grow old and die. Now people are disconnected spiritually from God.

The way to reconnect spiritually to God is through the very thing that carries life—blood. This is why in the Old Testament, before Christ came to Earth, the Israelites (those chosen by God to bring salvation into the world), made amends for sin through the blood sacrifice of animals, as commanded by God for a season. That season ended with the final blood sacrifice completed by the “Lamb of God” — Jesus Christ (John 1:29). All of humanity’s sin was imputed on Christ. It is finished (John 19:30).

“For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human,” (1 Tim. 2:5)

Since Christ’s death and resurrection, today people who choose to believe in Jesus are made innocent by His blood. His life for ours – spiritually. This is a mystery, and theologians wrestle with how precisely this occurs in the spiritual realm. The Bible gives us a hint, however, of how this could happen as stated in Titus 3:6, “…by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

Once we accept Jesus into our lives, the Holy Spirit moves in and begins His work of regenerating our spiritual being. He moves us along a renewal process of becoming less sinful and more holy (or morally perfected). To know if this is “working,” sin should become less desirable.

When God moves in, there's less desire to sin! Click To Tweet

This was God’s first intention when He created humanity. We were meant to be Sons and Daughters of the Living God, holy and in constant communion with His Spirit. When we went our own way, that communion was broken. God, in His omniscience, knew this would happen. He didn’t have a plan B.


Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. 

Ephesians 1:3-4

He planned to offer Himself as a humble, human sacrifice to bridge the gap that sin caused when it entered our souls. This is how much He wants a relationship with us — that He would chose to become a man and suffer a tortuous death of crucifixion at the hands of those He created.

God made people with a free will to reject Him, but He also made a way for us to return to Him, if we so choose. This is true love – it must be a choice.

Some theologians trust that this is the process by which God will ultimately rid the entire universe of evil; keeping humanity’s free will intact while simultaneously working His will to weed out and confine evil. He wants people to choose Him freely—He doesn’t want forced obedience.

Jesus not only forgives our sins but He offers eternal life. Death no longer holds believers in its grip. Heaven awaits those who have received by faith this payment. God will have heaven full of beings delighted to spend eternity with Him. And the way of providing this blessing is found only in the pure blood of Jesus’ sacrifice… because His love bled.

Christ’s sacrificial love bleeds a bridge to eternal life Click To Tweet

16 Comments

  1. DeeDee Gollin February 7, 2019
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