The High Price For Forgiveness

A Bloody Scene – by Sheldon Bass

“The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:22 NIV

When I was ten, I remember keeping a scrap book filled with pictures of lions and tigers hunting. Many of them depicted gory kills. One day my mom happened upon those bloody pictures. She became concerned that I might be turning into some sort of twisted, sadistic kid. Blood has a tendency to make us recoil in horror. But my fascination had to do with a compulsion to understand death.

Many old Christian hymns include references to blood. It’s the shed blood of Christ which cleanses us from our sins. What picture could better display the awful consequences of sin upon the world than spilt blood? God has a grand purpose in all things.
When Adam and Eve sinned, it drastically changed mankind and the world. The consequences of sin are exceptionally horrific. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a KJV) And life is in the blood. “For the life of a creature is in the blood…” (Leviticus 17:11a NIV) As a stark expression of sin’s cost, God clothed Adam and Eve with dead animal skins.

God has taught me that I should be aghast and horrified at the prospect of sin. It should make me recoil in horror—the same response as to a bloody, gruesome death. But it’s in man’s fallen nature to trivialize sin rather than acknowledge its true devastating make-up.

However, because of God’s awesome love for you and me, Jesus allowed His own blood to be spilled, taking that awful death penalty for us, His blood proclaims His love