Why was the shedding of Christ’s blood necessary? Why could He not merely have died to save us from our sins? I’d like to give you three reasons. First; understand that it was ordained in the scheme of redemption by the Sovereign God, “Who works all things after the counsel of His own will,” whether men understand it or not. We read in Isaiah, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Cain’s failure to understand this and his attitude toward the assumed unreasonableness of the matter only led to his reprobation. Second; there is a principle of life for life involved in the scheme of salvation. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul,” (Lev.17:11). The vitality of life is in the blood. The blood is the carrier of life; the shedding of blood symbolizes the pouring out of life. This is what the prophet says of the dying of Christ in Isaiah 53:11: “He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” Third; to make atonement, blood shedding was established in the law. We see this in application in Hebrews 9:12-22, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” God’s law is unbending. It has zero tolerance. What was established by it must be accomplished. Therefore Jesus Christ came forth; “made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law” (that is to redeem those who were under the law’s curse). The holy life of Jesus Christ was necessary, but the holy life of Jesus alone could not save sinners. Sinners could not be saved apart from the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ.
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