I once asked the Lord Jesus to reveal to me why forgiveness comes through blood. For example, Eph. 1:7 says, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” Col. 1:14 says almost exactly the same thing. John says, “If we walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7). This latter verse clearly speaks of an ongoing process, and is not referring to forgiveness as much as it is to the sin itself – washing us from the missing of God’s will and ways. In Revelation 1:5 it says that the glorious Lord Jesus Christ washed us from our sins in His own blood! Col. 1:20 says that Jesus made peace through the blood of His cross, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself. The only reference in the book of Acts as to what the blood of Jesus achieves for us says that He purchased the church with His blood. Eph. 2:13 says that we were formerly far from God, but have been brought near to God by the blood of Jesus. Similarly, Rom. 3:25 says that there is propitiation (bringing together God and man) in His blood, and Rom. 5:9 says that we were made righteous by His blood. Heb. 9:14 says that the blood of Christ purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Verse 12 of the same chapter says that He obtained eternal redemption through His blood. Verse 22 says that without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
So, again, why does cleansing and forgiveness, and resulting peace with God (and thus being redeemed to have man’s original inheritance, to eat of the tree of life, and live by the life of God) come through the shedding of Christ’s blood? Heb. 10:15 says that redemption is through the means of death. Shedding of blood is the pouring out of natural strength and life leading to death. Redemption is coming back to the place of having God’s life working in us, being our life and instructor, and we come back to this place by means of death. II Cor. 5:14 helps us here. It says that “one died for all, therefore all died.” He died for all because they needed to die, yet in a way that is constructive. He died to help us die, and rise again in new, spiritual, holy life. He died to help us die to the old natural ways, so that we can live in God. He died to cause us to put off the old man (Adam, in natural, carnal nature) and to put on the new man (Christ, risen and living in God). This new life is one that loves God, knows God, obeys God – it is the righteous life of Jesus Christ living in God. It strengthens and constrains us to love God. This is why the first part of verse 14 says “the love of Christ constrains us” – it is what operates in our hearts to lead and direct us in the ways of God. Love becomes our very heartbeat, as it were. Verse 15 then continues the thought, that He died for all that we who live should no longer live “to themselves” (or “by themselves”) but “to Him” (or “by Him”) who died and was raised for them. We are no longer living in our own naked souls, but our death has been swallowed up in life, we have been clothed with life (with “power from on high”). We no longer live by our own selves, but by Him and to Him and in Him. We have come into righteousness – Christ’s life.
Verse 17 sums it up – all who are in Christ are a new creation. The old things have PASSED AWAY, behold ALL things are BECOME NEW. This is how we are redeemed. Our Boaz, our strong redeemer, has redeemed us that we may live and have the inheritance of God’s nature being our nature. This is what we were created for, but we lost it and became poor. But the blood of Jesus causes us to die and rise with Him, to have our natural life poured out to death that we may have spiritual life. This is also how we are forgiven. We are forgiven because the old is gone, passed away. All the old sins and sinning are gone – righteousness replaces it, because Christ is our life. We are in a new place, so we are forgiven. This is why Paul says, “he who has died is justified from sin” (Rom. 6:7). Most versions say “freed” here, which is okay, but the actual wording is plain vanilla “justified,” or “made righteous.” It is through death that we pass into a place of being new, so the old is passed away, and we are released from our sins!
This is confirmed by Ezekiel 18, where a bunch of scenarios are given about righteous people and sinners. He says again and again that “the soul than sinneth, it shall die.” Probably the most significant scenario is in verses 21-22; if the wicked quits sinning, and starts doing righteousness, then his transgressions would be forgotten! In other words, he is forgiven by becoming righteous! God sums it up in verse 31: “cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a NEW HEART and a NEW SPIRIT.” That is the key -- a new life! Out of the abundance of the heart comes our actions. Then, in Ezekiel 36:26 God promises to give us a new heart and a new spirit! This happens in Christ through death and resurrection. We believe Jesus is righteous. We believe that through His death and resurrection we are made new. We believe that His life will make us all that we need to be. We cease from our works, and believe Him to do His works in and through us. And believing and cleaving we are made new. We are forgiven because we are NEW in Christ – the old is passed away. “We the believing do enter into rest” (Heb. 4:3), and “He who has entered His rest has ceased from his own works as God did from His” (Heb. 4:10). We believe His life and works. God is righteous. He is righteous enough for Himself and for us (Rom. 3:25-26)! It does not depend on the perfection of our performance, but on believing in Christ, that there is death and resurrection and new life and all righteousness and all good works and all believing and honoring and glorifying God IN HIM!
This is why Jesus only ever had to die once, even though in the old testament there needed to be a sacrifice for each sin. By His death and resurrection, there is a place for all men to come out of themselves and into His life – a holy, righteous life.
This is very different from what many teach about how forgiveness comes through Christ’s sufferings. They teach that God’s holy law has been violated, that His justice has been violated, so someone must suffer for it, and that Jesus stepped in to suffer for us. Yet this does not make any sense whatsoever. If there was a terrible serial murderer who was sentenced to die, and if there was also a perfectly righteous man willing to suffer death for him so that the man could go free, it would not make the murderer righteous. If he was set free, there would still be a murderer wreaking havoc in society. People would not accept this substitutionary forgiveness. It does not make any sense. Now if that murderer died, then society would be at peace. If a miracle could occur, so that that through the righteous man’s suffering the other man would die then revive with the heart and drive of the righteous man’s – in short he gets a new life – then society could be at peace.
We are forgiven because of the newness of life in Christ. This is why Paul says that if Jesus had not risen from the dead, then we would still be in our sins (I Cor. 15:17)! It was not enough that He died – He died AND AROSE for our forgiveness (II Cor. 5:15 – “He died and was raised for them”). We are at peace with God, because we have come up into the life of God, and are no longer contrary to Him. We are better than at peace with God – we are one with God (Gal. 3:14, 20-21, 28). We are righteous by faith, because we believe God’s righteousness is enough for us. We are complete in Christ (Col. 2:10). What a simple yet elegant solution God came up with! What an awesome work the Son of God has done! Thank you, Jesus.