Last updated on 1/1/99 pretty line

Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #56

JESUS calls US to be
members of His church
hand reaching out
e-mail address

The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide.
It's not really blood that saves sinners,
but the atoning DEATH represented by the blood!

BY SETH WILSON of Joplin MO
from a study in GOOD NEWS OR BAD?,
a study workbook available from
Mission Outreach in Joplin.

    [If a translation of the Bible OMITS references to the blood of Christ (in reference to His atoning DEATH on the cross in our place), or if it denies the virgin birth, or the deity of Jesus, then that is NOT an accurate or usable translation for Christians. Some charge that the American Bible Society's TODAY'S ENGLISH VERSION (of which the New Testament editions were called Good News for Modern Man) is not acceptable for the reasons listed above. Seth Wilson says the critics haven't done their homework. They're wrong. Here's why, says Seth Wilson --]

     In the Biblical revelation, the work of God is seen as being solving for man the problem of sin. The Bible presents Jesus of Nazareth as the one who redeems from sin, who reconciles sinners to our God.

     Reconciliation is possible only because of the death of Jesus (the unblemished "lamb" of God) in our place on Calvary's cross. His death makes our eternal life possible. The atonement of Calvary is prefigured by centuries of animal sacrifice in which innocent animals were put to death in lieu of sinful men. But the death of any animal can not fully satisfy the righteous demand for the sinner to pay sin's penalty, which is death.

     From the time sin began, God had taught the need for a sacrificial, atoning death to redeem men from the curse and consequences of sin. Although the death of animals could NOT actually take away sin, animal sacrifices were required by God until Christ Himself  became the perfect sacrifice for sin. Only HIS death could fulfill the sentence of death that sin demands.

     Since blood is necessary to life (life itself cannot be seen, only evidences OF life), life is represented in the Bible by blood, which CAN be seen and which is necessary for the life of a man. We can see blood. We can handle blood. In blood, men can see and handle a thing which dramatizes sacrificial death.

     Speaking of the centuries of ceremonies which proclaimed sacrificial death as the only hope for sinners, Hebrews 9:1-10:31 says: When Christ went through the tent and entered once and for all into the Most Holy Place, he did not take the blood of goats and calves to offer as sacrifice; rather HE TOOK HIS OWN BLOOD and obtained eternal salvation for us. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of the burnt calf are sprinkled on the people who are ritually unclean, and make them clean by taking away their ritual impurity. Since this is true, how much MORE is accomplished by THE BLOOD of Christ!

    Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will make our consciences clean from useless works, so that we may serve the living God....

    The quotation is here interrupted so we may point out that this is quoted from the translation in question -- the Today's English Version. Does it HERE seem to leave out the blood or deny blood atonement? You can easily see that the charge is unfounded!!! Note in the verses next following that "death" and "the shedding of blood" are used interchangeably:

     For this reason Christ is the one who arranges a new covenant, so that those who have been called by God may receive the eternal blessings that God has promised. This can be done because there has been a DEATH which sets men free from the wrongs they did while they were under the first covenant.

     Where there is a will, it has to be proved that the man who made it (the will) has died. For a will means nothing while the man who made it is alive; it goes into effect only after his DEATH. That is why even the first covenant was made good only with the use of blood... Indeed, according to the Law, almost everything is made clean by blood; and sins are forgiven only if blood is poured out....

     The Jewish Law is not a full and faithful model of the real things -- it is only a faint outline of the good things to come. The same sacrifices are offered for ever, year after year. How can the Law, then, by means of these sacrifices make perfect the people who come to God? If the people worshipping God had been made really clean from their sins, they would not feel guilty of sin any more, and all sacrifices would stop. As it is, however, the sacrifices serve to REMIND people of their sins, year after year. For the blood of bulls and goats can never take sins away....

COMMENT -- Animal sacrifice could never take away sin. A better sacrifice is needed. Blood is seen in this text to symbolize the sacrificial death required for remission of sins.

     So God does away with all the old sacrifices and puts the sacrifice of Christ in their place. Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do, we are all made clean from sin by the offering that he made of his own body, once and for all...

COMMENT -- It's not just the blood from the body of a sacrifice that cleanses, but the sacrificial death OF the body. This translation makes clear that death, as symbolized BY blood, takes away sin. It is NOT true that TEV omits the blood!

     With one sacrifice, then, he has made perfect for ever those who are clean from sin....

Other references where TEV uses blood to symbolize the atoning death are --

In these representative passages, we read of blood and of the
taking away of sin and guilt BY blood.

     The same clear teaching will be noted in many other passages in the 3rd edition of TEV, which was the latest available as this study was prepared.

     And in some passages, where "blood" is sometimes used in other translations, TEV translators substituted the English word "death." See Acts 20:28. The meaning of the verse is NOT changed by the use of "death" in place of "blood." The translators apparently felt it was made more clear for English readers.

"Saved By the Blood"

    There is no magic in the blood of Christ. Some suppose it may be the actual BLOOD of Christ which washes away sin, but we are saved by His atoning DEATH in our place.

     Blood splashed on doorposts in Egypt did not ITSELF save the life of firstborn sons. The lives were not saved without it, but it did NOT in itself save. It was a SIGN (or token) of the sacrifice God required. Putting the blood on the doorposts was an act of faith in God's promise of deliverance. It was a symbol of acceptance of His conditions.

     Paul says that the penalty for sin is DEATH (not blood). Christ's death should not be thought of as merely a way of releasing His blood so that IT can be the cleansing agent. Men speak of being cleansed by His blood as a figure of speech.

     Shedding of His blood is incidental to His sacrificial DEATH. Blood symbolizes life. Shedding of blood symbolizes death. But we should not lose sight of the fact that it is Christ's DEATH, rather than the blood itself, which saves from sin. A transfusion of the actual blood of Jesus would not have saved any sinner then or now from sin's penalty. Christ's DEATH saves from sin.

     Transfusion of blood would not save. Nor would baptism in blood. Salvation is not actually in the BLOOD. We are saved by accepting HIM in faith, by dying to sin, then being lifted up out of the waters of baptism to walk with Him in new life. By appropriating His death and His life to ourselves by the life of FAITH, we find life through His death and by our joining in a death to sin which is dramatically pictured in our baptism.

     Justification is possible for us because of His atoning death -- the sinless one dying in place of the sinner, rather than because of His actual blood. There IS no magic in the blood of Christ.

          Brief Bible Study #56 from Ray Downen. To go back to Viewpoint's first page, click < here.   Or here to go on to Viewpoint Study 57.  For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.