Some have said that the blood of the Lord Jesus gives us life. This means that our new life is based on the blood of the Lord Jesus. They say that when we drink the Lord’s blood, we acquire His life. They quote Leviticus 17:14, which says that life is in the blood. If we read this verse in a superficial way, we may agree with this teaching. But the blood does not bring us a new life. Blood is for redemption; it is to satisfy God’s demand. Exodus 12:13 gives us the governing principle concerning the blood: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” The blood is for God. It is to satisfy God’s demand, not our demand. There is only one instance in the Bible where the blood is spoken of as being for us. In that place it says that the blood is applied to our conscience (Heb. 9:14). However, even the conscience is for God.

What then is the meaning of the word life in Leviticus 17? The word life there is the same as soul in the original language. It refers to the soul-life. The Lord Jesus poured out His soul-life unto death. Isaiah 53:12 says that He poured out His soul unto death. The Lord Jesus shed His blood, that is, poured out His soul unto death for the accomplishment of redemption. He cried on the cross, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). Having said this He expired. His body was hung on the cross, and His soul, through the blood, was poured out for the accomplishment of redemption. (The characteristic of man is his soul. A sinful soul has to die; that is, the seat of a man’s personality must die.) At the same time He committed His spirit to God.

John 6 says several times that those who eat the Lord’s flesh as well as take His blood will have life. It also says that those who eat His flesh will have life. But at no time does it say that those who only drink His blood will have life. If a man drinks His blood, he also must eat His flesh before he will have life. We have to learn to be careful persons. If we mix up what God has separated, we will end up misunderstanding what He has said. We cannot expound the Bible carelessly. We must study God’s word carefully, find the hundreds of instances where the blood is spoken of, and study them one by one before we will see the light. The blood is to satisfy God’s demand; it is not to satisfy our demand.

Suppose John Wesley came and told us, “The Lord Jesus’ blood will cleanse our heart and eradicate the root of sin from us, and we will sin no longer.” What should we say? We should say, “The blood of the Lord Jesus has never cleansed our heart. The Bible never says that the Lord Jesus’ blood will cleanse our heart. God has given us a new heart. Man’s heart is more wicked than all things and can never be cleansed.” The blood is for redemption, not for cleansing. It is for forgiveness, not for sanctification. (There is a difference between sanctification before God and sanctification before men.) Some may ask, “Does not Hebrews 10 tell us that the blood of the Lord cleanses our heart?” [Translator’s note: This is the rendering in the Chinese Union Version.] No! The book of Hebrews speaks of the sprinkling of the conscience (10:22). The conscience is only a part of the heart. The only part within man that is conscious of sin is the conscience. The blood satisfies God’s demand and also satisfies our conscience’s cry. When we realize that the Lord Jesus has redeemed us from sin, spontaneously our conscience will no longer be conscious of sin. The function of the blood in our conscience is not to free us from sin but to remove our consciousness of sin. Freedom from sin is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the blood is different from the work of the Holy Spirit; we should never confuse the two.

Before the Lord we have to develop the habit of being accurate. If we are inaccurate, we will sacrifice God’s accuracy. If we have a habit of being inaccurate, we will not get anything when we read the Bible. We have to realize how accurate the Bible is. It is so accurate that it has no room for any confusion. We must be trained by the Lord to be accurate.
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