Blood: The Spiritual Currency

The ancient Egyptians believed they could satisfy the wrath of the deities with the blood of their fellow man, even sending some to an early grave to travel in the afterlife with the Pharaohs.

The people of Teotihuacan sacrificed human beings in hideous fashion to their god, Quetzalcoatl, also known as the “Feathered Serpent.” (I wrote extensively about this here.)

The Canaanites sacrificed their children to Molech, spilling their blood to appease the false god. Even some of the Jewish people were corrupted to the point of doing the same.

Different as they are in myriad ways, it seems as though virtually all religions have always converged on a central reality: there is power in the blood.

In Christian thought, this point should be rather obvious. After all, Scripture speaks repeatedly about the need to shed blood for the forgiveness of sins, and innumerable hymns speak to its potency.

But have you ever stopped to truly evaluate why? Why, exactly, does blood carry such power? Why is blood necessary for atonement and the forgiveness of sins?

In this article, I want to answer these pivotal questions. More than that, I want to suggest that there is far more going on with the significance of Jesus’ blood than most of us have ever realized. Far more.

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Blood Lust

The first question that needs answering is perhaps known to many of you but may not be totally understood. What is with the blood lust: why the obsession?

At the end of the day, blood represents life. Put another way, it is the life source; drain the blood and you drain the life of something. It’s just as God told the Israelites in Leviticus 17:11:

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”

Hebrews 9:22 echoes this reality:

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

The shedding of blood requires the death of the person or animal providing it. Life and death: there can be no clearer or dramatic distinction available to us. Nothing else imaginable could ever have the significance of the sanguine liquid that fills our veins and pumps throughout our bodies. Is there a more vivid and powerful visual in all the world than seeing the blood drain from a wounded animal or, worse yet, seeing it leave a human being and pool beneath them?

Little by little, the power, the life force, and the energy fade as an exit from this world becomes certain.

I apologize for the graphic description, but the point needs to be clear—life is found in the blood. As such, nothing on this earth is more sacred than human blood. This is exactly why the ancients sacrificed their brothers, sisters, parents, and even children, to the many false gods of the world, all of whom find their identity in Satan: the one whom the Bible calls “the god of this world.” Horus . . . Baal . . . Moloch . . . you name it.

There are not many evil deities but one, just as there is only one true Lord of the cosmos: Jesus Christ.

Satan—Lucifer, the Evil One, the Ancient Serpent, and the Father of Lies—is a blood-thirsty monster who is destined for the pits of hell. Satan has been showered in blood by his devoted followers throughout all of human history, because he owns our history. He owns our world, for now.

This leads us to the greater point in this discussion of blood: the point that alludes so many (and long alluded me).

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The Currency of the Spiritual World

Ever since the Fall of Man, Satan has run the show. Contrary to popular thought, we are not born into a neutral situation, where we must decide which path to take. A newborn does not live somewhere between Satan’s clutches and Christ’s rule. No, in biblical thought, we are born into the ownership of the Evil One.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:1-3, my emphasis).

There isn’t a soul on earth who has, does, or will ever live apart from this reality. All of us begin our lives in servitude to Lucifer and, sadly, many remain that way until death. But there is, shall we say, “good news.” Blood can buy us back from this wretched state. Blood can give us a new Master and an infinitely better existence.

But, to do so, this blood must be of the highest quality. It must be far more precious and costly than the blood of any animal or even any mere mortal.

What would it take to be redeemed from Satan—whom, again, Paul called the “god of this world,” and the Jesus called the “ruler of this world” (Jn. 14:30)? How do you buy a living soul back from such a powerful, spiritual being? Well, there is only one logical way: with the blood of a more powerful, spiritual being.

This is exactly what Jesus did on this earth more than 2,000 years ago. Being fully God and fully man, only Christ was able to provide the proper atonement—the proper blood sacrifice—to deliver us from the grasp of those in the heavenly realms and the spiritual places. Jesus’ blood is the most valuable spiritual currency in this world or the one that we cannot see: the most valuable currency in all existence.

Jesus’ blood—and that alone—can save us from our fallen and Satanically-owned starting point, and only this spiritual currency can save us from an unspeakable ending point.

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Power in the Blood

Do you now have a better glimpse of what is really behind the world’s blood lust? Does the sacrifice that Jesus made—and the spilling of his divine blood—appear to you in a fresh and powerful way? With the previous information in mind, let’s now look at a few passages that should now take on a whole new meaning.

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock . . .” (Acts 20:28-29).

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come . . . he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:11-12).

Finally, understand what Jesus said about the sacrifice he would later make:

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:45).

Only with this understanding of blood can we truly know what it meant for Jesus to give his life “as a ransom.” The Greek word used here for “ransom” is lutron, and it is used only twice in the entire New Testament. Both times refer to the same event, just from a different Gospel account (Mk. 10:45 and Mt. 20:28). Among other things, lutron means “the purchasing money for manumitting slaves.” That is, the currency that must be used to set a slave free from his or her captor.

You see, we were held hostage by the evil powers of darkness. All people coming into the world are held hostage in this state of complete slavery to Satan. Indeed, it is Jesus’ divine blood that bought us back from Satanic ownership.

Do you see that now? Do you really understand what is going on here? Jesus’ blood purchased us back from Satan! Divine blood was shed and used on our behalf, so that we could live as slaves to Christ rather than slaves to Lucifer!

A very, very real transaction took place 2,000 years ago at Golgotha, and it occurred in the spirit realm. Blood was the currency used . . . divine blood.

This is without question one the most profound biblical teachings and realities in all existence. This is the very thing that we take for granted when we say, “Christ died for us.”

In closing, please know this. Everyone—everyone—coming into this world inherits a cell in Satan’s prison. We are born as captives; that is our starting point.

Only the blood of Christ can set the captives free.

As the ageless hymn proclaims, there really is “pow’r in the blood.” Immense power. Now, hopefully, you fully understand why.

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