And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are, and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and the blood shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:13

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Hebrews 9:22.

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corrputible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot.

I never lived in a place with running water until I spent the summer at a local college while I was in high school. One of my friends and I recently had an impromptu contest to decide which one of us grew up in the poorest household. I lost, but only because her husband was the judge. Both of us can remember taking baths in a big metal tub. At my house, once I was old enough, I had to carry my own bath water from a spring. I tried to take a bath once a week whether I needed it or not, though even that was hard to do in the winter when the spring froze over.

All of us know what happens when we go for a while without bathing; we stink. If we're around dirt, we get dirty. That's what sin does to us; it makes us dirty, on the inside, and in God's nostrils, we stink. All of the water in the world, no matter how pure, can clean the stain of sin away from us. You can be baptized every day of your life, but that by itself will never wash sin away. The Bible clearly says that, without blood, sin can't be forgiven; only the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin (I John 1:7). Why? Because the price, the wages, of sin, is death (Romans 6:23). Sin, disobedience to God, involves a taking away, a surrender of the life that God has given us. Once we are dead, as we all are by our very nature (Romans 3:23), we have nothing to give to regain what we've lost. By the law of God's universe, the only acceptable price for our life is another life given in exchange, an innocent life.

Under the Law, before Christ, the blood of animals was used to pay the price. The whole sacrificial system practiced in Old Testament Israel points to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. That theme plays out beautifully in the book of Hebrews, which deals explicitly and at some length with the idea that Jesus is the culmination of the old system. Christ is the ram in the bushes for Abraham, the Passover lamb for the children of Israel, the lamb without blemish offered as a sin offering for the people. There is, though, one vital difference: he had to give his life only once. Only the infinite God could pay the infinite price for sin, but only a man could offer his innocent life as a substitute for the lives of others.

We sing the old songs like Power in the Blood and There is a Fountain to acknowledge the cleansing, saving power of the blood of Christ. Some people in the church are offended by the talk about shedding the blood, but to deny it is to deny Christ himself. What Christ gave up with his blood was his very life; he could have died without giving his blood, but that wasn't God's plan. From the beginning, when God himself slew animals to cover the sin of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21), blood was always the price for forgiving sin. For us, now, the deed is already done; we have no need of more sacrifices (Hebrews 9:25-28).

The blood of Jesus, then, is both the price of our sins, and the agent that God uses to wash away the stain of sin. When the Father looks at us, as Christians, he sees through the blood. When he sees the blood, he passes over us when he hands down the sentence of death for sin. That's not just true of the Lord, though; the blood also protects us from the attacks of Satan and his demons. The blood of Christ is the sign of God's ownership; Satan has no power over what belongs to Christ. His weapons are based on lies and deceit; if he can make us doubt or forget whose we are, his attacks will have effect. On the other hand, if we remind both the Enemy, and ourselves, that we are under the blood, he can do nothing but rage against us in impotent fury. Resist him, the Word says, and he will flee from you.(James 4:7), but first we must submit to God.

At some point in your life in your Christian, if you try earnestly to serve God, you will be faced with the activity of demons, perhaps many times. It could happen when you're in a crowd of people, or when you're all alone. It could happen in the form of a physical attack, or through lies and slander. I don't say that to frighten you, because we have no need to fear Satan's attacks. Pray, first of all, that God will grant you the discernment to know what the source of such attacks is. We too often blame the Devil for things that happen as a result of our own disobedience. When God grants you the understanding to recognize the activity of demons, though, remember that he's given you authority over them already. No demon can resist the power in the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:9-11), and no power of the Enemy can stand against the blood of Christ. You are bought with a price, the precious blood of Christ. Nothing Satan can do changes that.

There is a fountain filled with blood

Drawn from Immanuel's veins

And sinners washed beneath that flood

Lose all their guilty stains.

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