Colossians 1:19-23a (NLT) For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.

We were reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus. There’s something about the blood. I can’t say I fully understand about the blood, but it’s extremely important to God, so we’re going to do our best.

Adam and Eve sin in the garden and blood is shed to provide them a covering to deal with the consequences of their sin (Genesis 3).

The blood of Abel, the first martyr, cries out to God (Genesis 4).

When God wipes the world clean, He tells Noah to be fruitful and multiply, but then the second command is about the blood.

Genesis 9:4-6 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.”

It was not okay to just shed blood. The blood was the life of the creature or person. Life is sacred to God. People were made in God’s image. He is life. Because the life was in the blood of  the sacred living thing, it served a sacred purpose.

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.

Do you remember the definition of atonement? It’s the payment. A life for a life. To buy our life, Jesus had to pay His life, and it had to be with His blood.

We are forgiven because of the blood. We are cleaned from our sin by the blood.

Hebrews 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Lesson Point: The life is in the blood and Jesus had to pour out His blood to pay for our lives to be redeemed.

Challenge Question: Do you recognize that you would have to go to hell if Jesus hadn’t shed His blood? Have you thanked Jesus for spilling His blood for you?