“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Peter 1:18,19).

The concept of the shed blood of Christ offered in substitutionary sacrifice for guilty and condemned sinners is profoundly offensive to the modern mind. Even many evangelicals who believe in the concept doctrinally, usually de-emphasize it in their pulpits and classroom ministries. But it is still in the Bible and is inestimably important.

Our lost souls could never have been redeemed (“bought back”) from hell by all the silver and gold in the universe. The blood of Christ, however, is infinitely “precious” (i.e., “valuable” or “costly”) because it was the life (“the life of the flesh is in the blood”—Leviticus 17:11) of the very Creator of life! Its shedding on the altar of divine sacrifice was, therefore, eminently sufficient “to make an atonement [or ‘covering’] for our souls.”

The blood is not only a covering, however. Its cleansing and life-giving powers purge our sins and make us righteous before a holy God. “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:9). The application of the blood to our souls becomes effective, of course, only “through faith in His blood” (Romans 3:25).

Not only is the precious blood able to blot out past sins, but “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7). It is sufficiently powerful to overcome every attack of the wicked one. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11). Finally, its efficacy is eternal and will never lose its power, for it is “the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Hebrews 13:20). HMM