The Symbol of Life.

In the Old Testament God explains to His people Israel that the life He has given to all his creatures is in the blood which flows through their veins, and for that reason, when they killed an animal for food, the blood was not to be eaten. In the time after the flood, God told Noah and his family that all His creation was subject to man and available for food. Also, the shedding of human blood was to be punished by the death of the killer.

"Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 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 man, too I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.'" (Genesis 9:1-6).

"Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood-I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, 'None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.'" (Leviticus 17:10-12).

When animals were offered as a sacrifice, the killing had to be supervised by a priest who then sprinkled the blood of the animal on the altar, or poured it on the ground as an acknowledgement that the offerer lived by God's grace. Such offerings were required by the Law for the instruction and regulation of the life of Israel, but they had no power to save. They pointed forward to the offering of his own blood by the Lord Jesus Christ: "But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.' Then I said, 'Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll-I have come to do your will, O God.' First he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them' (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, 'Here I am, I have come to do your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Hebrews 10:3-10).

Christians make this acknowledgement when they take the wine, which represents the blood of Christ, at the memorial supper, understanding that they are saved by the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

Baal
Babylon
Baptism
  1. "Baptism for the dead"
  2. Baptism with the Holy Spirit
Barbarians
Beelzebub
Beginning
  1. The Creation of the World
  2. The New Creation in Christ
Begotten
Believe, Belief, Believer
Bible
Bishop
Blasphemy
Blessedness
Blessing
Blood
Body
  1. The physical body
  2. The spiritual body
  3. The body of Christ
  4. "The body of Moses"
  5. "Spiritual bodies"
Born
Bread
Breaking Bread
Brothers and Sisters
Burial