The Blood of Jesus

Most Christians know about the blood Jesus shed for us. When Christ lifted the cup at the last Passover, he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20, NKJV).

We memorialize his sacrifice every time we have communion, but that is the limit of most Christians’ knowledge of Jesus’s blood. We know only about the blood being shed and not about it being sprinkled.

The first biblical reference to the sprinkling of blood is in Exodus 12:22. The Israelites were commanded to take a bunch of hyssop (a purifying plant), dip it in the blood of a slain lamb, and sprinkle it on the lintel and two side posts of their front door. That night, when the death angel came and saw the blood on the doorposts, he would pass over the house.

Please understand that as long as the blood was left in the basin, it was of no effect; it was merely blood that had been shed. The blood had power to save only when it was lifted out of the basin and sprinkled.

Why couldn’t the Israelites have simply laid the basin of blood at the threshold and said, “It doesn’t matter what we do with it. After all, blood is blood”? Suppose they had put the basin on a linen-covered table or on a pedestal just inside the door. If they had done that, the death angel would have struck that home. The blood had to be lifted out of the basin and sprinkled on the door to fulfill its purpose of protection.

This blood in Exodus 12 is a type of the blood of Christ. The blood that flowed at Calvary was not wasted; it did not fall to the ground and disappear. No, that precious blood was collected in a heavenly fountain.

If Christ is Lord of your life, your doorposts have been sprinkled by his blood. This sprinkling is not for forgiveness only but also for protection against all the destroying powers of Satan. Jesus’s blood has not been left in the basin but has been lifted out and sprinkled on your heart.