Daily EncouragementSample

These words occur in a paragraph where the eating of blood is forbidden. It is so legislated against because “it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” The fact that there is need for atonement and that this atonement is made by blood - that is, by life given up in death - is stated here and recognized throughout Scripture.

The words here which seem to shine with special light are these: “I have given it to you.” “Given!” comments P. T. Forsyth. “Did you ever see the force of it?” “I have given you the blood to make atonement. This is an institution which I set up for you to comply with, set it up for purposes of my own, but it is My gift.” The Lord Himself provided the lamb for the burnt offering.

The grace of God provides the sacrifice which the holiness of God demands. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16), and he gave him up to the cross. “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement” (Rom. 3:25). None of this is man’s doing; “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ” (2 Cor. 5:18). We take “the cup of salvation,” but it is given us by nail-pierced hands.