Why does blood need to be shed for sin to be forgiven?

Hebrews 9:22 says there can be no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. Do we know why? In the OT, God required animal sacrifices for the same reason. It all seems very violent, so I’m trying to understand if there is any deeper meaning in why blood needs to be shed for any forgiveness to happen.

This is a great question, which many grapple with and find difficult to digest. Why is shedding of blood conditional to forgiveness of sins? Why couldn’t God just declare sinners as righteous without the cross? Is not this idea of violent death borrowed from pagan practices? Christians have asked these questions many times. 

Humanly speaking, for any moral being, violent deaths like that of Jesus’ on the cross are naturally seen as abhorrent and immoral. In fact, when the Lord told His disciples about His impending death by crucifixion, Peter responded saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This should never happen to You!” (Matthew 16:21-22). Peter found the very idea repellent. 

Paul references this same feeling, nurtured by many in this world. He says, “We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18, 23-24). 

Liberal theologians hate the idea that God is angry over sins and wickedness. They attribute the Biblical teaching of atonement to a ‘slaughterhouse religion’. George Bernard Shaw said, with contempt of this doctrine, Christianity must get rid of this superstition to be respectable. But the fact remains that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25).

On a related note, it is also not fair to consider the Christian doctrine of atonement as imbibed from pagan practices. Actually, the contrary may be the fact. The existence of the practice of sacrifices in certain pagan communities and religions may be an ignorant adaptation of God’s revelation to the Jews or others. John Calvin, in commenting on Hebrews 9:16, says that, “all the heathen sacrifices were corruptions, which had derived their origin from the institutions of God”. Nevertheless, the question remains: why did God demand violent death, and bloodshed as satisfaction for sins?

Let’s take a look at some reasons why bloodshed was required for salvation.

The necessity of blood

1. The remedy for sins must cover the loss that sin caused.

God had warned about the result of sinning: death. “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they died spiritually. They were separated from God. 

To restore spiritual life to sinful man, it is only reasonable to demand the life of an acceptable substitute. Further, the life of the flesh is in the blood (Leviticus 17:14; Hebrews 9:22). Thus, for atonement of sins shedding of blood is not only necessary, it is reasonable. And the system of animal sacrifices under the old covenant pictured and pointed ahead to Christ, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. 

2. Blood pictures the costliness of sin.

In the Jewish religion, everything was sprinkled with blood. The priests slaughtered thousands of animals at the altar. They took bowls full of blood and sprinkled it on the altar. Their carcasses were burnt and the smell would have been constant and overwhelming. Thus blood was most precious, it being the life-sustaining element. The blood, demanded for atonement, graphically pictured the cost of sin.

3. If God simply acquitted the guilty, He would be unrighteous.

God Himself said that He would not leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 23:7; 34:7). But God never ceases to be loving, even though His holiness demands payment for sin. His righteousness demanded that the sinner should be punished. At the same time, as a loving God, He gave His only begotten Son for propitiation through His sacrifice. Thus, God’s love was expressed and righteousness was fulfilled by the death of Christ on the cross. His death was violent indeed, but necessary. 

4. Giving God’s only begotten Son assures permanence of God’s love and purpose.

God gave the most precious and ultimate Gift for sinners. He gave us His Son. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32). 

Considering all these facts, rather than looking at the bloodshed and violent death of the cross with horror and aversion, one can only wonder at the wisdom and power of God manifested in redemption. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).