“Blood is big business in the United States, making up 2.69% of the country’s exports,” according to a recent CNBC report.
In 2023, the estimated value of the North American blood collection market was $4.9 billion. Globally, the blood market was valued at $11.5 billion.
According to the Red Cross, about 7 million people donate over 13 million pints of blood each year. The human body contains 10-12 pints of blood, and the loss of even half that amount is generally considered fatal. To be sure, donated blood can help prolong life and enhance the quality of life for millions of people. But what it cannot ultimately do is to stave off death.
Furthermore, not one pint of donated blood, nor all the pints of blood combined, can provide forgiveness for sin and redemption from its catastrophic consequences. Only the blood shed by Christ on the cross can do that!
Revelation 12:11 speaks prophetically of faithful believers who will live during the coming Tribulation and the qualities for which they will be commended. It begins by declaring: “They overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb …” (Revelation 12:11, NKJV).
It goes on to speak of the “word of their testimony” and says that, in the face of assaults from Satan, they “did not love their lives to the death.”
Those attributes, beginning with their reliance on the blood of the Lamb—our Lord Jesus Christ—instruct us now as we live in a world that’s violently convulsing and rapidly crumbling. They underscore for us the foundational truth that we, the people of God, overcome the enemy of our souls through the matchless blood shed by the Savior of souls.
Now, consider this: the current world population is about 8.1 billion people. Estimates are that a total of 108 billion people have ever lived on Earth. And 13 million pints of blood donated by 7 million people in the U.S. can’t provide forgiveness and eternal life for even one person. Yet the blood of the one and only God-Man is sufficient for the forgiveness and cleansing of any sin, of every sin and of all sin, for all time, to whoever believes. Not one of our sins individually, and not all of our sins together, can be greater than the forgiving, cleansing power of the blood of Christ. That’s the miraculous power in His blood!
Ephesians 1:7 says it this way: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Colossians 1:19-20 says, “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
Revelation 1:5-6 exclaims, “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood … be glory”
Christian music artist Michael W. Smith recently released a song titled Crimson Dust. The lyrics say, in part:
Mercy flows from His hands
I see heaven touching earth
Every drop of matchless worth
Redeeming love
What gain, what loss
Crimson dust beneath the cross
Christ’s blood alone is sufficient to overcome our enemy—whom the Bible calls the accuser—who now no longer has any grounds to successfully bring a charge against those who’ve placed their faith in Christ.
Bible commentator Matthew Henry wrote of Revelation 12:11: “The redeemed overcame by a simple reliance on the blood of Christ, as the only ground of their hopes. In this we must be like them. We must not blend anything else with this.” Without the blood of Christ, there is no new covenant and people are still dead in their sins.
A number of years ago, a woman was in a severe car accident and almost bled to death. She received more than 10 units of blood in an effort to save her life. She did indeed survive and, for years afterward, she was curious about who had donated the blood that saved her. She wanted to know her “savior’s” identity so she could thank him. When she learned her blood donor’s last name, she instantly recognized it. It was a man she had recently begun dating. As it turned out, he had made donating blood his regular practice for years. When they subsequently married, she took her blood donor as her groom!
In an imperfect way, this story points to what Christ has done for us in His gracious work of salvation. When a person repents and believes in Christ, their sins are erased and they become part of what the Bible calls the Bride of Christ. The One who gave His blood for us is our Bridegroom, and He’s coming again soon to receive us to Himself in Heaven.
We don’t know when this is going to happen, but it’s hard to conceive of this present age lasting much longer. God’s clock is ticking. Revelation 12 goes on to say our enemy “knows his time is short” (verse 12).
This gives us reason for our anticipation to build and for our labors for the Gospel to intensify. So let’s redeem each moment by believing, living and preaching—the blood! ©2024 BGEA
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version.
Preston Parrish serves as staff chaplain for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.