History hinges on a single pivotal event: the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. There, God’s salvation of mankind was accomplished—this rescue mission, which began before the world was formed, culminated at the end of Christ’s three-and-a-half-year earthly ministry.
The blood of Jesus stains every page of every book in both testaments, weaving an incredible tapestry of redemption throughout the Scriptures. The great Bible teacher William Evans noted that “the atonement is the scarlet cord running through every page in the entire Bible. … it is red with redemption truth.”Thus, the main theme of the Bible is Christ. He’s the hero of the story because His sacrifice on the cross provided salvation for mankind. The “scarlet thread” of redemption is interwoven through the many accounts of Biblical history that tell His story.
In the Garden of Eden, it weaves together the hides of the animals slaughtered to provide garments for Adam and Eve. On Mount Moriah, it snares the ram provided in Isaac’s place. In Egypt, it stains the Israelites’ doorposts. It trickles down the altar both in the tabernacle in the wilderness and in the temple in Jerusalem. That blood-red cord binds the Old Testament to John the Baptist’s introduction of Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” and to the beams of a Roman cross at Golgotha, where Jesus declared, “It is finished!”
Jesus Himself intimated this connectedness—this bloodline of redemption. After His atoning death and resurrection, He approached two disciples who were consumed with discouragement as they were walking to a town near Jerusalem. Disillusioned by Jesus’ execution, and kept from recognizing Him, they didn’t expect what they were about to hear. They tried to explain to this “stranger” what had happened, even though they were unaware of what had really happened (Jesus was risen and standing right there!). He told them, “‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:25-27).
How I wish we could read Jesus’ own interpretation of Old Testament prophetic Scriptures! This first post-resurrection message covered how Jesus was anticipated and predicted in the Old Testament. He must have pointed to highlights like Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son on the very mountain where Jesus, the Son of God, would die centuries later. He probably told them how the exodus from Egypt prefigured our exodus from the slavery of sin, made possible by His death. I can almost hear Him describing how the blood sacrifices of Leviticus and the servant prophecies of Isaiah predicted Christ, as well as so many psalms long considered to be messianic in nature.
Additionally, actual scarlet cords show up a few times in Scripture with some interesting overtones. The garments of the high priest and the curtains of the tabernacle in the Old Testament included scarlet threads, which many have interpreted as prefiguring the atoning work of the future Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, through His shed blood.
When an advance team of Jewish spies scouted Jericho and almost got caught, a faith-filled ex-prostitute named Rahab helped them escape through her window via a scarlet cord. They promised her that when the day of Jericho’s destruction came, she and her family would be rescued if she hung the scarlet cord from her window on the wall of the city. The scarlet cord—the color of blood—was a sign of her faith that led to her salvation. Rahab’s cord worked much like the smeared blood on the lintels and doorposts of Jewish homes in Egypt on the night of the Passover decades before.
Though Jesus had an unusual and miraculous birth, though He performed many nature-defying signs and wonders, and though He taught the most sublime truths ever proclaimed, none of these provide salvation, and none are the focal point of His life and ministry. The epicenter of all history, especially redemptive history, is the cross. Bethlehem’s baby was born to die! The Bible even refers to Jesus as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). In other words, before God made the world, He made the plan to save the world. And why blood? Why is what most people would consider gruesome so important?
The writer of the New Testament Book of Hebrews says “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22, NIV) but goes on to insist that, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4, NIV). Those bloody sacrifices were mere placeholders until the sacrifice of the sinless Christ. The Levitical system was never designed to remove sin, only to cover it temporarily. It was in anticipation of the ultimate sacrifice at the cross. So, why so many sacrifices until then? What did those thousands upon thousands of animals dying for centuries accomplish? They demonstrated to the people in every generation the reality of the consequences of their sin—it destroys; it requires a substitute; it kills! That’s why the scarlet thread leads all the way to the cross.
The New Testament authors made much of the cross of Christ. Consider how much literary real estate they devoted to the details surrounding the crucifixion. In the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), there are only four chapters devoted to the first 30 years of Jesus’ life. The same books provide 85 chapters about His last three-and-a-half years, the years of His earthly ministry. Of those 85 chapters, 29 are dedicated to the final week of His life, and 13 of those 29 chapters focus solely on the last 24 hours! The events of Jesus’ last day, leading up to and including the bloody crucifixion, take up 579 verses.
All pre-New Testament history looked forward to Christ’s atoning act; all post-New Testament history looks back to it. The prophets anticipated it, and the people of God have continued to celebrate it. Jesus wanted to make sure that His followers never forgot it. “Do this in remembrance of Me,” Jesus said as He distributed the familiar elements of the Passover meal and gave them new meaning.
When Jesus was in His resurrected body, He still bore the wounds from the cross. He instructed his doubting friend, Thomas, to touch those lesions on His hands and side. Forty days later, Jesus ascended in that resurrected body into Heaven itself. In Heaven, I believe you’ll see Jesus bearing those scars. It’s amazing to think that the only works of man that will be seen in Heaven are the wounds inflicted on Jesus on the cross.
An overview of the scarlet thread aside, here’s what I hope you take away from this article: The shed blood of Christ—as the Lamb of God—is the only perfect sacrifice that can cleanse us from sin. As Hebrews 10:4 reminds us, no other sacrifice will suffice. Because of His sacrificial death, Jesus brings redemption (Ephesians 1:7), propitiation (Romans 3:25), sanctification (1 John 1:7), reconciliation (Colossians 1:19-20), and salvation for people from every tribe, language and culture (Revelation 5:9).
It’s a grand accomplishment Christ achieved, but we’d expect nothing less from our Glorious Savior. My question for our readers is the same one hymnist A.E. Hoffman asked: “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?” If not, friend, turn to Him today, the Perfect Sacrifice for your imperfect self. ©2024 Skip Heitzig
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. The Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version.
This article is adapted from Bloodline: Tracing God’s Rescue Plan from Eden to Eternity. Harvest House Publishers, 2019.
Skip Heitzig is founder and senior pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque, a Calvary Chapel Fellowship in Albuquerque, New Mexico.