Covered by the blood - Rethink

Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern. We have deemed this our “rethink.”

Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?

It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.

Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.

We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.

----------------

Introduction

"Covered by the blood" is a phrase not found in the Bible. We would assert that as used by contemporary Christians, it is also not an idea found in the Bible. In certain circles (particularly, charismatic) we typically find this phrase being uttered in the course of prayer. Emphatic prayers are lifted up asking God to "apply the blood," or asserting that a disease or aliment is "covered by the blood," or, that a problem or deficiency is now "under the blood" (We shall use the three phrases interchangeably).

This means that "the blood" is viewed as something that needs to be brought to bear on a situation or in a person's life as a remedy of sorts.  

It didn't originate as a charismatic idea. The hymn "Covered by the Blood" was written in 1904, while "Under the Blood" was written in 1899, which means both preceded the beginnings of the charismatic movement, generally credited to the Azusa Street revival. Both hymns are based on the idea that the "blood" was connected to salvation of the sinner's soul, not healing, deliverance, or as a solution to a Christian's subsequent problems.

In any case, the issue really isn't who started the idea, but rather, is it biblical. This will require some background information.

The Blood

The blood is regarded as the very substance of life: 

Leviticus 17:14 ...the life of every creature is its blood.

Modern culture doesn't really understand this concept. The average person probably recoils at the idea of the sacrificial spilling of blood. But because life is represented by blood, the unjust taking of life requires the death of the perpetrator, i.e., to spill his blood. Similarly, sin is an affront to God, and the required action to satisfy God's justice is to spill blood:

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die.

It is this sense of justice that permeates the OT blood sacrifice, blood for blood, life for life. This is why God instituted a sacrificial system based on the idea that blood needed to be spilled for sin. 

The first instance of a sacrificial offering is Abel:

Ge. 4:4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering...

Then Noah: 

Genesis. 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.

Abraham: 

Genesis 22:8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” 

Passover: 

Exodus 12:7, 11 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door-frames of the houses where they eat the lambs...11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.

We see animal sacrifice almost from the beginning. These formative events eventually expanded into an entire system of Law as the Lord undertook to set aside Israel to be His holy people. 

Atonement

This idea of blood sacrifice for sin is known as atonement. The Hebrew word for atonement is kaphar, which means to cover over. The first use of the word is:

Genesis 6:14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

"Coat" is the word kaphar. Moses atoned for the ark in the sense that he covered it over. 

The same Hebrew word kaphar is used here:

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

The blood is specifically given to atone (cover over) sin. The purpose of the sacrifice was to spill blood to atone for the sins of Israel. But notice, to cover over means the sin is only obscured or out of sight, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). Atonement ultimately is insufficient, and falls short of God's ultimate requirements.

Importantly, we must also notice that the sacrifice is not substitutionary. The animal did not die in the place of the sacrificer. The specific purpose of the sacrifice was the spilling of blood. The blood is the method of kaphar, the covering over of sin.

Jesus Propitiated

This understanding of atonement now prepares us to distinguish between the sacrifice of animals and Jesus' sacrifice. The O.T. practice of animal sacrifice is typology. A type is a illustration or foreshadowing of a greater work and/or a later fulfillment. The O.T. sacrifice typology points to Jesus. In particular, the atoning blood is a type of His sacrifice, so much more superior than the sacrifice of animals. 

Central to our thesis is, Jesus did not atone for our sins. This might surprise the reader, but both the word and the concept are now obsolete with Jesus' sacrifice. His blood is certainly not a temporary remedy like the atoning of the sacrificial animals. His blood didn't simply hide (kaphar) our sin. 

His one sacrifice never needs to be repeated for it washed us clean:

Hebrews 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

This is a crucial distinction. The blood of bulls and goats is inadequate to wash a sinner clean. But Jesus' blood, spilled for us, is completely efficacious regarding our sin. Therefore, Jesus' death on the cross was not atonement, it was propitiation. 

The Greek word for propitiation is hilasmos, which means an offering to appease (satisfy) an angry, offended party. So Jesus' spilled blood doesn't cover over and hide sin, it turns away the wrath of the Father by making us clean. It satisfies. It's a better work. It completely dealt with God's wrath.

Unfortunately some translations, like the NIV, do not correctly translate this word.

The NIV misleads us:

1 John 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (NIV)

The KJV gets it correct:

1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world. (KJV)

So many problems have arisen as a result of this one unfortunate misunderstanding. It has led to some truly outrageous doctrines, like the idea that the Father punished Jesus in our place (He didn't), or that Jesus paid for our sin (He didn't), or that the Father forsook Jesus on the cross (He didn't). When we understand the true nature of the blood, we then can understand the reason Jesus died for us: To spill His blood to wash away our sin.

Covered By The Blood

We suspect the reader is beginning to see where this is leading. If Jesus' blood is not atoning, then we are not in any sense "covered by the blood." There is no Bible verse describing a mechanism for placing additional things "under the blood" or making things "covered by the blood."  We are washed clean by the blood and are no longer dressed in filthy rags (Revelation. 7:9, Zechariah 3:4). Our sin isn't hidden under the blood, we have been set free from sin and been given new life as new creations. His one sacrifice is complete, sufficient, and all we need:

Hebrews 7:27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

The blood is enough. The cross did it all, and nothing more is needed. This of course means that there is nothing that needs to be brought "under the blood." We are not "covered by the blood," we are washed clean by the blood, a past event for every Christian. All sin and death is already dealt with. 

Our conclusion is that "covered by the blood" is not something a Christian should believe or practice.