What the Blood of Jesus Can Do For You

“His blood be on us and on our children” (Matt. 27:25b).

The angry crowds had gathered to ensure a guilty verdict from Pilate. They were there to guarantee the death penalty for Jesus. Pilate questioned Jesus, but could find no fault in Him. Pilate’s wife suffered a nightmare about Jesus and knew He was holy. She warned Pilate not to harm Him, furthering his resolve to release Jesus at this Passover. But he could not convince the crowd. In fact, the crowd was so vehement in their pleas for the crucifixion of Jesus that a riot was about to break out.

When Pilate realized that his efforts were useless, he had a basin of water brought out; and in front of the bloodthirsty crowd, he washed his hands and then proclaimed, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man. See to it yourselves.” And the people cried back, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matt. 27:24b-25).

The cry for the blood of Jesus was made that day to take on the responsibility and guilt of the death of Jesus. They cried out to be forever marked by the murder of Jesus.

It was an earlier Passover when Jesus came to Jerusalem. As He came into the temple, Jesus found the merchants and currency exchangers taking advantage of the people who had come to worship and make sacrifices to God. Jesus did not tolerate the exploitation of those who had come to worship His Father, and He drove them out immediately.

The religious leaders questioned His authority to do this and wanted Him to prove His claim as the Son of God with a supernatural sign. Jesus responded, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The religious leaders thought He was implying that he would rebuild the temple made by man, but Jesus was speaking of the temple made of God and man.

Jesus was speaking of His body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, being raised to life again. His life belonged to His Father because He had submitted it before ever taking on the flesh of man. He was following the path of sacrifice. No man could take His life from Him. It was His to lay down. His body was His to give as a sacrifice for all. His blood was His to pour out. His spirit was His to suffer the separation of mankind as He hung on that cross and His Father turned away.

For the first, and only time, Jesus experienced separation from His Father. This was the very reason Jesus came, sacrificing Himself to destroy the separation of the children from their Father. The blood of separation in exchange for the blood of the Son. This is redemption. Jesus’ blood was not taken from Him, rather it was given.

Unjustly, His blood was poured out, but this injustice is what made you just and sinless in His Presence. This is redemption. The sacrifice that Jesus gave was His to make. The blood that the crowds pleaded to have on them and their children as a sign of their guilt to the execution of Jesus was actually the very blood that was to be poured for their forgiveness. This is redemption.

Their plea, their cry for the blood of Jesus, was not granted. Jesus wasn’t taken against His will. He laid His life down. The blood that the people cried out to mark their lives and the lives of their children was not available for sale. His body, the temple that He would raise, was not vulnerable to the whims of the bloodthirsty. The blood that the crowds cried to take full responsibility and guilt for, was not something that could be taken. He surrendered His life so that we could be saved. And the blood of Jesus was not on the people who cried out for His crucifixion because the blood of Jesus can only redeem.

The blood of Jesus doesn’t mark blame. The blood of Jesus voids all offense and guilt. The blood of Jesus is what makes the forgiveness of our sins possible. His blood is what covers us and makes us a child of God, with a new lineage and a new bloodline. The blood of Jesus is what makes us His own. This is redemption. Even the cry for the blood of Jesus has been redeemed.

There is no life that Jesus’ blood cannot redeem. No circumstance, no situation, no person that His blood cannot transfuse. The crowds who cried out to Pilate for the blood of Jesus to be on them, even that, He has redeemed. The very blood that they cried to mark their blame was the very blood that proclaimed their forgiveness.

Because now, all who cry for the blood of Jesus to be on them are free of guilt. Free of shame. Free of sin. Free of all bondage and slavery. Free from the death of separation to God and free to be called His children. Those who confess that Jesus is Lord, and who believe in their hearts that Jesus died and rose again, have called out for the blood of Jesus. They have cried out for His blood to be on them, and they are saved. Even the cry for the blood of Jesus has been redeemed. Jesus gave up everything for you. He literally went to hell and back for you. Now, you have the freedom to choose to surrender your life to Him. To call out for His blood to redeem you.

There is nothing so ugly that you could have ever done that the beauty of His blood cannot redeem. There is nothing so ugly that has been done to you that the beauty of Christ’s blood cannot redeem. The innocent blood that was cried for on that Passover was bled for your guilt. The blood of Jesus would not be upon those who demanded his crucifixion, only those who turned their hearts to Him, even if once they had cried for the responsibility of his death. Even the bloodthirsty would be redeemed if they would only turn to Him.

What is in your past that seems so awful, as ugly as crucifying Christ, that feels as though it is unredeemable? What is in your life that overwhelms you with the feelings of guilt and hopelessness? What wrongs seem inescapable and cause you to feel trapped in shame and fear?

There is nothing that Jesus did not take with Him on that cross. There is no sin, no offense, that Jesus did not take the punishment for. There is not a moment in time that was not accounted for in the blood of Jesus. Jesus did not just take the idea of sin to the cross, He carried the very sin that you did on His name. His back bore the cross of the very sin that was done to you.

When His blood was pouring out, His heart was turned toward you. The guilt that you feel, even in this moment, the trauma that haunts you to this day, that is what Jesus experienced as His blood was poured out. His blood was poured out for the abuse you suffered, the betrayal you endured, the pain that crushed you, the nightmare you lived.

His blood was poured out to redeem the sin you committed, the affair you chose, the abandonment you enforced, the lies you lived, the hurt you caused, the abortion you had and every drop of guilt that drowns you. You need only to cry for the blood of Jesus to be on you. His blood will cover the guilt, shame, trauma and the offense. There is nothing His blood can’t redeem. Cry out for His blood to redeem the ugliest parts of your life and drown the sins of your story in exchange for the story of the spotless Lamb.

Ask for His story to now be your story. His story of redemption to be your story. His position as Son to be your position as a Child of God with the blood of Jesus transfused into all that you were, all that you are and all that you will ever be. Cry for His blood. Because even the cry for the blood of Jesus has been redeemed.

“Since we are now joined to Christ, we have been given the treasures of redemption by His blood—the total cancellation of our sins—all because of the cascading riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7, TPT).