Gospels Part 008
Why did Jesus command His disciples to drink wine as a symbol of His blood? What meanings are wrapped up in this extraordinary analogy that are vital to our understanding when we drink the wine at Passover?
Notice the meaning Jesus gave to the Passover wine:
“Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom’“ (Matthew 26:27-29).
What does Christ want us to understand about His shed blood?
First, Christ knew that our drinking wine as a symbol of His shed blood would impress indelibly in our minds His death for the forgiveness of our sins.
“This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:25).
God forgives our sins through Jesus’ blood. We are taught that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Jesus Christ “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5). Christians normally understand this basic tenet of faith—that our sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. But not all professing Christians fully comprehend how this is so. Let’s be sure we understand.
Paul explains that “according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).
In the context of the Old Testament, God instructed the priesthood to foreshadow the shedding of Christ’s blood by a system of cleansing and purification through the blood of sacrificed animals.
God commanded the nation of Israel to undertake this temporary system of the ritualistic cleansing from sins (Hebrews 9:9-10). Animal sacrifices served as types of the one and only future sacrifice, Jesus Christ, who would pay the penalty for the sins of everyone once and for all.
Sacrifices were a reminder
The sins of the people under the old covenant were not forgiven through the blood of the animals they sacrificed. Those sacrifices only reminded them that they were sinners (Hebrews 10:1-4).
All those sacrifices, with their emphasis on blood, looked forward to the real “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
Further, the ancients understood that life is in the blood (Genesis 9:4). When a person loses his blood, he dies. Therefore, it is appropriate that blood makes the atonement for sin (Leviticus 17:11). Jesus’ blood was shed, or poured out, while He hung on the cross (Luke 22:20; Colossians 1:20). His life drained from Him when He lost his blood (Isaiah 53:12). By allowing sinners to shed His blood, He gave His life for us.
When we drink the wine at the Passover service, we are to consider the gravity of its meaning. It represents the very life’s blood that flowed from Jesus Christ’s dying body so we may have complete forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 1:7).
The shed blood of the righteous Jesus Christ for our sinful life should powerfully motivate us never to want to sin again. It is the way our merciful God chooses to reach us in our obstinate states of mind.
The blood of Christ deals a powerful blow to sin because His undeserved death for us is one reason we should not want to sin again. It is the realization of the magnitude of Jesus’ sacrifice for us that should bring us to repentance (Romans 2:4). Upon our repentance and baptism for the removal of those sins, God imparts His Holy Spirit to enable us to change.
Conscience freed of guilt
The second point Christ wants us to understand about His shed blood is that not only does it cover our sins but makes it possible for us to be rid of guilt.
Notice Hebrews 9:12-14:
“Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
When God grants us a pardon, we are no longer guilty in His eyes, but we still need to solve the problem of our guilty feelings—our guilty conscience. That is why Paul declares that the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. How can this be?
The word conscience comes from “conscire,” meaning “be conscious of guilt.” Our conscience is our awareness of right and wrong. When a person has no sensitivity to or awareness of right and wrong, we say he has no conscience. Paul said the consciences of some people are seared (1 Timothy 4:2); that is, they have suppressed their awareness of right and wrong and have no desire to alter that tragic situation.
When God calls a person, whose conscience is still sensitive to right and wrong, and that person is faced with the understanding that someone else had to die for him—and all along he has been unaware of or ignored this truth—his conscience is affected (Acts 2:36-37). The realization of this truth brings home to him how ungodly he is, how far he falls short of the goodness of God (Romans 5:6-8). He becomes acutely aware of his own guilt; his conscience plagues him.
His awareness of the awesome meaning of the death of Jesus Christ for his sins awakens in his conscience a desire to obey God (Romans 7:20-21). He can then accept Christ’s sacrifice for his sins and have faith that Christ took all his guilt upon Himself. Now he can rest assured that he can continue in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) with a clean conscience; he can be confident that all his guilt has been erased.
No need for self-reproach
When our conscience is purged, we are freed from guilt. We were all guilty because we all violated God’s holy law and fell short of His glory (Romans 3:19, Romans 3:23). Sin is breaking God’s law (1 John 3:4). When our sins are removed after we repent (Psalm 103:12), there should be no more self-inflicted guilt or self-reproach.
However, many people still feel guilty after they have repented and have asked God to forgive their sins. While our conscience should rightly convict us if we sin again, we should not continue in self-condemnation over the sins God has forgiven but be able to operate confidently in the freedom from guilt God provides (1 John 1:9; 1 John 3:19-20).
We express our faith, our confidence, that through the blood of Christ we are truly forgiven when we partake of the wine at the Passover service. The taking of the wine should impress upon us that we are free from sin and guilt, and that we do not stand condemned before God or ourselves (John 3:17-18).
This is what it means to have “our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:22).
© Scott Ashley, 2025. All rights reserved.
Course Content
Scott Ashley
Scott Ashley was managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, United Church of God booklets and its printed Bible Study Course until his retirement in 2023. He also pastored three congregations in Colorado for 10 years from 2011-2021. He and his wife, Connie, live near Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Ashley attended Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, graduating in 1976 with a theology major and minors in journalism and speech. It was there that he first became interested in publishing, an industry in which he worked for 50 years.
During his career, he has worked for several publishing companies in various capacities. He was employed by the United Church of God from 1995-2023, overseeing the planning, writing, editing, reviewing and production of Beyond Today magazine, several dozen booklets/study guides and a Bible study course covering major biblical teachings. His special interests are the Bible, archaeology, biblical culture, history and the Middle East.
