“…who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death…” (SC, The 2nd Article: Redemption).
What does it mean to redeem? It means to buy back. Thus, Christ our Lord has bought you back. From whom? From the realm of the devil. He bought you back—redeemed you—”not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). He is not like other kings. Whereas earthly kings would ransom a captive from the enemy with riches, Christ our King has ransomed you and me from the Enemy with His own life, whose work of redemption was then vindicated in His resurrection. Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and introduced sin and death into the world, whose sin of naturally rebelling against God we have all inherited. Thus, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a).
Since the Fall of Man, God has required blood. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image” (Genesis 9:6). Is it any wonder, then, why violence is increasing? God instituted the Old Testament sacrificial system because it was either their blood or the blood of scapegoats. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Therefore, I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood… For the life of every creature is in the blood: its blood is its life” (Leviticus 17:11-12, 14). Then finally, Jesus offered His blood “once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). Mt. Calvary was the altar upon which Christ offered Himself as the unblemished Lamb of God (John 1:29) to make atonement for the sins of the whole world—for all your sins.
And now there is a blood of which we can drink: Jesus’ own pure, holy, and innocent blood, just as He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves. he who eats of My flesh and drinks My blood has life eternal, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:53-54; my translation). He gives His body and blood to us in the Lord’s Supper, as He says, “this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28).
Therefore, when you drink Jesus’ true blood and eat His true body in the elements of the Lord’s Supper, His once-for-all atonement enters your very body and you are bought back from the realm of the devil and into the kingdom of your Lord and God, Jesus Christ. The devil hates this Sacrament, which is why he perverts it with many lies (e.g., symbolism, spiritual eating, cannibalism), “for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Let us evermore cling to the truth of the Truth made flesh (John 1:14), that when we consume the benefits of what He did on the cross in His body and blood in the Sacrament, we also consume His spoken Word, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”
The Lutheran Column 