Matthew 26:27-28
“And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

The wine in Matthew 26:28 was a symbolic representation of the actual physical blood offering Jesus would make.

Under the Old Testament and New Testament sanctuary systems there were and are:

1. Physical offerings (blood) and,
2. Spiritual offerings (praise, worship, prayers, thanksgiving etc)

Why did God use blood?

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is THE BLOOD that maketh an atonement for the soul.” – Leviticus 17:11

Please keep in mind three things: 1. The wages of sin is death and that payment for sin requires death and the physical offering of blood, 2. The blood of animals could never erase sins or make a complete final atonement for anyone. 3. The only lawful place we are given to apply blood for atonement is upon the altar and in the sanctuary.

What we are taught by the sanctuary laws:

Life -> is in the Blood

Without physical blood we die; having it gives us physical life.

Now that God taught us that, He switches gears in the New Testament and moves forward by continuing to build on this concept which He also taught under the Old Testament when He, by the mouth of Moses, told them in Deuteronomy 8:3  “And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; THAT He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”

God uses physical things to represent spiritual things. In order to understand what God is saying, we need to understand how He defines terms and these symbols. The LORD is an excellent teacher and He wants us to understand the deep things He longs to show us.

Here’s how Jesus put it together for us:

John 6:62-63
“What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?

It is the spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit,
and they are life.”

Jesus rose up into heaven and offered the only true payment for our sins, His perfect sinless blood. Jesus made a one time physical blood offering that was required by God the Father’s sanctuary and priesthood law under the New Covenant. We need to remember the only place where God gave us the blood atonement which is “upon the altar” (Leviticus 17:11).

Mary Magdalene is the first person to see Jesus after His resurrection and before He ascended into heaven to present His offering for our atonement – the blood – upon the altar – in the heavenly sanctuary. Jesus told her not to touch Him because if she had touched Him she would have defiled and corrupted the offering He was yet to make for our atonement, His blood.

John 20:17
“Jesus saith unto her,
Touch Me not;
FOR I am not yet ascended to My Father…”

Jesus was delivered up to pay the death penalty of our sins; but scripture states He had to also be raised up again in order to erase sins.

Romans 4:25
“Who was delivered for our offences,
and was raised again for our justification.”

1Corinthians 15:17-18
“And IF Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain;
ye are YET in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”

The only thing that could ever truly make this payment was and is the blood of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. His blood is the only blood offering that could ever erase sin, even for the Old Testament saints who lived and were saved “by faith” (Hebrews chapter 11).

In Part Two we’ll see how God used terms and symbols of wine, water, blood, bread and His words to unlock the mystery behind the operation of the heavenly sanctuary which is “the New and living way” also called “the ministration of the Spirit” under our New Covenant. We’ll see the beautiful unfolding of how He sheds and sprinkles His Holy Spirit on us in a similar way to how He commanded it to be done under the Old Covenant with physical blood under “the ministration of death”.