Near the outset of recorded human history - according to Holy Writ - the following conversation, immediately after the first murder was committed, was heard:
"And the LORD said unto Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?" And he [Abel] said, "I know not: Am I (emphasis mine) my brother's keeper?" And [H]e[God] said, "What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto [M]e from the ground."
Fast forward to the very end of all things, where, in the Apocalypse, the last book of the New Testament, otherwise known as the Book of Revelation, we read these words of strong appeal: "And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost [T]hou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"
Blood, symbolic of the life of its possessor, has ever been a potent metaphor in the Scriptures - though in its plain-as-day, literal meaning it is arguably equally so. Indeed, human life is so sacred, such an inviolable thing, that following 'Noah's Flood' humankind was instructed as follows: "...flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your [life]blood will I require...at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made [H]e man."
Indeed, so wonderful a condescension was the incarnation and self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon Calvary's cross, that the human race saw its redemption accomplished and ultimate salvation assured through the Deity, in the form of the Second Person of the Godhead, willingly consenting to have His blood shed on behalf of it.
Picture that: the Creator willingly offering Himself as a Victim to His creation, accepting death by murder to assure that creature's eternal life...
An awful portrait of a so-called 'God of Love' as some deem such an image? Not at all: rather a portrait of a Personified Love so broad and deep and vast that it was willing to forgo living eternally with its Fellow Godhead (Father and Holy Spirit) if only the object of its love might be saved eternally in God's eternal kingdom. Because nothing less could possibly atone for the sin which that creation had committed. A Love which voluntarily emptied Itself of all its privileges and suffered on behalf of and in that creation's stead - even if it were to cost that Divine One His Own Eternal Life! As the hymn writer has so well put, 'Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all!'
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