Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Numbers 35:31-34 (ESV)
Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. [32] And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. [33] You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. [34] You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel."

Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. The congregation were not to accept any money, gold, silver or any such payments as ransom for the life of the murderer. The murderer was to be put to death. He shed blood, and thus his own blood must be shed. This is justice and righteousness. As it says in verse 33, the life that has been taken must be replaced with the life of the one who has taken it - otherwise the land is defiled.

Murder is serious crime because it is taking away another man's life before his time. It is God who gave life, and therefore He is the one who has the only right to take it away. To murder is to assume God's position, and to steal God's right, and determining for oneself whether a person must continue to live in this world or not. If the victim did not know God, to murder is to take away the opportunities for the victim to repent, believe God and be saved. It has eternal consequences. Human beings were designed to last forever, but murder is desire that someone that you hate be erased from the face of the earth. Thus it goes against God's very design of life. It is the worst thing you can do to another person, for at the same time the murderer commits the worst kind of robbery, stealing the most precious thing a person has, for his own benefit.

To murder is to commit the sin that the devil chiefly loves to commit. Murder and lying are the two sins that Satan enjoys most:
John 8:44 (ESV)
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The devil loves to kill, steal and destroy, because God loves to give life, restore and to build up, and he is opposed to all of God's ways. Satan murdered our first parents Adam and Eve by seducing them to do what is not right before God's eyes, and thus making all mankind to be condemned. His goal is always that we sin, and thus be condemned by God forever. But Christ came to destroy these murderous works of the devil, by dying in our place for us, that we may not have to be condemned for our sins.

Let us not then hate others even in our hearts, for God sees that as already murder. Christ came that we may have life abundantly, at the cost of His own precious life. We truly deserve death, and He had all right to destroy us and to cast us from His presence forever, but He instead gave us life that lasts forever. Let us follow example, and even if the other person does something to us that we absolutely hate, bear with them, and let us not murder them in our hearts. Rather, let us do good to them, and let them live in our hearts, show grace to them and love them. By this we look less like Satan and more like our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here in this verse we may ask: 'If God commanded that the congregation accepts no ransom for the life of the one deserving of death, but that he be to death, how is it that God accepts ransom for our life, that we, who deserve death, may live?'. Indeed, is it not Jesus who said:
Matthew 20:28 (ESV)
even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

God commanded that the congregation accept no ransom, because there is no ransom a man can ever give for the life of another, let alone for his own life:
Psalm 49:7-9 (ESV)
Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, [8] for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, [9] that he should live on forever and never see the pit.
What God is saying here is: a man can never afford to pay the ransom for another. It is too costly, and nothing a man gives or does for God will ever be adequate payment to save a life from Hell and to preserve it forever. No amount of good works offered to God can cancel our sins, or be enough to satisfy the wrath of God. Not even Christ's good works alone was not enough to cancel our sins. How can then we offer our pitiful works and expect that God will somehow cover our sins with them? Offering to God anything short of what God requires is nothing but bribery. And God will never accept bribes. The payment for our sin is death. This is the debt that we owe to God whom we have sinned against. This is the debt that we can never repay, unless we die forever.

But someone may ask, 'Can I not then offer my life as ransom for another? If I offer my very life to God for another, is not that adequate payment?' The intention is good here, but it will not work. Not only there is no person in the world that would be really willing to spend an eternity in the hell for the sins of another, even if there was, that person's wicked soul will never be adequate ransom for a holy and righteous God. Every human being is born and defiled by sin from the womb. It would like offering to God a dead, diseased, blind sheep's carcass as sacrifice. God will never accept a man's life as offering for another, as it is written:
Proverbs 21:27 (ESV)
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with evil intent.
Indeed, such was the erroneous mindset that led to wicked men offering their own children as offering to their god, as though their own children's death would be adequate ransom to absolve their sins and make them right before God. Because of the pureness of children, they wickedly thought that if they offer them, God would be pleased with such sacrifices. But even children are sinners born with original sin that is handed down from Adam. Beside from this, God thought the idea was pure evil:
Jeremiah 32:35 (ESV)
They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

So then, if no man can ever give the ransom for a man's life, are we doomed forever? Have we lost all hope? By no means, for David gives answer for who it is that will provide the ransom that is sufficient to save him from death:
Psalm 49:15 (ESV)
But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah
Only GOD can pay the ransom to Himself that is adequate to save us from the power of Hell, and to give us eternal life. Only God can afford this expensive ransom. And this expensive ransom was the blood of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ was not God, but if He was just a man, He could have never paid the sufficient price to save us from the power of Hell. But that shed blood of the cross was the very eternal life of God Himself. Because He was the Son of God, His sacrifice was large enough to not only cover all our sins, but to even make us God's children and grant us eternal joy. His death not just barely saved us from the fire, but gave us life abundant. His blood bought us not only salvation from death, but eternal priesthood and reign with Him in His Kingdom:
Revelation 5:9-10 (ESV)
And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, [10] and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."
By His blood He made not only to be forgiven of our sins, but also made us to be declared righteous in God's sight forever. Not only God spared us from getting what we deserve, but because of Christ's blood, He gives us exceedingly more than we could have ever hoped for. Read how this Old Testament saint experienced the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. If this man saw so much of the light of grace with veil over his eyes, how much more must we, who know who this "mediator, one of a thousand" is, rejoice over our great salvation?:
Job 33:22-28 (ESV)
His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death. [23] If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, [24] and he is merciful to him, and says, ''Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom; [25] let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor''; [26] then manprays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy,and he restores to man his righteousness. [27] He sings before men and says:''I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me. [28] He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.''

It is God who has ransomed us from the pit, by throwing His own Son into the pit instead. Because it was His own Son, He was pleased to save our lives. Any less angel, or man, or beast, could have never been able to satisfy the just wrath that was burning against us. How expensive and how valuable was then this life of the Son of God that was thrown away for us. Shall we trample on this great gift, and expect salvation?

You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell. God says in verse 33 that "it is blood that pollutes the land". How does blood pollute the land? Firstly, it must be established here that by blood here it means that which is shed by murder. So, it is the sin of murder that defiles the land. God considers murder as a special abomination, that if blood is shed by it, God's presence departs the land to which it was shed, and the land becomes cursed, for God's presence departs. This is what happened with Cain. The land became defiled and cursed for him because he spilt his brother's blood upon it:
Genesis 4:11-12 (ESV)
And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. [12] When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."

Blood shed by murder cries from the ground for God's vengeance. And if the blood is not atoned for by the blood of the one who shed it, the land instead bears the blame and becomes cursed. Hear Abel's cry of vengeance:
Genesis 4:10 (ESV)
And the LORD said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground".
Someone needs to pay for any blood that has been shed by murder. We remember that Cain never paid for the murder of his brother, since his blood was never shed to atone for it. How then did God answer for the vengeance of Abel's blood? Christ gives the answer:
Luke 11:49-51 (ESV)
Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ''I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,'' [50] so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, [51] from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.
Someone will be accountable for blood that has been shed. If it is not the one who has shed it, it shall fall to someone else. God is keeping track of all the blood that has ever been shed, and if no atonement has been made, it is the land that shall become defiled. We remember how defiled the whole earth became during Noah's time through violence and murder, that God needed to cleanse it by killing every single person with the flood:
Genesis 6:13 (ESV)
And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

But there is one blood shed by murder that did not defile the land, but rather, cleansed it. There is one blood shed that did not curse the land, but blessed it. This blood did not make God to remove His presence, but attracted His presence to this world. It is the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed by the hands of men through God's plan. This blood did not cry out for vengeance as Abel and other's did, but cried out for forgiveness of our sins. This blood shed did not cause wrath come upon the earth, but rather caused the wrath of God to pass over for whom it was shed.

Indeed, Jesus Christ's blood was shed by murder, as Stephen declared:
Acts 7:52 (ESV)
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered.
But His blood, if we believe in it, does not defile us, but rather, it is counted to be our satisfaction for the justice against our sins:
Romans 3:25 (ESV)
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
His blood, which we have shed, becomes the means through which we are counted righteous before God, and does not make us to be accountable for it:
Romans 5:9 (ESV)
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

When we believe in Christ, our sins are cancelled and made void through His precious blood, because His death is counted to have been the punishment our sins. And because of His blood, we are brought near to God. So near that, now, it enables God's Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, forever. Our bodies become holy temples of God that has been cleansed and sactified by His blood:
Ephesians 1:7 (ESV)
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Ephesians 2:13 (ESV)
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

His blood, though it was shed by us, does not make our enmity with God to be increased, but it makes us to be at peace with God - if we believe in it. This is because it was God who nailed His Son to the Cross, through our hands, that we may no longer be alienated with God, but that we may now be reconciled with Him, if we believe Him, forever:
Colossians 1:19-22 (ESV)
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, [20] and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. [21] And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, [22] he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him

Let us worship God who has given this great gift of His Son's blood for us. What else can compare to what He has done for us on the Cross? It is He who loved us, and gave Himself as a sacrifice acceptable to Himself. By His blood we have been cleansed from our sins, and we are still being cleansed by this precious Fountain. It is through the Gospel of Jesus' blood that we are renewed every day. As the lyric goes, What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Shall saying sorry and trying hard to be good blot out our sins which have been engraved with an iron pen in Lord's book? By no means. It is God's Son that died, that if we trust in that offering to be ours, all our sins will be forgiven on the basis of His blood. There is no other salvation. Let us trust in Him.