The Blood As a Cleansing Agent

William Cooper’s hymn speaks of “a fountain filled with blood drawn from
Emmanuel’s veins, where sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty
stains.” The apostle John said that the blood of Jesus Christ “cleanses from all sin.”
The multitude in Revelation 7 had washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.

But how is blood a cleaning agent? To us, blood is a soiling or staining agent, something we try to scrub off, not scrub with.

Dr. Henry Brand explained it this way in Chnistianity Today:

All that we have learned about physiology in recent years confirms the accuracy of the still-jarring juxtaposition of blood and cleansing. . . .

I suggest a simple experiment if you truly wish to grasp the function of blood as a cleansing agent. Find a blood pressure kit and wrap the cuff around your upper arm. When it is in position, have a friend pump it up to about 200 mm. of mercury, a sufficient pressure to stop the flow of blood in your arm. Initially your arm will feel an uncomfortable tightness beneath the cuff. Now comes the revealing part of the experiment: perform any easy task with your cuffed arm. Merely

flex your finger and make a fist about ten times in succession, or cut paper with scissors, or drive a nail into wood with a hammer.

The first few movements will seem quite normal as the muscles obediently contract and relax. Then you will feel a slight weakness. Almost without warning a hot flash of pain will

The Cleansing Blood

strike, after maybe ten movements. Your muscles will cramp. If you force
v yourself to continue this simple task, you will likely cry out in absolute
agony. Finally, you cannot force yourself to continue; the pain overwhelms

He breaks the power of you. cancelled sen, When your release the tourniquet and air escapes from the cuff, He aC ORCA alles blood will rush into your aching arm and a wonderful sense of relief will Hits blood can make the soothe your muscles. . . . Physiologically, you have just experienced the foulest clean; cleansing of the blood. His blood availed for me.

While the blood supply to your arm was shut off, you forced your

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muscles to keep working. As they converted oxygen into energy, they produced certain waste products (metabolites) that are normally flushed away instantly in the bloodstream. Due to the constricted blood flow, however, these metabolites accumulated in your cells. They were not “cleansed” by the swirling stream of blood, and therefore in a few minutes you felt the agony of retained toxins.’