A fresh answer.
Jesus achieved forgiveness for humankind through shedding his blood to cover the multitudes of our sins.
A covering rather than, and with advantages over, an atonement, expiation or propitiation.
Contents of this article:
New Testament Covering of Sins
Old Testament Covering of Sins
More relevant Bible passages
Blood covering in life
How does a blood covering affect sins?
Overly theological translations of ‘KPR’ covering
Forgiveness and healing as aspects of the same process
Modern Medicine Using Blood Covering to Heal Wounds
A fresh understanding? AI replies
Advantages of the blood covering understanding
New Testament Covering of Sins
The covering of sins is a key term for how God responds to sin. Paul writes of sins being covered as he begins his great explanation in Romans of the forgiveness achieved by Jesus on the Cross:
to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
“Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
Romans 4:5-8
Paul quotes Psalm 32:1,2 to explain what he means by God justifying the ungodly, crediting righteousness to people. The justified, the righteous in Christ, are not those who have kept the Law, the Torah, not those who are justified by their own good, obedient, deeds, or by their righteous living. The justified, the righteous in Christ, are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
In the Psalms the poetry is different from our standard poetry where the same sound is expressed in the next line or in another pattern of lines, making a rhyme. The poetry of the Psalms is expressed in the same meaning sung, or spoken, in different words. We understand that the choir in the Temple in Jerusalem was divided into two parts, echoing each other. Within what we know as a verse, the same message is given twice, underlining the meaning, showing us a slightly different facet.
Those whose transgressions are forgiven, are the same as those whose sins are covered. Forgiving transgressions and covering sins are the same process. When we are forgiven, our sins are covered. When our sins are covered, we are forgiven. Having our transgressions forgiven, our sins covered, is what makes us justified, righteous. Forgiveness is the result, having our sins covered is the process. Forgiveness is the same as, comes through, having our sins covered.
Once someone’s forgiveness is secured, through having their sins covered, then God will not count any sin against them. God has been counting a person’s sins against them. He changes, now not counting any sin against them. This is the second change. First, the transgressions are forgiven, our sins are changed by being covered. Second, God no longer counts sin against us. Without the covering of sins, each sin is counted against us. With the covering of sins, no sin is counted against us.
Here we have Paul’s definition of Christian righteousness, a righteousness gained not through deeds but through faith – faith in the covering of our sins, faith in our forgiveness. Everything Paul writes in Romans, and elsewhere, about righteousness and justification, is to be understood according to his own definition at the beginning of Romans 4. We become righteous through having our sins covered.
Note what Paul does not write.
Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose relationship with God is restored.
The process of forgiveness is not primarily about having our relationship with God restored, it is primarily about having our sins covered. Once our sins are covered and we are forgiven, then our relationship with God is restored.
Restoring the relationship, healing the rift, between humans and God is not what the covering does. The covering does not have a direct effect on God, making him change his attitude towards us, nor does it make us change our attitude to him. The covering does have a direct effect on our sins. Uncovered sins are changed to covered sins. Sins were not covered and now they are covered. This change, this covering, achieves forgiveness of sins. Restoring the relationship between humans and God, healing the rift, then follows, as God no longer counts any sin against us.
Also, Paul does not write
Blessed are those whose transgression is forgiven
whose sin is covered.
Paul uses the plural for both transgressions and sins. He is not writing of a general propensity of sin in humankind. He is not writing of a sin-inducing power which influences people. He is writing of individual deeds which transgress the God given Law, of individual acts which are deemed sins and which need to be covered.
Paul uses the same plural language in his much-quoted words:
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,
1 Corinthians 15:3
Paul writes that ‘Christ died for our sins’ is not his choice of words. He is repeating what he was taught. It is generally understood that, here, Paul is quoting a very early agreed, common, statement of faith which would have been familiar to the readers in Corinth. ‘Christ died for our sins,’ plural, is the original used by the earliest Christians, even before Paul.
Since Paul, some people have talked more of Christ dying for our sin, for our general propensity, our sinfulness. This often goes along with the understanding that God cannot look at us because of our sinfulness, but can look at us through Jesus. God sees Jesus and forgives us. This is different from what Paul writes in 1 Corinthains 15 and Romans 4. Here our individual, many, sins are covered, forgiven, and then God can look at us in a fresh way.
A small linguistic difference between ‘sins’ and ‘sin,’ but a significant difference.
Some teaching gives the message that we humans are covered by Jesus, that our sinfulness is covered by the righteousness of Jesus. Drawing from the imagery of the saints being given white robes to wear, the understanding is that the white robes cover the sinfulness in us. This is a different understanding of covering to Paul’s covering of sins. Paul writes of our sins being covered, not of us being covered. Majoring on covering with white robes also seems superficial, that, under our white robes, we remain the same. No explanation is given as to how the white robes change us. By contrast, as we shall see, there is a simple explanation of how the covering of sins changes them, so that forgiveness is the natural outcome.
Peter, in his first letter, also writes of sins being covered:
Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.
1 Peter 4:8-10
Peter’s focus here is not to explain how we are made righteous by Jesus, but to encourage us, as people who have received and administer the manifold grace of God, to love sinning fellow Christians. The love which covers sins is the manifold grace of God, flowing through the people to whom Peter writes. The key process is the same – sins are covered. We find a common understanding between Paul and Peter that sins need to be covered, and when sins are covered, forgiveness is achieved.
Where Paul writes of sins being covered without specifying by whom or by what, Peter shows us that sins are covered by love, by the gracious love of God. God Himself, in love, because of his love, by applying his love, covers our sins and we are to extend the same forgiving, covering, love to others, especially to our Christian family.
Peter does not explain what he means by love covering sins. He seems to assume that his readers knew. In urging them to be forgiving to one another, he makes a brief reference, obvious to him and to them, to the forgiving love of God, covering a multitude of sins. This may not be a formal agreed understanding, use of words, as was ‘Christ died for our sins’ quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. But Peter’s expectation that his readers would know what he meant without him having to explain it, indicate that love covering a multitude of sins was already a common understanding.
Sins being covered was like Christ dying for our sins – a commonly accepted shared understanding, referred to by both Paul and Peter. Christ died for our sins, thereby covering the multitude of our sins with love.
Like Paul, Peter also quotes the Old Testament:
Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers all offences.
Proverbs 10:12
Paul and Peter take an Old Testament, Hebrew, understanding and show how it has been fulfilled, filled out, found its truest expression, in the death of Jesus, where sins are covered by the loving Son of God.
James also writes of sins being covered:
you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
James 5:20
James, along with Paul and Peter, indicates that sins being covered is a well-know understanding of his readers. ‘You should know…’ can be taken to mean, ‘You know, if you remember, about sins being covered, and how you bringing a sinner from wandering helps this process.’ We understand that the sinner’s soul is saved from death through his turning to the truth of his or her sin, thereby ensuring that their multitude of sins are covered, forgiven.
Old Testament Covering of Sins
For the nephesh of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making kapper / kippur for your nepheshes on the altar; for it is the blood that makes kapper / kippur for the nephesh.
Leviticus 17:11
This semi-translation of Leviticus highlights two key Hebrew words.
The Hebrew word nephesh means life-spirit. The breath of God entering the man formed from dust in Genesis 2:7 was nephesh, life-giving spirit, or life-spirit. The man then became a living being, a being now with nephesh, with life-spirit or with a nephesh, a life-spirt. A body with no breath is a body with no nephesh, no life. Similarly, a body with no blood is a body with no nephesh, no life. When blood drains out or a body the body is dead the nephesh has gone. Nephesh means life-spirit as known mostly in both breath and blood.
The Hebrew word kapper / kippur means covering. Covering is the simplest, most straightforward translation of kapper / kippur..
Hebrew was written with only consonants. The vowels were understood. The Hebrew written word is, literally, KPR, which could have been pronounced kapper or kippur. The Bible Hub Interlinear Bible gives us kapper, but the common Hebrew for Day of Atonement is Yom (Day) Kippur. Either way, the original meaning is the same: It is the blood that makes covering. This covering is made specifically on the day of the annual sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sins of the people.
Once the Hebrew word KPR, is translated in its most straightforward way, the connection with what Paul and Peter and James, quoting the Old Testament, write about the importance of sins being covered becomes obvious. We know from Paul that the covering of sins achieves forgiveness, without which we are not righteous. We know from Peter that sins are covered by the love of God. We know also from Leviticus that the covering which is given by God is the covering of blood.
The Biblical understanding we have explored so far is:
Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered by the love of God, who gives blood for covering.
More relevant Bible passages
We can add Hebrews 9:22
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
The writer explains the connection between the blood of animals used in Old Testament times and, since the crucifixion, the blood of Jesus himself. The blood of animals was for forgiveness of sins. The blood of Jesus is for forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness through the blood of animals was effective for a year and had to renewed. Forgiveness through the blood of Jesus is effective for eternity. The blood of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, who the writer to the Hebrews has, at the beginning of his letter, demonstrated to be the Son of God, forgives in the fullest, fully complete, way. The covering of sins by the blood of animals was a foreshadowing of the full, complete, covering of sins by the blood of Jesus.
The writer to the Hebrews states that in the Old Testament, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. He also writes as though he is stating a truth already known to his readers. Jewish people at the time knew that, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. The writer to the Hebrews does not explain what the blood does to the sins to enable them to be forgiven. Maybe he thought he did not need to quote Leviticus 17:11, and Psalm 32:1 and Proverbs 10:12, that blood is needed to cover sins. It could be that, as Paul and Peter and James wrote about sins needing to be covered, knowing that their readers would already know this, the writer to the Hebrews states the common understanding that blood is needed for forgiveness, knowing that his readers would already know that this blood is used to cover sins.
We can add to our Biblical understanding so far:
Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered by the love of God, who gives blood for covering, without which blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
One, little known, use of the Hebrew word KPR is worth noting in Genesis as God instructs Noah how to build the ark.
Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with KPR.
Genesis 6: 14
All English translations here translate ‘KPR’ with ‘pitch’ instead of the literal translation ‘covering.’ It is clear in the context that KPR here means a covering which seals wood and protects it from encroachment by water. Pitch is a good technical word to describe this sort of covering. Yet, using pitch instead of covering, means that we lose the connection with Leviticus 17:11: The blood covers sins in a way similar to the covering applied to the wood of the ark.
The covering / pitch applied to the ark was initially liquid but dried to form a thin, solid, flexible, membrane over the wood. This dried covering sealed the wood so that no water could penetrate. The waters of the flood, which God was sending to destroy everything on the earth, would not be able to affect the ark, because of the covering. Because of the covering, the ark would not rot. Because of the covering the ark would be protected from the forces of chaos and death, which is how waters and seas are commonly seen in the Old Testament.
Another use of KPR is for protecting the people from plague:
Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take your censer, put fire on it from the altar and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation for KPR for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.’ So Aaron took it as Moses had ordered, and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense, for KPR for the people. He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped.
Numbers 16:46-48
KPR here is usually translated atonement but, as in Leviticus 17, covering is the most straightforward translation. The holy incense covered the people so that they were protected from the plague transferring from the dead to the living. KPR is a protective, healing, covering, here not of blood, nor of pitch, but of sacred smoke. KPR is also a protection against the wrath of God behind the plague, holy smoke from God which neutralises the wrath of God,
In other places in the Old Testament KPR is translated atonement. Detailed analysis of these references is not part of this article but is in the Further section in this part of Fresh Bible Answers.
Another important instance of KPR in the Old Testament is in the word usually translated mercy seat. In the Hebrew this is ‘KPRT’, usually known as ‘KPRT’, which, literally is also cover. The KPRT is on the top of the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle. This KPRT is translated ‘hilasterion’ in the Greek Old Testament and through to the New Testament and then translated into English as either propitiation or expiation or sacrifice for sin. It is possible, however, to translate hilasterion, in line with the Hebrew, as cover. Detailed analysis of these references is also in the Further section.
A connected part of Old Testament sacrifice is that the blood has not only to be shed but also to be applied, including to the KPRT. This is also explored and written up in the Further section.
Blood covering in life
When we decide to take KPR in its literal meaning, covering, we then have to work out how this covering by blood can achieve forgiveness for sins.
Covering or coverings by blood are a common feature of human life. Every time someone is cut or wounded, blood is released by the body to form a covering over the cut or the wound. Because humans are, mostly, hairless, this is an obvious visible ubiquitous process. We see blood covering every time we see a scab.
Blood covering to form a scab is similar to the KPR covering applied to the wood of the ark – initially liquid, then forming a thin, solid, flexible membrane. The use of the same word KPR in Genesis 6:14 encourages us that the covering by blood in Leviticus 17:11 might well be the covering of blood which forms a scab.
The function and purpose of a scab blood covering is well known. The covering protects the cut, the wound, from infection so that healing can take place under the covering. If the scab blood covering remains intact, healing will not be hindered. The scab covering remains in place until the healing is complete. No longer needed, it drops off. The cut, the wound, is fully healed. With a perfect scab blood covering not even a scar remains. This process is not immediate but takes time, sometimes considerable time.
Without a scab covering, a cut or wound is open to the unclean elements in air, in water, in earth. Without a scab covering, a cut of wound will become infected, healing will be hindered. The wound may become larger as the infection takes hold. At its worst, an unhealed, suppurating, wound will kill the person, poisoning their blood, their body. The forces of disease and death will do their worst.
Blood covering to form a scab is also similar to the KPR covering applied to the wood of the ark, and the KPR covering applied to the people in danger of plague – a layer of protection against the forces of chaos and death. The use of the same word in Genesis 6:14, Numbers 16:46-48, and Leviticus 17:11 gives more encouragement to see the covering of sins by blood to be indeed a protective covering against the forces of disease and death, a covering which promotes and ensures healing – i.e. a scab..
How does a blood covering affect sins?
The purpose of a scab blood covering is to cover a cut, a wound. We know that the covering of blood needs to be applied to sins. It is logical that we are to see sins as cuts, wounds. Through examining the Biblical remedy for sins, covering by blood, we see the Biblical understanding of sins – cuts, wounds. A sin is a wound inflicted by a human being on another human or an animal, or on themselves. Every act which damages a human being, and animals, is a sin. Every time someone is hurt, a sin has been committed. We humans wound each other in minor and major ways, one at a time or in great numbers. We wound bodies and we wound hearts and we wound minds and spirits. We open other people, and ourselves, to the infecting forces of chaos and death. Each wound is a sin.
As humans, we are responsible for our actions. We are responsible for the wounds we inflict. This general Biblical truth of human free will and responsibility is widely accepted so that, I trust, no detailed explanation is needed here.
Our human responsibility for our wounds, entails us being responsible to repair the damage we have done. I, in my free will, have inflicted a wound. It is then up to me to heal that wound. But I can’t. As humans, we can easily damage other people and creatures, but we cannot repair them. We can try hard, make restitution, but we cannot heal all the damage of our wounding actions, including the ongoing trauma and ripple effects. We do not have the power needed to heal, to regenerate others.
Each wound needs to be healed. As we see blood flowing from a body, covering a wound, forming a scab, we know that healing is taking place. In sacrifice, as we see blood flowing from a body, and we know that this blood is to make a covering for sins, for wounds, and we trust that, in God’s economy, healing of wounds is taking place. Once the wound, in all it’s aspects, not only physical, is healed, or will certainly be healed, our responsibility has been met, not by us, but by God. All this healing is provided by our good God. We do not have to wait for the complete healing, which may well not be perfect until Paradise. Once we know that the wound is covered by God, we know that healing will definitely be completed in this life or beyond death. The blood of sacrifice, freely given by our loving God, provides the healing, which no human can provide, for the wounds which every human has inflicted.
Another aspect of Leviticus 17:11 indicates that the blood not only covers wounds, sins, but also gives life to then, regenerates them. As we read, For the nephesh of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making covering we know that blood is not only a physical element but a spiritual element, a life-spirit, a life-giving spirit. Blood not only covers and protects a wound, it also promotes the regeneration of the flesh which has been torn apart. We know now that blood, and particularly the platelets in blood, promote physical healing. (See below for how this knowledge is being applied by modern medicine for the healing of wounds by blood.) The writer of Leviticus, the culture of the writer, knew already that blood has life-giving, regenerating, properties.
Leviticus 17:11 also indicates that this regeneration through blood applies not only to wounded physical bodies, but also, and more importantly, to wounded spirits. It is the blood that makes covering for the nephesh. The blood covering brings healing to the human life-spirit as well as to the human body. We can understand this as both healing to the wounded spirit of the wounded person and also as healing to the anguished spirit of the wounding person who knows they are responsible for healing the wound and has no possibility of achieving the needed healing.
The full nuances of the Hebrew words KPR and nephesh cannot all be explored here and would need someone with more linguistic expertise. Here, a case has been made for translating KPR as covering and for understanding this as a healing, regenerating, covering, like a scab.
Overly theological translations of ‘KPR’ covering
No single translation, of which I am aware, translates ‘KPR’ in Leviticus 17:11 as ‘covering.’ Instead, translators use ‘atonement’ or ‘expiation,’ sometimes, ‘propitiation.’ These are theological terms far removed from the simple meaning ‘covering.’ Atonement’ or ‘expiation’ or ‘propitiation’ as a translation for KPR imports a meaning which is not in the text. Jesus said that not the slightest pen-stroke of any text in the Scriptures was to pass away. Yet in Leviticus 17:11 a whole word has been made to pass away in translation, to be replaced by a very different word.
The first person to use ‘atonement’ as the translation for KPR was John Wycliffe, the first translator of the Bible into English. ‘Atonement’ was a new word, either invented by Wycliffe or by someone at the time, by combining the words at-one-ment. An invention by Wycliffe is more likely, as he also invented ‘lovingkindness’ to translate the Hebrew word ‘hesed.’) Atonement is what makes one, the process of uniting what had been separated. Atonement has no hint of covering. Yet atonement remains the standard translation for English Bibles, including in the Jewish community.
Expiation’ is also sometimes used to translate KPR. The modern French translation uses ‘expiation.’ John Goldingay, notable Old Testament Professor, uses ‘expiation’ in his ‘Old Testament For Everyone’ translation. Expiation usually means securing forgiveness by either sincere contrition or some costly act. Expiation is mostly a theoretical term which denotes a process through which forgiveness can be granted, things can be made right, without any detailed understanding of what the process involves. The costly act may be acceptance of punishment or may be some restitution and different people at different times have different understandings. Expiation has no hint of covering, no clear connection to the Hebrew KPR
Propitiation is less used as a translation for KPR, though is used as an alternative to ‘atonement’ or ‘expiation’ more widely in Biblical theology. Propitiation is also a general term which denotes a process through which forgiveness can be granted, particularly a process which satisfies or neutralises the anger of the forgiver. The death of Jesus is said to satisfy the anger of God against humanity, without any detailed understanding of why this anger is satisfied by this death. Propitiation has no hint of covering no clear connection to the Hebrew KPR
Why overly theological translations of KPR?
Each of the terms used instead of ‘covering’ has its own theological meaning. Translators bring their previous theological understanding of what constitutes the central problem of sin and of how forgiveness can be achieved or granted. They then use the word that fits their existing understanding, presumably because they can see no way that ‘covering sins’ fits that understanding.
For theologians and translators who understand that the central problem of sin is the anger engendered in God by human sin, the word propitiation fits as covering does not. They cannot write that the covering satisfies the wrath of God, but they can write that the propitiation satisfies the wrath of God.
For theologians and translators who understand the central problem of sin is the separation made by human sin between people and God, the word atonement fits as covering does not. They cannot write that the covering removes the separation between people and God, but they can write that the atonement removes the separation between people and God.
For theologians and translators who understand that the central problem of sin is a more general need to somehow make things right, the word expiation fits as covering does not. They cannot write that the covering makes things right again, but they can write that the expiation makes right what sin has disrupted, making forgiveness possible.
Forgiveness and healing as aspects of the same process
The blood covering, blood healing, understanding of what sacrifice achieves, and supremely what the self-sacrifice or Jesus achieved, focuses on a change effected directly to the wounds inflicted, the sins committed, rather than a change effected directly to the relationship between the sinner and God. The change in the wounds / sins, that they are now in the process of being healed, then means that God no longer counts the sins against the wounder, for the wounds are, or will be, no more.
“Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
Healing of wounds inflicted and forgiveness of sins are seen to be different ways of describing the same process. Peter makes this connection:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24
As in 1 Peter 4:8, Peter’s main point is not to explain the death of Jesus, but to exhort Christians to live in the love of God, being prepared to accept suffering when needed, as Jesus did. As part of this exhortation, Pater points his readers to the death of Jesus, whose death freed us from our sins, whose wounds healed us. As when Peter writes about love covering sins, what Peter writes here of the death of Jesus is not his main point, but a supporting point. He briefly refers his readers to a truth which he expects them to know, and which is probably part of the teaching that they, and many others, have received. We do not see quotation marks because Greek at the time know no such device. But 1 Peter 2:24 looks like a quotation. Pater is urging people to live for righteousness and he quotes a truth which includes such living as well as the understanding that Jesus freeing us from our sins and healing our wounds are aspects of the same process, his death on the cross.
Peter here is very likely also thinking of words of Isaiah which we know were associated with the death of Jesus from the very beginning of the Church:
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:7
We are healed by Jesus’ wounds. The Hebrew word may be translated wounds or bruises. In either case, blood is noticeable. In bruises broken blood vessels under the surface are seen. In wounds blood is seen flowing in the open. With the connection with the sacrifices of the Old Testament, particularly the sacrifice of Leviticus 17, where blood flowed in the open, it Is natural to think of Jesus’ wounds. But bruises also remind us of the half- hidden wounds of a wounded spirit, so can be appropriate also, with the healing coming to our wounded spirits.
The blood which flowed from the dying body of Jesus was human blood and also divine blood. The life-spirit which was integral to the blood of Jesus was both human life spirit and divine life spirit. The healing that comes through this blood is both human healing and divine healing. The life-spirit of God, known by Christians as The Holy Spirit, is poured out for healing of wounds, for forgiving sins. As the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of chaos at the very beginning, so the Spirit of God flowing through, released by the death of Jesus, covers and heals all the ravages of human sin.
Jesus was wounded. Blood flowed from his body, as though he was guilty. He looked punished, wounded as someone who has himself wounded others. The criminals crucified with Jesus had certainly wounded others. Yet he was innocent, the guilt was not his. Others, we, were the wounders. Jesus died not to remedy wounds he himself had inflicted, for there were none. Jesus died to remedy the wounds we all inflict. Healing of physical and spiritual wounds comes through the wounds of Jesus. The blood which flowed from Jesus’ body was to cover our sins, to heal the wounds we have inflicted. Because of these wounds, this blood, our sins are no longer counted against us and we ourselves no longer suffer the unbearable pain of responsibility for injury, we are healed indeed.
We complete our summary of Bible teaching about blood covering sins:
Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered by the love of God, who gives blood, with life spirit, supremely the blood of Jesus, for covering, for healing, for regenerating wounded bodies and wounded spirits. Without this God-given blood there is no forgiveness of sins, no healing of wounded bodies and wounded spirits. With this blood covering, multitudes of wounds in bodies and spirits will be healed, in or beyond this life. Through the blood covering, all sins can be forgiven so that there are no more sins, no more wounds to be counted against anyone.
Modern Medicine Using Blood Covering to Heal Wounds
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) dressings are a recent development for treating serious or intractable wounds. The process involves taking human blood and breaking it down into the constituent elements. The blood is then blended back together with a greater proportion of platelets to form PRP. Platelets are the cell fragments which play a crucial role in both blood clotting and wound healing. PRP is pasted onto a dressing placed over the wound. The blood can be taken from the person themselves, or from a donor. In early studies family members were donating blood. PRP can also be injected to promote healing of wounds or injuries. (The wine of Communion, understood as the blood of Jesus, can also be seen as an injection of blood, of JRP – Jesus Rich Plasma.) See Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for treating chronic or complicated wounds in neonates and children: a case series – Wounds UK
A similar treatment is Active Coagulation Whole Blood (ACWB) clot treatment, using the patient’s own blood, to form a clot rather than a dressing. ACWB was developed by a team led by an Israeli doctor. ‘ACWB is used to treat deep and tunneling wounds, by mixing the blood with coagulation components and applying it into the wound cavity allowing the clot to re-form inside the wound.’ A study of 5 hard-to-heal wounds reported: ‘Complete wound healing was observed in 4/5 cases. In the fifth case, there was a 70% reduction in the depth and surface area of the abdominal surgical wound.’ See The Use of Active Coagulation Whole Blood—An Innovative Treatment Strategy for Hard-To-Heal Wounds – Nadav Haim, Jarrod P. Kaufman, Maxim Gurevich, 2024
A blood covering, including from a donor, does heal physical wounds.
A fresh understanding? AI replies
Having completed this article, I turned to AI for find out how fresh is this scab blood covering understanding.
To the question ‘Who has explained the death of Jesus as him providing his blood to cover sins, as scabs cover wounds?’ AI has replied:
Microsoft Copilot: ‘While I couldn’t find a specific explanation comparing His blood to scabs covering wounds, many biblical verses emphasize the cleansing and healing power of His sacrifice.’
ChatGPT: ‘That vivid metaphor—Jesus providing his blood to cover sins the way scabs cover wounds—resonates with ideas found in Christian theology, particularly in atonement theories, but it doesn’t appear to be a widely quoted or traditional phrasing’
iAsk AI: ‘The explanation that compares Jesus’ blood covering sins to scabs covering wounds does not have a specific attribution in traditional theological discourse but aligns with general concepts found within Christian teachings about atonement.’
AskAI: ‘The biblical basis for this concept can be found in passages such as 1 Peter 2:24, which states: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
Copilot, ChatGPT, iAsk AI cannot find a mention of blood covering like scab covering. AskAi also cannot find a mention but, when prompted, can see a Biblical basis for scab blood covering. We can be confident it is both a fresh understanding and a Biblical understanding, one which ‘resonates’ or ‘aligns’ with Christian teaching.
MyCleverAI gave a similar answer and then asked why I want to know. The further reply includes:
‘Okay, I understand! So, it sounds like this is a metaphor you’ve developed yourself, and you’re curious if anyone else has used it. That makes sense.
‘Given that you haven’t found anyone else using this specific comparison, it’s likely quite unique to your own understanding.
‘The language around atonement tends to focus on ideas of cleansing, sacrifice, redemption, and reconciliation. The blood of Jesus is often described as “washing away” sins, “paying the price” for our sins, or “reconciling” us to God. These are more abstract and theological concepts.
MyCleverAi wrote that the only weakness of the scab blood covering understanding is that a scab is temporary, whereas the forgiveness of Jesus is permanent. It does not take much human, natural, intelligence to see that the healing caused by the scab is permanent. Once healing is complete, the scab is no longer needed. The blood of Jesus, with the divine-human life-spirit, makes a permanent repair, begun in this life and complete in Paradise. In the resurrection, in the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no wounds, no scars, for the covering blood of Jesus has completed its work in healing bodies and souls. The only exception is the wounds of Jesus himself, visible for eternity.
MyCleverAi could also see strengths of the scab blood covering understanding:
The “scab” analogy is more visceral and physical… It’s a very concrete and relatable image. Everyone understands what a scab does. It highlights the idea that Jesus’s sacrifice provides immediate protection from the consequences of sin.’
Advantages of the blood covering understanding.
Healing is integral
The healing ministry of Jesus and his sacrificial death are shown to be aspects of the same ministry. Other understandings of the death of Jesus have no connection with his healing ministry.
Jesus, while being arrested, healed the ear of the slave of the high priest and rebuked the wounder for the sin of cutting the ear off. We see Jesus healing a wound, thereby nullifying the need for punishment of the sin. Jesus doing this a few hours from his death underlines that the blood soon to pour out of his body is a healing covering for sins.
Love is primary
The donation of blood by Jesus for the whole world is a costly gift of love from him and from his Father. The primary effect of Jesus’s death was not to appease an angry Father. The primary effect of Jesus’ death was provision of healing for the wounds, sins, of all humanity, Jesus sacrificing himself with the encouragement and strength of the Father. Father and Son were acting together to cover all wounds, sins, either in this life or beyond this life.
Once wounds, sins, are covered, and healing is ensured, the wounding person is released from their unfulfillable responsibility to heal the wound caused and to bear the anger of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, because their outrage at pain inflicted, passes away. The anger of God is a secondary, not permanent attribute, which is dealt with by a loving, self-sacrificial outpouring of healing blood to form covering of wounds for all people. God’s own, permanent, love which covers sins, also takes away the need for God’s anger.
For our sins
Jesus’ blood covering sins is more exactly Jesus dying for our sins. His death directly nullifies our sins through covering all the wounds inflicted by our sins. This is different from other understandings in which Jesus’ death affects God directly, rather than our sins.
When we see more clearly how Jesus died for our specific sins, we also see more clearly also how our confession of our specific sins is vital. As humans we bear responsibility for the wounds we have inflicted. This responsibility is part of our humanness. Without this responsibility we would not be human, made in the image of God.
Once we have wounded someone or ourselves, our responsibility for the wound, for healing the wound, becomes a burden we cannot shake off. We know, in ourselves, that the wounds we have inflicted need to be healed and we have no ability to minister that healing, except in superficial ways. We certainly cannot outbalance our sins by our good deeds. If I have knifed my next-door neighbour in a furious dispute, me feeding and housing hundreds of homeless people will never heal that wound.
Jesus offers us his ability to heal the wounds we have inflicted. As humans we have to welcome and accept that offer. We have to acknowledge our responsibility, confess our sins – each sin, not just our general propensity to sinful behaviour.
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
Jesus provides the healing we cannot provide. Jesus repairs the wounds we cannot repair. Jesus is able to take on responsibility for mending what we cannot mend. Once we have acknowledged our responsibility, not hiding behind ‘I had to do it,’ or ‘They made me do it,’ or ‘If my life had been better, I wouldn’t have done it,’ or any other excuse to evade responsibility, Jesus can take that responsibility from us, onto himself.
One thief crucified next to Jesus confessed his sin.
we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.
Luke 23:41
He also expressed faith in Jesus as someone who could give him a future beyond death – remarkable faith.
To this thief alone Jesus said
‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’
Luke 23:43
The thief who did not confess his sin was not on the way to Paradise.
James also connects sins being covered with a sinner turning from their old ways:
you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
James 2.20
Christians are to encourage each other, and anyone, to turn to God in confession, so that their soul will live and their sins will be covered. Humans turning to God in repentance, as the dying thief turned to Jesus, is needed for sins to be covered.
If we understand that we need solely to have faith that Jesus died in our place, or to have faith that he healed the rift between us and God, or to have faith that he stopped God being angry with us, confessing specific sins seems irrelevant. If we understand that we need to have faith that Jesus died for our sins, to provide covering for our sins with his blood, confessing specific sins seems an integral part of the process. Us confessing our sins is similar to the Old Testament blood being applied to the altar or to the ark of the covenant, with its gold cover. Jesus shed his healing blood to cover our sins. We each need to apply this blood to our own particular sins.
Immediate and ongoing
Once we have confessed our sins, the responsibility for repairing the damage has been taken on by Jesus. He will then heal in his way and in his time. The transfer of responsibility is immediate. The healing can, probably will, take ages, including beyond this life.
We gain immediate relief from bearing a responsibility which we cannot fulfil, and from knowing that healing by Jesus is under way. We know, realistically, that the people we have wounded will not be instantaneously healed. Their pain may mean that they want to have nothing to do with us, that they want to warn other people about us, or worse. We have to bear this understandable rejection. We must make sure we do nothing which will make life worse for them. We cannot expect them to forgive us now. Jesus has much healing to complete in their lives and we need to wait for that complete healing. If they are open to apology we need to make it. If not, we recognise that this is a consequence of what we have done.
If we confess in front of a Christian Priest, Minister, or trusted Christian friend, they can and should underline the immediate transfer of responsibility to Jesus. ‘You have confessed your sin. Jesus has indeed forgiven you. His blood shed on the cross now covers the wounds you have inflicted. He will make sure that these wounds will heal. Hear the words of Jesus: “Peace be with you. I have it covered. You are forgiven.’”
No picking
People can continue to kick themselves by dwelling again on the damage they have done through their sins. This can appear to be humble, ongoing, remorse. Yet it too easily becomes a faithless refusal to take in fully the truth that we are forgiven by God and need to forgive ourselves.
Once confessed and forgiven, sins are covered indeed. We cannot know this without doubt, we have to receive it by faith as having happened. Faith says that the scab is in place. The scab must not be removed to inspect the wound again, even for the person to shake their head at their own stupidity and sinfulness. No picking at the scab! We all know that this only prolongs the healing unnecessarily.
Not notional
Sinners are comforted that their victims are not untouched but healed, eventually, as an integral part of forgiveness. Forgiveness which leaves the victims untouched is often rejected by victims and their families as merely a notional process to ‘get the wounder off the hook.’ Forgiveness which entails Jesus, his Father and his Spirit, taking on responsibility to heal victims, in this life or the next, could well be more acceptable.
Helps us to forgive
Forgiving other people is one of the hardest tasks of the Christian life. The pain we have suffered, the pain others have suffered, cries out for recognition, for punishment, even for revenge. This cry is heard by God who responds with recognition and with healing grace. The wounds, in us and in others, are covered. The pain is being healed and will be fully healed. Knowing that this is part of forgiveness helps us extend forgiveness to others.
Instead of holding the wounders to their responsibility to repair the damage, a responsibility which we know they have no more ability to fulfil than we do, we look to Jesus, to his Father and his Holy Spirit to repair the damage, knowing that they alone can heal fully. Our prayer is dual: ‘Father, forgive them, and heal the horrendous wounds they have inflicted. May your healing of me, of us, be their forgiveness.’
Helps respond to the Question of Suffering
Bad, painful, events in the lives of good people are the hardest part of life to explain. Why does God allow so much pain?
Christians can make various responses, all of which provide some insight. With Jesus, though, there is no sufficient answer. In his healing ministry, in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and elsewhere, Jesus seems to consider the question ‘Why does God allow suffering?’ less important than ‘What can I or you do to help people in pain?’ For Jesus, the worst attitude is to say that their suffering must be God’s will for them and we should not interfere. Repairing damage in people was a chief occupation of Jesus and should be a chief occupation of us also.
The scab blood covering understanding of Jesus’ death does, however, help us to say that God knows he can eventually fully heal all wounds, all pain, all people, and that providing this healing meant he experienced substantial pain himself. God is far from indifferent to suffering and has gone to great lengths to heal and restore all people, in this life and beyond.
The finished work
When Jesus, on the cross, declared ‘It is finished. It is accomplished,’ all that seemed finished was the determination of Jesus’ enemies, and of the evil enemy behind the people. They had accomplished Jesus’ death. They had succeeded.
Jesus, though, knowing that his blood, once flowing out of him, would cover all sins, heal all wounds, and feeling that this had indeed happened, that so much blood had flowed that he was about to die, could declare ‘It is finished. It is accomplished.’ He had accomplished the release of the blood, the life-spirit, which is now available to cover all sins, heal all wounds, make all things new.
The ensuing resurrection is a demonstration that the making all things new, the regeneration of people and cosmos, is already under way.
Making known the glory of God through blood and water
The death of Jesus is shown to be the perfect expression of the glory of God, the glory of Jesus the Son, full of grace and truth. The glory of God is his self-sacrificial love, his kindness to the just and the unjust alike, his overriding desire to heal all people so that they can be fully members of his family. The glory of God is him, in love, covering a multitude of sins, or even many multitudes.
The blood of sacrifice, supremely the sacrifice by Jesus of himself, is glorious, freely providing healing for the whole world. In the Old Testament, the blood is shed, the blood flows, within the Tabernacle, later within the Temple. Glorious healing, ensuring forgiveness, starting within the Temple. The prophet Ezekiel was given a vision of glorious healing flowing out of the Temple, now, not as blood, but as water. (Ezekiel 47:1-12) He saw water flowing in the temple, flowing south of the altar. The water flowed out of the Temple and became a river giving life, abundant fruit and healing, even to the Dead Sea, and then to the nations. The nations in Old Testament understanding are all the people without the Law, the law-less, the sinners. The healing, restoring, regenerating covering, starts as blood in the Temple and flows out of the Temple as water. As the waters of the flood covered the earth to destroy life, so the waters of God’s glory will cover the earth to bring healing, forgiveness, new life.
Habbakuk proclaims this wonderful future in the midst of bloodshed, iniquity, poverty and purposelessness. He echoes Isaiah 11:9, adding a specific mention of God’s glory.
But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14
The Old Testament pattern is fully fulfilled in Jesus. God’s healing, restoring, regenerating, covering, starts as his blood on and from the cross. After his death, blood and water came out of his side. The covering is seen to start as blood and also flow as water. The covering is, eventually, to cover the whole world, repair the whole world.
As blood is a symbol and carrier of life-spirit, so also is water a symbol and carrier of life-spirit. Without water, there is no life. With water there is abundant life, as in the vision of Ezekiel. The life-spirit in and flowing from Jesus’ body, as both blood and water, is the supreme life-spirit from which all life comes, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who hovered over the waters of chaos and destruction before creation, will one day be the waters of the glory of God, covering and filling the earth.
The Old Testament, Jewish, vision of the river from the Temple bringing life and healing to the nations has developed into the Jewish concept of ‘Tikkun Olam’ – repairing the world. At times Tikkun Olam is described as the ultimate plan and work of God for the whole world, to be complete with the coming of the Messiah. At times Tikkun Olam is described as the process of creating just laws today, or of working for social justice today, or of acts of individual kindness carried today out in hope that the world will thereby become a slightly better place.
Christians speak more, following Jesus, of The Kingdom of God, both to come, in the ultimate future, and active now to change the world as it is into the world as God wants. Seeing the death of Jesus as initiating a flow of healing repair now which will, eventually, become the waters that cover the whole earth in healing repair, helps connect Christians with the Tikkun Olam of Jewish tradition. People of faith do not sit back and wait for God to change the whole world into the healed, repaired, world he wants, but welcome the flow of the Holy Spirit today, from Jesus, through us, to bring incremental change, healing and repair, to our neighbours, our communities, our nations. The KPR understanding of Jesus’ makes an integral connection, not only with the earthly healing ministry of Jesus, but also with Jesus’ ultimate making of all things new and with our ability to be channels of healing, repair, regeneration, today.
For now, the water of baptism covers believers, ensuring forgiveness of their sins through the healing of their wounds and restoring full fellowship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and with humanity. For now, too, the water of the Spirit, given by Jesus, and drunk by the believer, becomes rivers of living water flowing from their belly so that the loving, repairing, glory of God flows through them to the world.
Easy to understand
We can agree with MyCleverAI that God’s healing, scab-like, covering is a concrete and easily relatable way of helping people across the world to know the forgiving glory of God, immediately accessible today. UK prisoners, to whom I have been Chaplain, have no problem understanding and welcoming scab blood covering of their sins and the sins of others.
I met a few times with one prisoner, N, who was seeking healing of memories of the past. We asked the Holy Spirit to bring a particular memory to mind and waited to see what came. He remembered being 13 years old and scaring a young cousin.
His family was staying with this cousin’s family in a small country town. As a big city boy, he was bored, and annoyed to be away from his mates. One day, N’s parents left him in the house with his 9-year-old cousin. Having to keep an eye on the little one was even more boring and annoying.
N decided to liven things up. He put on a hoodie which he had not worn there before and pulled the hood well up. He took a large knife from the kitchen. He opened a window in the living room and hid behind a sofa. His cousin came looking for him. He leapt out at the little one, brandishing his knife. He demanded money. His cousin wailed and wet himself. He then leapt out of the window.
With the knife back in its drawer and the hoodie in his suitcase, he strolled to his cousin to ask what was the matter. The boy blubbered a lot. N said he was a lucky boy. Intruding thieves are ruthless, as he himself knew. He was smiling inside at the impact he had made.
The adults returned. N’s cousin told them, through tears, the terrible story. They called the police. The little one’s father was well connected in the town so the police came quickly. ‘I have an idea who this was!’ asserted one policeman and went off to arrest the youngster. Word soon spread. ‘If they were attacked, who is safe today?’ Fear flooded the small town.
N never owned up, neither at the time, nor since. I invited him to confess his sins, of planning the ‘attack,’ despite misgivings, which he admitted to, of terrifying his cousin, of not owning up, or hiding the truth, embracing a lie which helped set a pattern of lying in his life, of sowing fear in his own family and the whole town. N admitted to all and asked, out loud, for forgiveness. His voice shook with remorseful emotion.
N said he would tell the truth to his parents as soon as he could. I joined him in asking for forgiveness and for all the damage he had done to be repaired by the blood of Jesus. I declared that now that he had confessed, the faithful and just God had forgiven him. We asked the Holy Spirit to come and cleanse him from the unrighteousness he had embraced. We waited to see what would come.
N said a deep peace came to him. He felt lighter. A weight had been lifted off. We thanked the Holy Spirit and asked for more. After a little quiet, N said that he could see the cousins’ house again, with a golden river flowing through the house. He could see his cousins relaxed, smiling. The river was washing away fear and replacing it with security and confidence.
As he stayed with this new picture of that house and family, N could see the golden river flowing out into the street, separating and flowing throughout the town. The fear of the whole town was being replaced by security and confidence.
As I had only talked of Jesus’ blood repairing wounds, like a scab, I was surprised by the picture of a golden river. But surprising, good, things often come from the Holy Spirit. A good picture indeed of widespread healing repair.
Flowing from the Father freely,
Comes a healing, loving, flood
Poured out through his trusting body
Jesus gave for us his blood.
He now covers sins.
As our blood helps wounds to heal up
Covering cuts with healing scab,
So his blood now makes a covering
Over all the wounds of life.
Wounds in us and wounds in others
Wounds inflicted by our sins
Wounds now underneath his covering
For the new life to begin.
Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Loving kindness as a flood,
Where the Prince of life, our ransom
Shed for us his precious blood.
Who his love will not remember
Who can cease to sing his praise?
He shall never be forgotten
Throughout heav’ns eternal days.
On the mount of crucifixion
Fountains opened, deep and wide,
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy,
Flowed a vast and gracious tide
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
Heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Covered all our sins in love.
For more detail where KPR is translated ‘atonement’ in English Bibles, an exploration of another KPR word, ‘KPRT,’ translated in English Bibles, ‘mercy seat’ or ‘sacrifice of atonement,’ and assessment of the usual words used in English translations, see the Further section of this answer – here.