The Crimson Mystery: The Theology, Legality, and Power of “Pleading the Blood”

by | Jan 20, 2026 | Foundations of Faith

Theme: Soteriology, Spiritual Warfare, and Biblical Typology

Scripture Base: Hebrews 9:11-14 / Leviticus 17:11 / Revelation 12:11

Estimated Reading Time: 16 minutes

If we walk into a fervent evangelical church anywhere in Brazil, Africa, or Latin America (and certainly in many Spirit-filled churches in the US), it won’t take long before we hear the vibrant phrase: “I plead the blood of Jesus!” or the classic declaration: “There is power in the blood!”

We use this phrase instinctively. We use it when we wake up from a nightmare. We use it when the car stalls on a dark road. We use it when we sense a “heavy atmosphere” at work. We even use it to rebuke the flu or a financial crisis. Over the decades, the “Blood” has become a sort of evangelical “mantra.” A spiritual password that, we believe, activates an invisible force field or makes the devil run away covering his ears.

But here, in the Hearing Him project, our commitment is to the depth of biblical truth, and not just to oral tradition. And the hard—yet liberating—question we need to ask today is: Is our practice of “pleading the blood” grounded biblical faith, or is it gospel superstition?

Have we transformed the blood of the Son of God into a Christian “good luck charm,” equivalent to a rabbit’s foot or knocking on wood? To access the true power that makes hell tremble, we need to stop treating the blood as a mystical or magical substance and start understanding it as God understands it: as Payment Currency, a Legal Sentence, and an Eternal Covenant.

I. The Biology of Redemption: Why Blood?

To understand the plea, we need to go back to spiritual biology. Why is the Bible such a “bloody” book? From Genesis to Revelation, we see altars, sacrifices, and the sprinkling of blood. Why doesn’t God accept flowers? Why doesn’t He accept money, penance, crying, or good intentions?

The answer lies in Leviticus 17:11, the backbone of atonement:

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”

God established an immutable principle: The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). When man sins, he loses the legal right to life. Divine justice demands the execution of the sinner’s life. However, God, in His mercy, established the law of Substitution. An innocent life can be given in place of the guilty life. But how is “life” transferred? Modern science has discovered what God said 3,500 years ago: blood is the vehicle of life. It is blood that carries oxygen and nutrients to every cell. If the blood stops, life ceases. Therefore, “shedding blood” is not about the red color of the liquid; it is about pouring out life.

When Jesus sheds His blood, He is not just bleeding; He is pouring out His divine, eternal, and innocent life to pay the debt of our human, temporary, and guilty life. It is a spiritual transfusion. His blood for our life.

II. The Red Trail: The Blood in the Old Testament

Before we get to the Cross, we need to see how God taught humanity to “plead the blood” through prophetic shadows.

1. The Blood in Eden (The Covering)

In Genesis 3, right after sinning, Adam and Eve felt shame. The first human reaction was Religion: they sewed fig leaves together. Fig leaves represent human effort to cover shame. But leaves dry up, crumble, and hide nothing from God. God rejected the leaves. What did He do? Genesis 3:21 says God made “tunics of skin” (or garments of skin) and clothed them. For there to be skins, an animal had to die. There was blood in Eden. The first sacrifice was not made by man to seek God, but by God to cover man. The principle was established there: Only innocent blood can cover the shame of sin.

2. The Blood at Passover (Protection and Ownership)

Exodus 12 is the definitive manual on how to “plead the blood.” The Angel of Death would pass through Egypt. The plague would kill all the firstborn. What was the protection? Being a “good person”? No. Being an Israelite? No. Praying a lot? No. The only protection was the blood of a spotless lamb applied to the doorposts.

God said a crucial phrase:

“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you…” (Exodus 12:13)

Note three vital details:

  1. The blood was for God to see, not for the people to see. The people were inside the house. They didn’t see the blood on the outside. They just trusted the blood was there. Faith isn’t feeling; it’s trusting the sign.
  2. The blood marked ownership. That mark told the Angel of Death: “This house already has a death (the lamb). You cannot collect the same debt twice. Move along.”
  3. Security was not in the morality of those inside. Inside the house, there could be a Jew trembling with fear or a confident Jew. There could be a “holy” Jew or a grumpy Jew. The Angel didn’t enter to check the people’s holiness; he checked the blood on the door. What saves us is not our perfection, it is the perfection of the Blood.

III. The Anatomy of Sacrifice: The 7 Sheddings of Jesus

Many Christians think of Jesus’ blood only as the moment of the spear in the side or the nails. But theologically, and based on the Passion, Jesus shed blood in seven specific ways, and each of them purchased an area of our redemption. Pleading the blood is appropriating these seven victories:

1. In Gethsemane: The Sweat of Blood (The Redemption of the Will)

Luke 22:44 says that His sweat became like great drops of blood (Hematidrosis). This happens under extreme emotional pressure. There, Jesus was winning the battle of the Will. “Not my will, but yours be done.” The first blood was shed to redeem our rebellion, our stress, and our inability to obey. The blood in Gethsemane gives us the power to say “Yes” to God.

2. In the Sanhedrin: The Face and the Beard (The Redemption of Identity)

Isaiah 50:6 prophesied: “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard.” Plucking the beard was the ultimate act of humiliation and dishonor for a Jew. They beat His face. They spit on Him. This blood shed from His face purchased our Identity and healed our Shame. If you suffer from rejection, an inferiority complex, or shame, the blood from Jesus’ Face restored your dignity as a son.

3. In the Praetorium: The Scourged Back (The Redemption of Health)

Jesus was whipped with the Roman flagrum (a whip with bone and lead tips). His back was turned into raw meat. 1 Peter 2:24 and Isaiah 53:5 say: “By his stripes we are healed.” The blood of His back paid the price for our Physical and Emotional Healing. He carried our pains upon Himself.

4. The Crown of Thorns: The Head (The Redemption of the Mind)

They jammed thorns (symbol of the earth’s curse in Genesis 3) onto the King’s head. The blood ran down His forehead, eyes, and ears. This blood redeemed our Mind. It broke the curse of thoughts, anxiety, depression, and mental oppression. The blood on the head means Jesus is the Lord of our thoughts.

5. The Nails in the Hands (The Redemption of Productivity)

Hands represent work, doing, productivity. The blood on the hands redeemed our Work. It broke the curse of “futile sweat.” It blesses the work of our hands. Pleading the blood over your job isn’t mysticism; it is believing that God prospers what you touch.

6. The Nails in the Feet (The Redemption of the Walk)

Feet represent our walk, our dominion, and our destiny. The blood on the feet redeemed our Steps. It means we no longer need to walk in crooked paths, nor be dominated by the enemy (the serpent strikes the heel, but the heel crushes the head). It means we have authority to trample on serpents and scorpions.

7. The Spear in the Side: Water and Blood (The Redemption of the Heart)

After death, a soldier pierced Jesus’ side, hitting the pericardium/heart. Blood and water came out. This symbolizes the birth of the Church (just as Eve came out of Adam’s side while he slept, the Church was born from Jesus’ side in death). This blood healed the Broken Heart. It redeemed our emotions and guaranteed that we are not alone; we are the Bride.

IV. The Court of God: The Legal Meaning of “Pleading”

Now that we understand the price paid, let’s correct the error of application. The error of the modern church is treating the blood like “magic spray.” “I’ll spray the blood on the car so it won’t get stolen.” “I’ll plead the blood to pass the exam.”

The word “Plead” (in the legal sense, as in Job or the Psalms) is a JURIDICAL term. It comes from courtroom language (“Plead guilty/not guilty”). It means “To present irrefutable evidence before the Judge.”

Imagine the scene in Revelation 12:10 and Zechariah 3:

  1. The Court: Heaven. God is the Judge.
  2. The Defendant: You (guilty of sin).
  3. The Prosecutor: Satan (the Accuser of the brethren). He has a folder full of evidence against you: your mistakes, your dirty thoughts, your failures. And he is right: “The soul who sins shall die.”
  4. The Defense Attorney: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Satan asks for your condemnation. You have no arguments. Then, you “Plead the Blood.” This means your Attorney presents His Blood as proof that the sentence HAS ALREADY BEEN SERVED. The Judge looks at the Blood and says: “The debt has been paid. Case closed. The defendant is free.”

Therefore, “pleading the blood” in spiritual warfare prayer isn’t screaming “blood, blood, blood!” out of fear of the devil. The devil isn’t afraid of shouting. Spiritual Warfare is a conflict of legality. “Pleading the blood” is saying to the devil: “Satan, your accusation is invalid. I have a legal document (the Blood) proving I have been bought. You have no jurisdiction over my life, nor over my family. Back off, in the name of the Law of the Spirit of Life.”

This is authority. This is intelligent faith.

V. Revelation 12:11 – The Strategy of Victory

“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…”

This verse is the master key. How do you defeat the Dragon (Satan)? It is not with our holiness. It is not with our fasting (although fasting is vital, it doesn’t pay for sin). It is with a binary combination:

  1. The Blood of the Lamb (The Divine Fact): What Jesus did. The finished work. It is immutable. The blood never loses its power.
  2. The Word of Testimony (The Human Appropriation): What I say about what Jesus did.

Many Christians have the Blood (they are saved), but they don’t have the Testimony (they live defeated, speaking defeat). Others try to have the Testimony (positive confession), but they don’t rely on the Blood. Victory happens when my mouth aligns with Jesus’ sacrifice. It is when I say: “I am what the Bible says I am. I am forgiven. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. There is no condemnation for me.”

When you “testify” to what the blood did, the devil loses the legal argument to touch your life.

VI. Hebrews 10: The Danger of Profaning the Blood

We must end with a solemn and necessary warning. We live in days of “cheap grace,” where people think the blood is a free pass to sin. Hebrews 10:29 gives a terrifying warning:

“How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them…?”

What is “treating as unholy” (or common) the blood? It is using Jesus’ blood as an excuse to live in deliberate sin. It is saying: “Oh, I’ll cheat on my wife today, I’ll cheat on my taxes, I’ll lie, and later I’ll plead the blood and God will forgive.” That isn’t faith. That is presumption and an affront to the Spirit of Grace.

The blood at the Passover in Egypt only protected those who were inside the house, ready to leave Egypt (the world). If an Israelite painted the blood on the door but went out to party with the Egyptians that night, the blood would not protect him. The blood protects the repentant sinner; it does not shield the obstinate rebel. To live under the protection of the blood, we must walk in the light. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light… the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Conclusion: The Voice That Speaks Better

In Hebrews 12:24, the Bible says something mysterious and beautiful: “You have come… to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

Blood speaks. In Genesis 4, Abel’s blood cried out from the ground: “Vengeance! Justice! Death to the murderer!” But Jesus’ blood, sprinkled on the heavenly mercy seat, cries out something else. Right now, if you are reading this text in silence, the blood of Jesus is “speaking” before the Father.

  • When you fail, the blood screams: “Mercy!”
  • When the devil accuses, the blood screams: “Acquittal!”
  • When death threatens, the blood screams: “Life!”
  • When you feel dirty, the blood screams: “Clean!”

So, yes. Plead the blood. But don’t plead it like a beggar asking for alms. Don’t plead it like a pagan doing magic. Plead it like an attorney who knows the Constitution of the Kingdom. Plead it like a son who knows the price has been paid.

Wake up in the morning and cover your mind (crown of thorns), your work (hands), your walk (feet), and your family (Passover) with the consciousness of this sacrifice. The devil can argue with your theology, he can argue with your emotions, but he stands mute before the Blood of the Lamb.

It is finished. The blood has won.

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed… but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” — 1 Peter 1:18-19

Postagens/Posts/Publicaciones