In the eyes of God, the most abominable doctrines of all are not so much the ones that are entirely the opposite of the truth, but the ones that are most similar to the truth. Certainly God hates when man worships the creation rather than the creator, when man makes idols of birds and beasts. Likewise, God hates modern false teachings like atheism, which deines His existence entirely. But even more so, the Lord hates those who grab the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement and turn it inside out.
We see this in our reading from Deuteronomy 18 today. The Canaanites are right that someone needs to shed blood to take away the wrath of God. They’re right that the blood of the innocent child must be offered up to God in order to turn His condemnation into love. Their perverse and idolatrous culture has still preserved that much of the truth that Ham, their father, had been taught by his father Noah.
But what they failed to understand was that the innocent blood that God required, God Himself would provide, which is why God warns His people not to follow the abominable practices of the Canaanites who offer up their children to their idols. God does not want to see the blood of their children. The only blood He wants to see is the blood of His Child, His only begotten Son.
And that blood has now given you eternal life. That blood poured down from the hands and feet of Christ at Calvary, and in the moment that your Father in heaven saw that perfect blood, He no longer saw your sins. In that moment, His wrath became favor. His condemnation became love. In that moment, God saw everything He needed to declare you righteous, to make you His own forever.
So don’t hate your neighbor and think this will give you the love of God. Don’t despise those for whom Jesus died and think this will give you peace. Don’t surrender to the abomination of the Canaanites that tells you the blood of someone else can make you at peace with God. The only blood that could win the love of God is the blood of Christ. And it already has. So rejoice. No other blood is needed.
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