NT Text: Ephesians 1:7
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology + Longitudinal Theme
Anchor Text: Lev 17:11 — Life Is in the Blood
Significance: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph 1:7). Paul's redemption-Christology presupposes the Leviticus 17:11 framework: the noun ἀπολύτρωσις names the price-paid release, and the prepositional phrase "through His blood" (διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ) identifies the price as Christ's blood — which can function as a ransom only on the Lev 17:11 premise that the life is in the blood. Christ's blood is Christ's life poured out as the price of his people's freedom and the ground of their forgiveness. The connection is typological: the Levitical sacrifices whose poured-out blood atoned for the soul (Lev 17:11) prefigure the redeeming blood of Christ, with the escalation supplied by the infinite worth of the life given — the eternal Son's life rather than a bull's or goat's — and the type interpreted retrospectively by the apostle. It runs along the canon-wide Sacrifice and Atonement trajectory. The telos is the savoring of grace: redemption "according to the riches of His grace" is no transactional moralism but the overflow of the Father's love, accomplished by a blood whose accepted life secures forgiveness once and for all — the very release the costly, repeated blood of the altar pointed toward but could never finish, now ours to enjoy in Christ.