“blood” of Christ.

Scripture in several places speaks of the blood of Christ in some connection with salvation.  The Old Testament Law required blood for temporal salvation.  What is the significance of blood or bloodshed?

References to blood  and the shedding of blood speak of death or a violent death or the taking of a life.  Genesis 9.6  "Whoever  sheds man's blood,  by man his blood shall be shed;  For in the image of God  He made man."  The issue here can not be simply the loss of blood, but a loss of life, and particularly the taking of a life; otherwise, it could only refer to a death caused by the loss of a sufficient amount of blood--and the consequence being the same, a loss of blood.  Most people would admit that this reference in Genesis is about murder and the death penalty.

Leviticus 17.11 says   `For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it [is] the blood [that] makes atonement for the soul.'

The blood here speaks of the sacrificial animal which represented the life taken of that animal.  The life of the flesh is in the blood. This blood represented a life taken.  It was a life taken from an innocent victim, the sacrificial animal. The altar was a raised place to make offering to God.  The blood on the altar was an offering to God. The consequence of sin is death.  What was offered to God was the death of the animal in place of the sinning human.

"Atonement" could be translated “propitiation” or “satisfaction,” according to the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The "soul" speaks of the life or individual--the sinner. The blood upon the altar is for satisfaction for the soul.  The life taken from the animal, represented in the blood, is offered up to God, on the altar, in the place of the sinner, that he should not die for his sins.  

Of course, the animal sacrifice only provided temporal salvation.  It only secured the sinning Jew's life in the Promised Land in the Theocracy of Israel.  The animal sacrifices were an ongoing requirement for future sins for temporal salvation; they could not once and for all provide satisfaction for sin for ever.  They taught the need for and foreshadowed a future sacrifice for sin that would be effective for all sin for all time.

“He poured out his soul unto death.” Isaiah 53.12

Christ poured out His soul unto death.   This aligns with the image of animal sacrifice in which the blood was poured out upon the altar.

Isaiah 53. 10  "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;  He has put [Him] to grief.  When You make His soul an offering for sin,  He shall see [His] seed, He shall prolong [His] days,  And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.  11  He shall see the labor of His soul, [and] be satisfied.  By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,  For He shall bear their iniquities.12  Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,  And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,  Because He  poured   out  His soul unto death,  And He was numbered with the transgressors,  And He bore the sin of many,  And made intercession for the transgressors."

“Pour” here in Isaiah 53.12 speaks of "laying bare, exposed": The "Servant," Jesus, exposed himself to death, and this death is not merely physical, but that death which we would understand as separation from God, which is the direct result of sin and Christ "bearing" sin.  

The translation of "pour" appears elsewhere in the Old Testament from a different Hebrew word that is also translated to "shed" as in “shed blood.”  

Consider...

Psalm 22. 14  "I am  poured   out  like water,  And all My bones are  out  of joint;  My heart is like wax;  It has melted within Me.  15  My strength is dried up like a potsherd,  And My tongue clings to My jaws;  You have brought Me to the dust of death."

Gen 9.6  "Whoever  sheds  man's  blood ,  By man his  blood  shall be shed;  For in the image of God  He made man."

The death of the soul/ life is represented in the blood.  The blood does not represent life but death—a life given up in death.  The blood is life in the body, but outside the body, it is death.  Again, blood shed speaks of the taking of a life in death, often in a violent sense.  This explains Hebrews 9.22:  “And according to the law almost all things are purified with  blood, and without  shedding of blood  there is no remission [release from the consequences].

Christ was a satisfaction for sin.  His death was that satisfaction.  The references to His death and His blood are the same thing.  To shed blood is a reference to the taking of a life in death.  His blood is a reference to his death.  

Blood and death are used interchangeably in Scripture:

Matthew 26.27-28: the cup…"For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Hebrews 9.15:  “He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant.”

Romans 5.8-10:  8  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.  10  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Here are more references to Christ’s blood with reference to salvation:

Acts 20.28: purchased with his blood.

Rom 3.25: propitiation through his blood

R 5.9 justified by his blood

Eph 1.7: redemption through his blood

Heb 9.12 entered by his blood

Heb 13.2: sanctified by his blood

Rev 1.5: freed us from our sins by his blood

Rev 7.13: washed their robes and made them white  in  the  blood  of the Lamb

Rev 12.11: they overcame him by the  blood  of the  Lam

Yet He died for our sins:

1Cor 15. 3  "For  I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ  died   for  our sins according to the Scriptures."

 Romans 6. 10  "For [the] [death] that He  died , He  died  to sin once for all; but [the] [life] that He lives, He lives to God."

8. 34  "Who [is] he who condemns? [It] [is] Christ who  died , and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."

14. 9  "For to this end Christ  died  and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living."

2 Cor 5. "14  For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One  died  for all, then all  died ;  15  and He  died  for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who  died  for them and rose again."

Gal 2.  21  "I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness [comes] through the law, then Christ  died  in vain."

1 Thes 4. 14  "For if we believe that Jesus  died  and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus."

1 Thes 5.   10  "who  died  for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."