When communicating with someone, it is important that you speak the same language. Otherwise, they will not understand you. The Scripture in Hebrews 9 that says "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins" has always bothered me because I have always wondered why God would demand that. It seemed petty to me and not in keeping with God's character. But now I realize it was a communication issue.

Abraham grew up in and had been indoctrinated by a pagan culture where sacrifice and the shedding of blood was commonly regarded as the way to appease an angry god and to change whatever the unwanted circumstance was, be it not enough rain for the crops to grow or any number of other problems in the village. That's what he and his people understood, so God had to speak their language in order for them to understand.

But this culture of sacrificing (mostly animals) created laziness. Once a year the priest sacrificed a ram or a goat to atone for all the sins of the entire village and then the people, free of their guilt, went right on living their lives as they always had. This became a repetitive cycle. There was no change in their lifestyle; no incentive to right their own wrongs or to improve their behavior because they knew that whatever sin they committed would be atoned for again, by the priest via the life of some hapless, innocent animal the next year and the people would be clean in God's sight.

The shedding of blood was the language they spoke. God did not demand the blood of Jesus to reconnect mankind to Himself, but MANKIND itself required it, because that's what we understood. The crucifixion happened because man projected his religious, legalistic, culturalized mind onto God because man at that time lived in an atmosphere of revenge rather than forgiveness. They were trapped in the consciousness that someone's life must be sacrificed in order to atone for sin. Jesus came to end that repetitive cycle and to bring them to a higher consciousness. He said, "I willingly lay down my life, becoming the FINAL sacrifice, once and for all. Now...come up out of this 'shedding blood' consciousness."

Punishment and correction are two different things. Punishment does nothing whatsoever to heal the mind or raise the consciousness. But, correction, God's "chastening" (which is translated "to educate") comes from a place of love. God doesn't need nor desire to punish us. We punish ourselves and our fellowman when we project our consciousness onto Him. God only needs us to realize our divinity and see as He sees.