12:23 the blood is the life. The same principle is given in Gen. 9:4 and Lev. 17:10–14. The treatment of the blood in the sacrificial system shows that it stood for the life of the animal. When the blood is gone, the life is gone. When blood was sprinkled on the altar, innocent life was shed for a guilty sinner. The Old Testament sacrifices show a theology of substitution of the innocent for the guilty. This theology was incomplete, because an animal, no matter how perfect, is by no means as valuable as the human soul (Mic. 6:6, 7). The resolution is found most clearly in Is. 53:10 where the innocent Servant of the Lord dies as a sin offering (cf. John 1:29).