Can we eat meat with blood in it (Genesis 9:4)?

from the old testament

• Before the flood, people did not kill animals for food, but after the flood, God granted Noah and all people permission to eat meat, with one caveat: "But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man" (Genesis 9:4-5).
• The reasoning for that prohibition is found in Leviticus 17:11: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life" (cf. Deuteronomy 12:23–25). This pointed to the blood Christ would shed as atonement for our sins.

from the new testament

• The Old Testament sacrifices in which blood was poured out to atone for sins pointed to Jesus' shed blood on the cross (Matthew 26:28).
• The prohibition against eating blood does not apply today, though. Jesus made that clear that "'There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.' . . . (Thus he declared all foods clean.)" (Mark 7:15, 19).
• But debate arose in the early church about Jewish believers trying to impose the law onto Gentile believers. Early church leaders concluded that the prohibition on blood could be maintained (Acts 15:20). This had nothing to do with salvation through the law, though; it was about maintaining unity between Jews and Gentiles—similar to why Paul circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:3).
• This reasoning aligns with Paul's letter to Roman believers in which he points out that some things are matters of conscience, but that we should not exercise our freedom if it makes a fellow believer "stumble" (Romans 14:13). He says that while still asserting "that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean" (Romans 14:14).

implications for today

You can't put a VHS into a smart TV, a floppy disk into a new computer, nor an eight-track tape into a new car. The phone charger you bought even a couple of years ago probably doesn't work on your phone today. You can't force the old into the new.

Jesus made the same point about putting new wine into old wineskins (Matthew 9:17), meaning that the civil and ceremonial laws of the Mosaic covenant don't apply to the new covenant of grace. Misunderstanding that point can have tragic consequences. For example, thinking that the blood prohibition still applies today has led some to refuse life-saving blood transfusions. For others, the consequences are eternal since they believe that their works will get them to heaven; in truth, only faith in Christ's work does. The danger in holding onto the old covenant is not just misunderstanding theology but missing the freedom and assurance that Jesus has already secured. May we live in the “new” life Christ offers, anchored in the finished work of the One who makes all things new.

Enjoy that rare steak, but more importantly, don’t miss what it represents: that in Christ you’re not living under shadows and symbols but in the fulfillment of what God was pointing to all along—freedom grounded in His finished work, not your performance.