Greetings Narrow Gate,
Blessings to you all. I pray that it has been a good week for you and yours. Today we will continue on our journey through the book by M.R. DeHaan, The Chemistry of the Blood. We finished last week with the idea that the body of Christ is made one by the blood of Jesus Christ. Today we will begin with a look to all of mankind.
Every man and woman who has lived, is living now, or will live in the future are related one to another by the blood of Adam. This blood of Adam is sinful and polluted blood, dead in trespasses and sins. Acts 17:26,
"From one man (Adam) he made every nation of mankind, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live."
All of us have a common origin in Adam. We are related to all other men and women of this planet by Adam's blood. It is Adam's blood that flows through all our veins, whether white or black, brown or yellow, whether Jew or Gentile, religious or pagan or atheist. This relationship is provable and it is also undeniable. The common blood that we all share carries with it the sentence of death because of Adam's sin, and for this reason all of mankind will die a common death, with no exceptions.
Remember that the life is in the blood, and so if a person must die it is because there is death in the blood. Although we do not know the nature of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we do know that the eating of it caused blood poisoning and resulted in death for all of Adam's descendants, for God had said in Genesis 2:16-17,
"You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
The poison in this tree was so deadly, so potent, that now, six thousand years later, all of us who are related to Adam by human birth still succumb to that poison of sin which is transferred through the blood. Let's review Adam's creation which will help to crystallize our understanding of this concept.
We are told in the Bible that God formed man out of the dust of the earth. Up to this time Adam was a lifeless clump of clay. Materially he was just so much dust, simply molded into the shape of a man, but without life; he was a muddy mannequin. Genesis 2:7, God...
"breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."
The breath of God put something in man that made him alive. That something was blood. It must have been. It had to have been. What else could it be: for we have already shown that the life of the flesh is in the blood (from last week). So, when life was added by the breath of God, in that breath God imparted blood to that lump of clay in the shape of a man, and that muddy mannequin became a living soul. Adam's body was of the ground. This is important to remember. Adam's blood, however, was the separate gift of God, for God is Life and the Author of all Life.
Then Adam screwed up and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and he died--he died spiritually and, ultimately he died physically. Since life is in the blood, when Adam died spiritually, something happened in the blood. Sin affected the blood of Adam, not his body, except indirectly, because his body was supplied by the blood.
For this very reason sin is not in the flesh but in the blood and flesh can only be called sinful flesh because it is nourished and fed and sustained by sinful blood. Sin, therefore, is transmitted through the blood and since God through one man's blood made every nation, the sin is transmitted to all of Adam's progeny. For in that one sinned all have sinned.
This very fact that sin is in the blood necessitated the Virgin Birth of Christ if Christ was to be a son of Adam and yet a sinless man. For this very reason Christ could be from Adam's flesh, which is not inherently sinful because it came from the earth, but Christ could not be of Adam's blood, which was completely impregnated with sin. God found a way by which Jesus, born of a woman (not man), could be a perfect human being, but, because Jesus had not a drop of Adam's sin in his veins, Jesus did not share in Adam's and our sin.
The sin is in the blood and our whole plan of redemption revolves around the blood. Hebrews 9:13-14,
"The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God."
This whole plan of redemption rests upon the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Last week we pointed out that the blood is the only tissue which is unlimited in its movement within the body. Almost all other body tissues are fixed, such as muscle, bone, nerve, fat, and skin. They remain where they are. The blood is the only tissue which is not fixed but circulates throughout the body to every living cell. There are other fluid products of the body, such as saliva and gastric juices, tears and bile, but these are not tissues, but secretions, and are not parts of the body but products of the body.
The blood alone is the liquid tissue that can reach every single cell in the body and, therefore, unites all the members with the head and the individual members as well.
The power really is in the blood, the blood of Christ. John 3:16-21,
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men and women loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
It is unnecessary for God to send Jesus to condemn the world because of this simple fact, the world was already condemned. The blood of Adam flows in all of our veins. The verdict is already in for all of mankind. Arguing about your sin or lack of sin is a moot point. Our blood is what condemns us. 1 John 1:7,
"But, if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all of our sin. This is the ultimate purpose of God's divine chemistry. To cleanse the sin from our blood given to us by Adam. Remember, The blood of Christ flows through the body of Christ. It mirrors the blood flow within each of our bodies. As Adam's sinful blood flow through our veins making us sinful, the blood of Christ flows through the body of Christ (all believers), cleansing those within the body of Christ of sin.
Believe in Jesus and walk in the light. Allow the blood of Jesus to purify your blood of all the sinfulness it contains. 1 1 John 1:8-9,
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (this is proof that we do not believe). If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Don't allow yourselves to be deceived. You want the truth. Our sin is in our blood inherited through Adam. Confess your sinfulness. Believe in God and walk in the light. When you do this, you then become a member of the body of Christ. Jesus will purify you as you fellowship in the body of Christ.
Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.
Blessings,
Thad Brown
Opportunity House
and Harmony UMC