Blood

Memory verse: I John 5:1-6

Definition of blood- The fluid that circulates through the heart, arteries,

veins and capillaries carrying nourishment, electrolytes hormones, vitamins,

antibodies, heat and oxygen to the tissues and taking away waste matter and

carbon dioxide.

The function of blood is nutrition and respiration of tissues. Meaning it feeds

the cells of the body and provides respiration, it takes waste away from the

body to the bladder and bowels, and it regulates and coordinates chemically in

the body. It regulates the heat of the body and it defends the body against

infection.

Blood is life. “For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life therof:”

Leviticus 17:14. There is no substitute for blood. Blood is composed of about

78% water and the rest solid. When a person needs blood he has to have

blood in order to live. Our bodies were wondrously made in a delicate and

precise balance. Even one of the many chemicals in our blood being out of

balance, whether too much or too little, can have a disastrous effect on every

other part of the body. An example is the hormone insulin. Too little insulin is

a cause of diabetes. Too little or too much of estrogen or testosterone has a

devastating effect on the gender. Not enough of certain vitamins lead to

illnesses like scurvy, blindness.

The blood feeds every cell in our body. It provides necessary oxygen for life. If

anything interrupts the blood providing oxygen, death comes swiftly, in a

matter of minutes. Breath is also life. The breath of life comes from God.

Without properly functioning blood the breath cannot get to the cells of the

body. Everything must be in perfect balance, food, oxygen and regulating the

functions of the body, removal of waste and fighting infection. Any of these

things that are out of order could ultimately kill the body. The blood is also a

defense against death coming in to the body. Our bodies are surrounded and

invaded daily by a host of bacteria and viruses through our nose, our mouths

our skin and any opening in our bodies. Without the defenses in our blood we

would die quickly of an overwhelming infection. A disease that causes a

decrease in the protection against disease is AIDS. There are many other

diseases that do this also. Anything that destroys the white blood cells will

cause this.

Though wonderful and amazing, the life that is in our bodies, in every cell is

only common life. Common life is temporary life. It is limited in duration. The

sword that will kill the body lives within the body in the form of some kind of

weakness waiting to emerge at the appropriated time, if death from some

devastating accident, or some other outside agent doesn’t kill you first.

The life that is in our blood is common life. But the life that is in the blood of

Jesus is everlasting life. This blood has no limits in its capacity because it is

eternal. John 6:54 “Whoso eatheth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath

eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The blood of Christ far

exceeds all things that our common blood does for us. The blood of Christ not

only provides all good things for our physical body, it also provides for our

spiritual body. It feeds the spirit, providing nutrition. It provides the breath of

life to every part of us. It removes all waste matter; anything that we don’t

need or that is not good for us is removed. It heals us of sin and death which is

the disease of the spirit. Let us compare the blood of man with the blood of

Christ. The blood of man provides common life to the body of flesh for a

limited period of time. The blood of Christ provides eternal life and removes

death. The blood of man circulates nutrients, sugar, protein, fat, vitamins ad

minerals to feed the body. The blood of Christ provides his wore. As we eat the

word of God, which is Christ’s body, then the blood circulates this to every

part of our body-our spiritual body. God is food. His body is meat. Common

food gives us life sustaining energy to walk, work and function. Spiritual food

enables us to walk like Christ, work hard for the Lord, and function in the

church.

The blood of man circulates hormones that regulates and coordinates how the

body functions. There are growth hormones, hormones particular to male or

females, hormones that enable a woman to have a child, and many, many

more. The blood of Christ regulates and coordinates how the spiritual body

functions. It is like the testimonies of Jesus that show us how to walk in the

law.

The blood of man fights against disease. It has a host of white blood cells and

antibodies to protect us. The blood of Christ fights against death and sin.

Though most saint die the common death in Christ, there is no saint that will

die the second death. What did Christ tell Martha? John 11:24-26.

The blood of man provides platelets to heal our bodies of wounds and injuries.

The blood of Christ heals our spirits. A cut is a breach in the skin. Sin also

creates a breach that must be repaired. The most terrible breach was the sin

of Adam that separated us from God. Christ covered the breach with his very

life, like Moses who also stood in the breach when Israel sinned.

The blood of man keeps our bodies within a safe temperature. The blood of

Christ keeps us spiritually hot, full of zeal for God.

Not only does Christ’s blood do all of these wonderful things for our spiritual

body, but at the time of the New Covenant when the law is written

permanently in our hearts, it is also sprinkled on us. Christ’s blood will also be

sprinkled on the books of our records that will purge us forever from sin. And

it is Christ’s blood that will flow through our physical body as it is changed

from a terrestrial or common body to a celestial or everlasting body. And we

will be one with him.

How wonderful a hope we have in Christ Jesus! But how do we get from here

to there? How do we get the wonderful blood of Jesus? I Corinthians 10:16,

John 6:56-57.

The word communion means to share, to partake in, and to be part of.

Communion brings us on one accord with God. But we know that eating

unleavened bread and drinking grape juice does not make us one with God.

Eating unleavened bread and drinking grape juice is a physical action that

represents something spiritual, just like baptism does. How do we have

spiritual communion with God? John 14:21-23. Christ prayed to his father

that we might be one with him. John 17:20-22. The church is the body of

Christ. Romans 12:4-5. When we obey God and keep his commandments we

are one with him. We must eat his word every day. When we read and study

we are having communion with God, we remember Christ and the law is laced

in the forefront of our minds. It is important to keep the law in the forefront

because man is very forgetful. In taking in his word every day we become

stronger and stronger and closer and closer to God. Let us read the words that

Christ spoke at the Lord’s Supper. Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25 and

Luke 22:14-20.

In each of these books Christ spoke about a testament. What is a testament?

The dictionary says it is a person’s last intentions, like a will. A better

definition is that it is a covenant. In fact the word is used interchangeably in

the bible with the word covenant. There was a first or old covenant and then a

second or New Covenant or testament.

Let us discuss a little history pertaining to the first covenant. After the people

were delivered from Egypt they came to Mt Sinai in the third month. Moses

went up into the mount and received the Ten Commandments, the law, the

judgments and promises from God. Then Moses went back down, told the

people what God had told him and they promised to obey him. Then Moses

wrote the words of the covenant in a book. He then built an altar and the

young men of the children of Israel sacrificed offerings to God at the bottom of

Mt Sinai. Moses took half of the blood from the sacrifices, he read the book of

the covenant again to all of the people who promised to obey God, and then he

sprinkled all the people with blood, and said “behold the blood of the covenant,

which the Lord hath made unto you concerning all these words.” Then Moses

and the elders of Israel went up to the base of the mountain and worshipped

God, eating and drinking before him. Finally God told Moses to come up to him

in the Mount and he would give him the tables of stone with the Ten

Commandments that he wrote with his own hand. Exodus 24:1-12.

Christ spoke of the New Testament in his blood or the blood of the New

Testament. It was not the sacrifice of animals but the sacrifice that Christ

made of himself, in which his blood spilled to the earth giving us the free gift,

which is resurrection of all men and the opportunity to return God with

conditions of obedience. The old testament entailed laws written on stone that

mankind broke. The New Testament entails laws written on the heart. The

blood, when sprinkled upon us, purges our heart and our conscious or mind.

Hebrew 8:6-13, Hebrews 9:13-15 and Hebrews 9:19-23.

And finally, back to my memory verse in I John 5:1-6. How does Christ come

to us? He comes to us in the volume of a book. How is he born in us? Recall

that we must be just like our father. As Christ came, as he was born, so must

we also be born. If we believe that Jesus is Christ we are born of God, if we

believe and love God we keep his commandments. If we obey and are born of

God we have overcome the world. Jesus comes to us and is born in us through

blood and water. We in turn are born again through blood and water and the

spirit. I John 5:12 “he that hath the son hath life; and he that hath not the son

of God hath not life.”