When my wife’s kidneys failed, she had to go on dialysis in order to live. Dialysis cleanses the blood of impurities. If the blood isn’t cleansed daily, a person would quickly die. There have been times when my wife had to get a blood transfusion because her blood platelets or hemoglobin were too low. The only way to get off of Dialysis is to receive a new Kidney, either through a donor, or a supernatural gifting from God.
I carry an organ donor card in my wallet. Unfortunately, I couldn't donate a kidney to my wife because my blood didn’t meet any of the Antigen markers needed to insure a near perfect match. A new Kidney was never found and she lived the rest of her life hooked up to a machine.
I want to share with you the wonders of the blood running through our veins which will help to bring greater insight - and understanding - why Jesus had to shed His blood to forgive sin. The amazing reality that there is more to blood than one could ever imagine will be revealed, and why Christians become children of the beautiful God through trusting-faith in the blood of Jesus.
The Biology of Blood
Blood is the river of life for every living creature. It is a very complex liquid tissue that is made up of 45% moist solids and 55% of a yellowish fluid called plasma composed of 90% water which contains platelets along with red and white blood cells. Water, the single largest component of the body, is essential to the existence of every living cell. The water of the plasma is freely exchangeable with that of body cells and other extracellular fluids and is available to maintain the normal state of hydration of all tissues.
The blood cells are circulated through the arteries and veins by the heart an average of 72 times per minute, over 100,000 times in a day, and almost 38 million times in one year! It pumps just over one gallon per minute, 1,900 gallons per day, and nearly 700,000 gallons per year. Each pulse of the heart produces a vibration in the blood as it carries oxygen and hundreds of different substances such as neurotransmitters (chemical messengers), antibodies and nutrients including vitamins, proteins, amino acids, minerals, glucose, antibodies, hormones and blood cells to, and waste materials away from, the 30 trillion cells that make up the tissues of the human body. The blood cells continually change throughout each day with as many as 200 billion cells being destroyed and replaced.
All of these substances are regulated by other body systems. Oxygen levels rise and fall with each breath. The levels of various nutrients fluctuate throughout the day as one eats, works, and rests. The types and amounts of neurotransmitters flowing through the body are determined by the way a person responds to both physical and emotional influences. Positive and negative emotions cause the body to be flooded with various chemical messages that can be either helpful or harmful, depending upon their emotional and physical responses.
The Beauty of Blood
The major types of blood cells are red blood cells, lymphocytes, and phagocyte cells which make up the white blood cells, and platelets. Each type of blood cell has a specialized function.
Red cells take up oxygen from the lungs and deliver it to the tissues requiring oxygen and also transport it back to the lungs. Each cell is composed of chemically complex lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates in a highly organized structure that is enclosed in a thin membrane permeable to water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, glucose, urea, and other substances. The red cells tolerate incredible twisting and turning that occurs as they get distorted passing through the blood vessels, many of which are smaller than the red cell itself. Then, once they pass through the various sized vessels, they spring back to their original shape.
White blood cells as a group are involved in reparative activity and immunity, protecting the body from foreign substances as well as helping the body's defense mechanisms, ingesting and breaking down microorganisms and foreign particles that cause infection and inflammation. As living cells, their survival depends on their continuous production of energy.
Platelets play an important role and participate in forming blood clots by adhering to blood vessel walls and sealing over points of injury and plugging up the defect. They also store and transport several chemicals, including serotonin, epinephrine, and histamine. The Platelets and the Red and White blood cells are formed in the marrow of the bones.
To maintain healthy blood production so that the immune system will ward off sickness and disease as it defends against the attacks of foreign cells and substances, a person must walk in trusting-faith through humility as they, “fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” For it “shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones” (Prov 3:7-8 KJV).
Life In The Blood
The Bible tells us that the life of all flesh makes its home in the blood. The blood carries “life” to every cell in the bod, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life” (Lev 17:11 NIV).
In the beginning, the Triune God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Gen 1:26 NIV). The two ideas of image and likeness express that humanity was to resemble God. Human Beings alone were created to have personal and intimate fellowship with their Creator - knowing, serving, and loving Him freely for all of eternity - never to see or experience death (See Gen 1:29-30; 2:15-16; 3:8),
Intimacy is what distinguishes humans from the rest of God's creatures. He gave them His spiritual qualities of self-determination and obedience to moral law so that they could take His place in ruling over the Earth and all the living creatures on the Earth (See Gen 1:26, 28, 29).
The Image of God
God generated or “formed…man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” (Gen 2:7 NIV). When God created Adam, He did something different, something new; He “breathed” into Adam His image. It is God’s image that separates humans from animals.
When a child is formed in the womb, it takes on the DNA of its mother and father, each parent contributes a genetic piece of themselves. The blood type of the child may be the same as its mother or father or even have its own separate and unique type. The child will take on the physical looks and even various traits of each parent. However, the child also takes on - or inherits - the sin nature of its parents.
This inherited sin was brought on by the first parents, Adam and Eve, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps 51:5 KJV). It is present in all men and women. Because of Adam’s rebellion and disobedience man took on a sin nature and became lost and separated from God. When Adam sinned the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from him, grieved away. He severed this intimate relationship with God for all of humanity. God had to withdraw His eternal Spirit - His image - from mankind. Adam lost his physical eternal life on Earth and would one day physically die as a result of his sins. Mankind’s blood was no longer the dwelling place for God. The Bible tells us that God will punish “the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation" (Ex 34:7 NIV).
The sin nature is passed through the blood. No human is born sin-free except for Jesus Christ. The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:22-23 NIV).
Jesus did not inherit the sin nature of Adam. Modern science has shown that the embryo of separate parents can be placed in the womb of another woman and come to full maturity. The baby has its own blood system totally, and distinctly, separate from the woman who carries it in her womb.
Mary was the first surrogate mother. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and placed as a zygote in Mary’s womb; "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35 NIV). The egg of Mary was not joined with the seed of God. Had it been, Jesus would have inherited the sin nature in the DNA passed through the blood of His mother. Jesus had the eternal DNA, the pure and holy blood of God because He was always God, came to earth fully God, and will always be God.
The image of God was to make His home in the river of blood. God made this clear when He told mankind that "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. (Gen 9:6 NIV) Jesus is the “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15 NIV). He is “the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb 1:3 NIV).
Becoming One
The Bible reveals that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one, and that the Holy Spirit, the water, and the blood are one. As shown previously, blood is almost equally composed of cells and water.
Jesus is the one who “did come through water and blood -- Jesus the Christ, not in the water only, but in the water and the blood; and the Spirit it is that is testifying, because the Spirit is the truth, because three are who are testifying [in the heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these -- the three -- are one; and three are who are testifying in the earth], the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and the three are into the one” (1 John 5:6-8 YLT).
Because of God’s great love, Jesus became human so that He could provide the way back to God. That way is found in the new life that salvation brings through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus promised His disciples that He would send them “the Spirit of truth” who would help them “realize” that Jesus is “in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:16-17, 20 NIV).
Just as He generated man from the dust of the earth Jesus re-generated ten of the Apostles after His death and Resurrection and before the day of Pentecost when He “breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22 NIV).
Jesus prayed that the same intimacy He had with Adam that was brought through His Image would be restored and His followers would “be one” just as the Father was in Him and He was in the Father; “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me” (John 17:20-23 NIV). Jesus desired that the love the Father has for Him “may be in them and that I myself may be in them" (John 17:25-26 NIV).
Jesus is the author of eternal life and “finisher of our faith,” and He became "the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb 5:9, 12:2 KJV). The Father presented Jesus “as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood” (Rom 3:25 NIV). Because of His great love for all of humanity the Father chose to make known “the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27 NIV). Oh, what a Beautiful God Christians are privileged to serve!
Faith In The Blood
God can only forgive those who have faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus (See Rom 3:25). It is by trusting-faith in Jesus because of His blood that a person can be called His child (His biological offspring, so to speak), taking on His DNA and becoming a member of His Body. The Born-Again Christian has the spiritual blood of Jesus running through their veins into every cell of their body. They are in Christ, and He is in them, and “now the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 NIV). The evil one cannot enter the Holy of Holies, God’s dwelling place.
When Adam and Eve sinned, God covered their nakedness - the sign of the sin and separation from God’s glory - by shedding the blood of an innocent animal and using the skin. Under the Old Covenant animals were sacrificed to atone for - or cover - man's sin. The sacrifices were made every year. The blood of animals made the Believer outwardly clean. The forgiveness found through the atonement was in the blood.
Then God made a blood oath covenant with Abraham (See Gen 15: 9,10,17,18), where animals were again sacrificed. “Covenant” means a mutual agreement or contract. Mankind enters into and joins God’s covenant which is based upon His relationship of love towards His people. For the covenant to be fulfilled people must respond by obeying God’s commands. Because God is love His grace produces mankind’s response.
Blood was shed as a part of that covenant and the law requires that “almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb 9:22 KJV). However, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats" to take away sins (Heb 10:4 NIV). God had to take the initiative to redeem humanity. That is why Jesus became human in order to become the perfect sacrifice.
“But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!” (Isa 53:5 NLT)
Through Jesus shed blood the sin of every Christian has been forgiven all the way back to Adam. It was shed so that God could come and dwell in them, and they could have loving fellowship with their Creator, as they find forgiveness of sins, healing, and deliverance.
The New Covenant
In the New Testament - which is the New Covenant - there is the blood of the perfect sacrifice. Jesus never committed sin but became sin. He entered the Holy of Holies, a type of the Heavenlies - with His own blood - not “by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12). His blood didn't just cover but actually took away the sin forever. It has the power to wash away all sin and to change a person’s life and heal their body.
"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." (Romans 1:16a NIV)
In the blood of Jesus, there is life, there is salvation, and there is power. When a person believes in faith by trusting in the blood of Jesus, they can overcome every sickness, and every disease sin brought into the world.
A person enters into this new covenant with God by faith.
“By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (Eph 2:8).
They receive the blood that Jesus shed as a holy sacrifice for their sins. The blood of Jesus makes them holy and worthy to receive the Holy Spirit who eternally lives within them.
God gives the Spirit of adoption;
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." (Rom 8:14-15 NIV)
The Holy Spirit - who now lives in the Born-Again Christian - gives the power to obey His commands.
“For by one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” (Heb 10:14-16 NIV)
The beautiful God shed His blood so that people might eternally experience the wonder of His love and the intimacy of divine relationship.
