One of our more elite body parts, is our blood. If you’ve ever sat down and read your bible, then you know what a central theme blood plays throughout its pages. Like many have said, the bible is a very bloody book. But it has something very important to say about blood. This is, perhaps, the most underrated verse in all of scripture: For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. That would be your blood, and the life of your flesh, and your soul He’s talking about here. Focus if you will, on two critical truths. The first is that the life of all living things resides in their blood. The second, that God requires life, resident in blood, to make an atonement for your soul.
On the first point, science has only now caught up with the bible. We now better understand how it is that the life of all flesh is in the blood. Every time we inhale a breath of air…something you’ve been doing every second of your life… our lungs fill up with oxygen. Then, by sheer brilliant design, our lung factories transfer that oxygen to our blood cells. Like tiny delivery trucks, these oxygenated blood cells leave the lung factory, and race through 90,000 miles of bloodstream, feeding life-giving oxygen to every part of our body. After they’ve dropped off their cargo of life, these same cells then turn into trash trucks. They collect all of the body’s trash -carbon dioxide- and haul it back to our lungs to be exhaled. This happens every 2 to 3 seconds, non-stop, for 6.5 billion people. In essence, it is the cycle of life. If we breathe, we live; if we don’t breathe, we die. Interrupt this cycle for more than a few minutes, and life stops. Truly, the life of all flesh is in the blood. This short summary was a bit quick and dirty, but I’m hoping it was enough to make some important spiritual points. I cannot stress enough, how important this point is. You simply must get this, if you hope to grasp what has happened to our planet, to our race, and to you.
Most will tell you that Abel…murdered by his brother Cain…is the first recorded death in the Bible. But it’s not. We’ve actually skipped over the most influential death of all time. Do you remember God’s warning to Adam? …in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die. Well, God wasn’t kidding…He always means exactly what He says. But does Adam keel over dead at the base of the tree? No, we find that he ate the fruit, that he and Eve had children, and that he lived to the ripe old age of 930 years. So what happened? How do we handle this discrepancy? Throw the bible out? Not. Did God perhaps change his mind? God forbid. Do we invoke Peter’s math here to clean this up? I vote no. God’s word is true in every dimension, not just the ones we find easy. So what happened here? Did Adam die? Yes. Did he continue to live? Yes. Is this a contradiction? Only for a moment. Trust me, what really happened here is missed by many. What really happened here was more destructive…more cataclysmic…than Noah’s flood, or earthquakes, or hurricanes. What really happened in this moment, changed the course of humanity forever. Not only did Adam die, but the seed bed of all humanity as well.
First, Adam was cut-off from the tree of life. Like a diabetic being denied his insulin. Funny, but the tree of life wasn’t even the culprit tree. When God said: …of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat., the tree of life was part of that bounty. Yet as punishment, they are now cut-off from its fruit. The culprit tree … of the knowledge of good and evil, vanishes, never to be seen again. Like an ancient version of “the thrill is gone.” Men will spend a lifetime addicted to the same morbid vice. Over and over they re-visit it, hoping against hope to taste again, that magical, first thrill. But like this culprit tree, having done the dirty deed, the thrill is gone…never again to be found. The tree of life was not party to Adam’s crime. So why is it sequestered? Simply this…it yielded the ultimate benefit to man…eternal life.
Adam and Eve’s diet was changed forever. God’s original designs for Adam didn’t include death. In the garden, life was originally intended to go on without end. They danced naked in the splendor of the garden. The lion and the cougar were their pets. They talked with serpents. They talked with their Creator in the cool of the evening. Death was an alien invader that came later. Life was made to go on and on. The caveat was simple: obey the commands of your Creator, and you have unlimited access to the tree of life. What get’s missed here, is that this unending life…biologically…resided in Adam’s blood. …for the life of the flesh is in the blood. Whether that life was eternal or mortal, its residence was in the blood. …by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
When Adam disobeyed, he ushered a new law into the world…one that wasn’t previously here. It was a law as powerful as gravity, floatation, or light. 4,000 years later, Paul would call it: …the law of sin which is in my members. On the coattails of this new law came death. The law of sin and death not only affected Adam and humanity, but the entire creation. Wild animals became vicious, carnivorous, and territorial…plants began to whither and die…trees were felled by parasites…big fish began eating little fish, etc… The entire food chain was rocked…none more than Adam, at the top. He had life unending…with no aging, sickness or death…to dress and keep the garden of God. This life unending resided in his blood, for: …the life of the flesh is in the blood. If then, this eternal life in Adam’s blood was poisoned…of his own doing…then of necessity, a change has taken place in his chemistry. Before the arrival of sin and death, Adam’s blood sample would be worth a million Pulitzer’s. What coursed through his veins was pure blood…the original recipe…eternal life. After the forbidden fruit, Adam’s blood…and the blood of all who would issue from his loins…was forever changed. Yes, life still flowed there…but not eternal life. What now flowed through his veins, was some lesser manifestation of life. It included a process of aging, a slow devolution of disease, degradation, corruption…and in the end, death. Gone was the pure, original recipe. It was now infected. The blood flowing in his veins was literally, chemically contaminated, with the law of sin. This is that same law working in Paul’s members some 4,000 years later, and in our members today. The blood where our life resides, is poisoned blood. Free will, the wrong choice, brought 6,000 years of infection never cured. Adam did surely die, that very day. He and Eve are the only humans to have ever tasted that purity. Only they had a reference point, from which to gauge sin, and its debilitating effects. Everyone after them has lived on the consequence side of that breach. Infected life, and death, are normal to us. They are the only base line we know.
The point I’m trying to make, is that sin…the law of sin…is a lower law. It resides in each of us, coursing through our veins. This truth cannot be overstated. The law of sin is in force at all times, 24/7. It will live inside you until the day you die. We have absolutely no power over this global disease. Every human being now living, and every human being to have ever lived since Adam, is infected with this law of sin. It couldn’t be helped. It was passed on to you at your conception…chemically and biologically…by the laws of pro-creation. The entire human race became infected at the source. We have no power over this lower law…this global disease. It remains uncured after 6,000 years. All are doomed to live life, with this raging law of sin running riot through their bodies. At the end of that ride, all are appointed to die. This is the pitiable state of the human race. But there is hope. God, being like He is, has given us a higher law to deal with our disease. As long as we choose to apply it, the lower law of sin remains suspended. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Or, to put it another way: This I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
This all begs the question, which is the entire premise of salvation. We didn’t commit Adam’s sin…so saved from what? Why do I need to be saved? Why must I pay eternal damnation, for something Adam did? I’m a good Joe. I work a job, support my family, pay my respects at funerals. I like my job, my job likes me. I’m planning for my family’s future, and work overtime for special times. I don’t feel the need to be saved…my family and I are getting along just fine without it. It is here where our origins are so important. Because it’s not about what you’ve done or haven’t done. It’s about what you are…where you came from…what flows in your veins.
It takes us back to that miracle of your own conception and birth. Science has only recently realized, that you produced your own blood supply. During gestation, mom sent you a boatload of nutrients, vitamins, and gases. But in the wisdom of God, not a single drop of mom’s blood was allowed past the placenta and the mesenchyme. I realize it’s a bit biological and all. But it’s true. Baby manufactures his own blood supply. The only factor that affects baby’s blood production, comes from the sperm of dad at conception. Maybe this is why bible genealogies, are generally traced through the male. The thing is, the male seed is the carrier of Adam’s blood infection…the law of sin. So dad contaminates baby’s blood production at its very root…before production ever gets off the ground. Back when 23 plus 23 equals one 46. By virtue then, of our own created design, and the laws of pro-creation, we are the very perpetuators of this ubiquitous law of sin from generation to generation. Babies are not born sinless. It’s in there…just give it a minute. Ever had to teach one how to throw a tantrum? Steal their first candy bar? Be cruel to other kids? Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. You, and me, and every human throughout history, are infected with something that did not exist before Adam ate the fruit. None is exempt. Some 6.5 billion people walk the earth today. Each has an infected blood supply, and a sentence of death. All are born in sin. All pass this infection on to their children. All, that is, except one.
There is one child, who bypassed the infected bloodline that reaches back to the garden. Like all other babies, He produced His own blood supply. Like all other babies, none of mom’s contaminated blood was allowed through a cellular membrane in the placenta. But one thing was different here. The seed of this baby’s Father was pure. No trace of the blood infection. No law of sin and death transferred in the genes of conception. Therefore in Nazareth…in the womb of a young Jewish virgin…an extraordinary child was conceived. This child would silently labor for nine months, churning out the rarest chemical in all of God’s universe…sinless human blood. There just was none…and because of the garden, and the science of pro-creation, there never could be any. Here would walk the only eleven pints of blood qualified, to meet a righteous God’s stringent requirement, and atone for the sins of a lost and dying human race. This is where that 2nd critical truth from
Leviticus 17:11 comes into play. …and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
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