The Blood Series

This is a study that has long been pending, and for reasons unknown I never really got around to doing it. The Lord reminded me of this a few weeks ago and so I set to work and I believe I should have studied this much earlier. The Blood of Christ is foundational to the Christian faith, for it is on which the New Testament stands.  Majority of us know that the Blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, but most do not know how it all works. What was the function of the Blood, in its role for the redemption of man? To understand the dynamics we need to look at the qualities the Blood possessed and what functional role it played in God's plan. The Blood of Christ is pivotal to the Christian faith for it is the wellspring of eternal life. The first few parts of this series will deal with the qualities of the Blood then later we will discuss its function.

The Qualities of the Blood

1. It Carries Life:

 In Lev 17:11-14 God says to Moses that the life of the flesh is in the blood; therefore it must not be consumed. Anyone who consumes blood is to be cut off (killed) from Israel. It is from this law that we today do not eat blood, as instructed by the Apostles in Acts 15:29 when they debated on what part of the Mosaic Law should the new Gentile believers follow or should not follow.

How did the blood come to carry the life of the animal or why is the blood the carrier of life?

 To answer this question we must go to the origin of life as recorded in the Book of Genesis. Let`s look at Gen 1:20-21. God first ordered the waters to bring forth life in it and then the air to bring forth the birds and finally the ground to bring forth life in verse 24 of the same chapter. Nothing specific has been said further regarding life except that those which were brought forth were made according to species and kinds. However when we read Gen 6:17 and 7:15 and 22, we see the term Breath of Life being used to denote living creatures. So, as per the Bible all living creatures possess the breath of life! We are most often told that only man possessed the breath of life. However, there is a huge difference in the breath that the beasts possess from us. The difference between the two breaths is that man received his breath by God blowing directly into man after forming him in His image/likeness. Animal never received their breaths from the very mouth of God. This is what differentiates us from animals. Thus we possess a soul while they do not.

                      So far we have seen that all flesh has the breath of life, we have also seen that the life of the flesh is in the blood. This leads me to believe that there is something within the blood that enables it to be the carrier of life. I believe it is the oxygen carrying capacity of blood that makes it the carrier of life, and that it was designed in such a way so as to facilitate it to carry life.

               To further reinforce this let’s look at the word Adam. In Hebrew, the word Adam is represented in 3 different forms as opposed to the single one seen in the English language. The word Adam has always been used to identify a man; however there are three versions of it. The question one needs to ask is why God gave the name ADAM. Looking through the Bible we come across names aplenty but none are without meaning or significance. The word Adam has the following meanings depending on usage:

1. Man, Mankind (aw-dawm’-H120)

2.  Red (aw-dawm’-H121)

Both the above meaning are derived from the root word (aw-dam-H119) meaning to be red or dyed red! The name itself suggests that the dust the God used to make man was not red but made red by the addition of a secret ingredient -Blood. We all know that all of God’s creation is purposeful. Therefore it is evident that the blood was added to serve its ultimate purpose. I believe its function to exist in creation was to pave the way for the sacrifice that Jesus would ultimately make. Such is the planning of God. He sees the end and so calls the beginning in accordance Isaiah 46:10. Imagine we are in the hands of such a great God. My life cannot go wrong so long as I stay with Him. Hallelujah.