Power of the Blood

Guest Blogger: Reverend Mary Ann Slatton

The life is in the Blood.

The Bible is a bloody book. We are told “the life is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11). Throughout the Bible the blood of men and animal sacrifices are spilled for war and redemption. The purposes of God and man clash with incessant violence and bloody results. There’s blood on men’s hands, and blood on the horns of the altar. There’s blood on the ground, and blood on the lintels and door posts. Blood is everywhere, from Genesis to Revelation. Why is that?

Life and death. Those are the reasons. God gave man life. Man chose death over life by choosing sin over obedience. (Romans 5:12) God is just, requiring payment for every life that has become forfeit through sin. And that life is found in the blood. So God gave the law, and by His mercy He accepted the blood of animals rather than the blood of man. (Heb. 9:22;13:11) But the sin nature was stronger than the intent of the law. No matter how many sacrifices were made, the heart of man was as rebellious as ever. (Heb. 10:4)

We know the story. God knew the law would never be enough. He knew the sacrifices would never be enough. He knew it from the beginning. The law was just a step in His ultimate plan, stating plainly what He considers right and wrong, removing all excuses (Rom. 7:7).  Have you ever heard the conversation: “Why does he do that?” “It just seems to be in his blood.” What does that mean?

Here’s an interesting bit of information from ”The Life Is In the Blood,” by Martin R. DeHaan, M.D.

“In the human body there are many different kinds of tissues. We define them as muscle, nerve, fat, gland, bone connective tissues, etc. All these tissues have one thing in common, they are fixed cells, microscopically small and having a specific and limited function. Unlike these fixed tissues, the blood is fluid and mobile, that is, it is not limited to one part of the body but is free to move throughout the entire body and touch every other fixed cell as it supplies it with nourishment and carries off waste products and the ashes of cell activity which we call metabolism.”

We need a transfusion.

What does the blood carry along? Bits and pieces of dead cells from all over our bodies are carried along as waste. And in the waste and white blood cells of blood is DNA, which is produced in the nuclei and carries that cell’s traits, in fact all our traits. Science continues to discover more and more about the traits carried by DNA. They are discovering that man’s blood is tainted with sinful tendencies and earthly diseases. Every cell is touched with this contamination. In short, we need a transfusion.

But if all of humanity’s blood is tainted, how could we ever find blood healthy enough to make us whole? God had to bring Holy Blood into the earth. So the blood of humanity was mixed with the Blood of a holy God in the Son—Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah. (Gal. 4:3-5) But how is this blood mixed with ours? And how could doing this pay the price for the death of every man’s soul? First of all by sacrificing the perfect Blood. (Romans 5:17, Heb. 9:12, 14) In heaven, the perfect Blood of Christ is eternal. (2 Cor. 3:6, Matt. 26:28, Rom. 5:9, Eph. 2:13) It cannot truly die as the blood of animals and people.

Jesus’ blood acts as a living, healing, eternal payment and cure for our sins. (Heb13:20). The blood of Christ satisfies the earthly demands of the law and the heavenly justice of God. (Rev. 5:10) It’s the perfect solution. Of course it is. It’s God. Our Loving Heavenly Father sent the perfect blood donor to earth to infuse us with life.

The Blood of the Vine.

John 15:4-5 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Here is a concept which is metaphorically both simple and complex. Do plants even have blood? Many scientists say yes, and though it certainly differs from our blood in many ways, in some ways it is the same. And plants also have a circulatory system to distribute that blood to every part from roots to leaves.

Instead of veins and arteries, plants have xylem and phloem, cells attached end to end to form tubes for transporting necessary nutrients up and down the plant. Just like in people, if you cut part of a plant off, it dies. Plants cannot live without that vital link to the core of the plant anymore than any of our body parts could live apart from the body itself.

What did the Lord mean when He said to “abide”?  To abide is “to remain as one, not to become another or different.” We are called to become and remain as inseparable from the Lord as the branches of the vine, or the appendages of our bodies.

What is this substance which is so essential to our spiritual existence that we cannot survive without it?

It is apparent we are not speaking of a literal, physical transfusion. So what essential, life-sustaining substance is the Lord referring to?

Blood. The Blood of our Savior is the living catalyst by which we become a branch of the heavenly Vine. Only by His blood circulating through us can we be compatible with the Vine, and able to receive the life-sustaining flow of the Spirit into our being.

John 14:15-17 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells [same Greek word, abide] with you and will be in you.

The blood of aliens—Transfused into Glory.

As a homeschooling mom, when introducing the Periodic Table of  Elements, I would tell my sons, “Here is a list of all the known elements which make up everything in the physical universe. However, there is an element not listed here. It is not included because it is not a physical element. But it is all-important, because it is what God is made of. It is called Spirit. God is Spirit (John 4:24)…”

Without God’s Spirit in us, we will never be able to effectively serve or worship Him. And the only way we can be transfused and transformed by Spirit is by the Blood. When we are received into the Vine by the blood, and receive the life-flow of Spirit in us, we become new creatures, bearing fruit to His glory.

The Blood is the life-giving transfusion, available to us by Holy Spirit’s total invasion of our being. The life is in the Blood. New creatures, brought back from the brink of death by a transfusion of life. Now we can choose not just life, but life eternal! How great is our God!

The Power of the Blood