Blood! Yuck…’Dam’n! (meaning blood in Hebrew)
Christians are generally seen as people who talk of blood more than anybody else. But is this view justified? Don’t other religions have blood ingrained in them? If yes, why does this blood bear such significance? There are religions that shun even the mention of blood. Why is it so?
Biologically speaking, blood is the tissue that runs with the serum / plasma in its vessels all over our body performing vital physiological functions for survival by keeping the organs and tissues alive, hale and healthy. ‘The life of the flesh is in the blood’, says the Bible. Truly, science agrees with the word of God.
Until birth, it is the mother’s oxygen-rich blood that flows in the foetus through the umbilical cord and the placenta. Only after birth does the baby get its own blood flowing through its blood vessels as its lungs start functioning in coordination with the heart. It gives goosebumps to watch the rush of fresh red blood flushing through the face of the baby moments after delivery.
Lymph (getting its name from ‘water’) is another fluid tissue that runs in our body. Lymph along with plasma are the two components of the extra-cellular fluid found between our cells forming a part of the delivery system, helping in water and solute exchange with the cells. Nearly 45% to 75% (60% is normal) of our body weight is water!
However, there is a deeper spiritual angle to this blood in humans.
God created the first man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life making him a living soul. Man is thus spirit, soul, and body. Adam seems to have come by water only as per John’s epistle. All his vital body functions were enabled by lymph (and plasma?). That is why he was different from and superior to all other creatures.
Adam disbelieved in God’s word and disobeyed God, thus becoming a sinner, giving rise to the blood, which, in turn, brought life in his flesh, the rival to his spirit. This is not the muscular ‘flesh’ that we are familiar of. And, no, the juice of the forbidden fruit might not have transformed to blood because, this episode mentioned in Genesis is more spiritual than literal.
Flesh is the agent for all sinful works that are evident in man – adultery, fornication (sexual immorality), uncleanness (impurity), lasciviousness (sensuality), idolatry, witchcraft (sorcery), hatred (enmity), variance (dissensions), emulations (rivalries), wrath (fits of anger), strife, seditions, heresies (divisions), envyings (jealousy), murders, drunkenness, revellings (orgies), and such like. This is in direct conflict with the Spirit of God whose fruit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), gentleness (kindness), goodness, faith (faithfulness), meekness and temperance (self-control).
The blood, which enables sinful works, needs to be shed for the remission of sin. It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul; without shedding of blood there is no remission. The Bible also says, ‘all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one’. If every human starts shedding all his blood for the remission of one’s own sin, everyone would die physically and the whole world would turn into a graveyard. Moreover, the blood that is shed would be sinful blood, disqualifying it from making atonement. Also, a mortal human being cannot die for another’s sin as none would qualify as sinless.
Thankfully, God recommended a temporary practice that would be a shadow of the real thing which would later follow in His purpose. He showed man how gruesome this sin is when an innocent lamb’s blood is shed in the place of the sinner’s. Bulls, and especially heifer, would also be sacrificed, burnt at an altar and the respective ash dissolved in water for ceremonial sprinkling on sinners to sanctify and make them sin-free temporarily. Bloody indeed! God advised humans to continue doing this with a renewed faith in His word, now of a promised Saviour, who would pay the price for the entire sinful humanity. This, the Bible mentions as Old Testament times and age of law.
The entire blood of the sacrificial animal should be shed as this blood represents the abominable contamination caused by sin. This is the reason why God forbade man from consuming blood for food. Usually, the jugular vein is cut at the neck of the animal to allow all blood to flow out until which time the heart keeps pumping out the blood till it stops. ‘Halal’ is the word for such meat that has no blood retained in it. This is the reason why God forbade man from eating meat of a strangled animal, which might contain residue of blood in its flesh.
The gory death of an animal that is being sacrificed should cause humans to realize how brutal and deadly sin is. This would instill Godly fear in them and would continually warn them of the impending death that sin would bring to them as a lawful punishment as per God’s ruling. The soul that sins shall die says the Bible. This death starts from the physical and extends all the way to eternal death, to the fiery lake of fire and brimstone, far away from the bliss-filled presence of God that is heaven.
Major religions of the world recommend sacrificing animals – lamb, goat, bulls, camels, cock etc., or gourds /pumpkins, coconuts, lemon – all with the red vermillion applied to indicate blood, modhak (kozhukkattai in Tamil), flour, milk or other ‘neivethiyam’, or the host (wafer and wine) to their gods, as a means of obtaining remission of sins. As mark of this blood shed for the individual, Indian Saivites and Vaishnavites wear this as tilak on their foreheads. A Hindu wife wears this Kumkum at two spots on the forehead, one for herself and another for her husband. They also apply ‘ash’ on the body to show that they have been purified by this, which is a residue of the animal’s burnt body after its blood was shed. Not bloody?
Understandably, children and weak-hearted individuals might be traumatized during an animal sacrifice, and so animal sacrifice was replaced by offering the vegetarian – certainly not the method recommended by God for the time prior to the real sacrifice! Another act, indicating the unbelief in the word of God, just making the weighty act a bland, meaningless religious custom. Humans are dubiously known for devising their own ways to please God, ignoring the way God Himself has established as the only way back to Him. JESUS!
At a God-determined time in human history (His-story), the real sacrificial Lamb of God would come down from heaven on to this earth to bear the sin of the world. It would take the Son of God, the express image of the invisible God, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be born in sinful flesh, live a holy sinless life and die by shedding God’s own precious blood as a substitute for every sinner. This, according to the Bibe, is the New Testament times and age of grace. This, is when, what was a shadow would be fulfilled as real. The law laid down by God would be fulfilled by the one perfect Sacrifice, Jesus, once for all for the entire humanity. Then, sacrifices for remission of sins would be required no more.
Jesus was born approximately two thousand twenty years ago in Judea of Palestine of the Middle East. He is the Lamb of God that was slain even before the foundation of the world. He bore the sin of the world – all who lived before Him in the Old Testament times that believed in the promise of God and anticipated His arrival as well as all who live post His appearance in these New Testament times.
After living His exemplary holy life enabled by the Holy Spirit of God for approximately thirty-three and a half years, the man Christ Jesus, gave Himself to die on the cross, shedding all His blood. Proof? a Roman soldier thrust his spear on His side (ribs) at the time of His death and the last drops of His blood and water gushed out.
Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day of His death and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. He is the One who can forgive sins of humans because he rightfully owns this power by virtue of His death as a substitute for everyone who come to Him believing; He is the one Way that God has instituted to come back to Him.
Anything that tends to exceed this solemn and perfectly fulfilled plan of God – self-inflicted wounds, penance, offering of sacrifices and money, applying of vermilion and viboothi / holy ash, pilgrimage, social service, donations for humane causes, works of philanthropy – none of these would earn salvation for the soul and remission of sins.
Eternal life is in Christ Jesus. Come repenting and believing, leaving behind all futile human effort; the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. It ratifies the new covenant and intercedes for forgiveness of our sins, not for revenge.
As saints, we become a part of His flesh and blood by taking part in the bread and wine that are indicators and continuous reminders of His death. He has commanded us to do so. We can continually overcome sin, death, the grave, this worldly system and the enemy of our soul Satan, by the shed blood of Jesus until His return. He is coming soon.
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