Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
When some theologians discuss salvation, they talk about it from the perspective of “once you receive Christ, you change your lifestyle.” That is, you go to church, you stop drinking, fornicating and you stop doing all the ugly things you used to do before you got saved. They take scripture and relate it to a lifestyle change, but the scripture below is about a positional change.
2 Corinthians 5:17-20
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
It is very important for us to understand what the scripture above is NOT saying. It is not shallowly saying that once you are in Christ, your lifestyle changes. It does not stop at this level. It is saying that if any man is in Christ, he is a new person, a new creation, another creation; he is not just someone who changes his lifestyle, he is a different creature. It is important that we digest this and embrace the scripture for what it is attempting to convey. If any man be in Christ, he is a totally new creation. If he started out as a human being and the scripture says he is a totally new creation, then he must be something other than human. The Church is afraid to embrace that phraseology. The Church does not want to say the Body of Christ is no longer human beings. However, the Church must be daring enough to believe that the only thing relative to humanity is the flesh we live in, that is, we do live in a human body. We still live in Adam’s body but we are not human beings. There is a scripture that is important to refer to; due to skeptics who still see the Sons of God as human beings.
Acts 17:23-31
23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
Let us look at some key points Paul made in these verses. 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth… When we study this passage, we must take time to reflect on the sovereign purpose of our God. I don’t think the Body of Christ understands the great meticulous plan masterminded by the Lord. We tend to forget that at the heart of the gospel is the desire of the Father to have children of His own. And by that, I mean; children that are liken unto Himself. We tend to focus only on the redemptive, soul-saving purpose of the gospel. But it is imperative that we understand the totality of this mystery of Christ in the Church if we are truly going to overcome this world.
In theory or rather theological discussions we mention the blood of Jesus as the atonement for our sins. But it is more than the atonement; it is the life of the Body of Christ. By it, all Christians have been made of one blood. Now we know that if you test the natural blood of several Christians, you would be presented with several different blood types. Armed with that reality, you could become as the eighty disciples who departed from the Master after He preached the “eating of His flesh, and the drinking of His blood,” message. They did not discern: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63).
Therefore, we must conclude that taking men from all nations of the world and making them of one blood is a spiritual operation. Consider here, if God is to have children that are truly His own, then they too, must be of His blood. Now as we consider this Master plan, we discover also that the principles we have previously learned hold truth to this act of God; He submits Himself to His Word.
CHILDREN OF HIS BLOOD
Hebrews 13:4
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Jeremiah 3:14-15
14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
If the Lord is to have children, then He must take onto Himself a wife. Israel became the wife of God, by His own sovereignty. This marriage to mankind would also allow Him the ability to establish a bloodline. Mary’s role, being the seed of Abraham, (a human being), was to supply the Master with a flesh and blood body. But the Lord God would supply the life force of the man-child, the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, the writer can say, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son… By this overshadowing of Mary, Jesus became the Son of God. The Spirit of God made Him superior to all other human beings. God would live in Him and His soul would live in God. The Son of God was likened unto moral man in the flesh. Nevertheless, He was a man in flesh, bone and blood. Now that we have established the birth of the Son of God; it is His blood that would be the blood of the New Covenant.
Hebrews 9:18, 20-21
18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood….
20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. Paul takes us back to the time of the Tabernacle and the priesthood. The High Priest would take the blood of the sacrifice from the altar and sprinkle it upon the people, and all the vessels of ministry.
22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Jesus claims to have come in the volume of the book. This means He did all which was required of Him to purge sin. Therefore, the scripture can affirm; Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate (Hebrews 13:12).
Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit here. Jesus must sanctify the people with His own blood. How did He do that? In the Old Covenant, the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled on the people. It behooves us to discover how the blood of Jesus was applied to our lives. Some scholars declare for one to believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ is enough to place us in the Royal Family. However, the scriptures go quite a bit further. It declares that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. In other words, unless the blood is physically applied to the people, their sins would not be removed or remitted. But the pattern is set for us in the ministry of Moses.
Exodus 29:21
And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.
The blood was mixed with the anointing oil, and then sprinkled on the Levitical Priesthood. Today the blood is applied to our life by the Holy Spirit. Consider the following scriptures.
1 Peter 1:2
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
Hebrews 10:19-20, 22
19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
This is the operation and the workmanship of God. By the Holy Ghost, He applied the blood of the covenant, the precious blood of Jesus to our heart (spirit, soul, mind, conscience). Our soul literally drank the blood of Jesus allowing us to be joined to the Spirit. And he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. This application of the blood not only washed away our sin, but it also made us to be blood brothers of Christ making the way for the Spirit of adoption. The blood of Adam may flow in the veins of this flesh, but the blood of Jesus has stained our souls. We are related to God by birth in the Spirit and by the passing on of the blood of Jesus. Therefore, the scripture is able to declare, But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13).
