The Vital and Life Giving Force

Deuteronomy 12:23 (NLT)

23 But never consume the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not consume the lifeblood with the meat.

 

Definition of lifeblood

  1. the blood, as being necessary to life.
    • the indispensable factor or influence that gives something its strength and vitality.
  2. Blood Atones

Leviticus 17:10-11 (NLT)

10 “And if any native Israelite or foreigner living among you eats or drinks blood in any form, I will turn against that person and cut him off from the community of your people, 11 for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.

  • Remember the very first sacrifice was made in the Garden of Eden when God killed the animals to make “coverings” for Adam & Eve.
  • But here is where we find what I believe to be the greater reason why God did not want them to drink the blood – this sacrifice was only temporary – only a covering of sin. This sacrifice did not take sin away!

1 Peter 1:18-20 (NLT)

18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.

 

  1. Blood Sustains

Leviticus 17:14 (NLT)

14 The life of every creature is in its blood. That is why I have said to the people of Israel, ‘You must never eat or drink blood, for the life of any creature is in its blood.’ So whoever consumes blood will be cut off from the community.

Blood is viewed as a symbol of life throughout the Bible. The Bible’s first mention of the word blood is found in Genesis 4:10 where God asks the murderer Cain, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”

Why is the life of all flesh in the blood?

If every part of your body worked well and your heart stops beating what happens? You die.

The circulation of blood through your body keeps you alive – it sustains your life!

Ephesians 2:13 (NLT)

13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

  • Only the Blood of Jesus can sustain REAL LIFE!

Colossians 3:1-3 (NLT)

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Hebrews 12:24 (ESV)

24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance – Jesus blood cries out for forgiveness!

Only the blood of Jesus can sustain your life

  1. Blood Unites

 

There are a lot of people who think – “I’ll just do my Christian thing at home by myself.

What would happen if I put a tourniquet on my arm just above the hand and left it there for a week? A month? Longer?

The hand would die!!!!

  • It’s the BLOOD that keeps the body united!

1 John 1:7 (NLT)

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Hebrews 10:25 (NLT)

25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

 

Only the Blood of Jesus can Unite the Church!

 

  1. Blood Preserves

John 6:53-56 (NLT)

53 So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

 

Only by drinking the blood of Jesus can we have eternal life!

 

Charles H. Spurgeon said ~

You will rightly comprehend this when you remember the dreadful night of Egypt, when the destroying angel was abroad to slay God’s enemies. A bitter cry went up from house to house as the firstborn of all Egypt, from Pharaoh on the throne to the firstborn of the woman behind the mill and the slave in the dungeon, fell dead in a moment. The angel sped with noiseless wing through every street of Egypt’s many cities; but there were some houses which he could not enter: he sheathed his sword and breathed no malediction there. What was it which preserved the houses? The inhabitants were not better than others, their habitations were not more elegantly built, there was nothing except the bloodstain on the lintel and on the two side posts, and it is written, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.”

 

Romans 5:8-9 (NLT)

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.