Jesus of Nazareth shed the blood that was in His body for the sins of the world nearly two thousand years ago. If you had a sample of it as it was before the resurrection and placed it under a microscope, I doubt you would be able to find anything extremely remarkable about it. Floating in the plasma, you would see the red and white blood cells and platelets that are common to us all. As such, that spilled blood congealed and hardened. And yet, that it atones, reconciles, speaks, reveals, and heals today tells us that it is presently alive, active, and effective. It is not only a historical reality that impacted all of the ages, it is also a spiritual reality that is more substantial than the blood that is now pulsing through the veins of your natural body.

Recall that Jesus took His blood all the way into the holy of holies in heaven.[1] How did He do that? On the Day of Atonement, the high priest sprinkled the blood of bulls and goats on the mercy seat. The mercy seat was symbolic of the throne of God. In fulfilling this prophetic picture, it was required that Jesus take the real atoning blood and place it on the real throne of God, the throne the cherubim guard in heaven. That is exactly what He did.

Hebrews 12:2
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Revelation 3:21
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

As He sits with the Father, His blood covers the throne of grace that mercy might be found by all who seek Him. How did He bring His blood into heaven? He carried it within Himself. The One who died is the One who was resurrected. What had been the “living soul” of Jesus of Nazareth became the life-giving spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of the Son was always life-giving; but He humbled Himself and came in human form. The immortal, invisible God took on mortal flesh. And the life of that flesh was in His blood. It was necessary that He be mortal, for were He not, redemption wouldn’t have been possible. But now, that aspect of His life force or animating principle has undergone a transforming resurrection. He is mortal no longer.

Romans 6:9-10
⁹ Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
¹⁰ For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

As His body has been resurrected and glorified, so has His blood. It was in His resurrected body that He entered heaven once more. And I believe that it was within His resurrected body that He carried the blood that sanctified the heavenly sanctuary. Is it possible that in His resurrected form He could have gathered some of His pre-resurrection blood, now forty-three days old, and sprinkled it on the throne and before the Father in heaven? I suppose so. After all, we are talking about God. If stones can sing and donkeys can talk, spilled blood staying fluid for forty-three days should pose no difficulty. But Jesus has blood today and this blood not only flows in His resurrected body, it also flows through the Church, the body of Christ.

One Spirit, One Body

The life of our flesh is in our blood. Though my nerves do a fair job of connecting most of the members of my body, they don’t bring life to them. For instance, a surgeon could cut a nerve in your hand and you would lose the sensation in your thumb, but the thumb wouldn’t die. Suppose, though, that you took a rubber band and wound it tightly around the base of your thumb until you cut off the circulation. Left like that, it would only be a matter of time before that member of your body died (aren’t you glad we cut the nerve first so you wouldn’t have to feel it?). It is the blood that brings life to every cell of the body.

There is a life in the body of Christ that touches every member in it. What blood does in the natural body, the Holy Spirit does in the spiritual body of Christ. Am I saying that the Holy Spirit is the blood of Jesus Christ? No, but in a very practical sense it might as well be. What the historical blood of Jesus Christ did for us by being spilled on Calvary’s cross is brought to us by the Holy Spirit of God.[2] The Holy Spirit brings to us the reality of the blood of Jesus Christ that stands before the Father in intercession for us forever. Where the blood is poured, the Spirit will flow. He shed His blood in death, His spirit in life.

Acts 2:32-33
³² This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
³³ Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

Because He had shed forth His blood during Passover, He could shed forth the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. The Holy Spirit will come to those who believe on His name and receive the washing of His blood.

Acts 2:38
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” that makes us free from the law of sin and death.[3] It is what gives us life and causes us to be one body.[4] We are truly connected together. We need to stop considering each other after the flesh and press in to be spiritually minded; only then will we find life and peace. When a person develops a habit of self-mutilation, it doesn’t take a psychiatrist to tell something is wrong. To intentionally hurt or damage our own bodies goes against our natural inclination for self-preservation. If we really understood and believed that we are one body, we would not treat each other in the Church as we do today. We would no more cause an offense to our brother than we would cut off our own finger.

[1] Heb 9:11-12
[2] 1 Cor 6:9-11
[3] Rom 8:2
[4] Rom 8:10; 1 Cor 6:16-17; Eph 4:4