THE BLOOD AND THE SPIRIT ARE ONE
There is a mysterious relationship between THE BLOOD OF JESUS and THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST! 1 John 5:8 says the BLOOD and the SPIRIT are two things upon the earth which "agree in one." 1 Peter 1:11 and Romans 8:9 both call the Holy Ghost "the Spirit of Christ" who lives "IN" and "WITHIN" us, and that we have "nothing" without His indwelling. The New Testament further teaches us that the BLOOD OF JESUS not only cleanses us from all sin, but it provides us BOLD access to intimacy and communion with God (1 John 1:7; 1 Corinthians 10:16; Ephesians 2:13; Hebrews 10:19). So, the BLOOD and SPIRIT both bear witness to our internal union WITH God, as well as our free and complete access TO God's throne.
I noticed a very interesting fact some time ago. What the New Testament says the BLOOD does, it also says the SPIRIT does. The blood justifies (Romans 5:9), the Spirit justifies (1 Corinthians 6:11). The blood sanctifies (Hebrews 13:12), the Spirit sanctifies (1Corinthians 6:11). The blood cleanses (1 John 1:7), the Spirit cleanses (1 Corinthians 6:11). We drink the blood (1 Corinthians 11:24-25; John 6:55-56), we drink the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). The life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11), while the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). We are to have "faith in His blood" (Romans 3:24-25) and are to have "the Spirit of faith." I think that on some level, the blood of Jesus and the Spirit of Christ are synonymous in some literal and mystical way.
I think the BLOOD of Jesus is too often thought about JUST in reference to the forgiveness of sins, but it has a much broader and more dynamic application than just that. The term "forgiveness" is not the most accurate translation of the Greek word "aphesis" which is used in verses like Luke 24:45-47; Acts 2:38-40; 5:29-31; 13:35-39; 26:15-18; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:12-14. In all these passages just cited, the King James translation uses either the words "REMISSION of sins" or "FORGIVENESS of sins" to translate the Greek word "aphesis," which in truth simply means "freedom." Aphesis is also translated in the New Testament as "DELIVERANCE" or "LIBERTY." Its primary definition is "to release from bondage or imprisonment" (Thayer and Smith). Aphesis derives from the Greek word "apheimi" which means "to send away," as in "a husband divorcing his wife."
Factoring all this together then, the better translation of this Greek term used in the above referenced verses is not "FORGIVENESS OF SIN," but rather "FREEDOM FROM SIN" or "DELIVERANCE FROM SIN." This phrase literally speaks of our rescue and release FROM our bondage to sin. God is declaring us divorced from our "menage a trois" marriage to sin, Satan and the spirit of the world. Certainly, God has no unforgiveness toward us, and we need to know that, lest our hearts condemn us from boldly coming to the throne of grace in time of need. But, the blood of Jesus wasn't spilt so that God would no longer be disgusted, hateful, or mad at us. Rather, Jesus allowed His blood to be shed so that we ALL could and would have complete, full and final DELIVERANCE from every vile cause and effect of sin.
So here is my point. If we substitute "FREEDOM FROM SIN" or "DELIVERANCE FROM SIN" for "FORGIVENESS OF SIN" in the New Testament passages cited above, then the Cross becomes clearer in scope and purpose. Jesus came to earth to restore mankind to full fellowship with God by delivering ALL men from ALL sin for ALL time. THE WORK OF THE CROSS WASN'T JUST TO ASSURE US WE ARE "FORGIVEN FOR" OUR SINS, BUT RATHER TO SHOW US WE ARE "DELIVERED FROM" OUR SINS. I can know I am forgiven of a sin, and that is great, but I can still be in utter bondage to the sin itself and go on repeating it till the cows come home. Consider addicts, alcoholics and wife beaters, who though are repeatedly forgiven by those they harm, continue to engage in the destructive conduct. Jesus came, died and rose again SO THAT we would be COMPLETELY rescued from any and all sin-bondages. Again, knowing we are "forgiven" is wonderful, but knowing we are "delivered" from the POWER of sin, death and hell is even better.
Seen from this angle, we now can see how the blood of Jesus and the Spirit of Christ are one. The delivering power of the indwelling Holy Spirit IS the blood of Jesus at work. Jesus' life, His Spirit, His blood, His anointing, ALL speak of providing us the same thing------ our FREEDOM FROM SIN. This freedom comes from an exchange of inner cores, a complete remodeling of our hearts' Holy of Holies. Ezekiel says the New Covenant consists of God first giving us a "cleansing," then a "new heart," then a "new spirit" and THEN "His Spirit" to live within us, and that it is HIS SPIRIT which will empower us and "cause" us to "walk" in God's ways. Ezekiel 36:25-27.
The imagery here, one that Andrew Murray frequently used, is one of God first cleansing our Temple, then restoring our inner courts, then renewing our interior Holy of Holies. The end result? We are now a proper Temple of God READY TO RECEIVE the Spirit fully into habitation. "What? Know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" 1 Corinthians 6:19. So when Jesus poured His own Holy blood (see Hebrews 9) on the Heavenly "mercy seat" when He ascended to His Father, was Jesus not also simultaneously pouring His Spirit out onto OUR inner "mercy seats" to indwell us with His love and power? His blood shed FOR us now becomes the Holy Spirit living IN us. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, ACCORDING TO THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US" Ephesians 3:20.
I see the blood of Jesus as a "delivery system" of God's salvation. Any manifestation of power must have a delivery system. Blood literally serves as a delivery system for the human body to DELIVER oxygen to the various tissues of the body. I see the blood of Jesus delivering the full access and oxygenation of the Spirit into every corner of our being. The definition of the word "Spirit," interestingly enough, means breath, which of course is how we intake oxygen into our blood stream. What the blood delivers, the Spirit manifests. What the blood transports, the Spirit provides. What the blood accesses, the Spirit strengthens. Jesus sweated blood resisting sin. He sacrificed His blood to give US access to His Spirit, the EXACT SAME access He had as the Son of Man. As with most things I see these days, this whole issue is about effectively receiving the permanent indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
The BLOOD OF JESUS is God's "delivery system" of salvation to all of us. It delivers us FROM sin and death TO holiness and love. The MAJOR part of this deliverance was Jesus REPLACING the rotten double-minded core in our soul WITH Jesus' healthy single-minded core in His soul. He first absorbed all our radioactively toxic soul-cores on the Cross. THEN, when He poured out His own blood on the Heavenly mercy seat, the pouring continued at Pentecost as Jesus' poured out His Spirit as described in Acts 2. At Pentecost, Jesus poured out His Spirit onto and into the hearts of men.
At the Cross, Jesus shed His pristine blood FOR us. But at Pentecost, Jesus' blood transmuted to become His Spirit living WITHIN us. Jesus, through this sacrifice, took away our sin-natures and replaced them with HIS pristine faith, HIS pristine mind, and HIS pristine nature. We were enabled by Jesus to become "partakers of the divine nature" 2 Peter 1:4. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20.
Do you see? The one crucial thing we were missing was the one crucial thing Jesus dared and died to deliver to us---- the ability to become a Temple of God by permanently HOUSING the Holy Spirit within us. No Old Testament saint COULD do this. Every New Testament saint CAN do this. But this is ONLY because Jesus sacrificed His blossoming soul FOR our withering soul. Jesus modeled this for us as the Son of Man. His soul PERFECTLY POSTURED AND PERMITTED the Holy Spirit to descend upon Him and permanently reside within Him. See Matthew 3:16-4:1.
Before the Cross, man's problem was that his soul's core was rotten in its Holy of Holies, rotten in the sense that it would not allow/believe/receive God to centrally inhabit its most vital part-- its throne room reserved for God only, the Holy of Holies. We were created to be Temples of the Holy Ghost, but Temples that could only be permanently filled through wholehearted and willing intercourse by faith with our Husband-Creator. Mankind instead chose to let Satan, aka the spirit of the world, be our soul's lover and the INHABITER of our Holy of Holies.
Until this spirit of the world could be ENTIRELY removed and evicted from our Holy Place, men simply could not wholeheartedly receive the seed of God permanently into the core of their being. Men might be longing for God on some level, but when God would move to penetrate them, their thoughts and corrupt core desire sooner or later would return to their object of true affection--- the spirit of the world--- its ways, its lusts, its thinking, its pride. God's attempted intercourses (whether it be through the giving of the Law, the building of the Temple or through countless saving deliverances or penetrating prophecies) would then be rejected/pushed away.
The Old Testament saints simply could not receive the intercourse with God necessary to become living Temples of God. The tragic result was that God's saving seed was never fully received by men, all because at their deepest core levels, they never achieved wholehearted orgasmic desire for God. The great commandment tells us that only the orgasmic desire of our ENTIRE being can possibly and properly receive the Holy Spirit into our free soul. Anything LESS than the orgasmic desire of our whole being means some part of us is still in love with our cosmic kidnapper in some sick sort of Stockholm Syndrome dynamic.
In the OT, the outer court of man's soul could conduct SOME religious activity, and on occasion God's Spirit could even touch the inner court of some Old Testament saints like David, Abraham and Moses. But God's Spirit NEVER permanently inhabited ANY Old Testament saint in the CORE of their soul, their Holy of Holies in other words. In John 14:17, Jesus clearly says that the Holy Spirit was WITH the disciples THEN (prior to the Cross and Pentecost) but not yet IN the disciples. But Jesus promised in that same verse that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, would SOON come to be INSIDE them in an abiding and permanent sense, a promise fulfilled at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to inhabit men as Temples of God.
So, man's corporate dilemma was that he was, at the core level in his soul's Holy of Holies, ultimately UNWILLING and thus UNABLE to be a Temple of God. No man was wholehearted, wholeminded, or wholebodied enough to make an ABIDING ROOM for GOD to RESIDE IN CONTINUALLY. Man's soul could receive temporary visitations for God's Spirit, but these were all partial, limited and transitory. Band aids, but no permanent healing from sin was possible, not because God wasn't willing, but because man wasn't.
So, the problem was that man had a diseased core voluntarily given over to Satan's spirit of the world. It was not so obvious that all men consciously loved Satan by name, but they all certainly loved Satan's worldly, fleshly and demonic ways of operating. In fact, they were largely unconscious of Satan's role as the ruler of this world. Like a repressed memory, Satan's actual personage was sunken into our individual and collective sub-consciousness reserved for unspoken fears and dark nightmares. But, though Satan's visage was hidden from our surface perceptions, still all men willingly thrived on Satan's spirit of pride and lust which continued to motivate the destructive actions of men, demons and fallen nature. And Satan ruled.
But then came Jesus to rescue us from the kingdom of darkness. Where all men had failed, Jesus succeeded! Jesus' life as the Son of Man modeled constant perfect orgasmic desire for God with His whole free-being. The result? The Holy Spirit was able for the first time EVER to fully house Himself within a man--- the man Christ Jesus. Then, at the Cross, Jesus transacted what theologians call "THE GREAT EXCHANGE."
Jesus exchanged our old corrupt Spirit-rejecting nature with His new divine Spirit-receiving nature. Jesus became our sin that we might become His righteousness. Isaiah 53:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21. Jesus became poor that we might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9. Jesus became a curse that we might become a blessing. Galatians 3:13-14. Jesus took our sickness that we might take His divine health. Isaiah 53:4-5. Jesus tasted our death that we could taste His life. Hebrews 2:9. Jesus consumed our old corrupt nature that we could partake fully of His new divine nature. Colossians 3:9-10; 2 Peter 1:4. Jesus became the Son of Man that we might become the Son of God. John 1:12; 1 John 3:1; John 3:13-17. In sum, Jesus translated us from Satan's kingdom of darkness into His kingdom of light by GIVING US HIS HOLY OF HOLIES, that is to say, Jesus gave us His CORE RECEPTIVITY to the HOLY SPIRIT. Jesus gave us HIS orgasmic desire to love, believe and obey God! This was God's deliverance for mankind. It's time we use it. It's time we believe it.
THE BLOOD AND THE SPIRIT ARE ONE!
