Paul: His Life and His Teachings The Body, The Blood and The Cross
watch
No.32 Paul: His Life and Teachings - The Body, The Blood and The Cross (Part 1)
No.33 Paul: His Life and Teachings - The Body, The Blood and The Cross (Part 2)
listen
overview
The Resurrection Sunday reminds us of the sacrifices of Jesus and how on the third day He came back to life. It marked the beginning of the New Covenant, which was cut three days earlier when Jesus celebrated the Passover Meal with his 12 disciples. For the covenant to take effect, the Testator has to die. For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. (Heb. 9:16-18 NAU). We have studied the cutting of the covenant a few times, but let us look at it once again. This time concentrating on the concept of what the blood means to us and what it requires from us. Details of the covenant as it transpired during the last supper are narrated in 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 and Luke 22:14-20.
As a Pharisee, Paul has a deeper understanding of what a covenant is. When Jesus invited him to believe and be part of this New Covenant, he understood what it means. He spent his life studying that concept. He knew of the benefits and he knew of what it requires of him. Concepts, which is lost nowadays. Paul’s initiation to the New Covenant occurred in his encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to the Damascus (Acts 9:11-16). Paul then was approaching Damascus as a foe against Jesus and His Church. Jesus met Paul and decisively overcame him. Paul was a defeated foe who became a believer. Therefore, for Paul it was not just a coming to faith. It is also “surrendering” to Jesus in the truest sense of the word. Paul wrote about what was delivered to him through Ananias when he joined the Church in entering a covenant with Jesus. He knew that in partaking of the suffering of Christ, he was going to have a drastic time, a desperate struggle, but a terrific experience. The apostles’ was a blood covered walk.
Jesus asked the 12 to drink the cup, which is the New Testament in His blood. Alt. trans. “drink ye all of it.” There is a pledge or a vow that comes with entering the covenant with Jesus. Let us look at this from human covenants. Men pledged themselves in the wine cup from time immemorial. Generals and kings pledged their armies unto death. This type of covenanting is sanctified by Jesus in the church forever. “To drink all of it,” is to drink everything that it represents and mean. We don’t choose how much we can drink. We are told to drink it all. To drink it is to become one with Him - one with Him in His family, and in our purpose to carry on His message, even if it means to die for the world in His Name. In history, at least 9 of the 12 disciples died as martyrs. It’s highly probable 11 of them did. The blood of the martyrs then became the seed of the church. Literally, we need to be ready to die for Jesus and His message.
Added to the blood is the body of Jesus, represented by the blood. The body represents healing, provision, and protection. Even as the blood represents life, the body represents everything that sustains that life. In the Old Testament, this is represented in the covenant between David and Jonathan. Jonathan initiated the covenant. He was the greater power over David at the time the covenant was initiated (1 Samuel 18:1-4). Therefore, as we celebrate Communion today, we need to ask, what does the blood and body of Jesus mean to us? What does it require from us? Are we ready to give in to the demand of the body and blood of Jesus on our lives? This brings our discussion to the cross or the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Without the crucifixion, there will be no resurrection. Before the raising from the dead, He has to die first. It was suffering before glory. Cross as identification or identifying badge for Christianity. We know this, cross is the most recognizable symbol of Christianity, if not the only recognizable symbol of Christianity.
The Christ’s body, His blood, and the cross are now symbols of our covenant with God. Through our covenant with God through Jesus Christ, what it now means is that everything that is of God's is our's – wealth, power, resources, enemies, and all. That is why we became the Body of Christ, Christ’s ambassadors – implementing the will of God and the affairs of the kingdom while backed by God’s unlimited resource and protected by His awesome power and might. Praise be to God!