(3) Salvation Works Only When One Drinks the Blood of the Lamb and Eats Its Flesh

 

(3) Salvation Works Only When One Drinks the Blood of the Lamb and Eats Its Flesh

 

No one living in this world would think that they can live forever. While advancements in biotechnology may allow us to extend life, eternal life is something we cannot dream of. In other words, the fact is that humans must inevitably die someday. This is a fact known to everyone, whether they believe in God or not.

Believers in the theory of evolution believe that the emergence of humans began with microorganisms and that they diverged from apes that were somewhere between monkeys and humans. They also believe that humans will continue to evolve in the future.

However, those who believe in God know that God created humans. Yet, there may be some who wonder why God did not create humans to live forever. They hold the belief that God created the Garden of Eden where people could have lived forever, but because Adam and Eve sinned, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden and came to die. If one considers the Garden of Eden as the Kingdom of God, this is plausible.

Death is ultimately connected to sin. It sounds as if God is saying, "You are sinners destined to die." The meaning of "dying" implies that a verdict of judgment is already predetermined within it. It implies that while judgment has not yet occurred, once you are judged, you will eventually fall into Hades.

Although this world has been described as a prison, it is more like a temporary detention center than a prison. Therefore, the time spent in this world becomes a period during which judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys examine, defend, indict, and prosecute the sins.

The judgment is not based on how one lived in the world, but on the sins committed in the Kingdom of God. Thus, while living in this world, one must deliberate and repent to the best of one's ability to avoid a guilty verdict, and find a way to return to the Kingdom of God.

During this period, God desires that those who have sinned return to the Kingdom of God without receiving a guilty verdict. However, since sin clearly lies with them, they ought to be judged, yet God wishes to grant them grace.

The alternative God presented to handle this sin is the scapegoat system. Someone becomes the scapegoat, and other sinners transfer their sins to that scapegoat. To put it in terms of a modern court, it is submitted in writing, the scapegoat accepts it, and the result is presented to the judge who punishes; upon examination, the scapegoat dies in their place. It may sound absurd, but that is how the Bible describes it.

Legends are passed down about people who chose death in place of a condemned prisoner to save their families during times of poverty and scarcity. However, this is not a story about family; rather, it refers to a scapegoat created to save people unrelated to oneself. Who could possibly act as such a scapegoat?

There would be no one. Therefore, the narrative is that God uses an animal to die in their place to forgive sins. This is the sacrificial offering found in the Old Testament.

The fundamental purpose of the sacrificial offering was grace bestowed by God in the hope that the sinner deserving of death would repent and turn back to Him. However, as time passed, the heart of repentance vanished, and it became a mere ritualistic act.

Originally, the scapegoat system was meant to instruct people to believe that although the scapegoat died, the sinner died with it. It was meant to instill a new life through shared death, so that one should live with a heart directed toward God. However, the scapegoat system became a mere ordinance, and as its meaning faded, people fell into a state where they had no sense of guilt toward God, had forgotten Him, or no longer honored Him. God chose Abraham, the father of faith, and led the people of Israel into Canaan; however, during the time of his grandson Jacob, a famine caused them to enter and live in Egypt. The story of the Israelites escaping from Egypt, where they had become slaves to the King of Egypt (Pharaoh), is the Exodus. God sent plagues upon Egypt to force the king to surrender, but he adamantly refused.

After the ninth plague, He sent the final plague: the death of the firstborn. Since the firstborn of all people and livestock born into the world belong to God, He intended to take them away.

However, Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, remained determined to refuse to the very end. Moses, God's spokesman, told them that if they smeared the blood of a lamb on their doorposts, locked their doors, and roasted lamb meat inside their homes, the angel of death would pass by.

Therefore, the firstborn of Israel did not die, but the firstborn of the Egyptians and the firstborn of their livestock all perished. Naturally, the Egyptian king's son, the prince, also died. Thus, the story tells of how the King of Egypt released the people of Israel. Although the firstborn of the Israelites did not outwardly die, their physical lives perished along with the sacrificial lamb. The Israelite Passover celebration commemorates this event. It signifies that the angel of death has passed by.

As the firstborn, Jesus Christ takes on the form of the sacrificial lamb. Therefore, drinking His blood and eating His flesh originates from this very Passover ritual. In the sacrificial ceremony, the blood of the sacrificial lamb is sprinkled on the altar, and the flesh is burned in the fire. However, regarding the Passover ritual, Jesus spoke of drinking the blood and eating the flesh.

People may be bewildered by the statement that they drink Jesus' blood and eat His flesh. These are symbolic expressions signifying the attainment of complete union with Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and resurrected.

The meaning of drinking the blood and eating the flesh of the crucified Jesus signifies that believers are united with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross. Being united means believing that believers, too, have become identical to the works accomplished by Jesus Christ.

The blood and flesh originate from the practice during the Exodus of slaughtering the Passover lamb, smearing its blood on the doorposts, and eating the lamb's flesh in their homes. A house marked with blood signifies that the inhabitants are already physically dead.

They become spiritually born again. The phrase "dying" implies the physical body dying, while "giving life" implies the spirit. It means that the flesh must die for the spirit to live.

Jesus Christ stands between the separation from the Kingdom of God into the world and the subsequent separation from the world into the Kingdom of God. Through the first man, Adam, the spirit of an evil angel came into the world and was confined within the flesh, while the last Adam takes the resurrected spirit with him.

It means that those who enter into Jesus Christ receive salvation because they return to the Kingdom of God through the blood of the Lamb during this process. This constitutes the meaning of the Passover. The name Jehovah carries the meaning of "bringing and taking away."

 

John 6:54-56 states, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."

In the Lord's Supper, wine signifies the blood of Jesus and the water of life; pouring the cup symbolizes the atoning blood Jesus shed; and lifting the cup signifies a cup of blessing symbolizing the union of the bridegroom and the bride. Therefore, this cup becomes the water of life of eternal life that is drunk in the Kingdom of God.

Bread symbolizes the body of Jesus Christ; breaking the bread represents death on the cross, and eating the bread symbolizes putting on the resurrected body. While the Revised Korean Version uses the term "bread," the Greek Bible uses "bread."

In other words, eating the flesh signifies union with the resurrection, which is heavenly life. As Christ resurrected, those united with Him also bear the fruit of resurrection. This means dying to the blood that comes from the flesh of the world and being born again from heaven. Those united with Jesus Christ become one with Him. Therefore, the saint enters into Him, and He also enters into the saint and works within them.