Judy wrote: > I believe that the seed was always spiritual in nature, > ie Abraham had two sons only Isaac was the son of promise.
But Paul says that this concept of two sons was an allegory (Gal. 2:24), meaning that we should not adopt any idea of a literal spiritual seed. Judy wrote: > Jesus was Jewish in the sense that he was born under the > Law in the nation of Israel - as for His blood. We are > told in Heb 9:13,14 that the blood of bulls and goats > sanctified the flesh - how much more shall the blood of > Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without > spot to God purge the conscience from dead works to serve > the living God. I don't believe it possible for a person born > through natural generation to be born free from the iniquities > of the fathers and Jesus was free from this since he was without > spot. I don't know what the difference would be between Jewish > blood and His but I do believe His blood was different. It seems to me that you are looking at the atonement in a magical sense. Aren't you kind of mixing physical and spiritual here? First you say that the seed is spiritual, but then you insist that the blood Christ was different physically. >From my perspective, a DNA test on the blood of Christ would show him to be genetically related to Mary. In fact, I suspect that he may very well have been 100% genetically related to Mary (received all his genes from her), but I don't really know this for sure. Futhermore, if Jesus scratched his arm while doing his carpentry work, I believe his blood was red and would stain his clothing red instead of white, even though Rev. 7:14 speaks about saints making their robes white in his blood. Now sin is not something that physically exists in either blood or any other part of our flesh. We speak about sin being in the flesh, but with our modern understanding of genetics and biology, there really is no reason for anyone to misunderstand why the Scriptures speak of it this way. We speak of sin being in the flesh because behavior is regulated by genes and expressed by our physical brains. All such behavior that originates solely in the brain (the flesh) is inherently selfish and therefore sinful. On the other hand, that motivation for behavior that comes from the Spirit of God is contrary to this behavior of the flesh and it is one of love and is righteous. Therefore, Jesus did not have to have some alien kind of blood in order to be the spotless lamb of God. He was spotless because his behavior emanated from the Spirit and he did not follow the dictates of his physical body. When we begin to think about the Atonement as not being some magical hocus pocus act of splashing the physical blood of Christ in the right place and in the right manner and with the right words, we will begin to appreciate how it was not only allowable for the blood of Jesus to be normal human blood, but necessary. The power of Christ comes to us in our realization that he was like us in every way. He physically experienced exactly all the things we do, frailty and all. When we see that he was one of us, and that his walk was a walk that each of us can do when we receive his Spirit, then the power of Christ comes upon us because our faith is solidified and established by this realization. It is more the work of how our conscience and mind and heart is effected by Jesus Christ and his sacrificial life than any kind of magical powers inherent in his physical blood. Without identifying ourselves with Christ, I fear that some will just be following a religious ideology that has no power to set them free completely from the power of sin in the flesh. Peace be with you. David Miller. ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
