Author: Joe
Last saved by: PJD
Company: GDC

1

JSH – 028 / 

© 1998  Joe Griffin	JOSHUA

Introduction: Victory through Faith: Blood of Christ: Medical View of  the Lord’s Physical Death; Comparison of Figurative & Literal Blood of Christ

22.	I quote again from the Colonel’s book:
Thieme, R. B., Jr.  The Blood of Christ.  5^th ed.  Houston:     R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 1989; pp. 18, 22-23:
John 19:30 -	When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!”  And He bowed His head and gave up His human spirit.
It was essential that when He died physically, His body should be leaning in a specific forward position, so that when the spear pierced His side, it would enter above the solar plexus and diaphragm, piercing the heart.
In somatic death, irreversible changes begin to occur at various rates after cessation of [lung] and heart action.  These changes include cooling of the body, development of muscular rigidity, autolysis (the breakdown of the cells), putrefaction, and the gravitation of blood to the dependent parts and the clotting of that blood.
At the moment of cessation of heart and lung action, Christ’s blood began to sink into the dependent parts of His body and His internal organs.  Instead of slumping down or leaning to one side when He dismissed His soul and spirit, our Lord purposefully thrust His body forward to demonstrate for all to see and for John to record that He did not die from loss of blood.
The word hudor, “water,” is used in the medical sense for the grayish-yellow fluid that separates from the clot in the coagulation of blood.  Thus, instead of “blood and water,” a more accurate translation would be “blood clots and serum.”
If someone dies from excessive loss of blood, clots and serum do not form; blood simply exits the body as whole red blood.
For blood inside the body to precipitate into clots and serum, death must not have been caused by bleeding.
Christ anticipated that Satan would attack the cross by perverting the meaning of the blood in an attempt to obscure the importance of spiritual death.  Thus, while still on the cross, our Lord provided proof that He did not bleed to death and that, unlike the blood of a sacrificial animal, His literal blood has no spiritual significance.

23.	Therefore, the literal blood of Christ has no direct relationship to His salvific work on the cross.  He did not bleed to death when He experienced somatic death.
24.	The literal blood of Christ indicates the reality of His true humanity as does His physical death on the cross which the Lord Himself initiated from His own free will.
Luke 23:46 -	And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice said, “Father into Your hands I commit My spirit.”

25.	The soldier’s spear provided the evidence John needed to document the Lord’s true humanity and His physical death, both of which countered the claims of  the Docetic Gnostics.

E.	Comparison of the Figurative and Literal Blood of Christ:
1.	Biblical references to the “blood of Christ” seek to relate the Lord’s work on the cross with the Levitical sacrifices.
2.	In the animal sacrifices, the blood was literal and the judgment of sin was symbolic.
3.	In our Lord’s substitutionary sacrifice the blood was symbolic while the judgment of sin was literal.
4.	The figurative “blood of Christ” refers to His substitutionary spiritual death during which He became the target of divine justice resulting in the salvation of all who believe.
5.	His literal blood refers to His somatic death.  Since His mission was complete there was no need to prolong the Incarnation.
6.	The spiritual death relates to our salvation while His physical death relates to resurrection.
7.	Spiritual death looks backward to sin and forward to the calling of many sons into glory.
8.	Somatic death looks backward to His finished work and forward to His resurrection.
9.	The figurative “blood of Christ” involves several categories of  soteriology:
1)	Redemption: Refers to the work of Christ on the cross  toward sin.  The saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross whereby all humanity is bought from the slave market of sin in which they were born and delivered to the freedom of grace.  The unbeliever is redeemed when he is born again by faith alone in Christ alone.
Ephesians 1:7 -	In whom  [ Jesus Christ ] we have redemption through His blood [ figurative ], the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

		NOTE:	This verse opens with a prepositional phrase followed by a verb:
		™n Ój  ›cw  -	“In whom we have …”
		present:	Perfective; denotes what has come to be in the past but is emphasized as a present reality.  Approaches the idea of the perfect tense but stresses the continuance  of results through present time.
	active:	Believer produces the action through faith alone in Christ alone.  This is the past action which has resulted in the present reality.
	Indicative:	Declarative; as statement of fact.  It is a fact that we have something that is a present reality because of the past action of faith in Christ.
The present reality of the verb is revealed in a double accusative:
		¢polÚtrwsij -	Lit: “to purchase out from;” Redemption; to purchase the freedom of a slave; deliverance on the payment of a ransom.
		¥fesij  -	Lit: “release from debt or punishment;” used here for God’s forgiveness, pardon, cancellation of an obligation, punishment of guilt.
The phrase “the forgiveness of sins” is in apposition with “redemption through His blood.”  This means the blood of Christ is figurative referring to His redemptive work.
1 Peter 1:18 -	Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold from your futile way of life inherited from your ancestors,
v 19 -		but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without spot and without blemish.

			2)	Reconciliation: Refers to the work of Christ on 					the cross toward mankind.  The sum total of all 					that Christ did on the cross in removing the 					Barrier between God and sinful man.  						Remember: God is never reconciled, He is 					propitiated.  Man is reconciled to God by the 					work of Christ.
Ephesians 2:13 -	But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away [ behind the Barrier ] have been brought near [ reconciliation ] by the blood of Christ.
v 14 -		For He Himself is our reconciliation, who made both Gentiles and Jews one [ new spiritual species ], and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,
v 15 -		And He [ Jesus Christ ] abolished in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments given in decrees, in order that He [Jesus Christ] might cause to create the two [ Jew and Gentile ] into one new man in Himself since He made peace,
v 16 -		that He might reconcile [ ¢pokat£llassw ] them both [ Jews and Gentiles ] to God in one body [ the universal church ] by means of the cross, having put to death the enmity in Himself.
		NOTE:	The prepositional phrase, "in His flesh" in verse 			15, indicates that God the Father could only impute 			man's sins to the humanity of Christ.
3)	Propitiation: Refers to the work of Christ on the cross toward God.  That aspect of the saving work of God through the spiritual death of Jesus Christ on the cross whereby the justice and righteousness of God are satisfied concerning the sins of mankind.

Romans 3:24 -	Receiving justification [ the judicial act of God that imputes His righteousness to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ ] without payment [ a gift ] by His grace [ unmerited favor ] through the redemption [ bought from the slave market of sin in which we were born ] which is in Christ Jesus;
v 25 -		Whom God has publicly displayed by means of His blood [ substitutionary spiritual death ] as the Mercy Seat [ ƒlast»rion: Jesus Christ as the place of propitiation ], through faith in Christ Jesus.  This is a demonstration of His integrity because of the passing over of previously committed sins because of the delay in judgment from God [ Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur ].