“Life is in the blood”
In the bible it talks a lot about the blood and how it resembles life. If you look at the
scriptures of Leviticus 17: 10-14 it goes into great detail of what God has instructed us to do with
the blood. “I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who
eats blood, and I will cut them off from the people. 11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and
I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes
atonement for one’s life. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may
any foreigner residing among you eat blood.”13 “Any Israelite or any foreigner residing among
you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with
earth, 14 because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites,
“You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood;
anyone who eats it must be cut off.” Take note of the instruction that it says that every creature is
blood and blood is life.
So, let’s talk a little about what blood is. Blood is a make up of solids and liquids. The
solid part of the blood is a make-up of the white blood cells, red blood cells. And platelets. The
liquid part your blood is called plasma which is made up of water, salt, and protein. And over
half of your body is made up of plasma. In our textbook it describes these things as “Blood is
made up of plasma and formed elements that are cells or parts of cells (see Figure 10.9). In the
plasma (which is mostly water) are proteins, hormones, nutrients and wastes, oxygen, and carbon
dioxide. Each of the formed elements in the blood has a specific function: red blood
cells (erythrocytes) carry oxygen through the blood to supply tissues with it. White blood
cells (leukocytes) help us fight infection (see Section 10.4). Platelets are actually small
fragments of cells that help form clots to prevent you from bleeding to death when blood vessels
are traumatically opened.
With the understanding of what blood is, why is blood so important? The answer to that
question is without blood we can not live. And in scripture, it tells us that blood is life. That is
the scientific and biblical reference as to how Jesus created us. And when he created us, he
created our bodies to be over half of our bodies to be filled with blood. Now, let’s talk about how
God wants our heart and how the heart is pumped with blood. “The heart is the engine that keeps
your body heading toward the top of the Monument. It is actually two pumps in one! There are
two circulatory systems in your body: the pulmonary circulation and the systemic circulation.”
(Detwiler, 2014) And the pulmonary circulation is defined as those blood vessels that carry
deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs and reoxygenated blood from the lungs to the
heart. And the systemic circulation is defined as those blood vessels that carry blood from the
heart to the tissues (other than the lungs) and from those tissues back to the heart. So, without
blood (the blood of Jesus) and a heart that pumps the blood (that we give to Jesus when we
accept Christ) we cannot live.
I love it when scripture and science can come together and speak life! This is the great
news that we are created to live in the blood of Jesus who has created us to be like him. And
when we become believers in him, we get to celebrate life through holy communion where we
drink his blood in remembrance of how he shed his blood for us and giving us the ultimate
promise that we will get to spend eternity with him in Heaven. “ But if we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us
from all[a] sin.”(1 john 1:7, NIV)
