Life in the Blood & Life in the Spirit.

The voice of [your brother’s blood] cries out to Me from the ground. Genesis 4:10… For the life of flesh is in the blood. Leviticus 17:11…. “But if Christ is in you, the body is indeed dead on account of sin, but the Spirit is life on account of righteousness.” Romans 8:10

When we were in the flesh, our life, our soul was in the blood. Subject to the flesh in all things. God could not take Enoch or Elijah’s soul apart from their body because they were flesh and their life was in the blood. So when all flesh die, the soul entered the earth, this was our domain. The wage of sin is death, [actual death]. Death itself, to stop being in the domain we were created for [natural death] and not spiritual death. 

So, Israel served God in the Law and made an offering for sin in flesh and blood. Therefore what they ate had significance, what they drank, the washing, the condition and presentation of their body was an aspect of worship, to present themselves before God, their flesh must be maintained. They had to be set apart.

“For He Himself is our peace, having made both one and having broken down the barrier of the partition of hostility, having annulled in His flesh the law of commandments in ordinances, so that He might create in Himself the two into one [new man], making peace.” Ephesians 2:14-15

Now Jesus says, “God is Spirit, and it behoves those worshiping Him to worship in Spirit and Truth.” John 4:24 Then why does the Lord say this? Since the Law is the word of God, it is truth and it is spiritual. “The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good… For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am fleshly, having been sold under sin.” Romans 7:12,14 He makes this statement on the back of, “[An hour is coming] when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” That is worship that was offered in the flesh, in places, in works and ordinances. And Paul speaking of his contradicting nature [from the Law] says, “but I am fleshly & under sin.” Then Jesus is not speaking of the mechanism of worship but the nature of the worshiper, and qualifies His statement by first declaring the nature of God, “God is Spirit.” Flesh can not worship God in spirit, then the focus of His statement is us, “the true worshipers.”   

If He was speaking of the mechanism of worship then, the law would have also been worship of God in spirit and truth, since the law itself is truth and it is also spiritual but it was served in the flesh. However, we are made spirits in Christ then the ordnance given in the law for the dictates over the flesh is no longer applicable. And Paul explaining of this liberation from the law says, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that which we were bound, in order for us to serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:6 To serve is to worship God. So he says we worship God in Spirit and not in the Law, because we have been released from sin and flesh. That is to be born of the Word and the Spirit.

“Having been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, by the living and abiding Word of God.” 1 Peter 1:23

Therefore, in Spirit and in Truth is to mean the Spirit of God and the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the implanted Word that saves our souls. He is the Word of God, that offered up His flesh for the world, His life, His Soul, His blood was poured out to bring an end to sin and an end to flesh, so that we may worship God in Spirit. Flesh is equivalent to the Word, and blood equivalent to the Spirit. We are the body of Christ in whom the Spirit of God flows.

Then to worship God in Spirit and Truth is, “Through Him [Christ] then, we should offer the sacrifice of praise continually, everything to God, that is, the fruit of the lips confessing His name.” Hebrews 13:15 Fruit of lips. We are no longer directed by the letter in our worship of God but by the Spirit He has given to dwell in us. Because He dwells in us, then wherever we are gathered there He is. Our worship is only acceptable to God because Christ lives in us and because we have His Spirit dwelling in us. Then we worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless anyone be born of water [Word] and of the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God. That having been born of the flesh is flesh, and that having been born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:5-6

Therefore to be born again is to have our life in the spirit and not in the blood. We are No longer flesh and blood, though we dwell in a mortal body but we are of the Word and of the Spirit. Because we are in the Spirit, our flesh does not have dominion over us. What we eat and do not eat is of no significance to our worship of God, what we wear or do not wear. Nevertheless we are responsible to maintain the house we live in, most of all for the sake of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. 

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have from God? And you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.”

1 Corinthians 6:19-20