Was Jesus Christ a Vampire?

November 26, 2007 FB

• What did Jesus say?
In John chapter 6 in the Bible Jesus says: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man [Jesus] and drink his blood, you have no life in you” and then He says “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:53-54). What could this mean? If these verses are taken out of their flow of thought it seems as though Jesus wants His followers to be cannibals and vampires and to feed on His body. Let’s ask some questions and see exactly why Jesus said this.

• What is important about blood?
The life of a person is in the blood: Let’s go way back to the first part of the Bible and see what God says about blood. In the book of Genesis, after the first murder when Cain killed his brother Abel, God asked Cain “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10). Then under the Law of Moses, God designated someone called “The Avenger of Blood”. When someone was murdered this avenger of life was supposed to take the life of the person who murdered. Finally, in the book of Leviticus, God makes it perfectly clear that our very life is in our blood: “the life of every creature is its blood” (Lev. 17:14).

• So we now see that the life of a person is in their blood, but why is the blood of Jesus significant?
We all have bad blood - The problem of Sin: God created Adam, the first human, and when Adam sinned for the first time it brought Sin into his body and consequently this brought Sin and death upon all of the human race. Sin is anything that you do, say, or even think that God does not like (examples are stealing, lying, thinking bad thoughts about other people), and every person, yes even you, has sinned at least once. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Sin makes our blood tainted and, since our life is in our blood, our life is now unacceptable to God as it is.
It gets even worse: When we commit a sin it separates us from God and there is nothing we can do to be with Him. All the good things we do to try to get to heaven with Him (examples are going to church, being baptized, doing good deeds) are like filthy rags to Him (Isaiah 64:6). The Bible also says that once we sin we have earned eternal death and separation from God in Hell (Romans 6:23). One sin is an infinite offense against God, and human effort cannot pay off that infinite debt. Our bad blood must be purified and made perfect, but how?

There is perfect blood - The blood of Christ: In the past God required His chosen people, the Jews, to kill an unspotted lamb and sprinkle its blood on an altar so that their sins would be covered for one year. This was only a temporary covering of sins but not total cleansing from Sin. But God loved us enough to offer complete cleansing.
God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to pay our infinite debt and lived His whole life without sinning one time. His blood was never tainted by Sin, and so when Jesus hung dying on the cross He was able to take in his body every single sin that we have ever done. When Jesus died on the cross He died with tainted blood, but His blood was not tainted by His own sins because He had none, it was tainted with your sins and mine. You see Jesus was not speaking literally about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, He was using a figure of speech. It’s no wonder that Jesus uses another figure of speech and says: “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink” (John 6:55). You see Jesus was using this illustration to say that His blood is the only blood that can pay for Sin and bring eternal life.
This payment for Sin tainted blood gets even better: After Jesus died He did not stay dead. Three days after death Jesus actually rose from the grave! This made eternal life available to all who will believe!

• Why is this important to you? Why does it matter?
You can have eternal life with God: Because Sin separated you from God, Jesus had to pay the price for you, so that you can be with Him. The blood that Jesus gave for you is the only thing that can save you from your sins. The only thing you have to do is believe that Jesus really lived a perfect life, that He really died, that He really took your sins in His body and paid the penalty for your sins, and that He really rose again to cleanse your blood. The only other thing you do is you talk to God and tell Him that you are putting your complete trust in the living Lord Jesus as the only way to have your sins cleansed and forgiven.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved” (Romans 10:9-10). The only question is this: Do you want to trust in your own effort and tainted blood and be without God forever, or do you want to trust only in Jesus’ perfect precious blood to cleanse your sins and give you eternal life?

If you believe and are ready to receive the free gift of salvation from God, all you have to do is pray (talk to God) and confess to God that you know in your heart you are a sinner and that there is nothing you can do to fix it. Tell God you believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead to make eternal life available to you. Then tell God that you are now putting your complete faith and trust in Christ alone as the only person who can save you from the penalty for your sins.
Remember: It’s not saying a prayer that saves you; prayer is only how you tell God what you are doing. Oh, and by the way, hopefully this proves that Jesus Christ was not a vampire.


Nehemiah Ryan © 2007