The life of the human body is in the blood (Lev.17:11). Where blood ceases to flow in the body, life quickly ends. So, because the life of the body of Christ is in the Holy Spirit (Jn.6:63; Rom.8:10), the Spirit is often called the "blood of Christ". Where the Spirit ceases to flow freely among the saints, spiritual atrophy is certain.

The Law of Moses forbade the imbibing of any kind of blood. The most dreadful punishment allowed under the Law was reserved for the person who committed the gravest offenses, including the consuming of "any manner of blood" (Lev.17:10). However, in John 6, Jesus told a crowd of followers that unless they drank his blood, they had no hope of eternal life. This statement angered many and confused all who heard it, and as a result "many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him" (Jn.6: 66). They did this despite Jesus' attempt to explain that he was speaking of the Spirit, which gave him his life. "The words that I speak unto you," he told them, "They are spirit and they are life" (Jn.6:63).

Just as Jesus' natural blood was shed on Calvary, his spiritual blood was shed on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Hebrews 9:22 tells us, "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin." So, it was necessary that Jesus die, that his blood be shed, in order that his spiritual life - his true "blood" that we must drink - could be given to us. To the amazed multitude in Jerusalem that pentecost morning who beheld the disciples reel under the power of God like drunk men, Peter preached his first sermon as a new creature in Christ, and he told them that Christ "hath shed forth this, that you now see and hear!" (Acts 2:33). This Spirit, sent from heaven upon these humble disciples, is the true blood of Christ which we must drink if we hope to live forever with God.

It is the true blood of Christ which still is flowing and cleansing souls from sin. Jesus' natural blood, precious as it was, could not reach the soul. Jesus' blood was human blood, as corruptible as is yours and mine. God never intended to use the natural blood which flowed in Jesus' human body to wash sins away. If He did, then only those who lived at that time could have been cleansed from sin, because we have no access to his physical blood. The Roman soldiers who crucified the Lord surely were spattered with Jesus' natural blood during the crucifixion process, yet no one believes that those soldiers were sanctified by it. They probably went home and washed it off, and they should have. It did not make them new creatures; it made them dirty. For spiritual cleansing, they needed to be in the upper room on Pentecost morning, awaiting the arrival of the Holy Ghost.

We are taught that we are justified, sanctified, and washed from our sins by the (true) blood of Christ (Rom.5:9; Heb.10:29; Rev.1:5). At the same time, we are told that we are justified, sanctified, and washed from sin by the Spirit of God (1Cor.6:11). Obviously, we are not justified, sanctified, and washed from sin twice - once by the blood and later by the Spirit. Moreover, the resurrection from the dead is accomplished, according to Paul, by the power of God's Spirit (Rom.1:4; 8:11), while in Hebrews 13:20 the resurrection is said to be by "the blood of the everlasting covenant." We all know that anything washed in natural blood turns red; however, saints in Revelation 7:14 "washed their robes and made them WHITE in the blood of the Lamb." By that same blood we are brought near to God (Eph.2:13), but as Paul himself restates it five verses later, "by one Spirit we have access to the Father." This is the Holy Ghost, the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ.

As a result of ignorance of this truth concerning the blood of Christ, many believe that the blood of Christ washed their sins away before they received, or were baptized with, the Holy Ghost. But sin cannot be washed away before one receives the Spirit, because the Spirit is the blood that washes sin away. Paul's sins, for example, were washed away when Ananias laid his hands upon Paul that he might receive the Holy Ghost (Acts 9:17-18; 22:12-16). Contrary to popular belief, Paul was not converted on the road to Damascus; he was there convicted of his sins. He, like the disciples on the day of Pentecost, and like everyone else whose sins have been forgiven, was forgiven, washed in the blood of Christ, and justified before God, when he received the Spirit. The blood that sprang from his natural body never cleansed anyone from sin. Only the blood that flows from his glorified body can do that.

Communion is fellowship. It is harmony of heart and mind. It is "that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (1Cor.1:10). Such communion with God is only possible in the Holy Spirit, and it is just such a fellowship which Jesus died for us to enjoy. When Jesus prayed that we would be made one as he and the Father were one (Jn.17), this communion was his desire. They were perfectly joined together, and he made the way for us to share his unity with God, in spirit and in truth.

Because he had not yet been slain, and therefore his true blood was not yet shed upon his disciples, Jesus occasionally provided for his disciples symbols of the communion in spirit which they would only later experience. On the night before his crucifixion, for example, "he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, `Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins'" (Mt.26:27-28). And lest his disciples misunderstand him and think that he was instituting a ceremony for them to observe, he quickly added that he would "not drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God" (Mt.26:29). The very last thing on Jesus' mind was to institute another dead ceremony for us to keep. The last supper was a prophetic symbol of something they could not understand until the Spirit came.

Jesus spoke of drinking in a new way in the kingdom of God. For us now, wrote Paul, the kingdom of God is "righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17). And since the day the Spirit came, believers have enjoyed that fruit of the true Vine, "drinking" of the Spirit which he serves (1Cor.12:13) and breaking the bread of fellowship which he creates among us (1Cor.10:16-17).

The only reason Jesus served the cup and bread to his disciples at the "last supper" was that the communion in spirit which he wanted them to have was not available. Jesus hadn't died yet, and so the Spirit hadn't come. Had the Spirit been available, the ceremony would have been pointless. If Jesus could have had fellowship with his disciples, as he did with his Father, there would have been no point in passing around a cup of wine saying, "This is my blood....drink ye all of it." When true communion, or fellowship with the Father, became a reality in Christ, there was no longer any need for a symbol of it.

The truth concerning Christianity's "communion services" is that they are useless. The true blood of Christ, the blood which Jesus told us we must drink, has been poured out, and the symbols of the Holy Ghost, whether they be symbols given to Israel by Moses or symbols given by Jesus, have served their wonderful purpose. To continue in them is to deny the reality of their fulfillment. Our communion in the blood of Christ is our unity of heart and spirit, and the bread which we break is our receiving of one another's testimony. This, my friend, is not vain philosophy; this is the gospel. The "communion service" of Christianity is nothing at all but a dead work, a godless tradition that misses the whole point of Jesus' actions and words at his last supper. And it is from such dead works that the blood of Christ purges our conscience, that our faith may undividedly rest upon Christ Jesus and his power.

The way of Christ is not a way of symbols, rituals, or ceremony. Symbolism was the Old Covenant manner of service to God. Now, the true light shines, and the marvelous Old Covenant shadows of that light should be discarded. To cling to them as if they still provided some spiritual benefit is for us to imply that Jesus alone is not sufficient to save us, and it betrays a lack of faith and understanding on our part.

It is tragic that so many are still acting out the last supper meal, as if the Spirit had not come. Worshipping with symbols, we behave as Old Testament servants of God, who were required to carry on symbolic rituals while they waited for a Christ who had not come. When we drink deeply of the Spirit and break the bread of fellowship in the body of Christ, we do, as Paul said, "show forth the Lord's death until he come" (1Cor.11:26). We prove that our conscience has been purged from dead works. But when we continue worshipping in symbols instead of in the life and power of the Spirit, we merely show forth our own deadness to the things of God.

Jesus came, suffered and died and was raised again, that we might now serve God "in the newness of life". The Father, said Jesus, is looking for those who will worship Him, not in dead works, but "in spirit and in truth." If you are such a person, longing to please God, but uncertain as to how to do it, God is looking for you and calling you to Himself. Heed that comforting call and be filled with the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. And "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen."<