“But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. … For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior”  Isaiah 43:1, 3     Previously, we examined the contents of Genesis chapter 3. It was about Adam and Eve, the serpent, and the conversation that God had with them when found them as He walked in the garden. To the serpent God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (verse 15); to the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children” (verse 16); and to Adam He said, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (verse 19). Then God made tunics of skin for them and sent them out of the garden of Eden.     When a person who does not know much about the Bible encounters this kind of narrative, they may only think of it in terms of something they saw in a movie, or something the pastor said during a Christmas or Easter service, or something they learned in Sunday School when they were children. Those who know a little about the Bible, may go so far as to think that this account could be related to their own fate. If, however, you look carefully the conversation recorded here, you can see there are a tremendous number of underlying meanings in this passage in regard to the environment in which we live, the history of the world in which we live, and the background of all that is recorded in the Bible. Of course, it is difficult to understand this if you just take it at face value, but you will be able to see these things, if you consider the Old Testament as a whole in the light of the events that take place in the New Testament. When Adam went against God’s word and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a problem arose within him and, through that one man called Adam, the connection between man and God was severed. Just as a light bulb cannot emit light if the electricity is cut off, our spirits arrived at a state in which they were cut off from God. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked. Aware of their nakedness, they became afraid and hid themselves. From this, we can see that something happened to their blood, the blood that upheld and maintained their lives. It was because of this incident that sin came to be passed down through the blood and, as a result, we are born into this world as sinners. This is not just a matter of the spirit, it is a matter of the flesh at the same time. Yet, many of the religious people in this world consider this passage purely from a spiritual point of view. Those who have come to a definite realization of the truth of the Bible in their hearts see things differently. Let’s turn to Luke chapter 24 verse 36. “Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you.’ But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, ‘Have you any food here?’ So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.”  Luke 24:36-43 One day, Jesus appeared before the disciples who knew it to be a fact that He had died on the cross. The disciples were astonished and, even though Jesus was standing right in front of them, they could not believe their eyes. So Jesus said to them, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” When God took one of Adam’s ribs and formed it into the woman Eve, Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). Yet there was One who fulfilled all the requirements of the Old Testament and said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) as He died on the cross. When He appeared again alive on this earth, He said that He still had flesh and bones. What could this mean?We know that the Bible was recorded long ago during times far removed from our present age. After the creation of the world, the history of the Old Testament was recorded through the nation of Israel. Then, after Jesus Christ had come to this world, died on the cross and ascended into heaven, the New Testament was recorded within a relatively short time by the apostles, who wrote of their experiences and wrote letters to the believers. As a result, it often happens that we assume many of the passages in the Bible to be purely of a spiritual nature and far removed from our present reality. If, however, we take the words, “The life of the flesh is in the blood,” as the foundation and read the Bible in this way, we can see that, even though the Bible was recorded a long time ago, the many truths contained within its pages are not so far removed from the reality of our lives today and indeed have very much to do with the things that are happening in our lives now and will happen some time in the future. When Adam saw Eve, he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” and when Jesus had fulfilled the requirements of the law, He also spoke of flesh and bones as He said, “For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” Then after that, the New Testament presents the birth in this world of the Church which is the body of Jesus Christ. Also, the Bible refers to Jesus as the second Adam (see 1 Corinthians 15:45-49). This is very accurate and perfectly logical.Also, in John’s Gospel we read how, after He had risen from the dead, transcending time and space, Jesus appeared in a place where all the doors were shut. (See 20:19) As we live in our present age, Jesus might come across as some kind of magician here, but this is purely because it does not fit in with the times in which we live and our present reality. The Bible is telling us that those who find Jesus Christ through the Bible and, through faith, participate in His death and resurrection receive these same blessings. This is the eternal life and blessings of which the Bible speaks. The Bible is related to the spirit and the mind, so the blessing of which it speaks is not going to disappear in a puff of smoke some day when this world comes to an end and we enter into eternal rest. The Bible tells us clearly that the resurrected Jesus had flesh and bones and that He ate before His disciples. Thus we see that the spirit, soul and flesh are not distant from one another. To use a common expression, they are no more than a step away from each other. In the book of Genesis, there is a verse that says, “And the LORD God … breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being”, and before this it says, “The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground.” (see 2:7) There is an order to the creation, and we must be careful not to mix up this order when we read about these things. After God formed man of the dust of the ground, He then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. Also in the book of Acts, there is a verse that says, “He gives to all life, breath, and all things” (17:25). A clear distinction is made between life, and breath, and all things. We tend to skim through verses like these without giving them any deep consideration. We just think that God gave us life and breath, vegetables and animals for food, and air to breathe. But I would like to ask you to think about these verses, keeping in mind as a premise the verse, “For the life of flesh is in the blood.” There is an important significance to the fact that God gave man life, breath, and all things. It is, of course, difficult to understand these words fully since we are not the Creator, but if we read the Bible correctly, this will inevitably make us humble and bring us to kneel down before God. God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This is how God put life into man, using the nostrils as the entranceway. Let’s think about how we live. People breathe through the nostrils. We breathe. When we inhale through our nostrils, the air enters our lungs through the bronchial tubes. When the heart contracts, the blood circulates the entire body through the arteries and even as far as the capillaries, which are closest to the cells. Here, the blood provides oxygen to the cells and then returns to the heart through the veins. The oxygen that enters the body through the nostrils meets the blood in the alveoli of the lungs. This is the only place where the blood comes in contact with air from the outside. The blood receives oxygen in the lungs and then goes back to the heart from which it is distributed throughout the whole body via the arteries. In this way, the heart beats, our breathing is controlled, and we are able to live. God breathed the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils and He took one of Adam’s ribs and formed it into a woman. Our life is maintained through the nostrils and within the rib cage.Our breathing is controlled by the autonomic nerves. These are nerves that move by themselves. They move automatically. But do they really move automatically? Autonomic nerve is actually just a name that man has attached to them. The lungs do not inflate and deflate by themselves. The ribs and the muscles attached to the lungs are what move them. Throughout our lives, our brains order our ribs and the muscles attached to them to expand and contract in order that oxygen can be taken in and carbon dioxide be expelled from our bodies. But what is the driving force behind all this? We tend not to consider these things, but think about that moment when you first open your eyes in the morning. You have slept for several hours during the night, and when you wake up, you are still breathing just the same as when you fell asleep. While you are moving around with your eyes open, you may want to open your windows to get some fresh air if you feel it is stuffy, but while you are sleeping, you are completely defenseless. Even so, you carry on breathing without stopping. The Bible says that God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. In the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah, there is a verse that says, “Sever yourselves from such a man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?” (2:22) And yet there is a verse that says the breath is not of man but of someone else. “If He should set His heart on it, if He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.”  Job 34:14-15“His Spirit and His breath” is talking about God’s Spirit and breath here. This is expressed more precisely in the English Bible than the Korean Bible here where it says, “His Spirit and His breath.” If God were to take away everything that was His, the flesh of everyone in this world who has flesh and blood would all perish at the same time. We may think that we are the ones who breath throughout our lives and that we are able to keep breathing because we exercise, train our muscles and take care of our bodies, but the Bible tells us that every breath we take is not our own, but His breath. If He were to take away from us His Spirit and His breath, we would all die at one fell swoop. Man became a living being when God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man has lived and breathed ever since. Man lives as long as he continues to breathe, but when he stops breathing, he dies. This is the way man’s life is mapped out. In the book of Psalms it says “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD” (150:6), and in the book of Acts it says, “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (17:28). Breathing is the simplest act that we carry out in the course of our lives on this earth. Before we think about the blessings and wealth that God gives us, or the number of children He allows us to have, we need to remember that the very fact that we are alive and have life within us is related to the life of God. God has allowed us to have His life and, because He breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, our flesh lives by the power of that life. God wants our spirits and His Spirit which He has put inside of us to be together within our flesh. This is what is in His heart, and this heart of God is hidden

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