Figure 1: Conception, Father/Mother/child.
(A) Single faults skipped.
(B) Same fault in both sides is inherited.
(C) Inherited fault.
God often creates things in the natural to show us aspects of things in heaven. Man himself was created in God’s image and likeness. This article discovers attributes of our spirit that behave like mechanisms found in our DNA. Recognising this allows us to see behind some proclamations and understand why they were made. It reveals the significance of lineages; the need for a perfect sacrifice; the need for Jesus to be both son of God and son of man; it clarifies salvation and rebirth via the Cross.
This chapter became quite large, so I added this link to first view the Summary (or Preview).
I get excited to see the symbols fulfilled but please note that I am not going past what is written.(1 Corinthians 4:6) Rather, I see the text fulfilled as a mystery, or hidden treasure (Proverbs 25:2, Colossians 2:2-3, Matthew 13:11, Romans 16:25-27, Colossians 1:27, 1 John 2:27). I see how Jesus’ teachings about “I in you” and “you in me”, are fulfilled in Jesus’ living body. I see forgiveness and rebirth, modelled in the DNA mechanisms. This approach does away with academic or poetic exposés, which are always open to interpretation.
So, what am I proposing? Observing the way DNA controls and directs our physical bodies I could see that these types of controls mimic behaviour in the spirit. I invented “S-DNA” term to talk about DNA-like behaviour in our spirit. Now God created man in His image and after His likeness. So, it’s quite reasonable to find the underlying mechanism, that directs all life on earth, might also manifest in our spirits as well as our flesh.
You and I have a spirit passed down from Adam but corrupted by sin. Jesus has a spirit and of course there is the Holy Spirit. This world/universe is temporary. It is the spirit realm which is eternal. When the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary to conceive Jesus, we see that Jesus spiritual life came from His Father, God, but through Mary he also received the spirit of man who was descended from Adam. So, Jesus was both Son of God and son of man.
Lineages are important. Now-a-days we can track lineages back to Adam or back to Eve. The Bible is all about history, typically defined by lineages like those of: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob/Israel, Aaron, David. Some sins were recalled down to the 3rd and the 4th generation. Blessings and curses followed some lineages. From our DNA, we can trace these lineages back. If we can do it, how much more so is it evident to God who sees all as alive.
My improvised term of ‘S-DNA’ just gives us a handle to talk about this spiritual behaviour that behaves much like our physical DNA. Like our own spirit, and the Holy Spirit, S-DNA is invisible. Are you OK with that for now? I wrote God’s Anatomy, about 8 years ago to capture spiritual likenesses in our make-up. This article reveals these characteristics in the fundamental processes of all life.
Let’s get back to what we know about mankind. We are descendant from Adam. Lineages feature throughout the Bible. Adam’s sin in S-DNA was like a mutation in DNA. The natural mutations get into our natural DNA and causes all sorts of problems. They can be passed on to the next generation and their consequences crop up in later generations. For example, in Exodus 20:5, where Punishment for sin occurs to the third and fourth generation. Because we inherit sin, before we have done anything good or bad, we recognise that we are born in sin. (Psalm 51:5)
I like to call this sin-induced S-DNA ‘mutations’, as ‘scars’ or ‘faults’. We get them when we fail to follow God’s way. These scars record the sin, but surprisingly, they take on a reality that ‘sin’ by itself did not capture. Mutations in our physical DNA are right there in plain sight. (If you have an electron microscope in your pocket.) You can sometimes see their effect on the body. But ‘sin’ is an academic word and it’s hard to define exactly what sin is. When we sin, it usually involves some event. The S-DNA permanently records this event and replicates it in every descendant of the sinner. Are you starting to capture the revelation of something permanent and real and horrid, invading our S-DNA. You must get it out (forgiven, cleansed) before you are judged, or you will be excluded from heaven.
Mutations in the parents DNA can be passed on to the next generation. (More on this later.) But can anyone tell you how sin is passed on to the next 3 or 4 generations? But once you have a scar in your S-DNA it’s easy to imagine how this is passed on.
At this point I have just painted a high-level picture of how sin pollutes our S-DNA/spirit and can be passed on. Sin is still sin, I have just found a place to record it, in this S-DNA concept. This suggestion accounts for the nature of sin as generational and flowing down through a lineage. It’s OK for you to be a bit suspicious of S-DNA, but please work out how you can account for sin in lineages, without the S-DNA concept. God can do anything, so you are free to ignore S-DNA and dream up something of your own.
Perhaps you could picture God as remembering all these sins. That has some good support (Psalm 79:8, Psalm 109:14, Isaiah 43:25), but all you are doing is finding another place ‘in the spirit’ to fulfill the S-DNA rules. Also note that it is God blocking out the memory of sins, not us. I have no problem with His memory. In fact, I have no problem with our own spirit having a memory. Our own bodies have different sources of memory: of the scriptures, of logic, of emotions. But we seem to forget important things. There is more good stuff to come, and your answer must include all that as well…
DNA is made up of a really, really long sequence of genes. The sequence is understood as series of letters. Now let’s contemplate “The Book of Life”. If your name is in it, you get into heaven. I find it hard to have just one book for billions upon billions of people, but that’s OK if you want it so. But imagine a bar-code-scanner that runs along your S-DNA and flashes up your life’s tally of sins. The result is in plain view of all the heavenly host. I can picture that, but I don’t like it. The Book of Life remains a simple mechanism to convey how your life, and its sins are indelibly written down before you get to heaven. Every person’s history could be compiled in his S-DNA. Isn’t that reasonable?
Let’s consider some more aspects of our DNA. It has error correcting capability. The error correcting nano-machine can decode some problems and fix them …I equate this error correction in the natural, to repentance and forgiveness in the spiritual. Forgiveness is no longer some academic pronouncement. It is a perfect healing of scarred S-DNA. That’s one of the exciting revelations. Forgiveness is not just God saying, “you are forgiven”, for whatever reason. It’s a real, tangible, event, like a healing in the natural. I’m struggling to find just the right words, but I found it tremendously important to find forgiveness and salvation modelled in the heart of God’s creation, at the very lowest molecular level.
Perhaps the most important revelation from DNA occurs in the moment of conception. A strand of DNA from the father and one from the mother go through a sort of zipper to merge the two strands. The zipper sequentially looks at each gene on the father’s side and the same gene on the mother’s side. The zipper sequentially looks at each gene on the father’s side and the same gene on the mother’s side. If the individual genes from both sides have valid letters, there is a random choice as to which side is chosen.The zipper sequentially looks at each gene on the father’s side and the same gene on the mother’s side. If the individual genes from both sides have valid letters, there is a random choice as to which side is chosen.The zipper sequentially looks at each gene on the father’s side and the same gene on the mother’s side. If the individual genes from both sides have valid letters, there is a random choice as to which side is chosen. But, if one side has a mutation then the other side is automatically chosen. This stops the mutation being passed on to the child. However, if both sides have the mutation in the same place, then the mutation is passed to the child.
Figure 1: Conception, Father/Mother/child.
(A) Single faults skipped.
(B) Same
fault in both sides is inherited.
(C) Inherited fault.
This is the (suspected) reason why marriage between close relatives is forbidden. It’s because there is a high chance that both strands will have mutations in the same spot and so increase the number passed on to the child (Leviticus 18:6–20, Deuteronomy 27:20-23 ). As well as rules to avoid mutations spreading, these rules also act to increase diversity. I think that diversity of life, in every thing God created, is pleasing to God. The random merging of genes is greatly unrecognised, but its all over the place when you look for it.
God introduced a rule that allowed Israelites, who had been cut off from their homeland, to come back, seemingly under the sponsorship of a ‘kinsman redeemer’. (Leviticus 25:25, Job 19:23-25, Ruth 3:2, Ruth 4:14). Jesus was also seen to fulfill the role of kinsman redeemer for all mankind. Jesus received his Father’s DNA direct from God, so he was the son of God. But Jesus also received the DNA of his mother, Mary, so he was also the son of man.
Do you see what has happened? Breeding between different species just does not work. Dogs give birth to dogs, and cats give birth to cats. Jesus had to have a man’s DNA to qualify him to take on man’s sin. But Jesus also needed God’s S-DNA to bring forth God’s children. Redemption via the kinsman redeemer rule pointed forward to a day when a mere animal sacrifice was no longer acceptable - you needed matching DNA.
Another thing about DNA is that some sections are exclusively from the father in male children (Search: “Y Chromosome Adam”). Similarly, some sections (mitochondrial DNA) are passed down only from the mother (Search: “Mitochondrial Eve”). I note that Israelites were only allowed to marry Israelites, but Ruth and Rahab, who were not native Israelites, are in King David’s lineage and so also in Jesus’ lineage. All through history the male lineages were recorded, and a man was known by his father’s name, e.g. David, son of Jesse (Ruth 4:17).
The point I am making here is that the male DNA seems to dictate important attributes relating to lineages. If I had said the ‘spirit’ of the father, more so than the mother, directs lineages, you would probably be more comfortable. But I am proposing that the spirit of a man, descended from Adam, has DNA like attributes or components. Spiritual attributes are passed from father to son via the mechanism I call S-DNA. Physical attributes are also passed in man’s DNA. Please don’t get confused. I’m just renaming ‘spirit’ to ‘S-DNA’. The really cool thing happens when we start to see DNA like behaviour mimicked in our spiritual behaviour.
The next three paragraphs are kind of optional, so skip them unless you want to see spiritual behaviour hints introduced from page 1 in your Bible:
Lineages pop-up all over the Bible. In Genesis 5:1 God is clearly describing the lineage of man (generations of Adam), but He only refers to man (male and female) as created in the likeness of God. He does not mention image as he did in Genesis 1:26. Further, in Genesis 5:3, God describes Adam’s son Seth as in Adam’s likeness and image. This specified Adam’s likeness, not God’s likeness.
I have written books, like Page 1: God’s Timetable, Part 2, where the significance of likeness and image are discussed. Briefly image refers to physical attribute, those clearly visible, while likeness, not exclusively, refers to the nature of man. Dare I extend that here, to the spirit of man. Adam and Eve were tempted to become “like God” in Genesis 3:5.
This is getting a bit confusing... Summarising: likeness is spiritual, and God gave Adam a spirit from His own spirit, just as the baby Jesus inherited a spirit from his Father, God. The lineages refer to descendants of Adam. We see physical similarities between children and their parents. DNA research explains this. Now we take the step to recognise likeness/spirit is also passed in lineages.
The most obvious DNA issue is that Jesus is the Son of God and the son of mankind. Mary had a spirit/S-DNA. She was descended from Adam, whose spirit was first passed to Eve and so on to all that are alive today. Jesus was conceived when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary (Luke 1:35). So, we have the idea that God the Father supplied a spirit and Mary also provided a spirit, and these two strands were merged as depicted in the following Figure 2. And here’s the first prize - this is exactly what happens during the conception of all men and women in the previous Figure 1. A strand of DNA from the male parent (via the sperm), and a strand of DNA from the female parent (via the egg), go through a sort of zipper and are merged.
I think that ‘zipper’ is sufficiently technical term for this discussion. At times I talk about observed DNA behaviour that controls growth (life) in our body. I assume the same type of mechanism is active in our S-DNA. This shows how that mechanism could be responsible for very important spiritual behaviour that is seen in scripture. I further assume that God designed the worldly DNA to reflect (shadow) how aspects of our spirit works. And now for the underlying brilliance... In the spirit, the S-DNA can be rebooted by Jesus, (and only Jesus), to remove our sin while preserving our personal uniqueness, and mankind’s overall diversity.
Figure 2:
Immaculate Conception.
(A) Mary has faults.
(B)
God’s DNA is
perfect and the
zipper filters all faults.
(C) So Jesus’ DNA is perfect.
Let’s see how the reboot works… In the DNA rules for the zipper described above, when one side of the merge has a mutation/scar in one parent’s DNA, but the other side, from Jesus, has no scar, the good side is always used. As a software engineer, I easily picture this… Imagine that each gene in the DNA sequence has a checksum. The zipper does not understand what the gene does, but it understands the checksum. When the zipper sees an incorrect checksum the zipper swaps to the other side’s gene.
Mary’s DNA would have had some scars, even when she conceived Jesus. (We are all born in sin inherited all the way down from Adam.) But God’s DNA for Jesus, supplied by the Holy Spirit, would have been perfect. So, in any merge of the DNA where Mary’s DNA had a mutation, the zipper would have chosen God’s DNA. The net result is that Jesus’ S-DNA, though it was the result of a merge with Mary’s imperfect DNA, was still perfect. But it was not a simple copy, like a clone, it still reflected features of mankind from Mary. Jesus was truly son of God and son of man, and perfect.
The moment of salvation and rebirth
Our salvation occurs when we believe in Jesus on the Cross, and we accept Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9 ). Some people prefer other scriptures and recognise that salvation is when we accept Jesus into our heart. The ‘heart’ really maps to the spirit because we are Body, Soul and Spirit. It does not matter at what instant you picture your salvation occurring, Jesus said we need to be reborn. Nobody understood that, even his disciples. Oh, don’t worry, we would equate the reborn state with various delightful traits of children. In this reborn state, childlike traits of innocence, trust and a seeming sinless nature of children, are called to mind. The implication is that this is what Jesus was doing to us. None-the-less we didn’t really understand how ‘reborn’ also translated some of those cute childlike mannerisms into us.
Now go back to Mary’s conception resulting in the birth of Jesus. A strand of DNA from God and strand of DNA from Mary are merged. It’s the same at salvation or rebirth. A perfect strand of S-DNA from Jesus and a corrupted strand from a man (you) creates the new life. Wherever there was sin on man’s side, the zipper chooses to swap in the perfect S-DNA from Jesus’ side. The man’s uniqueness is still there, but the net result is a perfect child of God. Have a look at the following Figure 3...
Figure 3: Salvation/Reborn.
(A) sinful man.
(B) Jesus is perfect so the zipper
filters all the man's faults.
(C) Unique, perfect Child of God.
You probably need to meditate on what I just wrote. God loves diversity – just look at the countless species and the variety within each species. When we are reborn, our S-DNA is made perfect. We keep all our uniqueness, perhaps with some patches from Jesus. Who could conclude anything better than that. Take note: Jesus did it all! We are being made part of His body, ready to be welcomed by His Father as His children.
Consider a family with a father, mother and 2 children. During conception, the DNA of the father and the DNA of the mother is combined to give each child. This merge results in a somewhat random merge of the parents DNA. Let’s skip subtleties where some sections of the DNA are inherited only from the father or only from the mother. At the end of the merge the parents see that each child has roughly 50% of its DNA from the father and 50% from the mother. The children see themselves with 50% of each of their parents. Note: although the contribution from each parent sums to 50%, different gene combinations make up that total. So, though genetically similar, each child is still unique.
Now the beautiful implication for when we are reborn… Jesus supplies a strand of his (perfect) S-DNA which is merged with the believer’s (scarred) S-DNA. The zipper replaces any scarred genes with Jesus’ perfect genes. So each reborn believer has 50% of Jesus S-DNA and yet is unique. In the same way, brothers and sisters share 50% of their father’s DNA, yet are unique. Now we understand why Jesus addressed his disciples as his mother as his brothers (Matthew 12:49, Luke 8:21). Jesus was not making an emotive similarity of the closeness with which he held his disciples. He was foreseeing their future relationship after being reborn. Sometimes technical details clutter the overall picture. Jesus S-DNA was the result of a merge between his Father’s (God), and Mary’s S-DNA. This might suggest that Jesus’ S-DNA has traces of Mary’s S-DNA. Then during rebirth, believers might pick up a bit of Mary’s S-DNA. I have already shown Jesus’ S-DNA is still perfect, but some people will read this and try to read something into it. I’ll just leave you with these few points:
Remember the prize… We are brothers and sisters of Jesus, all with the same Father. This is more than some legalistic adoption, because it’s permanently embedded in our S-DNA. Let me leave you with some scriptures for you to muse over. Test how your newfound understandings fit into the following verses, all from NASB1995:
OK, I got really excited to see how the zipper didn’t just merge Jesus/God’s S-DNA with man’s S-DNA, but it also perfected the result. All the sin was stripped out of man’s S-DNA contribution. That is what the Cross was supposed to do. We are forgiven. We did nothing to earn it, we just believed. But now we are so like Jesus that we are equally brothers, sisters, and mother.
In Genesis 2:18 God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone”, so He created Eve for Adam. But first He created all the animals. Unfortunately, still no suitable helper for Adam. So God fashioned Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. Afterwards He said in verse 24:
Is it screaming out at you? The two become one. The male and female DNA/S-DNA strands of the parents, merge to form one new child. I assume the same applies to the S-DNA strands. So, the zipper behaviour is there right from the start, if you are prepared to see the symbolic similarities.
Did you notice Adam and Eve were to be “one flesh”. We are body/flesh, soul (mind and emotions), and spirit/heart. How could we be one in flesh when we are clearly two separate people? “Of one mind” is a phrase commonly used to describe a unity of purpose. I’ll leave you with that little debate. There are lots of nuances and it is tremendously important to recognise that women, our wives and our mothers, are special, needed, and uniquely gifted.
Consider also that the animals were made after Adam, and before Eve was fashioned from Adam. Animals were described as ‘living creatures’. Eve was described as “the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). Clearly Eve could not be mother to animals. This is not a mistake. It is God making it clear that we share in her S-DNA. This is a spiritual heritage. After the animals were created and named by Adam, God said that there was still no suitable helper for Adam. Again, not an error but God making it clear that life for humans comes from the spirit.
Note: DNA exists in the nucleus of a cell, and in the mitochondria of the cell. The male has mitochondria, but the child only inherits mitochondria from the mother. This gets more complex when you consider X chromosomes and Y (male only) Chromosomes. I don’t think we need to drill down any further into DNA structures. Perhaps someone else will observe other aspects in the DNA that hint at S-DNA performance.
I don’t know if God created special female Mitochondrial components for Eve’s DNA. They might have been there right from the time Adam was formed, but simply ‘throwing the sex switch’ started the female lineage. Remember, the male produces both male and female sperm. Whatever God did when cloning Eve from Adam’s rib, was special, a custom job. Always let God be God. What I’m doing in this article is to see God’s ways reflected, even in the microscopic elements of His Creation. This is not terribly critical. It’s our spirit, passed down from Adam that matters. I’ll leave you with these scriptures:
Let’s see if I can close off this discussion about the likeness, the living and the spirit… The living have lineages. These lineages have DNA like issues, so lineages also have spiritual implications. But it’s God’s Spirit that gives life, meaning eternal life. God gave of His own spirit to Adam and to His Son Jesus. Until saved we trace our spirit back to Adam. Once saved, God is our Father and Jesus is our brother. He, God almighty, is Father to all, and Jesus is brother to all. A real short linage, but how much closer can you get to God!
In the Gospels, Jesus’ life was frequently threatened. Herad tried to kill him soon after his birth. His own village tried to throw him off a cliff. Elders plotted to arrest and kill him, and he often had to hide. The guards at the temple were ordered to arrest him. In all these occasions he avoided capture. But suddenly, in the garden of Gethsemane, after the last supper, he deliberately came forward. He saw the guards coming from a distance at night. Everyone was asleep. How easy to slip away into the shadows. But instead, he came forward. The next day he had options to avoid death and the Cross in front of the Sanhedrin (when witnesses were seen to be inconsistent), before Herad (who wanted to see some miracles); before Pilate (who tried to release him). Even on the cross, passers-by dared him to come down (Matthew 27:38-44).
Notably, after Jesus was baptised by John, he travelled in the dessert and fasted. Then, Satan tested him. The tests clearly or indirectly temped Jesus to become king straight away and skip the Cross. Later, when Jesus first started to speak clearly about the Cross to his disciples, Peter came forward and loudly pronounced that this must never happen. Again, Jesus recognised the voice of Satan. Satan knew that the scriptures required Jesus to go to the Cross and save many souls. The Cross was what had to happen. Even on the Cross the chief priest dared him to come down, then they would believe.
Jesus dodged all plots to kill him before his time on the Cross was reached. He avoided all temptations to skip the Cross by becoming king by force. Sure, there were many prophesies about Jesus, but why was it so critical that his death had to be on the Cross? Jesus offered many wonderful teachings, but the threshold test of salvation, for rebirth, was summarise by Paul in Romans 10:9:
If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
There are so many things that you could love Jesus for. His mercy, His love, being the Son of God, His wisdom. Why do we have to believe that he died on the Cross and that he was raised? This answer is known to every believer but rarely understood as I am now going to tell it.
During the last supper Jesus told his disciples they would all scatter, but his father was always with him. But when they nailed him to the cross, they activated the scripture that said that a man hung on a tree is cursed, (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). Now cursed, Jesus was cut off from God. Just before he died, he cried out, “Why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46). For the first time in his life, Jesus was isolated from his Father. But now, a sinful man, could be drawn to him. As we draw near (believe), his zipper strips out and patches up our sins, replacing sinful S-DNA with Jesus perfect S-DNA.
Scripture demands that animal sacrifices had to be perfect. No injuries or blindness in a sacrifice could be accepted. Jesus had to be perfect. His perfect S-DNA guarantees our perfect cleansing during his merge with our S-DNA.
Note that scripture declares that the soul that sins must die. Jesus did not sin but, on the Cross, he absorbed all mankind’s sin. So Jesus had to die. He was buried; descended into hell (Sheol). Sin had no hold on him because he always did what pleased his Father. So Jesus could dump all that sin. Sin was now permanently dealt with. Jesus had won the victory. He had taken the sin of the world on the Cross. That was the battle or calling for which he was born! When resurrected, Jesus leads the way to heaven for all those who believed.
Let me briefly repeat that tremendous revelation… Jesus had to have man’s DNA to enable man to draw near. Jesus had to be cursed by the cross or else His perfect S-DNA, still in touch with the Father, would have prevented sinful man from drawing near. It’s just the same during judgement, when sinners are terrified of the presence of God, because they perceive it as fire. Jesus had to have perfect S-DNA so sin had no hold on him. Also, his perfect DNA meant that a merge would strip out all sin.
On day 3, Jesus rose from the grave. Our understanding is that everyone who presents himself to Jesus, (believes and confesses Him as LORD), was put through the zipper and cleansed, forgiven, made righteous and perfect. This was a change to the believer’s S-DNA, not the DNA, so we look the same as when we were unbelievers. But after Jesus rose, he was not immediately recognised, even by close companions.
I wanted to see if S-DNA concepts could explain this change in physical appearance. It is noted in several Gospels. Jesus had been tortured, hung on the Cross; died; was buried; then he descended into hell and dumped all the sin there. There would have been massive wounds on his body. Two days later, he rose. Why the change in appearance? First notice that after all the horrific wounds inflicted by the Sanhedrin, by Herad, by Pilate’s floggings, it’s amazing that he was alive. Just the wounds in his hands, feet and side remained. These are the wounds of the Cross. The flogging he was given by the Romans, was designed to release Jesus, using some lesser punishment than the Cross.
We know that on the last day, Jesus will return with the glory of God (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). After the quality of our works are tested by fire we will be like Jesus. So, we do expect changes, a transformation of believers. All I could surmise is that Jesus wanted to show his wounds after rising. He seems to have kept his wounds of the Cross, until, on the last day, he presents all his brothers and sisters to his Father. His wounds are the proof that he had paid the price for forgiveness to all his followers. This is his defence of us when Satan tries to accuse us before God. (Matthew 24:26-31) So, I suspect that Jesus so-to-speak, cut short his complete healing, to unequivocally defend his followers from any accusation of sin. That is why he looked different. But note the three intimate exchanges soon after he rose… He talked to Mary (John 20:15-17); he broke bread at Emmaus; he shared some cooked fish in the upper room. That is when he revealed himself. (Later there was that morning by the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus cooked breakfast; and of coursew his ascension.) The point I want to make is that h e had finished his calling and deserved a glorious return, but for now it is the intimate moments. The fireworks will happen on the last day, but for now it is a personal embrace as we surrender to him.
We have just seen how belief in the Cross is critical to salvation. It’s the moment our spirit is cleansed. Look at the following sample of scriptures talking about “Jesus in me” and “me in Jesus”.
I believe that after we have believed, and chosen Jesus as Lord, we are officially “in Christ”. For centuries, believers have considered themselves as “the body Christ”. No proof or debate needed – but how did we get in there? Salvation gave us 50% or more of Jesus S-DNA and erased our faults/sins. So, we are saved into Christ. Note: this happens during the moment of belief/salvation. It happens while we are still in our earthly tent. It’s before our transformation into heaven.
Let me remind you what happens to a foetus/baby… At conception the father’s sperm enters the mother’s egg and the fertilised egg moves up into the womb. By the way, the sperm determines male/female selection. This happens before the merge and guides aspects of the baby’s development. The foetus embeds itself inside the womb and the umbilical cord becomes the method by which the baby is fed. Yes, there is also the placenta that interfaces between the child and the mother’s body. Nutrients and oxygen are fed to the baby via the umbilical cord.
Now see the picture… Just as the mother’s body feeds her baby, so Jesus’ spiritual body feeds the saved/reborn individual. This food comes from Jesus own body. Have you grasped it? “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me”. We really do consume His spiritual flesh (nutrients) and drink His spiritual blood (oxygen) during this rebirth. Taking it another step… Could the flesh represent the word of God and the oxygen be the spirit of God?
Forgetting S-DNA for the moment, isn’t it amazing that salvation, seemingly like a blanket forgiveness, is actually like the intimate processes in conception and rebirth of human life. These scriptures have always pointed to something intimate, but the S-DNA has helped us picture the process. It makes us aware of the personal interaction between Jesus and us. It’s not a blanket forgiveness declaration. It’s Jesus, one-on-one, reconditioning our S-DNA. And who knows, perhaps it’s an opportunity to activate our gifts.
In (Galatians 4:19), Paul says that, “I am again in labour until Christ is formed in you”. So, after salvation we emerge 'in Christ' and spend time there. During this time we grow in Christ and are transformed into His likeness. I propose you can view this time as time in the womb. This is exactly what happens in a baby’s growth, namely, after conception the child grows in the womb. So 'in Christ' is a very special intimate place, and its uncertain to me how long we, if ever, emerge. I don't know if we are reborn into this world or into heaven still linked to Jesus as if with our own umbilical cord feeding us. You don’t need me giving you the answer. Spend your time talking to Jesus!
Can we consider what we have now… We are saved or cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Now I don’t want to offend you… I use and believe these phrases. But where is the blood? I don’t see it. How does it get into our souls and remove sins? Where did this terminology come from? It came from the Old Testament and its temple sacrifices. Indeed, sacrifices right back to Abel. But these sacrifices were inadequate — just a temporary measure until Jesus.
All these catch phrases from the Bible have the blood doing something we cannot see. But they are seared into our thinking. We know that the blood is pointing to a spiritual mechanism because life is in the blood and it’s the spirit that gives life. OK, so we give up, and salvation is really some unnamed spiritual thing that God, who does know everything, uses to tidy up all these details.
How about that cleansing attribute. Doesn’t that suggest some surface layer defect that can be rubbed off, leaving the individuals unique identity undisturbed. After all, too stronger bleaching might write off everything and we end up as carbon copies of some drone. OK, a little too much science fiction, but you get the idea… We need a mechanism that preserves our individuality but can still wipe out our sin. So, you can see that the S-DNA zipper, fed from one side by a perfect strand of DNA from Jesus, and our imperfect (sinful) DNA on the other side, will exclude just the sin and substitute the faulty gene with a copy of Jesus perfection. Wow, not just a clean deletion but upgraded to perfect! It’s probably also significant that salvation is executed here, in this universe, before we face judgment.
Please just read the following list of “I am…” statements. You will see topics like bread, light, door (to heaven), life (eternal), the vine, rest and fruit. These are all essential requirements, and all easily read as intended. I am not looking for some magic or hidden meaning. I am not looking for machinery, like we did with DNA discussions. But I would ask you to recall the picture we developed in previous sections where we are literally ‘in’ (or forming) the body of Christ. Jesus’ body feeds those who are in Christ.
In John 1:51 Jesus told Nathanael that he would see “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” This realm, this universe is owned by Jesus. It’s his creation and he personally makes himself as a carriageway for angels travelling between heaven and earth. In fact, nearly all the above list is identifying how He (Jesus), is personally fulfilling the topic, to the point where, “apart from Me you can do nothing”. So, my prayer:
It is January 2024 as I write. Over the last 26 years of developing my books and my website, I mostly wrote to get my meditations out of my head. Later, I noticed a trend to see Jesus more and more intimately. Intimate is not the ideal word, but the best I can come up with right now. Later, I started to see Jesus as the substance of eternity. That needs explaining. I knew all the critical phrases like, “Jesus died for the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This sounds so all-encompassing, like Jesus’ death forgave everyone’s sins. But later we had to explain why people must also believe this, before they are saved. And why can’t they be forgiven after they are resurrected?
Look, there are no problems with the Bible. We can talk around it, and stitch different patches of scripture together to fill-in the loopholes. But along my walk I kept seeing Jesus and God reflected in their creation, in the physical makeup of the universe, even in our anatomy. I used to debate and write down ways to convince (illuminate, teach, save) people. I searched for a definitive preachment to lead someone to Christ. I wanted it to be bullet-proof, a guaranteed conversion. Well, I’m still looking for it.
I think my problem was the way we assimilate parables, poetry and history to build up an image, a concept, a picture. Now that’s OK but it leaves little challenges. The challenge is to fully accept that “God said…” and that’s it. But, then grace, mercy, and love challenges understanding, or we wonder why and what if. Articles in this Shakeup series have helped me.
I now see God’s ways reflected in our image, anatomy, and now even down to the DNA. I can see why Jesus had to be a kinsman redeemer. I see why he had to be cut-off from God, his Father, on the Cross. I see why he had to die after removing man’s sin. I see why the zipper leaves diversity but cleans up the scars of sin. I see 50% of my S-DNA comes from Jesus, making me a brother of Jesus and a son of his Father.
How beautiful, how complete, how indispensable. Jesus had no other way to prepare all believers as children, to be presented to his Father. All those scriptures about forgiveness, cleansing, refining, perfection, suddenly had a physical path, via the zipper, to cut-out sin in our DNA/S-DNA and replace it with Jesus’ righteousness, his perfection. We remain individuals, just as all children in the family are individuals, but all are children of the Father.
We know why and how God created the universe to be a womb for His children. Jesus was the key player, from beginning to end. The universe was created by Jesus, for Jesus, and through Jesus (1 Corinthians 8:6 ). The heavens themselves are beyond our dreams and understanding. But we do get hints and glimpses. See my book on “Where Time Begins”. If we look down a microscope, even the DNA structures tell us not merely a great intelligence was behind it, but many attributes of God’s plan are there. The beauty of His plan to redeem us just runs out of superlatives, so I’ll just stop now.
If you are already a believer, then you will probably have your own picture of God. I don’t demand that you change. You don’t have to understand the processes that I have proposed related to lineages, salvation, conception, rebirth and resurrection. You don’t have to understand why Jesus had to be both a son of God as well as a son of man, but you won’t understand why the Kinsman Redeemer was declared. You don’t have to understand the centrality of the Cross, nor, why God cursed a man hung on a tree. It’s not about understanding, it’s about embracing Jesus. You won’t be loved more, or less, whichever path you choose.
To me, the prize for reading this article, is to see how the microscopic processes, active in every cell of our bodies, reflect our salvation, our rebirth, and our new life with God. You won’t be loved more, or less, whichever path you choose. You don’t need a conscious understanding of it all, but you do have to believe in Jesus and the Cross. The Cross is the only way, the one moment in history that we can present ourselves to the salvation zipper. You don’t have to understand the details, just believe in Jesus on the Cross.