“Now this I say, Brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption” (I Corinthians 15:50).

The life of all flesh is in the blood (cf. Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:11). This is the reason for the prohibition of eating flesh with the blood therein (Leviticus 17:14). Flesh and blood are the natural life of all Mankind. Flesh and blood are subject to mortality because of sin (cf. Romans 8:10). Flesh and blood have been subject to corruption from the time of Adam even as God spoke to him in the day of his sin, “In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, until you return to the ground; for out of it were you taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

God has ordained an inheritance for His saints, but this inheritance can only be obtained in fullness by the immortal and incorruptible body of Man in the Resurrection or in the instantaneous change we who are alive and remain will experience at the coming of Christ at the last trump.

Inherit: (Gr. Kleronomeo): To get by partitioning, a possessor, a sharer by law in a possession

The Kingdom of God is an eternal Kingdom ordained by God for His People, a Kingdom in which we may be a possessor and sharer of eternal life in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (cf. Romans 14:17). To experience, possess and share in the fullness of the eternal Kingdom of God we corruptible mortals must of necessity go through the transforming process of the Resurrection. Until then, we can only enjoy the down payment of that promised Life by receiving the Holy Spirit, even as the Apostle wrote to the Ephesians: “In Whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the Redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13b-14).

As long as we are flesh and blood, we must live and walk by faith (cf. Galatians 3:11). We must live in hope (cf. Romans 5:2), even as we rejoice with the joy of the Lord.

Flesh and Blood: The Incarnation: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The Incarnation of Christ was the glorious plan of the Father and the Son for the Redemption of Mankind. As the Apostle John more fully describes this in his First Epistle: “That which was from the Beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life; (for the Life was manifested and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full” (I John 1:1-4).

The testimony of the writer to the Hebrews also sets forth the purpose of the Incarnation “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also, Himself, likewise took part of the same; that through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (Hebrews 2:14).

Indeed, as the Apostle Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Ephesians: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). And as the Apostle wrote in his second Epistle to the Corinthians: “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” (II Corinthians 10:3-4).

Flesh and blood, the mortal and the corruptible are, indeed, our current lot in life. Jesus spoke it to Nicodemus, “That which is born of flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). However, there is also a new life we can live in the present that transcends the flesh, life in the Spirit, life in the New Creation, the life of those who are Born Again. “Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again” (John 3:7). As you live in flesh and blood, mortal and corruptible, live also in the Spirit and begin to “taste the heavenly gift, partake of the Holy Spirit, taste the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:4-5). After all, it is the down payment to all the fullness of your inheritance, an inheritance that is “incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I Peter 1:4-5).

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