I remember as a girl in Sunday School singing this song, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world: Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight”” It’s hard not to love children; although there are some people who are evil toward children, and they are controlled by the nature of the evil one. But this simple song contains a greater and absolute truth: No matter what color, all men are one blood.
This is what the Bible states: “God has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us” (Acts 17:26-27).
The apostle Paul had just arrived in the city of Athens alone with some time on his hands, so he took a tour of the city. He marveled at all of the temples to various gods, and he saw that the whole city was given over to idolatry. He found it difficult to try to witness to the philosophers and intelligentsia of the city until he came upon an altar with the inscription TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. This presented him an open door to present Jesus Christ, and he said to them: “Who you ignorantly worship, him will I declare unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:23-26).
And so it is today, while all men are one blood, and all came from one set of parents, Adam and Eve, made in the image of our Heavenly Father, God who made all things, millions still ignorantly worship other “gods.” After our first parents sinned, the nature of sin was passed down, and with every generation iniquity, the propensity to sin, increased. At the time of Noah, about 1500 years later, men had become so corrupt that God actually “repented that he had made man” (Genesis 6:6). Because Noah was a righteous man who found favor in God’s sight, and he and his sons were not corrupted by perverse sexual sins that were prevalent, God spared them when he destroyed the earth with a universal flood. From these three sons the entire earth was repopulated: “These are the three sons of Noah (Shem, Ham and Japheth), and of them was the whole earth overspread” (Genesis 9:20). From them God chose Shem, out of whom Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came forth, to birth a nation to be His firstborn in the earth: “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn” (Exodus 4:22).
Many do not realize that Israel was the central factor that determined how God divided the nations: “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32: 8-9). Clearly we can see that God not only chose Abraham and his seed, but specifically Jacob his grandson and father of the 12 tribes of Israel.
When He brought the Israelites out of Egypt after 400 years of servitude to Pharaoh, the nation of 12 tribes was 2-3 million strong. Through his lawgiver Moses God taught the people His ways of righteousness and made an everlasting covenant with them which separated them from the idolatrous nations around them. To administer the ceremonial laws of this covenant, God chose the tribe of Levi to be His priests. They did not receive a portion of the Promised Land as the other tribes, because they were God’s portion and were to be supported by the others: “Thus shall you separate the Levites from among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine….For they are wholly given unto me from among the children of Israel; even instead of the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto me” (Numbers 8:15-16).
Moses and his brother Aaron were both from the tribe of Levi, but God chose Aaron and his sons and their sons, etc., to be the chief of the priests, who only could go behind the veil into the holiest of all, where the Ark of the Covenant stood. Every firstborn son in Aaron’s line was to serve as the high priest in his lifetime: “And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be chief over the chief of the Levites, and have the oversight of that they keep the charge of the sanctuary” (Numbers 3:32).
In Bible times the firstborn son was the heir to the lion share of his father’s wealth. The nation of Israel occupies a minute sliver of land compared to the vast Arab nations that surround her. About the size of New Jersey, Israel is a speck on the global map. Because she is “the apple of God’s eye”, He has preserved and protected her from the evil intentions of those who seek to destroy her and wipe her off of the face of the map. It would seem then that God had divided the world into two entities: Israel and the other nations. This was true until 2000 years ago when a new entity was birthed into the world, this time by a spiritual birth, and now God relates to three entities in the earth: “Give none defense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God” (1Corinthians 10:32).
The Church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles who believe on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as Savior and Lord (Ref.:1Cor. 12:12-13). “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18). This can only transpire through spiritual birth. When a renowned religious leader of the Jews, Nicodemus, came to Jesus to inquire about the amazing miracles which He performed, Jesus answered: “Truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus was thinking with his brain and not his spirit when he said: “How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” But Jesus was speaking of a spiritual birth and He replied, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, You must be born again” (John 3:1-7).
Those who have experienced being spiritually born-again, are the members of Christ’s body, the firstborn of God, that is, the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16). Now we have become the firstborn of God, the heirs of God and the joint heirs of Jesus Christ: “To the general assembly, and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant…” (Hebrews 12:23).
Apostle Paul said that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ is not a child of God. Those who have received the Spirit of adoption can call God, “Abba Father.” “And His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:9,15-17).
While all men are of one blood by natural heritage, only those who have been born again are of one Spirit: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith one baptism; One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:-6).
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