Sweat is 99% water, and it also contains sodium chloride (salt) and other elements. Under normal conditions, your body loses about a quart of water a day through perspiring, but someone who is playing hard can sweat as much as two quarts in an hour. That’s why it is wise to drink lots of water to replace it.
Have you ever wondered why perspiration has an offensive odor? Perhaps the Creator allows this as a reminder that sweat was not present until sin came into the world through Adam and that we are all sinners. But it is not always accompanied by bad odor. When we are in good health, we sweat all the time, although we may not be aware of it. The occasional bad odor comes from bacteria acting on impurities brought out with the sweat in places where moisture does not promptly evaporate-such as the armpits or feet. But when such spots are kept clean, the odor usually is not noticeable.
As mentioned earlier, one of the penalties placed on Adam because of his disobedience was that the labor that was necessary to maintain life would produce sweat - an ever-present reminder that he had sinned against his Creator.
Approximately 4000 years later, on the very night when the Lord Jesus was about to go to Calvary’s cross, we read that He went to the Garden of Gethsemane with some of His disciples. Withdrawing a short way from them, He engaged in prayer to His Father, saying, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” He then returned to the disciples, found them asleep, left them and once more prayed in the same manner, agonizing at the thought of the load of sin He was to bear. Again He joined the still-sleeping disciples and then again drew apart for a third prayer to His Father. It was on this third occasion that we read (the opening verse) that the agony of the thought of taking the sins of mankind on Himself caused Him to “sweat as it were great drops of blood.”
The very sins of the world, which had begun with Adam and caused him to sweat ordinary perspiration, were now as a terrible load to be borne by the loving Saviour who had never sinned. And in the terrible agony at the thought of bearing the sins of others, His sweat became as great drops of blood!
He could have refused to go to Calvary and relieved Himself of that great burden, but instead He endured it, saying, “The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:1111Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (John 18:11)). In this way His death provides salvation for every sinner who will trust in Him as Saviour. Have you trusted Him?
ML-05/29/2005