“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54).
As we stated in our lesson yesterday, whenever the truth is proclaimed eventually there’s going to be controversy. Turning now from our overview of the doctrine of predestination, we pick up our study in John again to find the storms of controversy beginning to brew in Jesus’ ministry. He had been giving a discourse at the synagogue concerning the “bread of life.” In the passage before us today, Jesus gives a summary of exactly what is meant by the “bread of life.”
The Jews had drawn a correct conclusion from Jesus’ teaching: that men should eat His flesh. What they didn’t understand was that this eating was spiritual in nature, not physical. But as the Jews were apt to do, they only heard with physical ears because they were not spiritually discerning. They should have realized, especially when Jesus said that men must drink His blood, that He was speaking in a spiritual sense. Hendriksen writes, “had they known their scriptures thoroughly, they would also have recognized the symbolism which Jesus employed. They would have known that the blood, viewed as the seat of life, represents the soul and is without intrinsic value for salvation apart from the soul. The language of Leviticus 17:11 is very clear on this point: ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.’ It is clear, therefore, that when Jesus speaks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, He cannot have reference to any physical eating or drinking. He must mean: ‘He who accepts, appropriates, and assimilates my vicarious sacrifice as the only ground of his salvation, remains in Me and I in him.’ ”
Just as food and drink are offered and accepted, so also is Christ’s sacrifice offered to believers and accepted by them. Just as food nourishes the body, so Christ’s sacrifice nourishes and sustains our spiritual life. This is the doctrine of the voluntary shedding of Christ’s blood as a ransom for believers unto salvation. If you possess living faith, if you trust in Christ as the only ground of your salvation, you will receive eternal life. If you rely on His sacrifice as the only ground of your salvation, then He is the source of your life and you will abide with Him forever.
If Jesus had been literal, if He had really meant that people needed to eat His physical body and drink His blood, what would He have been advocating? Why was it impossible for Jesus to be speaking literally (Gen. 9:4; Lev. 3:17; 17:10–14)? If you have faith, He will sustain you spiritually. Meditate on that truth.
