Feeding on Christ the living bread

 

Coming to Him involves close and intimate fellowship with Him and with the Father.                   John 6v52-58

 

“The Jews, therefore strove among themselves, saying. How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

 

Note the progression in the chapter; v28 doubting; v41  murmuring; v 52 fighting; v66 abandoning.  The alternative is coming to Him in all that He is, and in all He represents.   Scripture uses extreme language here to present spiritual truth.  It does not mean cannibalism but a close intimate relationship with God the Father and with God the Son.  Eating flesh and drinking blood is metaphorical for closest intimacy.  Coming to Him is not the wonder of a moment, it is a whole of life commitment.  Just as the food we eat becomes part of us, so Christ comes to live in us.  It is wholly a change of diet as well as a change of destiny.  At the slaying of the paschal lamb in Egypt, part of the process was to eat the roast lamb.  The progression was “Take it…keep it…kill it…eat it.” The blood was for God, the flesh for the people.  In redemption there is a change of diet as well as a change of destiny.  Israel, redeemed by the lamb, fed on three significant things after they left Egypt;

The Passover lamb-representing Christ in His death

The Manna-representing Christ in His life

The Old Corn of the land-representing Christ in resurrection

 

Thus what spoke of Christ became the permanent food of Israel

 

His flesh….God incarnate; His blood…God redemptive.  Eat and drink, it must be as intimate as that, He becomes part of us in all that He is His person, and in all that He did in His work.  His blood to satisfy the demands of God; His flesh to satisfy the needs of humanity.  Everyone outside of this has no life in them.  Coming to Him is no passing fancy, no nine day wonder, it is a new life altogether. 

 

“Verily, verily, I say unto you except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.  Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.  He that eateth of my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him.  As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father, so he that he eateth me even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.”

 

Coming to him, and eating and drinking with Him is to dwell in Him and He in us.  It is in fact to live with Him, and He with us.  In the same way as Jesus has a close relationship with His Father, and, according to revealed Scripture has had from all eternity, and continued even all through the days on Earth-so coming to Him means that we shall have the same relationship with Him and with the Father through Him. The concept is awesome but it is true, and is the reason we were all created.