Spiritual Food and Drink

Spiritual Food and Drink

There is a rather curious passage in John chapter six. For a long time, I could only understand part of it. I was in good company, because the disciples also struggled with what it meant when Jesus said it. The passage to which I’m referring is John 6:53-58 (NASB)

53  So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.

54  "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

55  "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.

56  "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

57  "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.

58  "This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever."

We can understand the idea of His blood providing our forgiveness, justification, and salvation. That concept is right out front from the beginning of Scripture. God clothed Adam and Eve in the skins of animals that had been sacrificed for that purpose and the Day of Atonement demonstrated it annually. As we read in Hebrews, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”

Eating His flesh is another matter altogether. The concept seems odd to us, and was downright repulsive to the Jews in Jesus’ day. Let me unpack this idea a little and see if we can gain a clearer picture of what Jesus was talking about.

We’ve seen many times where New Testament truths are foreshadowed in the Old Testament. This one is no different. Let’s jump back to Exodus 12. We’ll begin with verses one through eight. (NASB) The Lord has just told Moses that one last plague will be sent upon Egypt and that once this plague has come, God’s people will be freed from Pharaoh.

1  Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

2  "This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.

3  "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household.

4  'Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb.

5  'Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

6  'You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.

7  'Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

8  'They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

This is the establishment of the Passover. Its importance as a model of new covenant truth is highlighted when the Lord says that the Hebrew calendar is to begin with Passover.

For a long time, whenever I thought about Passover I thought primarily about the blood on the doorposts and the fact that the destroyer would pass over the marked houses. Later in life I came to have Jewish friends. From them, I learned more about, and even participated in, the Passover meal. I’m a little slow however, so even with this added insight I didn’t really catch the full significance of the fact that they were eating the Passover lamb.

In the Exodus account, the Lord was about to make the Israelites free. As slaves they could not provide for themselves. They needed two things. First, they needed protection from the coming judgment. Second, they needed sustenance, energy, life, for the journey that would follow. The blood of the lamb gave them the first, and the body of the lamb provided the second.

So it is with us today. We need forgiveness, but even after we are forgiven, we find it impossible to live the Christian life. This is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to live within us. We need life, energy, sustenance. God promised this would be a part of the new covenant.

In Jeremiah 31:33-34 (NASB) we find, “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it…” and later, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

In Ezekiel 36:27 (NASB) He makes it clear how His law would be put within us when He says, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Notice that He is the one who does all this. He places His Spirit within us and He causes us to walk in His statutes. Our obedience comes from Him.

Last week we saw that when we are joined to the Lord we are one spirit with Him. One result of this union is that we begin to desire what He desires. Obedience from the heart springs from this, rather than from some misplaced sense of duty or debt repayment.

Ezekiel 36 27 tells us that the way God puts His Law within us is by putting His Spirit within us. The Law of God is His Word. And God and His Word are inseparable as the Apostle John made very clear when he wrote that, “…the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us…”. This idea of Jesus being the Word of God gives light to passages from the prophets such as, Jeremiah 15:16 (NASB), where we read, “Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” Again in Ezekiel 3:1-3 (NASB) we find, “Then He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, "Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you." Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.”

There are two sides to what Jesus accomplished on the cross. The blood, and the body. The blood provides the propitiation—the fully satisfying sacrifice—that paid the price for our sins. The body provides life, energy, or sustenance for living through our union with Him.

This union with Christ has exciting ramification for us as believers. Here’s how Paul talked about the effect it has on us in Romans 6:5-8 (NASB)

5  For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

6  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

7  for he who has died is freed from sin.

8  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

He said the same thing to Timothy in Second Timothy two-eleven (NASB) “It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;”

This union makes it possible for us to participate in what God is doing. It makes it possible for us to get out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to live His life through us. This is why when Paul told the Philippian believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling (or more accurately, “Awe and reverence”) he then said, …”for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

The New English Translation, and several others, translates the Greek rendered “fear and trembling” as awe and reverence. They comment, “Paul's use of the terms “fear and trembling” in other contexts refers to “awe and reverence in the presence of God” (P. T. O'Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 284; see discussion on 282-84). The translation “awe and reverence” was chosen to portray the attitude the believer should have toward God as they consider their behavior in light of God working through Jesus Christ (2:6-11) and in the believer's life (2:13) to accomplish their salvation.—NET Bible.

It is He who works in us both to want to, and to actually do, the things He wants us to do. He provides an inkling of this as far back as Isaiah 26:12 (NASB)

12  LORD, You will establish peace for us, Since You have also performed for us all our works. The prophet says that everything the people have accomplished was actually done by God. Peter says that we participate in the divine nature. Paul writes that, “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” –Eph.2:10 (NASB)

So there are two sides to the work Jesus did at the cross. The blood, which brought salvation, and the body, which brought us sustenance to live the life of Christ. This is what we encounter physically each time we participate in “The Lord’s Supper”, communion.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NASB)

23  For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;

24  and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

25  In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

26  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

The Lord’s Supper, or the Sacrament of Communion, is sometimes called , the Eucharist. I think that’s very appropriate. The word eucharist is Greek. It means thankfulness. We share the bread and cup to remember Jesus and His death. We share the bread and cup in thankfulness.

Like the Hebrews who were enslaved to the Egyptians with no hope of freeing themselves, we were enslaved to the enemy, that old serpent the devil. Just as they needed protection from the judgment to come and sustenance for free living, we need the blood and body.

All the Israelites who trusted in what God told them were set free, blessed, and headed toward their inheritance.

Exodus 12:50-51 (NASB) 50  Then all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

51  And on that same day the LORD brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.

Remember Him. Remember His death. Remember both sides of His work on the cross. Remember that He paid to redeem you, forgave you completely, and put His Spirit within you so you could manifest His life and participate in what He’s doing. Remember who you are; the righteous child of God.

Wake up tomorrow morning, remember who you are, be yourself.