Eating Christ’s flesh? Uh, that is some heavy stuff, Wayneman. Especially when you use the verb “eat.” That word triggers my mouth into getting involved with ingesting food. But eating Christ’s flesh? And drinking His blood? Really? How are we supposed to do that?
Well, Christ does say, “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). It is this everlasting life that defines Christ’s abiding in us. He promised that He would abide and dwell in us if we ate His flesh and drank His blood.
Some people today will react to this statement the way many did 2,000 years ago. It was this very teaching that separated the sheep from the goats. “From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with Him” (6:66). How serious was this situation? After witnessing many miracles and just being with Him, they could not handle the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood. They thought that He had gone too far with His mysterious sayings.
What was their problem? Christ said that it was their unbelief (6:64). But unbelief of what exactly? It was unbelief in anything that their eyes could not see. All they saw was the flesh of His body. They were looking after the flesh and not after the spirit. To understand this enigmatic passage, we must look on his “flesh” and “blood” after the spirit. Christ said as much: it is the spirit that quickens” (6:63). We must catch the “spirit of the thing” to understand it.
What spiritual action is taking place with His earthly body and blood? Ironically, we must look at Christ’s flesh body and blood after the spirit. The spirit makes His teachings come alive. Eating His flesh and drinking his blood are metaphors, not literal, material things to do. We must look to the spiritual applications of what His flesh and blood did on the cross.
The Flesh and the Blood—What Did They Do at the Cross?
Christ made an extremely important statement. “Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.” Obviously, we cannot consume the flesh of His physical body cannibalistically. What then does his “flesh” signify? It is a metaphor for the final act that His physical body performed. That act was Christ laying down his physical body unto death. The eating of his flesh is us believing what the sacrifice of His body did for us all. It is believing that His death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection of that physical body, served to take our sins totally away. His flesh dying as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world is the bread of life. It is what we are to take in/eat/and digest—spiritually.
Christ is called the Lamb of God for this very reason. All our sins were laid upon His body. Our sins were placed upon the Lamb. He was our scapegoat offering. When His flesh body died, our sins died with Him. When His blood was shed, the life of sin died that day on the cross.
“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22). “He was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21). He was our pure Passover Lamb, crucified, and with his crucifixion, sin died that day. All we must do is just believe it. When His flesh body died, our old sinful selves died with Him. And “he that is dead is freed from sin.” The lifeblood of our sin is drained away with Christ’s blood.
When we were baptized in water, “we were baptized into His death.” When Christ’s sacrificial flesh and blood died, our old sinful self died with Him, “that the body of sin might be destroyed.” We are free! We are new creatures in Christ (Romans 6:1-12).
When we believe what the death of His flesh body and the shedding of His blood did for us, then we will have eaten and drunk His blood. These figures of speech mean that we have taken into our hearts the love that He expressed to us. We must not corrupt the “simplicity that is in Christ” (II Cor. 11:3). Beware of those who would beguile you to follow the path of transubstantiation. God is Spirit, not material and physical. He does not live in a lifeless wafer and a sip of wine.
[What are your thoughts on this subject? Please leave them in the comment section. Subscribe and give us a “like” if we have helped you. May Yah continue to enlighten your steps.] Kenneth Wayne Hancock
Immortality Road 
You have explained this so well. The flesh will never understand the wisdom of the spiritual things God reveals when one is born from above. Sadly the wisdom of the world keeps people in ignorance from the truth that would save their very soul, and what is spiritual will never be understood by the natural fleshly mind and this explains why people cannot grasp when the Lord said we are to eat His fleah and drink His blood (1 Corinthians 2:12-14).
It is as you say His wisdom is what separates the sheep from the goat’s.
God protects His way from those whose heart are not truly seeking Him, and is the reason our Lord spoke in parables, and only the Holy Spirit can cause one to understand His ways (Matthew 13:10-16) Our eyes and ears are Blessed!
I find it ingenious how God separates His people with a language that can only be understood by His spirit! (1Corinthians 1:21) For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Be Blessed.
Julia
Thanks for sharing. So true. His deep truths are spiritually discerned, which is one of His gifts of the Spirit: “the discerning of spirits.” Blessings to and through you always. kwh
You did a good job explaining a hard-to-explain verse. Obviously, he didn’t mean it literally, so…. there had to be a deeper meaning.
Thanks for commenting. The deeper meaning displays the simplicity of Christ. Yet his thoughts are so profound. kwh
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By reading the word of God in the Bible, we are eating his flesh & blood. Christ is the word of God 💙
Thank you for commenting. God bless. kwh
“The eating of his flesh is us believing what the sacrifice of His body did for us all. It is believing that His death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection of that physical body, served to take our sins totally away. His flesh dying as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world is the bread of life. It is what we are to take in/eat/and digest—spiritually.”
As I pondered your post and particularly, the quote above, the Holy Spirit brought to mind a theme that I believe fits well with what you have presented.
As a new believer, the Father deeply impressed upon my mind and heart the message that the best and safest place to be is in His will. Those words and understanding of the importance of them has been a strong guidance throughout my spiritual walk and journey to maturity in Yahushua. Passages in the Gospel of John that spoke to me also address this theme: John 17:7 If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of YHWH, . . . 8:29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. 8:30 As he spake these words, many believed on him. 8:31, 32 Then said Yahushua to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (One continuous thought, not just “the truth shall make you free”, as is so commonly declared by believers and unbelievers alike.)
One of the books I was led to read early in my walk was by Andrew Murray, entitled, The Holiest of All, a most worship-inspiring classic giving deep understanding of the book of Hebrews, which I highly recommend to those who desire to grasp the huge difference between the Old Covenant and the new Order of Melchizidek priesthood of the New Covenant, which applies to all who would come to the Father through His Beloved Son. This summer I read most of the book again and received deeper insight as well as greater confirmation of the message given to me 41 years ago about the importance of being in the Father’s will.
Chapter ten of Hebrews outlines crucial components of the acceptable sacrifice of Yahushuah, particularly in the following seven verses – a sacrifice of which the ultimate success is culminated in verse 10. . .
10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 10:6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O YHWH. (see also Psalm 40:6-8)
10:8 Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O YHWH. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10:10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Yahushua the Messiah once for all.
The Holiest of All, by Andrew Murray, can be a challenge to obtain, however it can be read online at the following link.
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL23305164M/The_holiest_of_all
The call to follow Messiah Yahushua through offering our body and doing the will of the Father and, as His disciples, assist others to do the same
Luke 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Romans 12:1-2
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of YHWH, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, set-apart, acceptable unto YHWH, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of YHWH.
1 Peter 4:1-2
1 Forasmuch then as Messiah hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of YHWH.
Matthew 7:21-22
21 Not every one that saith unto me, My Master, My Master, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, My master, my master, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
2 Timothy 2: 24-26
24 And the servant of YHWH must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if YHWH peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.