Confusion of The Body And Blood of Christ
August 30, 2019
Commentary
The Jews assumed that by virtue of their national origin and their religious works they were assured a place in the Kingdom. They thought they could manipulate the Messiah into adapting to their conception of the Kingdom. Quite the opposite was true. Entrance into the Kingdom is not ultimately a matter of our choice. It is God who draws us to Himself (vv. 41-44). Christ described what it means to be drawn to Him (vv. 45-47). When we have come to Christ it is because of God’s love for us. He has drawn us to himself! The Jews knew what Moses had written, but they did not really believe it. The Bread of Jesus is superior to the Manna of Moses. Jesus’s Bread sustains us spiritually for all eternity (vv. 48-51). The Bread is Jesus’s flesh. Jesus was referring to His vicarious death on the cross that would provide life for the world. But the Jews were still thinking about physical food (v. 52).
Christ complicates the situation further by adding “except ye … drink his blood” (vv. 53-55). Since the Jews were forbidden to drink blood (Lev 7:26–27), this additional statement must have added insult to injury. However, the Jews misunderstood. Leviticus 17:11 clearly states that life is in the blood. Accepting the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ is the basis for eternal life. One who partakes of Christ enjoys a mutual abiding relationship with Christ. He remains in Christ, and Christ remains in him. The Father “remains” in the Son (14:10), the Spirit “remains” on Jesus (1:32), and believers “remain” in Jesus and He in them (v. 56). The implications of this “remaining” are many. A believer enjoys intimacy with and security in Jesus. Just as Jesus has His life from the Father, so believers have life because of Jesus (vv. 56-58).
Jesus gave this discourse on the Bread of Life in the synagogue in Capernaum (v. 59). He often spoke in Jewish synagogues, where men had opportunities to give expositions and exhortations (Mark 6:1-6; Luke 4:16-28; Acts 13:15-42).
Application
I need to take the Lord at His Word and not be confused by what I think or by what others say. If I follow culture, I will get culture’s results, but if I follow the Bible, I will get Biblical results.
John 6:41– 59 (NET)
41 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” 42 and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus replied, “Do not complain about me to one another. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me. 46 (Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God—he has seen the Father.) 47 I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person may eat from it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began to argue with one another, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 The one 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 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ate, but then later died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”
59 Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.