The Blood of Christ (2)—Eating His Flesh and Blood - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

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.
John 6:53-54

The Blood of Christ (2)—Eating His Flesh and Blood
This wonderful chapter in John's Gospel begins with the fact that the Passover was at hand. After feeding the multitude, the Lord then speaks of Himself as the bread of life.

The bread of life would speak of the incarnation of the Son of God. However, His incarnation—the Son of God becoming Man—while a wonderful fact, could not in itself save us. His death was also necessary. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" . And so the Lord Jesus goes on to speak of His death under the figure of His flesh and His blood. This figure would have been familiar to His hearers as the Passover season approached. In Exodus 12, the blood of the Passover lamb was applied to the doorposts and lintel of the house, while the rest of the lamb was food for the Israelites inside.

Using this picture, the Lord Jesus tells His hearers, and us today, that we must feed upon His blood and His flesh. What does this mean? First of all, the fact that the blood and the flesh are separated indicates that death has taken place. Second, we must realize that the Lord is speaking in a figurative way. What we eat we appropriate for ourselves; it becomes part of us. So we are to appropriate for ourselves His death and what it means. We are to lay hold of it by faith and make it ours. In verse 53 the Lord speaks of a once-for-all eating that is necessary to have life—according to the Greek verb tense. In verses 54 to 57 it is a continuous eating to sustain that life. The eternal life which has been given to us is dependent upon His death. May we value His death, and Himself more and more!

Kevin Quartell