Excepts Of Jews
JOHN 6:53 "Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, EXCEPT ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves."
Here we have the seventh in our series of conditional considerations, or "excepts" of Jesus our Lord. Naturally, in order to understand verse fifty three, the context must be studied (especially verses forty-one through sixty-five).
Jesus, in this chapter, is speaking of Himself as the Bread of Life. "Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." (verse thirty-five) It is Jesus alone, by His doctrine and example, who gives that spiritual nourishment which saves the soul unto everlasting life. As men must eat natural bread and flesh in order to be nourished by them...so a man must receive the instruction and spirit of Christ in order to be saved.
The expressions "eating and drinking" are here used to convey the idea of "partaking and sharing in." When we receive Jesus as the Bread of Life everlasting, we are sharing in His life and partaking of His nature. Those who received His teaching would be eating of the truth unto life eternal.
The Jews prided themselves much on the fact that their fathers had eaten the manna in the wilderness, but Jesus teaches them about the bread that gives life everlasting.
The statement of verse fifty-one proved too much for the Jews. Jesus said, "I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." The astonished Jews "therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" The Jews understood Jesus LITERALLY when He spoke of "eating His flesh and drinking His blood." They thought Jesus was speaking in literal terms of eating His flesh and drinking of His blood.
These Jews of John 6:52 made the same mistake or blunder that so many people are still making today. We are not expected to eat and drink of Jesus' literal flesh and blood. Our Lord was speaking figuratively. What Jesus meant was a SPIRITUAL eating and drinking. "It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life." (John 6:63)
So Jesus Christ is to our spirit — what bread is to our body.
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