Eating Jesus is the way

[oikonomia]

By "Eating Jesus" I mean taking Him in. Christ is so available for us to contact and enjoy,
If we turn our hearts towards Christ to take Him in we will live BY Him.
We will have something more powerful and roight than living by ethics,
We will have a perfect Person within us, living again THROUGH us.

Eating Jesus is the way to live by Jesus.

John 6:57 - As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.

 

[oikonomia]

Many of the Christians are just starving for the enjoyment of the Person of Jesus,
They have learned and learned many doctrines. But they do not feed their innermost hunger and thirst.
It is good of course to be right in teaching. But who wants to be "dead right" with no enjoyment of Christ's presence.

If a man is on a desert island and hungry, he needs more than to just study a menu of food.
He needs the FOOD on the menu to eat. To just be an expert on the menu without eating is like having knowledge without eating the rich food.

But to call upon the name of the Lord to touch Him within is to take the divine FOOD of Christ into us.
There are many ways to touch the living Jesus. Whatever is effective we must practice with our heart set on the Person of Jesus.

When we come to the Bible, we should come not merely to seek information. We should come expecting to touch the living Holy Spirit with our spirit. Then we will have a heart turned to Jesus the living bread of life. We can eat Him and live because of Him.

He said about His resurrection - Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. (John 14:19)

 

[oikonomia]

John chapter 6 is a chapter dedicated to Christ coming to FEED man with Himself. After He performed the sign of miraculously feeding the multitude with a few fish and a few loves, He emphasized that He was the living bread.

Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
They said therefore to Him, Lord, give us this bread always.
Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst. (John 6:32b-35)

People sin because they are hungry. People sin beacause within they are thirsty for enjoyment.
The way to overcome the sinning nature is to be satisfied with the enjoyment of taking Christ in as food and drink.

It is not effective to grit our teeth and try to live by morality and ethics apart from Christ's life.
We must first be forgiven. We must secondly eat Him as the bread come down from heaven.
He came to give us life. That is the divine life of God. That is Himself as a living Person.
He came to give us His life to be imparted into our life. If we eat Him we will live because of Him.

This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world. (John 6:50,51)

 

[oikonomia]

Jesus is the reality of the type of the manna which came down from heaven in the wilderness.

The word manna has the meaning of a question - "What IS it?"
Because God becomming incarnated as a man to then feed with Himself is so supernatural - He is the real "What is it?" of the universe.
He is God become a man - to become in us our life, enjoyment, satisfaction, and supply.

When Jesus said He came down from heaven He did not mean He came down by helicopter or ladder or parachute.
He came down by way of incarnation. God becoming a man to live on the earth was the coming down from heaven of Jesus.

And this coming down in incarnation to feed Himself to the world was the antitype of the type of the Manna from heaven.
That is the heavenly "What is it?" when fed the Israelites as they sojourned through the wilderness.

As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.
This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread shall live forever. (John 6:57,58)

Stop and ask yourself - "Did I EAT Jesus today?"

You studied some ethical teachings perhaps.
You mused over some moral issues perhaps.
But did you take Christ in as FOOD? Did you EAT Jesus today?

 

[Soyeong]

By "Eating Jesus" I mean taking Him in. Christ is so available for us to contact and enjoy,
If we turn our hearts towards Christ to take Him in we will live BY Him.
We will have something more powerful and roight than living by ethics,
We will have a perfect Person within us, living again THROUGH us.

Eating Jesus is the way to live by Jesus.

John 6:57 - As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.

There are many verses that say that the Mosaic Law is the way, which is the way to eternal life, such as Deuteronomy 10:12-13, Isaiah 2:2-3, 1 Kings 2:1-3, Joshua 22:5, Psalms 103:7, Psalms 119:1-3, and many others. Jesus set a perfect example of how to live in obedience to the Mosaic Law, so that is also the way that we live when he is living through us. The Mosaic Law is God's word and Jesus is God's word made flesh, us embodying God's word by obeying it in accordance with the example of the one who is the embodiment of God's word is the way to take Him in, which is why those who are in Christ are obligated to walk in the same way he walked (1 John 2:6). In Hebrews 1:3, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact image of God's nature, so he is the embodiment of the nature of God expressed through setting a sinless example of how to walk in obedience to the Mosaic Law, so partaking in his nature through following his example is the way to know and enjoy the person of Jesus and to call upon his name. Likewise, the Spirit has the role of leading us to obey the Mosaic Law (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

 

[Sors]

A debate about transubstantiation would be more fun. We can go all the way back to Zwingly, Calvin, and Luther.

 

[oikonomia]

Unless we assimilate the Lord into every fabric of our soul we cannot live unto God.
If we admire the life of Jesus but do not take Him in, to "eat" God in Him, we cannot live God.

The Triune God went through a process highlighted in John 6 showinig how He prepared Himself to be food.
We see all of these steps of the process in John. The process of God becomming food to us is thus.

Incarnation -> Crucifixion -> Resurrection ->Ascension -> Indewlling as the life-giving Spirit -> Embodied as the word of life

Let's see thes steps in John 6.

1. ) Incarnation (John 6:32-51)
Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. (vs32,22)
The world is not only sinful. We come into the world "dead" needing divine life. Incarnation is the Triune God coming to give life to the world in Jesus the Son.
Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst. (v.35)

2.) Crucifixion (John 6:51b-55)
Jesus therefore 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. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. (vs. 53-55)
The mentioning of His flesh and His blood being seperated signifies His death. He was slain in crucifixion for our eternal redemption. Redemption from the curse of the law's condemnation prepares the way for man to receive the incarnated God INTO him as food.

3.) Resurrection (John 6:56-59)
He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.
As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.
This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread shall live forever.
For us to live because of Him means He is able to abide in us and we in Him. This He cannot do unless He is alive AGAIN in resurrection after being slain for us. So verses 56-59 speak of His resurrection from being slain in order that we could abide in Him and He abide in us. We can live and that for eternity because we eat the slain and resurrected Christ.

4.) Ascension - (John 6:60-62)
Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This word is hard; who can hear it?
But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were murmuring about this, said to them, Does this stumble you?
Then what if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?
For the Son of Man to ascend "to where He was before" indicates His returning to Heaven from where He came as the victorious God-man. He is now at the right hand of God as well as within those who believed to receive Him in.

5.) Indwelling as the life giving Spirit - (John 6:63-65)
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not believe and who was the one who would betray Him. And He said, For this reason I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it has been given to him from the Father.
He came to give life. But He must become the life giving Spirit in order to impart Himself into man to give us life.
Paul wrote "the last became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45)
These are all steps of the wonderful process the Triune God went through to dispense God in Christ as life to man.

6.) Embodied in the word of life (John 6:66-71)
From that time many of His disciples went back to what they left behind and no longer walked with Him.
Jesus therefore said to the twelve, Do you also want to go away?
Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life,
And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.(vs. 66-69)
Finally we see the practical way we can eat the Lord Jesus. We take in His word in our spirit. Actually the whole Bible is the word of Christ when we receive the Holy Spirit through His word.

Eating Jesus is taking in the processed Triune God. He passed through these steps to be the life giving food, the bread of God, the Manna to give eternal life to His redeemed people.

 

[oikonomia]

Jesus set a perfect example of how to live in obedience to the Mosaic Law,

Jesus was not only the perfect example. He is the perfect source and power of life who can be imparted into us.
You want to remind us that the law was s[iritual and good. We know that. But as Paul said it was weak through the flesh.

So then the law is holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good.
Did then that which is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin did, that it might be shown to be sin by working out death in me through that which is good, that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshy, sold under sin. (Rom. 7:12-14)

Many here are quick to remind Christians - Ie. "Don't forget how good the Law of Moses is and we must obey it. Why the Law of Moses is spiritual, holy, good, etc. and we are obligated to obey it."

It is as if they feel a duty to exalt the Law quickly to the same level as to the Son of God.

Because the law was weak through the flesh God became food that we may eat Him as the life giving Spirit.
Then if we eat Him spontaneously, unconsciously, automatically the Perfect One will live again on the earth. This time living in His redeemed.

For that which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the Spirit.

so that is also the way that we live when he is living through us.

Yes. In John 6 we see that men have not just the problem of being bad breakers of God's law. They are dead without the life of God. This death within means hunger. And the hunger can only be satisfied by eating Jesus. It is more that a ethical / moral problem that Christ came to solve. It is the hated death in man. The last enemy of God is death. Death, the last enemy, is being abolished. (1 Cor. 15:26)

Mostly, in John 6 Christ speaks of the need for sinners to have life. They labor on other things in vain. And their hunger remains. And death in them remains let alone the need for forgiveness.
Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for Him has the Father, even God, sealed.

Then they said to Him, What shall we do that we may work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe into Him whom He has sent.

They said then to Him, What sign then will You do that we may see and believe You? What work will You do?
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, “He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.”

Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. (John 6:27-33)

 

[timewerx]

By "Eating Jesus" I mean taking Him in. Christ is so available for us to contact and enjoy,
If we turn our hearts towards Christ to take Him in we will live BY Him.
We will have something more powerful and roight than living by ethics,
We will have a perfect Person within us, living again THROUGH us.

Eating Jesus is the way to live by Jesus.

John 6:57 - As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.

It means to live as Jesus lived. Live the kind of life He did.

1 John 2:6
Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

John 14:12
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

 

[oikonomia]

It means to live as Jesus lived. Live the kind of life He did.

This is impossible without the resurrected Jesus imparted into us.
No matter how splendid an example or model Jesus of Nazareth left, if He is not able to
live in me, imitating Him is fruitless and impossible.

God does not want man to be as a poodle walking on its hind legs similar to a man.
God does not want "imitation" like dressing a chimpanzee in human cloths.

Everything Christ is is available to us in His form as "life giving Spirit."
"[T]he last Adam became a life giving Spirit." (1 Cor. 15:45)

So in John 6 He is certain to includes that it is Hinself as "the Spirit who gives life."
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. (v.63)

We can "eat" Christ by receiving His word with our prayerful spirit.

Someone wanted to have "fun" by debating about the superstition of "Transubstantiation."
Do not believe superstitiously that physical bread and wine magically turn into the body and blood of Jesus.

He indicated that it was Him embodied in His words that give divine life as this "food".
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

How can we possibly live Christ if we do not assimilate, digest, enjoy, and even masticate His words?

The natural tendency of many Christians is to use will power to insist - "I should be GOOD like Jesus! I should be not a bad person like Jesus. I should follow the moral example of Jesus and be ethical."

Some who are strong willed may put up a good religious perfomance for awhile.
But they will eventually realize that the only one who can live as Jesus lived is Jesus Himself.
So we must eat Him so that we may live because of Him. We must long for the food in His word to receive Himself as divine life.

1 John 2:6
Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

John 14:12
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

These are good passages to continue the truth of eating Jesus is the way.
As a result of the Triune God passing through this process He can be imparted into us.

John 14:12 especially contiunes His teaching as He taught in chapter 6, the believer - "abides in Me and I in him." (v.56). Again about His resurrection He teaches He and His Father will abide in His lovers and He in them.

I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.
Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live.
In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. (John 14:18-20)

Again, as the Triune God has passed through a process as BREAD must be prepared through process, the Son and the Father by means of the Spirit will live in us. This alone empowers the life supply to live unto God.

Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him. (John 14:23)

 

[oikonomia]

A debate about transubstantiation would be more fun. We can go all the way back to Zwingly, Calvin, and Luther.

The Apostle Peter very well showed us how to practically feed on the Lord Jesus through His word.
Instead of bread though Peter referred to the guileless milk of the word. That is such as a newborn infant must eat in order to grow.

As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation,
If you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Pet. 2:2)

By drinking the guileless milk of the word GROWTH is enabled.
So we must learn to TASTE the inward richness of Christ by means of this eating.

This tasting that the Lord is good should not be just tasting that outward things He does for us are kind.
Nor is this tasting of outward miraculous things done.
There may be no changing of our difficult environment.
There may be no fixing of our outward situation.

But we can TASTE in His word we are supplied with grace, endurance, joy, light, righteousness and peace.
Then it is a tasting of the Lord Jesus Himself. For He is all these things.

If we constantly eat and drink Christ in His word in all parts ofour living and behavior we will GROW UNTO SALVATION.
This salvation is the transformation of the soul into the image of Christ.
We are what we eat. And Christ becomes the constituent of our very personality, saving our soul.

 

[oikonomia]

In Hebrews 1:3, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact image of God's nature, so he is the embodiment of the nature of God expressed through setting a sinless example of how to walk in obedience to the Mosaic Law, so partaking in his nature through following his example is the way to know and enjoy the person of Jesus and to call upon his name. Likewise, the Spirit has the role of leading us to obey the Mosaic Law (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

You know that the Lord Jesus IS the Spirit.
The Spirit that gives life, the "life giving Spirit" is the Lord Jesus Himself in another form.

2 Cor. 3:17 - And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

1 Cor. 15:45 - So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

This is all the more crucial when we see His word gives His life into the "eater" of His words.

John 6:63 - It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

 

[Soyeong]

Jesus was not only the perfect example. He is the perfect source and power of life who can be imparted into us.
You want to remind us that the law was s[iritual and good. We know that. But as Paul said it was weak through the flesh.

So then the law is holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good.
Did then that which is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin did, that it might be shown to be sin by working out death in me through that which is good, that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshy, sold under sin. (Rom. 7:12-14)

Many here are quick to remind Christians - Ie. "Don't forget how good the Law of Moses is and we must obey it. Why the Law of Moses is spiritual, holy, good, etc. and we are obligated to obey it."

It is as if they feel a duty to exalt the Law quickly to the same level as to the Son of God.

Because the law was weak through the flesh God became food that we may eat Him as the life giving Spirit.
Then if we eat Him spontaneously, unconsciously, automatically the Perfect One will live again on the earth. This time living in His redeemed.

For that which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the Spirit.

The purpose of God's word is to teach us how to embody it like Christ, however, it does not cause us to obey it because the Law of God is is weakened by the law of sin, which hinders us from obeying it, so it is only through faith in the one who is the embodiment of God's word that we also come to embody it, and this is how the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us.

Yes. In John 6 we see that men have not just the problem of being bad breakers of God's law. They are dead without the life of God. This death within means hunger. And the hunger can only be satisfied by eating Jesus. It is more that a ethical / moral problem that Christ came to solve. It is the hated death in man. The last enemy of God is death. Death, the last enemy, is being abolished. (1 Cor. 15:26)

Mostly, in John 6 Christ speaks of the need for sinners to have life. They labor on other things in vain. And their hunger remains. And death in them remains let alone the need for forgiveness.
Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for Him has the Father, even God, sealed.

Then they said to Him, What shall we do that we may work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe into Him whom He has sent.

They said then to Him, What sign then will You do that we may see and believe You? What work will You do?
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, “He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.”

Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. (John 6:27-33). The view that we have of God's word matches the view that we have of God's word made flesh, so to exalt God's word made flesh is to also exalt God's word.

There are many verses like Luke 10:25-28, where obedience to the Mosaic Law is the way to inherit eternal life, or in other words, obeying God's word is the way to have faith in the Son, who is God's word made flesh, which again is the way to have eternal life.

You know that the Lord Jesus IS the Spirit.
The Spirit that gives life, the "life giving Spirit" is the Lord Jesus Himself in another form.

2 Cor. 3:17 - And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

1 Cor. 15:45 - So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

This is all the more crucial when we see His word gives His life into the "eater" of His words.

John 6:63 - It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Jesus spent his ministry teaching his followers how to obey the Mosaic Law by word and by example, so he has the same role as the Spirit.

 

[oikonomia]

The way to live because of Jesus is to eat Jesus. Says who? Says Jesus,
As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. (John 6:57)

The wonderful thing is that we can interchange "live because of Me" to many things involving our Christian life.

1.) We all know we need obedience to the Lord. So we can place "obey" "because of Me" there.
" . . . so he who eats me shall [OBEY] because of Me."

2.) We know we need to be consecrated to God. So we can place "be consecrated" because of Me also.
" . . . so he who eats me shall [BE CONSECRATED] because of Me."

3.) How we believers need faith, Faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God.
We may insert "have faith" as well there.
" . . . so he who eats me shall [HAVE FAITH] because of Me."

4.) If we need love we may obtain Christ as our love. Insert "love" there also coming to us because we eat Jesus.
" . . . so he who eats me shall [LOVE] because of Me."

5.) We Christians need endurance. By eating Christ we take Him in as our endurance as well.
As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall [HAVE ENDURANCE] because of Me.


Whatever we need as a Christian virtue we may have because of eating Jesus.
We can see how indeed "Eating Jesus is the way." Jesus is everything we need. And all we need is in Jesus.
It is ours by taking in Jesus that we may live because of Him.

 

[oikonomia]

What we need is always in Christ Himself. God has MADE HIM to be all that we need.
God has MADE HIM to us to be all that God requires.

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption, That as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:30,31)

We need righteousness? Let us eat Jesus. God has made Him righteousness.
And in righteousness we have also sanctification and redemption.

Let's put these in John 6:57.

As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall [HAVE RIGHTEOUNESS] because of Me.

"so he who eats Me, he also shall [HAVE SANCTIFICATION] because of Me."
"so he who eats Me, he also shall [HAVE REDEMPTION] because of Me."

That as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”