Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood...John 6:53, Part 2

[Bob corrigan]

To understand any particular event in Scripture, we must be aware of three aspects—doctrine, themes, and background. Doctrines are clearly stated, unchangeable, fixed truths firmly embedded in Scripture that are made known through the written word, i.e., that you can show by pointing out particular verses. Themes are fixed truths that, while evident in Scripture, do not have any verses stating such. While no verse reads "God is sovereign," the theme of God's sovereignty is clearly shown throughout Scripture by verses that show the ways God is sovereign. The same can be said about the Trinty.
Background, which can include history, provides the "state of things" involved. What is going on in the culture, society, political scene, etc? What do people believe, expect and anticipate? What motivations are involved? What maneuvering, if any, is going on?

What doctrines are shown?

1. God's sovereignty in salvation:
Psalm 65:5, Is 29:22-23.
Is 43:7
Mat 11:27, 15:13.
John 1:13, 17:2
Acts 13:48
Rom 8:29-30
2Thes 2:13
James 1:18

2. God opens or blinds eyes to the truth:
Is 29:10
Jer 5:21
Eze 12:2
Mat 13:10-11, 16:15-17
Lk 8:10, 24:45
John 10:25-28, 12:40
Rom 11:8

3. The work of the Holy Spirit:
Acts 2:1-4, 4:31
Rom 8:14-16
2Thes 2:13

4. Without the Holy Spirit, no man can understand spiritual things.
Acts 10:44
Rom 7:14
1Cor 2:11,14

5. Yeshua knowing the thoughts and minds of men:
Jer 20:12
Mat 9:4, 12:25
John 2:24-25, 5:42
Mk 2:8

6. The Jewish people were forbidden to consume blood
Gen 9:4
Lev 3:17, 7:26

Themes:

1. Spiritual vs Physical
The Old Covenant was based on the physical. The Renewed Covenant is based on the spiritual. Natural man considers everything from a physical viewpoint. Sheep view things from a spiritual mindset. Physical eyes vs. spiritual eyes. Physical food vs. spiritual food. Physical life vs. spiritual life. Physical circumcision vs. spiritual circumcision. Physical life in the here and now vs. spiritual life based on the coming eternal life. Natural men are led by the lusts of the flesh while sheep are led by the Spirit. Physical thought is concrete. Spiritual thought is abstract. As physical food feeds the physical body, spiritual food feeds the spirit.


2. Bread and wine represent God's word. Bread is flesh. Wine is blood.

Gen 49:11 "...he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.

Deut 32:14 "...and you did drink the pure blood of the grape."

Blood = wine.

Lk 22:17-20 And he took the cup and gave thanks, telling the disciples, 'Take this and share it among yourselves. I say to you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine (wine) again until the kingdom of God comes. He took BREAD, gave thanks and broke it, and told them, THIS IS MY BODY...He lifted up the cup saying, 'This cup (indicating the wine in the cup) is the Renewed Covenant IN MY BLOOD..."

Mt 26:26-28 "...Yeshua took BREAD, blessed it and then broke it apart and gave each disciple a piece (Judas was not in the room) and said, 'Take and eat; THIS IS MY BODY...He took the cup and gave thanks (eucharisteo, which means "to give thanks." It does not mean a "wafer," "cracker," or "piece of bread." It is not a noun or verb!) and told the disciples, 'Drink all of it, for THIS IS MY BLOOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Yeshua used metaphor here. He said that his body metaphorically represented bread and his blood metaphorically represented wine. He took his physical body and blood and gave them a spiritual meaning. Paul understood this,

1Cor 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

Was not Yeshua born in Bethlehem, which means "house of bread?"

2. Learning and obeying God's word was represented by "Eating and drinking His word," As physical food is consumed by the body, God's word is to be "consumed" by the spirit and internalized. This is found throughout Scripture

Jer 15:16
Eze 3:3
Pro 18:8, 26:22
Psalm 119:103
Rev 10:8-11
1Pet 2:2

"Bread and wine" often represented God's word in O.T. "Eating and drinking" often represented "learning God's word.""


Background.

The Religious Democratic Left (RDL) of Jerusalem consisted of the most corrupt and vile men, split up among three sects: the Pharisees, scribes (lawyers), and Sadducees (the Priesthood). While not every Pharisee, priest, or scribe was not a part of the RDL, as many Pharisees, scribes and priests did come to be believers, I am referring to the ones who not only oppressed and stole from the Jewish people. The Pharisees and scribes had so twisted the Torah by the "oral law" and man-made traditions that the average Jewish person living in Jerusalem or Judah did not know much of what the O.T. taught. They were all familiar with the first five books, called the Torah, but as far as the rest of the O.T., they were clueless.
All Jewish people chaffed under Roman rule and were desperate for the Messiah to come; they thought that the Messiah would rally the Jewish people to rise up and drive the Romans out and Israel would once again be an independent, physical sovereign nation and return to greatness, as in the days of David, and would never be conquered again by any other Nation.
Ah, but the Pharisees had introduced another false teaching to the Jewish faulty understanding of the coming Messiah. They taught the Jewish people that not only would Messiah come, but he would be just like Moses, Moses, who led the children of Israel out of slavery. He would be a great military general, and he would make food miraculously appear every day, as God fed the people with manna every day. And no Jew would ever be hungry again or worry about feeding himself or his family. But they taught that it was Moses who brought down the manna and that it was Moses who performed all of the miracles, not Jehovah! The two men of the O.T. that the Jews revered the most were Abraham and Moses. They stood higher than David.

So now, you have the correct understanding of the different dynamics of John chapter 6. So, if you were to reread the chapter right now, some of the things would be cleared up, the words of Yeshua would make sense, and you would understand why he said the things he did. But I am going to go through the chapter bit by bit in the next post so that you can get the most impact and understanding to put into your own book of knowledge.

End Part 2

 

[BobRyan]

"Bread and wine" often represented God's word in O.T. "Eating and drinking" often represented "learning God's word.""

Amen to that.

So we see that in Deut 8:2 And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, in order to humble you, putting you to the test, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 And He humbled you and let you go hungry, and fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, in order to make you understand that man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on every WORD that comes out of the mouth of the Lord.

Then in John
John 1 - in the beginning was the WORD ... 14 The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us"

=============== John 6 ================================================

31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”​

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35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; the one who comes to Me will not be hungry, and the one who believes in Me will never be thirsty. 36 But I said to you that you have indeed seen Me, and yet you do not believe. .. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of everything that He has given Me I will lose nothing, but will raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”​

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41 So then the Jews were complaining about Him because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.”​

Details not to skim over.
1. Jesus does not say "Someday in the future - at the last Supper I WILL BE BREAD"
2. Jesus said I AM the BREAD of life - and that He already came down out of heaven.
3. Jesus said the key to getting "eternal life" vs 40 is to SEE the Son and BELIEVE IN ME vs 35.

John 6:​

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42 And they were saying, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop complaining among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned 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 Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.​

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The symbols are clear - no one sees bread falling out of the sky and no one sees Jesus looking like bread. He says He already IS bread right then and there - the BREAD OF LIFE and they are to be "taught of God", to "LEARN" from God and to BELIEVE in what they learn. (teaching...teaching...The focus is on Christ as the WORD that came down).

49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down out of heaven, so that anyone may eat from it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give for the life of the world also is My flesh.”​

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In vs 49-51 the transition is from the BREAD That He already IS and that already CAME DOWN out of heaven - to the future when ... in that future He will give his LIFE for the world - and that is is flesh literally given on the cross. The unbelieving don't get it.

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52 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus 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. 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 remains in Me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread that came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; the one who eats this bread will live forever.”​

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Jesus does not say "in the future you must eat the flesh" He says it is ALREADY the case that they are to eat the flesh , eat the bread that already came down. The one who EATS HAS eternal life. He is not speaking of the future here. It is present tense... because it is not literal - Jesus wants them PRESENT tense to EAT the Word - to accept and Believe right now and have eternal life now.

And what is the response of the slow-to-believe slow-to-discern-symbols?

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60 So then many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This statement is very unpleasant; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, aware that His disciples were complaining about this, said to them, “Is this offensive to you?​

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The unbelieving in John 6 rephrase it as cannibalism as if eating a human is the key rather than going along with the bread symbol. Since obviously nobody sees bread standing in front of them - nobody bites bread and they conclude he must mean biting Christ which they know is not right. But Jesus is clear - they cannot have LIFE if they do not eat the bread - the WORD that came down out of heaven.

Next Jesus removes the symbolism and states the case literally

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62 What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh provides no benefit; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.”​

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That statement above explains it all - literally. The WORDS are what brings LIFE. The Holy Spirit gives LIFE. All this talk about eating the bread to get eternal life is about accepting Christ's WORDS now... literally as he is speaking to them not at some future point at Lord's Supper - but now!

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For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”​

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66 As a result of this many of His disciples left, and would no longer walk with Him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to leave also, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69 And we have already believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”​

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Peter drops all the symbolism and goes directly to the literal explanation Christ just gave -- "You have words of eternal life." -- as Christ said - eating literal flesh is worthless for gaining eternal life. What they needed was to hear and believe Christ's WORDS/teaching/doctrine.