He who eats this bread will live forever

by Mike Ratliff

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 He 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 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53-58 NASB)

In January 1986 God intervened in my life with eternal results. He called me to Himself. He regenerated me. He justified me. He sanctified me. He adopted me. He changed me forever. However, I was a baby Christian. I had only a vague concept of what God had done on my behalf. I really did not have a clear understanding of this thing we call Christianity. All I knew was that before that wonderful day I did not care too much for church. My concept of the proper Christian life was one of being religious, but that religion had to meet certain criteria. However, after God saved me, my concept changed radically. I suddenly found that I loved God and His people. I loved hearing Bible centered sermons and being in Bible study classes. I had a deep desire to know God’s will that I may obey Him in all things. However, that earlier concept of the proper Christian life was still with me, that is, that one’s religiosity was what determined one’s right standing before God.

As I write this it is March 2015. I profess that I am no longer a baby Christian. Over the years God has taken me through many furnaces for purification. He has burned away those religious concepts in me that stood in the way of me knowing my Saviour as He is. While I no longer believe that one’s religiosity is what determines one’s right standing before God, I do know for certain that there is a right way and wrong way for Christians to walk before the face of God. This right way is found in God’s Word. The wrong way is that which makes people comfortable in their religiosity. Our God is not after pew sitters, those who believe that all God wants from them is an hour or so on Sunday mornings or to be very active in man-focused religiosity. No, those whom God saves are called to a much higher level of service than that. Carefully read the passage I placed at the top of this post (John 6:53-58).

While this language seems quite bizarre to most people, it was a vital part of our Lord’s teaching ministry to His true disciples. However, many did not want to hear it.

59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “ This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 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 profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. (John 6:59-66 NASB)

The exclusivity of the Gospel message is quite offensive to the unregenerate. However, many over the ages have created a form of Christianity that covers over and softens these words of our Lord so that many profess Christ, but they are not genuine believers because their whole profession is of the flesh, which is no help at all. Without the Spirit giving life to those to whom the Father grants accesses to the Son and eternal life there is none. No matter how religious they are. No matter what “right” church they belong to, it does not matter. The reference here to those who “do not believe” is referring to religious Christians who do not have saving faith. Those who are really saved are the ones who eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood (v53). This has nothing to do with “fleshly religiosity.” Our Lord is describing the intimate, personal union between Himself and His people. Without this, there is no salvation. There is no “try Jesus!” No, this is a total commitment to our Lord while dying to self in faith by the grace of God. True salvation is a total rebirth unto eternal life.

67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69 We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “ Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” 71 Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him. (John 6:67-71 NASB)

Our Lord’s question to the Twelve is a major test. However, Peter’s answer revealed that his heart had indeed been reborn and that while most of those temporary disciples had departed, those whom the Lord had chosen believed and knew that He was their all-in-all. He was their Saviour. Eternal life was available to them from no one and nowhere else and these men knew it, except for Judas Iscariot. This confession by Peter and our Lord’s teaching from John 6:22-71 is a crucial turning point in His ministry. We see the crowds rejecting Christ because He is not a seeker-sensitive preacher. He drove off with hard preaching those who were after having their felt-needs met. These reject Him in unbelief. However, the Twelve, except for Judas Iscariot, deepen their faith in Him. This is how God works in the lives of His people. He causes pressure to come to bear in various ways. Some of this is very hard to bear and it may even seem as if God has forsaken the believer during this. However, He preserves those who are His while many of those who were non-genuine fall away. On the other hand, many false believers like Judas Iscariot, remain, but are still outside of God’s saving grace.

When I look back on my own walk from 1986 until now I am amazed that I have remained. I was in one fire after another at many different levels during that time. I was fleshly. I was immature. I was self-focused. I was bitter. I was depressed. However, I was also very religious during this time. I served as a Deacon in two churches and taught Bible study classes. I was miserable most of the time in my fleshly behavior, yet I knew that God was using me in ministry. It all changed in the last few months of 2003 through August 2004. God drew me from self-focused, religiosity into an obedient, spirit-filled walk that changed me forever. Gone was the bitterness and depression. Gone were all those fleshly addictions. Gone was the concept that God was after my religiosity. I was now one who daily ate the flesh of my Lord and drank His blood by devoting my life to serving Him everyday all day in all things. It was then that I finally understood that genuine believers have eternal life from the moment of rebirth and it is not just that which awaits in eternity. No, each genuine believer is born from above. They are new creations and their calling is to daily die to self, take up their crosses, and follow Christ as His disciple. Those who do this are not “pew sitters,” but are those who persevere to the end as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, and for those who are convinced that they enter this life via their own free will, think again. If it had been up to my free choice, I would have abandoned it all long ago nor would I have ever believed, repented, taken up my cross and followed my Saviour. Oh, there are plenty of religious people out there convinced in their religiosity that that is what pleases God and they will go to into eternity just as lost as the worst unrepentant sinner imaginable while those who are truly His are  drawn or called by the Father and given to the Son who will raise them up on the last day (John 6:44, 45).

Soli Deo Gloria!