Jesus was both meat and drink

JESUS WAS BOTH MEAT AND DRINK
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 6:53-5653Jesus saidto them, "Very truly I tell
you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and
I will raise them up at the lastday. 55Formy flesh is
real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoevereats
my flesh and drinks my bloodremains in me, and I in
them.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The FatherDraws The Soul To Christ
John 6:44
J.R. Thomson
We have to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to God, first for giving and
sending his Son to be our Saviour, and then for guiding us unto his Son, in
order that in fellowship with him we may experience the blessings of salvation.

For in these two ways does the Father furnish us with a complete display of
his love; in these two ways does he completely secure our highest good.
I. THE DRAWING OF THE SOUL BY THE FATHER.
1. The soul needs to be divinely drawn. And this because:
(1) By reasonof sin it is estrangedfrom God, is far from God, is even at
enmity with God.
(2) There are other attractions, very powerful, and such as men are wont to
yield to, which draw man's nature in an opposite direction. "The world, the
flesh, and the devil" have great power;and in the case ofvery many exert that
powerefficaciouslyto keepthe soul from God, and even to increase the
distance by which it is so separated.
2. The instrumentalities, or spiritual forces, by which the Father draws
human souls to Christ.
(1) The presentation of truth adapted to man's intelligence. The next verse
brings this agencybefore us in explicit statement:"They shall be all taught of
God."
(2) The utterance of moral authority addressing the conscience. Passionand
interest may draw men from Christ; duty, with a mighty imperative, bids
them approach their Lord and Saviour.
(3) Love appeals to the heart of man with mystic power.
"The moon may draw the sea;
The cloud may stoopfrom heaven, and take the shape,
With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape." The attractionof Christ's
characterand life, of his gracious language, andabove all of his sacrifice upon
the cross, is the mightiest moral force the world has ever felt. "I," said he, "if
I am lifted up, will draw all men unto myself." Thus in many ways, adapted
by his own wisdom to the nature and circumstances ofmen, is the Father
drawing men unto Christ.

3. The manner in which the Fatherdraws the soul unto himself.
(1) This attraction is not of a physical, mechanical, forcible kind. Such
compulsion would be out of all character, would not harmonize with man's
moral freedom. And, indeed, it would not be the drawing of the soul.
(2) It is a moral, spiritual attraction, in accordance withthe nature both of
him who draws and of those who are drawn. The Holy Spirit of God is the
powerto whom we owe the actionof those moral constraints which are the
chief and most beneficentfactors in the moral life of mankind.
(3) Mighty though this drawing be, it is for the most part gentle and gradual.
Its influence is not always at once apparent; it becomes manifestwith the
growth of experience and the lapse of time. It is continuous, lasting in the case
of many from childhood to old age.
(4) The power and efficacyof this agencyis not to be disputed. The Father
calls, and the child answers. The magnetismis exercised, and the soul flies to
the attracting power. The light shines, and the eye turns towards the welcome
ray.
II. THE COMING OF THE SOUL TO CHRIST.
1. There is an indispensable condition without which no soul can come to
Christ. Christ must first come to the soul. The gospelmust be preached, and
must be received, for it is the Divine call, which alone can authorize the
approachof sinful man to the Holy One and Just.
2. The soul's method in coming. It is easyenoughto understand how when
Jesus was onearth men came to him; they came actually, bodily, locally. Yet
the principle of approachis everthe same;for our Lord said indifferently,"
Come unto me," and "Believe onme." The coming of the bodily form was
useless apartfrom spiritual approach, sympathy, and trust. As it is the soul
which the Father draws, so it is the soul which, being drawn, finds itself near
the Saviourand in fellowshipwith him.

3. The soul's purpose in coming. It is impelled by conscious needof the
Redeemer, as the Prophet, the Priest, the King, divinely appointed. It hopes to
find in him that fall satisfactionwhich, sought elsewhere,is sought in vain.
4. The soul's experience in coming.
(1) There is welcome and acceptance;for he who comes is never, in any wise,
castout.
(2) There is a perfect response to the desire and need. The hungry is fed, the
thirsty finds the water of life, the wearymeets with rest, and the man who
longs to serve has revealedto him the law and rule of consecration.
(3) There is the eternalabiding; for the soul that comes to Jesus neither leaves
him, nor is left by him.
5. The soul's obligationin coming.
(1) Gratefully to acknowledgethe infinite mercy by which this attractive
influence has been exercised, and to which the fellowship with Christ is due.
(2) Diligently to act as the Father's agentin bringing other souls to Jesus. We
can trace the Divine powerin the human agencywhich was employed to lead
us to the Saviour. The same God canstill use the same means to the same
result. - T.

Biblical Illustrator
He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.
John 6:47-58
Everlasting life
W. Jay.
I. THE BLESSING, "everlasting life." Everlasting life was never proposedin
the schools ofphilosophy to the faith of man, or urged as a principle or motive
to holiness. Those who taught were not sure of it themselves. Whatdoes it
mean? We may take three views of it.
1. It is opposedto eternal death. Eternal death does not mean annihilation or
destruction of being, bat of well-being, of happiness and of hope. So eternal
life is not mere existence, but complete well-being.
2. It is distinguished from natural life: is a state of freedom from all possible
evil, and the possessionof all possible good.
3. Its complete spirituality. The people of God are now quickenedand made
alive. They have spiritual appetites, senses,powers, passions.Theycan
perform spiritual exercises.But it doth not yet appear what we shall be.
II. THE OWNER OF THIS BLESSING. "He that believeth on Me."
1. The object of this faith — the Lord Jesus. How surprised would you be did
Paul, or Peter, or James express themselves in this way I But they well knew
that salvationwas not in them. Thus they preachednot themselves, but Christ
Jesus the Lord.
2. Its nature. Belief is the giving assentto a declarationas true. But credence
in itself is much like knowledge. We may know a thing, and not possessit, or

pursue it. Faith always operates towards Christas its object in a Way of trust
and dependence, and in a wayof application too.
III. THE SEASON OF POSSESSION— now. Not he shall have, but he
"hath." The believer has everlasting life —
1. As his aim. The mariner has the port in his eye from the day he sails till he
enters the desired haven. So is it with the Christian.
2. In promise. "In my Father's house," etc.;"WhenHe who is our life," etc.
3. In trust. And who is the trustee? The Lord Jesus, our Forerunner. He is
gone to take possession.
4. In participation. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
His." But Christians have this Spirit, and by this Spirit is the Christian sealed
to the day of redemption.
5. When are Christians peculiarly indulged with these anticipations?(1)When
they are alone. "When I remember Thee on my bed, and meditate on Thee in
the night watches."(2)In the sanctuary services. "Aday in Thy courts is
better than a thousand."(3) In trouble. God acts upon the principle of the
truest friendship, He is most near in the time of trouble.(4) In death.
IV. THE GROUND OF THEIR CONFIDENCE. The fulness of their
assurance:"Verily, verily, I say unto you," etc. Here it is truth itself that
speaks;and yet Christ employs a double asseveration, so that we may learn —
1. The duty of belief, " O fools, and slow of heart to believe:"
2. The importance of our having the full assurance ofunderstanding, and the
full assurance offaith, to establish our hearts with grace.
(W. Jay.)
Believing must be on Christ only
S. Charnock.

As the eye seeksforno other light than that of the sun, and joins no candles
with it to dishonour the sufficiency of its beams, so no createdthing must be
joined with Christ as an objectof faith. Who would join the weakness ofa
bulrush with the strength of a rock for his protection! Who would fetch water
from a muddy pond to make a pure fountain in his garden more pleasant!
Address yourselves only to Him to find a medicine for your miseries and
comfort in your troubles,
(S. Charnock.)
Certain salvationby believing
C. H. Spurgeon.
One walking with me observed, with some emphasis, "I do not believe as you
do. I am an Agnostic." "Oh," I said to him. "Yes. Thatis a Greek word, is it
not? The Latin word, I think, is ignoramus." He did not like it at all. Yet I
only translated his language from Greek to Latin. These are queer waters to
get into, when all your philosophy brings you is the confessionthat you know
nothing, and the stolidity which enables you to glory in your ignorance. As for
those of us who restin Jesus, we know and have believed something; for we
have been taught eternalverities by Him who cannot lie. Our Masterwas not
wont to say, "It may be," or "It may not be"; but He had an authoritative
style, and testified, "Verily, verily, I say unto you." Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but not one jot or tittle of what He hath taught us shall cease to be
the creedof our souls. We feel safe in this assurance;but should we quit it, we
should expectsoonto find ourselves in troubled waters.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Faith in Christ must be personal
J. Spencer.

In Gideon's camp every soldier had his own pitcher; among Solomon's men of
valour every man wore his own sword; the five wise virgins had every one oil
in her own lamp. Whosoeverwill go to God must have a faith of his own; it
must be "Thy faith hath savedthee."
(J. Spencer.)
Faith, though weak, savesthe soul
H. Muller.
Faith is the eye by which we look to Jesus. A dim-sighted eye is still an eye; a
weeping eye is still an eye. Faith is the hand with which we lay hold of Jesus. A
trembling hand is still a hand. And he is a believer, whoso heart within him
trembles when he touches the hem of the Saviour's garment that he may be
healed. Faith is the tongue by which we taste how goodthe Lord is. A feverish
tongue. And even then we may believe, when we are without the smallest
portion of comfort; for our faith is founded, not upon feelings, but upon the
promises of God. Faith is the foot by which we go to Jesus. A lame footis still
a foot. He who comes slowly, nevertheless comes.
(H. Muller.)
Everlasting life
W. H. Van Doren, D. D.
I. IN CHRIST'S PURCHASE.
II. IN GOD'S PROMISE.
III. IN THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. Conclusions:
1. The exclusiveness ofthe gospel. Without faith in Christ there is no salvation
for any sinner.
2. The charity of the gospel. With faith there is salvationfor all.

(W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
I am that Bread of Life
The Breadof Life
J. Irons.
I. THE STAFF OF LIFE.
1. Christ is the life.
2. Where Christ is unknown there can be no life.
(1)Heathenism is death.
(2)Unbelief.
(3)Formalism.
3. This life is worth everything and is to be obtained for nothing.
4. This life supports, not by talking about it, believing in statements
concerning it, but by having and enjoying it.
II. The staff of life is USED ONLY BY FAITH. Faith —
1. Receives.
2. Handles.
3. Tastes.
4. Digests.
5. Enjoys.
6. Grows thereby.
III. PARTICIPATION IN IT IS THE PRIVILEGE OF THE LORD'S
FAMILY. It is household bread.

1. The ungodly are self-excluded.
2. The qualification is the robe of righteousness,wornonly by the Lord's
children.
3. The children participate through —
(1)The Word;
(2)the sacrament.
(J. Irons.)
The bread of life
Preacher's Analyst.
I. A REPRESENTATIONOF OUR SAVIOUR.
1. Life is more valuable than all beside.
2. The Scripture represents religionas life.
3. How many people look like life, having the form of godliness without the
power.
4. The relation of Christ to this life. Bread which —
(1)nourishes;
(2)is corn bruised: so Christ was bruised for our iniquities;
(3)must be eaten, or is nothing to us: so Christ is nothing till applied.
II. THE MEANS OF DERIVING THIS BENEFIT:coming to Christ and
believing on Him. This reminds us —
1. That Christ is accessible.
2. That faith is not mere sentiment, but a principle of life.
3. Faith is not an isolatedbut a continuous act.

III. THE HAPPINESS HIS FOLLOWERS SHALL ENJOY.
1. They shall never thirst for the world. Worldly men desire nothing else.
2. They shall not hunger or thirst in vain. The new creature has wants and
appetites, but ample provision is made for their complete satisfaction.
3. They will not hunger or thirst always. "I shall be satisfied," etc.Application:
The subject is a standard by which we may estimate —
1. Christ.
2. Our faith.
3. The Christian.
(Preacher's Analyst.)
Christ the bread of life
Ralph Robinson.
The analogybetweenChrist and corporalmeat stands in these three
particulars:
1. Sustentation. Corporalmeat is for the preservation of the natural life. The
natural life is maintained by meat, through the concurrence of God's blessing.
It is pabulum vitae. Hence bread, under which all other provision is
comprehended, is calledthe staff of life (Isaiah 3:1). Keep the strongestman
from meat but a few days, and the life will extinguish and go out (1 Samuel
30:12). Jesus Christ is the maintainer and preserver of the spiritual life. As He
give it at first, so He upholds it. It is by continual influences from Him that the
life is kept from expiring. If He withdraw His influx never so little, the soul is
at the giving up of the ghost, even half-dead.
2. Vegetation. Corporalmeat is goodfor growth. It is by meat that the body is
brought from infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth, from youth to a
perfect man. Jesus Christ is He that carries on a Christian from infancy to
perfection. All the soul's growthand increase is from Christ. So the apostle,

"From Him the whole body having nourishment ministered," etc. (Colossians
2:19), The branches live and increase by virtue of the sap which is derived
from the root. Christians grow by virtue of the sapwhich is to them derived
from Jesus Christ. Every part grows by Christ.
3. Reparation. Meatis a repairer of nature's decays. Whenby some violent
sicknessthe spirits are consumed, the body wasted, the strength lost, meat,
fitly and seasonablytaken, helps, through the Divine blessing, to recallall
again:"his spirit came to him again" (1 Samuel 30:12). Jesus Christ is the
repairer of the soul's decays. Sometimes a believer, through the neglectof his
duty, through surfeiting upon sin, brings spiritual languishings upon himself;
his strength is decayed, his vigour is abated, his pulse beats very weakly, he
can scarcelycreepin the ways of God. In such a case JesusChristrecovers
him, repairs his breaches, andrenews his strength, as in former times, The
Psalmistspeaks ofthis: "He restorethmy soul: He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness forHis name's sake" (Psalm23:3). The saints have every day
experience of this restoring virtue of Christ.
(Ralph Robinson.)
Christ alone is the bread of life
C. H. Spurgeon.
Some have tried to staytheir hunger by the narcotics of scepticism, and others
have endeavouredto geteat through the drugs of fatalism. Many stave off
hunger by indifference, like the bears in winter, who are not hungry, because
they are asleep. But depend upon it the only way to meet hunger is to get
bread, and the only way to meet your soul's want is to get Christ, in whom
there is enough and to spare, but nowhere else.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Your fathers did eat manna

The bread of life and manna
W. Baxendale.
The Palestine ExplorationSociety, when they came to Tel Hum (Capernaum),
found what they believed to be the synagogue inwhich Jesus deliveredHis
discourse. In turning over the stones, it was with peculiarly sacredfeelings
that they found a large block with a pot of manna engravedon its face. Every
synagogue hadits symbol — one a lamb, another a candlestick, and this, the
pot of manna. We .cansee Jesus in His synagogue pointing with His finger to
this device over the main entrance, and saying, " Our fathers did eatmanna,"
etc.
(W. Baxendale.)
If any man eatof this bread, he shall live for ever
Christ the chosenfood of earnestChristians
C. H. Spurgeon.
When alone with Christ, it was heavenbelow; and in the prayer-meetings,
when God's people were warm at heart, how you delighted to unite with them!
The preaching was marrow and fatness to you. You did not mind walking a
long way on a wet night to hear about your Lord and Masterthen. It may be
there was no cushion to the seat, or you had to stand in the aisle. You did not
mind that. You are getting wonderfully dainty now; you cannot hear the poor
preacherwhose voice was once like music to you. You cannot enjoy the things
of God as once you did. Whose fault is that? The kitchen is the same, and the
food the same:the appetite has gone, I fear. How ravenous I was after God's
Word! how I would wake earlyin the morning to read those books that are
full of the deep things of God! I wanted none of your nonsensicalnovels, nor
your weeklytales, for which some of you pine, like children for sugarsticks.
Then one fed on manna that came from heaven, on Christ Himself. Those
were goodtimes in which everything was delightful.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)

The food of the soul
Bp. Ryle.
Few passageshave been so wrestedas this. Men have turned meat into poison.
I. WHAT THESE VERSES DO NOT MEAN.
1. Literal eating and drinking, or partaking of the Lord's Supper. We may eat
that, and yet not partake of Him. For —(1) A literal eating and drinking
would have been revolting to the Jews andcontradictory to their law.(2)To
take this literal view would be to interpose a bodily actbetweenthe soul and
salvation, for which there is no precedentin Scripture.(3) It would involve
most blasphemous and profane consequences. It would shut out from heaven
the penitent thief, and admit to heaventhousands of godless communicants.
2. This view arises from man's morbid habit of paltry and carnal sense on
Scriptural expressions. Mendislike that which makes the state of the heart the
principal thing.
II. WHAT THEY DO MEAN.
1. "Fleshand blood " means Christ's sacrifice.
2. "Eating and drinking" means receptionof Christ's sacrifice.
III. THE PRACTICAL LESSONS THEYSUGGEST.
1. That faith in Christ's atonement is necessaryto salvation.
2. That faith in the atonementunites us to the Saviour and entitles us to the
highest privileges.
3. That faith In the atonementis —
(1)A personalact;
(2)a daily act;
(3)a conscious act.

(Bp. Ryle.)
The food of the soul
J. M. Ludlow, D. D.
I. In Christ alone canwe have any CERTAIN RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE.
1. Soul hungers for the knowledge whichpertains to its nature and its relation
to its Creatorand destiny.
2. Christ is the Truth, and satisfies this hunger.
II. Christ is the food of the soul, because He alone SATISFIES OUR MORAL
NATURES.
1. Them is a sense in which every man hungers after righteousness. We seekto
relieve our troubled consciences —
(1)By extenuating our faults;
(2)by forgetting them;
(3)by seeking pardon through priests.
2. But there is no satisfactionbut in Christ. He sustains —
(1)By justifying grace;
(2)by positive holiness.
III. Christ is the bread of life in that from Him we have the HOPE OF THE
LIFE EVERLASTING.
1. No human speculationregarding the future, howeverpleasing, can kindle
real hope.
2. Christ hath brought life and immortality to light, and is "in us the hope of
glory."
(J. M. Ludlow, D. D.)

The food that Jesus gave to His own
W. Arnot, D. D.
1. To finish His work was bread to Himself; His work finished is bread to His
people.
2. His words were startling but necessary. The rock must be laid down
although superficial disciples may stumble, for it is the foundation of the true
disciples'faith and hope.
3. The Lord's Supper is not the subject here. Both sacraments are omitted in
John, but he records the fundamental doctrines on which they rest. In the
conversationwith Nicodemus we have the ground of the one; here the ground
of the other. Wanting Christ's sacrifice forsin the Supper would have
containednothing for us, and wanting faith in Christ crucified, we canget
nothing from the sacrament.
4. Hunger centres naturally in human souls, and men have attempted to
satisfy it —
(1)With the good things of this life;
(2)with the inanities of self-righteousness.In the text Christ shows the
satisfactionofthis hunger. We have —
I. ON THE PART OF CHRIST —
1. His incarnation: the Son as Man. Not man, a man, a sonof man. Neither a
son of man nor a Sonof Godcould be our Saviour. The one is near, but has no
power; the other has power, but is not near. The Incarnation combines
nearness with power to save.
2. His sacrifice. The Incarnation could not save us. Without shedding of blood
is no remission. Christ convergedall the testimonies from Abel's sacrifice to
His lastpassoveron Himself, the Lamb of God.

II. ON THE PART OF CHRISTIANS. Theybelieve and live. Although it is a
spiritual and not a material food, it is a real supply of a real hunger. The
soul's hunger for righteousnessand peace and God is a greaterthing than
bodily hunger, and must have a corresponding supply. This is found by the
believer. Christ's incarnation brings God near to Him, and His sacrifice
brings peace and righteousness. The believer thus has the life of God in
Christ. This life is —
1. Present.
2. Everlasting.
(W. Arnot, D. D.)
The vital relation to Christ
J. A. Beith, D. D.
I. HE PRESSESTHE GREAT DUTY OF CLOSING WITH HIM WHICH
HE HAD ALREADY SET BEFORE THEM.
1. This He did by representing to them the danger to which they would expose
themselves if they declined (ver. 53).
2. By directly announcing the blessings whichare to be obtained by obedience
(vers. 54, 55). To partake of Christ by faith secures —
(1)"Eternallife";
(2)the resurrection of the last day.
II. HE STATES AND ILLUSTRATES THE RELATION IN WHICH, WHEN
THEY CLOSE WITH HIM BY FAITH, HE STANDS TO BELIEVING
MEN.
1. It is a mutual indwelling of believers in Christ and of Christ in them (ver.
56).

2. It is a relation of the same kind as subsists betweenChrist and the Father
(ver. 57).
3. It is a relation, the certain effects ofwhich is life for evermore (ver. 58).
(J. A. Beith, D. D.)
Except ye eatthe flesh of the Son of Man
Eating Christ's flesh
W. Brock, D. D.
I. THE MEANING OF THE TEXT.
1. The Romanist holds that it refers to a participation of Christ's body in the
sacrament. But it cannot mean that; for —(1)The Lord's Supper had not been
instituted, and as Christ refers to a present duty and privilege, He could not
refer to something that did not then exist.(2)Judas partook of the Lord's
Supper; had he eternal life?(3)The dying thief did not partake of the Lord's
Supper, but he had eternal life.
2. The true meaning. Christ had said many things about bread, about Himself
as the true bread, and about their eating Him as this bread; and in ver: 51 He
declares that this bread and His flesh are one and the same thing. Let us, then,
try to understand —(1) What bread means. In ver. 35 belief, not literal
participation, is the process by which we become partakers ofeverlasting life.
But belief presupposes the existence of something to be believed. Then what is
there in Christ that I am to believe? Why, that He is the bread of life. It
follows that by "bread" we are to understand truth, and by eating reception
of that truth. The bread of life, then, is the doctrine of life — the revelation
made by Him who "hath abolisheddeath," etc. This is confirmed by the fact
—
(a)That the Old Testamentspeaks ofdoctrine as meat and drink: "Wisdom
hath killed her beastand she crieth, Come and eatof my bread, and drink of
the wine," etc.;and nothing was more common among the Jews than the

representationof doctrine under this form. How natural, then, that the
greatestJewishteachers shouldhave used this familiar figure to signify "I am
the doctrine of life."
(b)In ver. 63 Christ fully meets the difficulty; and that He was correctly
understood is seenby ver. 68.Note, then —
(a)That if bread means doctrine, then flesh means doctrine;
(b)that I am not confounding Christ's doctrines with Himself, but expounding
them. It is one of the greatdoctrines of this book, and let those who deny
Christ's Divinity look to it, that He is evermore the subject of His own
discourse. You might as welltake the light out of the sun, and call it the sun
still, as take Christ out of His teaching and call it His teaching still. Christ and
His doctrine are the same:"I am the truth."(2) What eating and drinking
mean.
(a)A sense ofneed — appetite.
(b)Activity towards some appropriate objectfor the supply of that need.
(c)Enjoyment in the use of the object.
(d)Resultant strength. This is eating and drinking literally.Spiritually, meat
and drink are before us in the form of doctrine.
(i.)There is hungering and thirsting after it.
(ii.)There is actiontoward Christ to getthat need supplied: what He
commands we obey; what He promises we expect;what He offers we accept.
(iii.)Then there is delight in Christ.
(iv.)Finally, spiritual strength: temptation is resisted, trial endured, work
done for God and man; and the evidence of a man's living on Christ is his
living for Christ.
II. Let me ENFORCETHE SENTIMENTOF THE TEXT.
1. There is a lessonof obligation. You have heard of Christ, His incarnation,
death, resurrection, etc. What has come out of the hearing? Hunger and

thirst? You feel uneasy often, and fear. I want that uneasiness andfear to
develop into a sense ofspiritual need. Let this stimulate actiontowards Christ;
then joy in Christ; then doing what Christ enjoins and avoiding what Christ
forbids.
2. A lessonofprivilege.
(1)The believer dwells in Christ; hence his safety.
(2)Christ dwells in him; hence his honour.
(3)Hence the believer's satisfaction"shallnever hunger or thirst."
(4)To crown it all, "eternallife." Life is the fullest capacityfor enjoyment;
then what must eternal life be?
(W. Brock, D. D.)
Truly eating the flesh of Jesus
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY EATING THE FLESH AND DRINKING THE
BLOOD OF CHRIST?
1. What is necessaryto it?(1) We must believe in the reality of Christ; not that
He was a myth, but that He was very God incarnate, who lived, died, and rose
again, and is now in His proper personality, sitting at the right hand of God,
from whence He will come to be our Judge.(2)We must believe in the death of
Christ, "blood," not as an example, but as the expiation of sin, a propitiation
through faith in His blood.
2. What is this act?(1)Appropriation. A man not only believes that bread is
proper food, he takes it. So we cannot feed on Christ until we make Him our
own, and for our individual selves: for we cannoteat for anybody else.(2)
Receiving into oneself. Breadis takennot to be laid aside or exhibited. Every
one must do this from the empress to the pauper: so the poorestand the
richest must receive Christ by faith.(3) Assimilation. Faith is to the soul what

the gastric juices are to the body; and so Christ by faith is taken up into the
understanding and heart, and becomes part of the renewedman. He becomes
our life.
3. Remarks to set this forth in a clearermanner.(1) Christ is as needful to the
soul as bread is to the body.(2) Meatand drink do really satisfy. The supply of
Christ is as real as the need of Him.(3) A hungry man is not appeasedby
talking about feeding, but by eating. So Christ beckons youto a banquet not
to look on, but to feast.(4)In healthy eating there is a relish.(5) Eating times as
to the body come severaltimes a day, so take care that you partake of Christ
often. Do not live on old experiences.(6)It is well to have set times for eating.
People are not likely to flourish who have no regular meals. So there should be
appointed times for communion with Christ.(7) The flesh and blood of Christ
are foods suitable for all conditions, for babes in Christ as well as old men, for
sick Christians and healthy.
II. WHAT ARE THE VIRTUES OF THIS EATING AND DRINKING?
1. Life is essential(ver. 53). If you have no life in you you have nothing that is
good. The sinner is dead, and there is no life to be "developed" and
"educated" in him. Any goodthat may come to him must be by impartation,
and it can never come to him but by eating the flesh, etc. Convictions of sin
are of no use, nor ordinances, nor profession, nor morality. This is vital (ver.
54) for soul and body.
2. Substantial. "Meatindeed," etc. The Jewishfeasting was a mere shadow:so
is pleasure, etc.
3. It produces union (ver. 56).
(1)To live in Christ is the peace of justification.
(2)ForChrist to live in us is the peace of sanctification.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The meat and drink of the new nature

C. H. Spurgeon.
I. WHAT CHRIST MUST BE TO US. Our meat and drink, our everything.
1. The doctrine of God incarnate must be the food of our soul.
2. We must feed on Christ's sufferings.
3. This meat is not intended to be lookedat, but to feedupon by the heart's
belief.
4. By this means the believer realizes union with Christ.
II. WHAT IS BOUND UP IN THIS EATING AND DRINKING?
1. He who has not so eatenand drank has no spiritual life at all.
2. All who have receivedJesus in this manner have eternal life.
3. They have efficient nourishment and satisfaction.
4. Christ dwells in them and is their strength.
5. They live in Christ and are secure.
III. WHAT REFLECTIONS ARISE OUT OF THIS TRUTH? If I have a life
that feeds on Christ!
1. What a wonderful life it must be!
2. How strong it must be!
3. How immortal it must be! —
4. How it must develop!
5. What company he that is fed must keep.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Meatand drink indeed

R. Tuck, B. A.
I. HOW CAN THE LORD JESUS GIVE US HIS FLESH TO EAT?
1. In all Christ said He realized that the body is not the man. He was always
seeking to win the soul's faith which would be the man's life. We have bodies;
we are souls.
2. Since we are spirits there is fitting food for us, and Christ warns us off from
fleshly ideas by saying, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth." Christ is the soul's
food in His humanity, character, example, sacrifice, spiritual communions.
3. Nothing else cansatisfy like this. Every receptive faculty of our soul canlive
on that incarnate life and renew strength. "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me."
4. Christ is the food of the soulin that He provides and adapts Godfor
man.(1) "In" God "we live, and move, and have our being."(2)But man has
failed to live in God. "Godis not in all his thoughts." Our souls have lost their
home food, preferring to it "the husks which the swine do eat."(3)But God
graciouslyoffers Himself to us in Christ Jesus.
II. HOW CAN WE BE SAID TO EAT THE FLESH OF THE LORD JESUS.
We are obliged to speak of spiritual powers in language only worthy to
representthe bodily powers.
1. There is a soul eye which receives the impressionof the beauties of the
Divine handiwork. The physical eye sees allthings alike.
2. The soul ear can catchDivine harmonies to which the physical ear is deaf.
3. The hand of the soul gives all the meaning to what is done by the physical
hand.
4. Christ only extended this when He representedthe soul as having a mouth
and a faculty of digestion. Eating and drinking is a going out of ourselves to
lay hold of something outside ourselves that it may become part of ourselves.
Men do not live on themselves. Only God being an all-sufficient Spirit cando
that. The relation of the soul to outside food we call eating and drinking,

believing, thinking, loving, communing. "Mandoes not live by bread
alone."We eatthe flesh of Jesus —
1. By the appropriations of faith. Whateverwe believe we take into ourselves.
2. By the cherishing of thoughts; by meditations on the perfections of Christ.
3. By the communings of love. We know how two lovely souls in close
fellowship nourish in one another all that is lovely, pure, and
good.Conclusion:
1. What a dignity our Lord has put on the most ordinary acts of life.
2. Lest we should lose this sacrednessoutof our common eating and drinking,
Christ has set apart one eating time peculiar to Himself.
(R. Tuck, B. A.)
Bp. Beveridge.
I. WHAT IS HERE UNDERSTOODBYFLESH AND BLOOD?
1. Notas the Capernaites did, in a carnalsense, but in a spiritual.
2. As symbolizing the effects ofHis body broken and His blood shed, or the
merits of His death and passion, as
(1)The pardon of sin by His merit (Matthew 26:28).
(2)The purification of our hearts by His Spirit.
3. The glorification of our souls in His presence (John17:24).
II. IN WHAT SENSE ARE THEY SAID TO BE MEAT AND DRINK?
1. Is the body preservedin health by meat and drink?
2. Made strong?

3. Kept in life?
4. Refreshed? So is the soul by the merits of Christ.
III. How is it called meat INDEED, and drink INDEED?
1. Negatively. Notas if Christ's body was really meat for the body, nor as if
His body and blood were substantially turned into realmeat and drink, nor as
if He referred to any corporealeating of Himself in the sacraments, as the
Papists hold, basing transubstantiation on this text; not considering(1)That
He speaks not of a sacramental, but of a spiritual eating, as appears
(a)in that the sacramentwas not ordained (John 6:4; John 7:2).
(b)In that he that eateth not of this bread shall die (ver. 53), whereas Every
one that eatethit shall live (vers. 51, 54, 56).(2)Suppose the Sacrament
referred to it, it would not import any transubstantiation of the bread and
wine into the body and blood of Christ, but rather the transubstantiation of
the body and blood of Christ into bread and wine.
2. Positively;because it really, and not only in show, does that for the soul
which food does for the body (see chap. John 15:1). Nay, in some sense, Christ
is more really our meat than bread canbe.(1) He nourishes our souls, this only
our bodies.(2)He so nourishes us that we shall be for ever satisfied(ver. 35),
this not.(3) Bodily food so preserves our lives that sometimes it destroys them;
but never so Christ.(4) Foodpreserves but our natural, Christ nourishes us to
an eternal life (vers. 51, 58).USES.
1. (ver. 27).
2. Do not only labour for it, but feed upon it —
(1)Believingly (ver. 35).
(2)Thankfully.
(Bp. Beveridge.)

J. Flavel.
I. THE RESEMBLANCEBETWEENTHE FLESH AND BLOOD OF
CHRIST AND MEAT AND DRINK.
1. Both are necessary, the one for the soul, the other for the body.
2. Both are sweetand desirable to the hungry and thirsty.
3. Both have to undergo an alteration before they actually nourish. Corn has
to be ground, and Christ had to suffer.
4. Both have a natural union with us.
5. Both must be frequently partakenof.
II. THE TRANSCENDENT EXCELLENCYOF CHRIST'S FLESHAND
BLOOD.
1. They were assumedinto the nearestunion with the secondPersonin the
Holy Trinity.
2. They were offered up to God as the greatsacrifice for our sins and
purchase of our peace (Colossians 1:20;Ephesians 5:2).
3. They are the greatmedium of conveyance of all blessings and mercies to
believers (Colossians1:14-19).USES.
1. Of information.
(1)See here the love of the Saviour.
(2)Learn hence a ground of contentin the lowestcondition.
(3)Learn the necessityoffaith. What is a feastto him who cannot taste it?
(4)How excellentare gospelordinances whichset Christ forth.
2. Of exhortation.
(1)Come with hungry appetites.
(2)Feedheartily on Christ.

(J. Flavel.)
The food that gives life
A. Maclaren, D. D.
I. THE FOOD. Familiarity with these words and mental indolence have dulled
our sense oftheir strangeness. Howeverunintelligible to their hearers, they
must have been felt in putting forth strange claims. On any other lips they
would have been felt to have been absurd and blasphemous. Upon Christ's
lips they are that or something very wonderful. He presents the food of the
soul in two forms.
1. He proposes Himself. "He that eatethMe."(1)Here you come across the
greatcharacteristic ofChristianity, that it is all in the personalChrist. The
greatnote is, "I bear witness of Myself."(2)He sets Himself forth here as the
sufficient nourishment for my whole nature.(a) Do I want truth of any kind
exceptmere physical or mathematicaltruth? I getit here, social, ethical,
spiritual, religious. He is Wisdom: He is Truth.(b) Does my heart want
nourishing with the selectedelixir of love? His love is the only food for the
hungry heart which does not bring bitterness or turn to ashes.(c)Doesmy will
want for its strength some law knownto be goodand deeply loved. I must go
to the Master, and in His loving personality find the authority which sways,
and by swaying emancipates the human will.(3) He proposes Himself as the
food for the whole world. If He is enough for me He is enoughfor all, and
comes in living contactwith all the generations right on to the end of time.
2. He offers His flesh and blood; His earthly life and violent death. It is not
enough to speak in generalterms of the personal Christ as being the food of
the spirit. We must feed upon the dying Christ, and lay hold of His sacrifice,
and realize that His shed blood transfused in mystical fashion into the veins of
our spirits is there the throbbing source oflife which circulates through the
whole of the inmost being.

II. THE ACT OF EATING THIS FOOD. The metaphysical language is
familiar in many applications. We speak of tasting sorrow, eating bitter
bread, feeding on love.
1. This participation is effectedby faith.(1) "He that cometh... believeth." By
the simple act of trust in Him. You may be beside Him for a thousand years,
and if there is no faith there is no union. You may be separatedfrom Him, as
we are, in time by nineteen centuries; in condition, by the difference between
mortality and glory; in distance, by all the measurelessspacebetweenthe
footstooland the throne; and if there go from your heart an electric wire,
howsoeverslenderand fragile, you are knit to Him and derive into your heart
the fulness of His cleansing power.(2)This trust is the activity of the whole
nature, for faith has in it intellect, affection, and will.
2. The original expressionis employed to describe the actof eating by
ruminating animals; a leisurely and pleasurable partaking; an act slow and
meditative and repeated, which dwells upon Him. The reasonwhy so many
Christians are such poor weaklings is because they do not thus feed on Christ.
The cheaptripper cannot take in the beauty of the landscape. You cannot
know any man in a hurried interview, so in these hurrying days how few of us
ruminate about Christ.
3. Our Lord here uses a grammatical form which indicates the continual
persistance ofthis meditative faith. Yesterday's portion will not stay to-day's
hunger.
III. THE CONSEQUENTLIFE.
1. Separate from Christ we are dead. We may live the life of animals, an
intellectual life, a life of desires and hopes and fears, a moral life; but the true
life of man is not in these. It is only that which comes by union with and
derivation from God.
2. Breadnourishes life, 'this bread communicates life. The indwelling Christ is
the source oflife to me.
3. This spiritual life in the present has, as its necessaryconsequence, a future
completion. If Christ is in my heart the life He brings can never stop its

regenerative and transforming activities until it has influenced the whole of
my nature to the very circumference (ver. 54).
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
We must feed upon Christ
C. H. Spurgeon.
Why should we be hungering and thirsting, when Christ has given us His flesh
to be meat indeed, and His blood to be drink indeed? Why should we be
hanging down our heads like bulrushes to-day, when the Lord loves us, and
would have His joy to he in us, that our joy may be full? Why are we so
dispirited by our infirmities, when we know that Jehovahis our strength and
our song, He also has become our salvation? I tell you, brethren, we do not
possessourpossessions.We are like an Israelite who should say, "Yes, those
terraces ofland are mine. Those vineyards and olives and figs and
pomegranates are mine. Those fields of wheatand barley are mine; yet I am
starving." Why do you not drink the blood of the grapes? He answers, "Ican
scarcelytell you why, but so it is — I walk through the vineyards, and I
admire the clusters, but I never taste them. I gather the harvest, and I thrash
it on the barn-floor; but I never grind it into corn, nor comfort my heart with
a morsel of bread." Surely this is wretchedwork I Is it not folly carried to an
extreme? I trust the children of God will not copy this madness. Let our
prayer be that we may use and enjoy to the utmost all that the Lord has given
us in His grace.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
"No life" without feeding upon Christ
C. H. Spurgeon.
You know the modern theory that there are germs alike in all men which only
need developing. This is a philosophicalnotion, but it is not God's way of

putting it. He says, "No life in you." No, not an atom of true life. The sinner is
dead, and in him is no life whatever. If ever there is to be any goodthing come
into him it will have to come into him; it must be an importation, and it can
never come into him exceptin connectionwith his eating the flesh and
drinking the blood of Christ.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The blood of Christ our only hope
It is recorded of Samuel Pearce, a useful and much blessedminister at
Birmingham, that, at the time of his conversion, having read Doddridge's
"Rise and Progress ofReligionin the Soul," he took up the idea suggestedin
that book, and resolvedformally to dedicate himself to the Lord. He drew up
a covenantaccordingly, and to make it more solemn and binding he signed it
with blood drawn from his own body. But afterwards, failing in his vows, he
was plunged into greatdistress. Driven therefore into a more complete
examination of his motives, he was led to see that he had been relying too
much on his own strength; and, carrying the blood-signed covenantto the top
of his father's house, he tore it into pieces and scatteredit to the winds, and
resolvedhenceforth to depend upon the peace-making andpeace-keeping
blood of Christ.
Christ the true food and drink of believers
Ralph Robinson.
In respectof that typical meat which the Jews had lately spokenof (ver. 31),
"Our fathers did eatmanna in the desert," etc., ourSaviour tells them that is
but typical bread, but His flesh is bread indeed; it is the realsubstance, of
which that was but a mere type and shadow. Thus for explication. The
observationis this.
1. That the Lord Jesus Christ is really and truly the food and meat of
believers. Fleshis here put for the whole person of Christ. Jesus Christ, as lie

is held out in the Scriptures, is the true, real, and very meat of believing
Christians; Christ, as He is propounded in the gospel, dead, broken, crucified.
Christ, in all His perfection, completeness, fulness, is meat indeed to a true
believer. It is the very scope of this sermon, from ver. 27 to 59, in which this
truth is inculcated over and over again, and all objections answeredwhichthe
carnalreasonand unbelief of man's heart canmake againstit. All other food,
in respectof this, is but "cibi tantummodo umbra et vana imago," as
Cameronsaith. As natural life, in respectof the spiritual, is but a shadow of
life; so the meat that is appointed for the natural life, if compared with the
meat of the spiritual life, is but a very image of meat. Christ's flesh is real
meat.
2. The blood of Jesus Christ is drink indeed. Blood is here put for the whole
person, as flesh was. And it is rather His blood is drink than that He is drink;
because the great efficacyof all Christ did lies principally in His blood
(Hebrews 9:22). And in the same respects as His flesh is said to be meat
indeed, His blood is said to be drink indeed. And those three things which
concur to the act of eating His flesh concur also to this actof drinking His
blood, the mystical union, saving faith, the ordinances.
(Ralph Robinson.)
How Christ is to be fed upon
Ralph Robinson.
1. In the ordinances. These are the conduits. Jesus Christ hath instituted and
appointed His ordinances to be the means of carrying His nourishing virtue to
the soul. The ordinances are the dishes of goldupon which this heavenly meat
is brought. Prayer, reading, preaching, meditation, holy conference, the
sacrament;in these Christ presents Himself to the soul. He that forsakes these
can expectno feeding from Christ. "In this mountain will the Lord of hosts
make a feastof fat things." etc. (Isaiah25:6). The feastis made in the
mountain of God's house, and the ordinances are the dishes on which this
meat is set and the knives by which it is carvedout to the soul.

2. Saving lively faith. This is the instrument. What the hand and mouth and
stomachare in the corporal eating that is faith in this spiritual eating. Faith is
the hand that takes this meat, the mouth that eats it, and the stomachthat
digests it. Yea, faith is as the veins and arteries that do disperse and carry this
nourishment to every powerof the soul. This is abundantly clearedin this
very chapter (ver. 35), "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; he that
believeth in Me shall never thirst." "Cometh" is expounded by "believeth."
Eating and drinking are here put for believing. Crede et manducasti. He that
believes eats, and he that eats not it is because he believes not; Hic edere est
credere.
(Ralph Robinson.)
We must feed upon Christ for ourselves
Sword and Trowel.
Dr. Bonar, in his "Memoirof M'Cheyne," says ofhim: "He seems invariably
to have applied for his personalbenefit what he gave out to his people. We
have already noticed how he used to feed on the Word, not in order to prepare
himself for the people, but for personaledification. To do so was a
fundamental rule with him; and all pastors will feelthat, if they are to prosper
in their own souls, they must so use the Word — sternly refusing to admit the
idea of feeding others until satiatedthem- selves. And for similar ends it is
needful that we let the truth we hear preachedsink down into our ownsouls.
We, as wellas our people, must drink in the falling showers. Mr. M'Cheyne
did so. It is common to find him speaking thus: "July 31, Sabbath afternoon
— on Judas betraying Christ; much more tenderness than ever I felt before.
Oh, that I might abide in the bosom of Him who washedJudas'feet, and
dipped His hand in the same dish with him, and warnedhim, and grievedover
him — that I might catchthe infection of His love, of His tenderness, so
wonderful, so unfathomable!'"
(Sword and Trowel.)

COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(53) Then Jesus saidunto them.—This is hardly strong enough for the
original. It is rather, Jesus therefore saidunto them. The words follow upon
those he has heard from them.
Some of them have spoken of eating His flesh. Others may even have pressed
this to the reductio ad horribile. Eat His flesh! Shall we, then, drink His blood
too? In no less than seven passagesofthe Pentateuchhad the eating of blood
been forbidden (Genesis 9:4;Leviticus 3:17; Leviticus 7:26-27;Leviticus
17:10-14;Leviticus 19:26;Deuteronomy 12:16;Deuteronomy 12:23-24;
Deuteronomy 15:23);and we find in later times the strength of the feeling of
abhorrence, as in 1Samuel14:32, and Ezekiel33:25, and in the decree of the
first Judæo-ChristianCouncil (Acts 15:29). In the fullest of these passages
(Leviticus 17:10-14), the prohibition is grounded upon the facts that the blood
is the physical seatof animal life, and that the blood maketh atonement for the
soul. It was the life-element poured out before God insteadof the life of the
soul that sinned. Such would be the thoughts of those who strove among
themselves as to what His words could mean; and to these thoughts He speaks
with the “Verily, verily,” which ever expressesa spiritual truth that He alone
could reveal.
Except ye eatthe flesh of the Son of man.—The words point more definitely
than those which have gone before to His death. The blood is spokenof as
distinct from the flesh, and in this is involved physical death. The eating the
flesh would itself involve, as we have seenabove, the thoughts of sacrifice and
of sustenance, the removal of the death-penalty attachedto sin, and the
strength of life sustainedby food. But the spiritual truth is fuller and deeper
than this; and the true element of life in the souldepends upon such
communion with Christ as is expressedby drinking the blood itself: that is, by
receiving into the human spirit the atonement representedby it. and with this
the very principle of life. They may not receive into the human frame the
principle of animal life, but no man really has spiritual life who does not

receive into the inmost source ofhis being the life-principle revealedin the
person of Christ. This is to pass through and through his moral frame, like the
blood which traverses the body, hidden from sight, but passing from the
central heart through artery and vein, bearing life in its course to muscle, and
nerve, and tissue. It is to traverse the soul, passing from the Eternal Life and
Love, which is the heart of the universe, through the humanity of Christ, and
carrying in its course life and energyfor every child of man.
Life in you.—More exactly, life in yourselves. This is more fully expressedin
John 6:56-57.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
6:52-59 The flesh and blood of the Son of man, denote the Redeemerin the
nature of man; Christ and him crucified, and the redemption wrought out by
him, with all the precious benefits of redemption; pardon of sin, acceptance
with God, the way to the throne of grace, the promises of the covenant, and
eternal life. These are calledthe flesh and blood of Christ, because they are
purchased by the breaking his body, and the shedding of his blood. Also,
because they are meat and drink to our souls. Eating this flesh and drinking
this blood mean believing in Christ. We partake of Christ and his benefits by
faith. The soul that rightly knows its state and wants, finds whatevercan calm
the conscience,and promote true holiness, in the redeemer, God manifest in
the flesh. Meditating upon the cross ofChrist gives life to our repentance,
love, and gratitude. We live by him, as our bodies live by our food. We live by
him, as the members by the head, the branches by the root: because he lives
we shall live also.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
In these verses Jesus repeats whathe had in substance said before.
Except ye eatthe flesh ... - He did not mean that this should be understood
literally, for it was never done, and it is absurd to suppose that it was intended
to be so understood. Nothing can possibly be more absurd than to suppose
that when he instituted the Supper, and gave the bread and wine to his

disciples, they literally ate his flesh and drank his blood. Who can believe this?
There he stood, a living man - his body yet alive, his blood flowing in his veins;
and how canit be believed that this body was eatenand this blood drunk? Yet
this absurdity must be held by those who hold that the bread and wine at the
communion are "changedinto the body, blood, and divinity of our Lord." So
it is taught in the decrees ofthe Council of Trent; and to such absurdities are
men driven when they depart from the simple meaning of the Scriptures and
from common sense. It may be added that if the bread and wine used in the
Lord's Supper were not changedinto his literal body and blood when it was
first instituted, they have never been since.
The Lord Jesus would institute it just as he meant it should be observed, and
there is nothing now in that ordinance which there was not when the Saviour
first appointed it. His body was offeredon the cross, and was raisedup from
the dead and receivedinto heaven. Besides,there is no evidence that he had
any reference in this passageto the Lord's Supper. That was not yet
instituted, and in that there was no literal eating of his flesh and drinking of
his blood. The plain meaning of the passage is, that by his bloody death - his
body and his blood offeredin sacrifice forsin - he would procure pardon and
life for man; that they who partook of that, or had an interest in that, should
obtain eternallife. He uses the figure of eating and drinking because that was
the subjectof discourse;because the Jews prided themselves much on the fact
that their fathers had eaten manna; and because, as he had said that he was
the bread of life, it was natural and easy, especiallyin the language whichhe
used, to carry out the figure, and say that bread must be eaten in order to be
of any avail in supporting and saving men. To eat and to drink, among the
Jews, was also expressive ofsharing in or partaking of the privileges of
friendship. The happiness of heaven and all spiritual blessings are often
representedunder this image, Matthew 8:11; Matthew 26:29;Luke 14:15, etc.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
53-58. Exceptye eatthe flesh … and drink the blood … no life, &c.—The
harshestword He had yet uttered in their ears. They askedhow it was
possible to eat His flesh. He answers, withgreatsolemnity, "It is
indispensable." Yet even here a thoughtful hearer might find something to

temper the harshness. He says they must not only "eatHis flesh" but "drink
His blood," which could not but suggestthe idea of His death—implied in the
separationof one's flesh from his blood. And as He had already hinted that it
was to be something very different from a natural death, saying, "My flesh I
will give for the life of the world" (Joh 6:51), it must have been pretty plain to
candid hearers that He meant something above the gross idea which the bare
terms expressed. And farther, when He added that they "had no life in them
unless they thus ate and drank," it was impossible they should think He meant
that the temporal life they were then living was dependent on their eating and
drinking, in this gross sense,His flesh and blood. Yet the whole statementwas
certainly confounding, and beyond doubt was meant to be so. Our Lord had
told them that in spite of all they had "seen" in Him, they "did not believe"
(Joh 6:36). Fortheir conviction therefore he does not here lay Himself out;
but having the earnot only of them but of the more candid and thoughtful in
the crowdedsynagogue,and the miracle of the loaves having led up to the
most exalted of all views of His Personand Office, He takes advantage of their
very difficulties and objections to announce, for all time, those most profound
truths which are here expressed, regardlessofthe disgust of the unteachable,
and the prejudices even of the most sincere, which His language would seem
only designedto deepen. The truth really conveyedhere is no other than that
expressedin Joh6:51, though in more emphatic terms—that He Himself, in
the virtue of His sacrificialdeath, is the spiritual and eternallife of men; and
that unless men voluntarily appropriate to themselves this death, in its
sacrificialvirtue, so as to become the very life and nourishment of their inner
man, they have no spiritual and eternal life at all. Not as if His death were the
only thing of value, but it is what gives all else in Christ's Incarnate Person,
Life, and Office, their whole value to us sinners.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
The short and true sense ofthese words is, that without a true believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ, as he who died for our sins, no man hath any thing in him
of true spiritual life, nor shall ever come to eternal life. Here are two questions
arise from this verse and what follows.

1. Whether the flesh of Christ, that is, his human nature, giveth life, or all our
life flowethfrom the Divine nature? That is a question betweenthe Lutherans
and the Calvinists; the former affirming, that there is a quickening virtue in
the human nature of Christ by virtue of its personalunion with the Divine
nature. It is a curious question, serving to up greatedification; those who have
a mind to be satisfiedin it, and to read what is said on either side, may read
Tarnovius on this text, and Zanchy, in his book Deu Incarnatione, p. 540.
2. The other is a question betweenthe papists and us, Whether this and the
following verses spake any thing about the eating of the flesh and drinking the
blood of Christ in the sacrament. All protestants deny it, both Lutherans and
Calvinists. The papists most absurdly affirm it, to maintain their most absurd
doctrine of transubstantiation.
The vanity of their assertion, as to this text, appears:
1. Becauseit was a yearand upwards after this before the sacramentof the
Lord’s supper was instituted; and it is very absurd to think that our Saviour
should speak ofan institution not in being, his doctrine about it being what it
was impossible people should understand. Nor:
2. Is the proposition true, of sacramentaleating;for many may have never
sacramentallyeatenthe flesh and drank the blood of Christ, and yet be
spiritually alive, and be saved eternally. Besides thatmere sacramentaleating
the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ will not give life; but the eating here
spokenof giveth life, eternallife, John 6:56,58.
3. Besides,it is plain from John 6:29, that the eating here spokenof is
believing; but it is plain, that eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ

in the sacramentis not believing. By all which, it is apparent, that our Saviour
saith nothing in this text of a sacramentaleating the flesh and drinking the
blood of Christ.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Then Jesus saidunto them,.... The Jews, who were litigating this point among
themselves:
verily, verily, I sayunto you; or you may assure yourselves of the truth of
what follows,
exceptye eatthe flesh of the sonof man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in
you: by "the son of man", Christ means himself; under which title he often
speaks ofhimself; because it was a title of the Messiahunder the Old
Testament;and was expressive ofthe truth of his human nature, though as
attended with weaknessandinfirmities. The "flesh" and "blood" of Christ do
not designthose distinct parts of his body; much less as separate from each
other; nor the whole body of Christ, but his whole human nature; or Christ,
as having united a perfect human nature to him, in order to shed his blood for
the remissionof sin, and to offer up his soul and body a sacrifice for it: and
the eating of these is not to be understood of a corporealeating of them, as the
Capernaites understoodthem; and since them the Papists, who affirm, that
the bread and wine in the Lord's supper are transubstantiated into the very
body and blood of Christ, and so eaten:but this is not to be understood of
eating and drinking in the Lord's supper, which, as yet, was not instituted;
and some, without participating of this, have spiritual life in them now, and
will enjoy eternal life hereafter; and all that partake of that ordinance have
not the one, nor shall have the other: and besides, having a principle of
spiritual life in the soul, is previously necessaryto a right eating of the supper
of the Lord. These words, understoodin this sense, once introduced infants to
the Lord's supper; as misinterpretation of John 3:5 brought in the baptism of
them. But the words designa spiritual eating of Christ by faith. To eatthe
flesh, and drink the blood of Christ, is to believe that Christ is come in the
flesh, and is truly and really man; that his flesh is given for the life of his
people, and his blood is shed for their sins, and this with some view and

application to themselves:it is to partake of, and enjoy the severalblessings of
grace procured by him, such as redemption, pardon, peace, justification, &c.
and such a feeding upon him as is attended with growth in grace, and in the
knowledge ofhim, and is daily to be repeated, as our corporealfoodis,
otherwise persons have no life in them: without this there, is no evidence of
life in them; not such live as feed on sinful pleasures, or on their own
righteousness;only such that believe in Christ are living souls;and without
this there is nothing to support life; everything else that a man eats tends to
death; but this is what will maintain and preserve a spiritual life; and without
this there is no just expectationof eternal life; but where there is this, there is
goodreasonto expectit, and such shall enjoy it: some copies and versions
read, "ye shall not have life in you"; eternal life. Now, though the acts of
eating and drinking do not give the right to eternal life, but the flesh, blood,
and righteousness ofChrist, which faith lays hold, and feeds upon; yet it is by
faith the right is claimed; and betweenthese acts of faith, and eternal life,
there is an inseparable connection.
Geneva Study Bible
Then Jesus saidunto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the
flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have {s} no life in you.
(s) If Christ is present, life is present, but when Christ is absent, then death is
present.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Expositor's Greek Testament
John 6:53-54. εἶπεν οὖν … ἡμέρᾳ. Instead of explaining the mode Jesus merely
reiterates the statement. The reasonof this is that their attention was thus
more likely to be fixed on the necessityofusing Him as the living bread. The
difficulty of the statement disappears when it is perceivedthat the figure of
speechis not to be found in the words “flesh” and “blood,” but in the words
“eating” and “drinking”. The actual flesh and blood, the human life of Christ,
was given for men; and men eat His flesh and drink His blood, when they use
for their ownadvantage His sacrifice, whenthey assimilate to their own being

all the virtue that was in Him, and that was manifested for their sakes. As
Lücke points out, the σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα form togetherone conceptionand are
equivalent to the με of John 6:57. If αἷμα stoodalone it might refer especially
to the death of Christ, but takenalong with σάρξ it is more natural to refer
the double expressionto the whole manifestation of Christ; and the “eating
and drinking” can only mean the complete acceptanceofHim and union with
Him as thus manifested. [τρώγω, originally the munching of herbivorous
animals, was latterly applied to ordinary human eating.]
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
53. Then said Jesus]Better, Therefore saidJesus:see on John 6:45.
and drink his blood] Christ not only accepts whatthey have added to His
words, but still further startles them by telling them that they must drink His
Blood; an amazing statement to a Jew, who was forbidden to taste even the
blood of animals (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:10-16). Thesewords point still
more distinctly to His propitiatory death; for ‘the blood is the life’ which He
offered up for the sins of the world. The eating and drinking are not faith, but
the appropriation of His death; faith leads us to eat and drink and is the
means of appropriation. Takenseparately, the Fleshrepresents sacrifice and
sustenance, the Bloodrepresents atonement and life.
no life in you] Literally, no life in yourselves:for the source of life is absent.
The next four verses explain more fully how this is.
Bengel's Gnomen
John 6:53. Ἐὰν μή, if you do not) The Jews were questioning as to the
possibility: Jesus replies as to the necessity:for in fact the latter infers the
former.
Pulpit Commentary

Verses 53, 54. - Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I sayunto you, Exceptye
have eatenthe flesh of the Sonof man, and have drunk his blood, ye have not
life in yourselves. He that eateth (τρώγων, "eatethwith pleasure, eagerness,"
is repeatedfour times, as perhaps a strongerexpressionthan φάγων) my flesh
and drinketh my blood, hath eternallife; and I will raise him up at the last
day. This result, it should be seen, is identical with the promises made to
"beholding," "coming," "believing." Life and resurrection will really follow
these acts and conditions; but then it is obvious that "beholding," "coming,"
"believing," must veritably coverwhat is contained in this last statement.
There is no mere tautology. These words express more fully the original
condition. They are not new conditions, but a further imaginative exposition
of the former ones. The believing involves an assimilationinto the very
substance of the believer's nature of that which he here specifies as "fleshand
blood." Reuss and Luthardt, and to some extent Moulton, admit that by
"fleshand blood" he means no more than "flesh;" that under "flesh" is
included "blood;" that by both he simply means "himself." Lunge urges that
by "flesh" is meant "human nature" - his "manhood;" but by "fleshand
blood" (see Matthew 16:17;Galatians 1:16), "inherited nature" - the
humanity of Christ in "historicalmanifestation." But he passes onto say that
this manifestationculminates, is completed, in death, and, thus completed, the
life of Christ is the nourishment of the real life of man. Tholuck: "The
addition of αῖμα to σὸρξ only expresses,by its main constituents, the sensible
human nature." The greatbulk of interpreters take the additional mention of
drinking of his blood to connote an entire acceptance ofthe atoning sacrifice,
of the Paschalbloodshedding, to be effectedfor the deliverance of the world
(so Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Lucke, Neander, Keim, Meyer, Weiss,
etc.). "Eating of the flesh," then, would mean acceptanceofhis humanity, of
the manifestationof the eternal love in the Son of man; and "drinking his
blood" would mean entire mental assimilationalso of the terrible culmination
of his mission in violent, sacrificialdeath. This momentous condition of life
eternal is statedboth negatively and positively. Without the participation in
this twofold aspectofthe Lord and his work, there is no life. Unless "coming
to him," "believing on him," means an acceptanceofhis humanity, an
apprehension of that Personalityin whom the Word was incarnate, and an
utter surrender of the soul to the rending of that flesh and shedding of the

blood which is the life, i.e. to the death of the Son of man, it is not the coming
to him and believing on him of which he has already spoken. He that does thus
eat and drink will satisfy a craving after nourishment and refreshment. Unless
a man consciouslyorunconsciouslyaccepts, absorbs,the sublime and
wondrous gift of the Divine humanity from the secondMan, the Lord from
heaven, rather than from the first man, he has no life in himself. Human
nature apart item the new creationand the new beginning is a dying, not a
living, entity. The new life quickened by the Incarnation is not all that Christ
would give. The blood of the Son of man, to be acceptedin the same way. is a
further expositionof the object of faith. The "eating" and "drinking" are
therefore phrases which portray the very intimate and close form of that
contactwith, and dependence upon, the incarnation and the sacrifice ofthe
Son of God, which Christ erewhile defines in broader, vaguer metaphor. A
greatquestion has arisenon these verses - whether our Lord is pointing to, or
making prophetic reference to, the institution of the Eucharist, about which
the fourth evangelistis strangelysilent. Certain of the early Fathers -
Chrysostom, Cyril, and Theophylact - have given it this meaning, though the
greatbulk of the patristic writers - Ignatius, Irenseus, Origen, Clemens Alex.,
Tertullian, and even Cyprian (though the passagemaybe applied by them to
the Eucharistas one way or method of spiritually eating and drinking the Son
of man) - do most obviously interpret the passageitselfof direct and spiritual,
not the indirect and sacramentalmanducation of the living Bread. The same
view is presented by Eusebius, Athanasius, and Cyril of Alexandria. For the
first four centuries all that was done was to apply the argument of ch. 6, in
order to press the importance of communicating sacramentally. This led the
Romanistwriters to go further, and regard the participation in the
sacramentalbody and blood as essentialto life eternal. Pope Innocent I.,
Bishop of Rome, A.D. 402, was the first distinguished man who brought up
out of this passage"the necessityof communicating infants;" and from the
time of his synodicalepistle (A.D. 417)the Latin Chinches interpreted the
passage, "Exceptyou receive the Eucharist, you have no life in you." The
views of Augustine were vacillating or are dubious. Fulgentius shows that he
had, to some extent, broken loose from this narrow view when he concluded
that baptism without the Eucharist did convey all the benefits of the body and
blood of Christ. Numerous Schoolmen(see Albertinus, 'De Eucharistia,'lib.

i.e. 30; and Wake, 'Disc. ofthe Eucharist,' p. 20) rejectedthe sacramental
interpretation, and the Reformers mostjustly repudiated it. Luther,
Melancthon, Beza, Grotius, Owen, Lampe, Cocceius, assertedthat the whole
constructionof the passage, whichtreats "coming," "believing," as the
complete conditions of life and resurrection, must not be held to transform an,
as yet, uninstituted ceremonialinto the sole method of "believing."
Notwithstanding this wide protest, the opponents of the authenticity of the
Fourth Gospel - Bretschneider, Strauss, Baur, Thoma, Hilgenfeld, and
numerous others - see in this passage the conceptionof a mystically disposed
second-centurydivine, who placed the Eucharistic ceremony in the lips of
Jesus long before the institution. But while this view can be without hesitation
rejected, it is obvious that there was a spiritual participation in the
"humanity" and the "sacrifice" ofthe Son of God which Christ calledupon
the Capernaites to experience - one which must have been possible to Old
Testamentsaints, to little children; to all who are acceptable to God and
acceptedby him. Such participation is, without doubt, aided and rendered
peculiarly possible, thinkable, in the Eucharist. These words were timed,
therefore, to bear the rich and twofold sense of Holy Scripture. Observe:
(1) The use of σῶμα rather than σάρξ, in every accountof the institution of the
Supper, is not without specialmeaning; σάρξ and αῖμα meaning the whole of
his humanity, and the entire fulness of the sacrifice forthe world; while σῶμα
καὶ αῖμα suggestthat organizedpersonallife in which the Incarnation
culminated, and the blood which was shedfor the remission of sins. The σῶμα
is not without reference to the new "body" in which the spirit would be
ultimately enshrined.
(2) The phrase, "drinking of the blood," is peculiar to these verses. In the
Eucharistwe "drink of the cup which is the new covenantin the blood of
Christ." "The hand of history," says Edersheim, "has drawn out the
telescope;and, as we gaze through it, every sentence andword sheds light

upon the cross, andlight from the cross carrying to us the twofold meaning -
his death and its celebrationin the greatChristian sacrament."
Vincent's Word Studies
Eat the flesh
Appropriate the life. Compare Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:17.
Drink His blood
Appropriate the saving merit of His death. The passoverwas approaching,
and the reference may wellhave been to the flesh and blood of the paschal
lamb.
Have no life in you (οὐκ ἔχετε ζωὴν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς)
Not according to the Greek. Rightly, as Rev., ye have not life in yourselves. All
true life must be in Christ. Compare Colossians 3:3.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
Truly Eating The Flesh Of Jesus BY SPURGEON
“Then Jesus saidunto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in
you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I
will raise him up at the lastday. For My flesh is meat, indeed, and My
blood is drink indeed. He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood,
dwells in Me, and I in him.”
John 6:53-56
OUR Lord Jesus did not, in this passage,allude to the Lord’s Supper, as
some, desiring to maintain their sacramental superstitions, have dared to
affirm! I will not dwell upon the argument that there was no Lord’s Supper at
the time to allude to, though there is certainly some force in it, but I will

rather remind you that with such an interpretation this passagewould not be
true. It must be confessed, evenby the most ardent advocate ofthe
sacramentalmeaning, that the expressions usedby our Lord are not
universally and, without exception, true if used in that sense, for it is not true
that those who have never eaten the Lord’s Supper have no life in them, since
it is confessedonall hands that hundreds and thousands of children dying in
childhood are, undoubtedly saved, and yet they have never eatenthe flesh of
Christ nor drank His blood, if the Lord’s Supper is here meant.
There have also been many others in bygone times who, by their conduct,
proved that the life of God was in their souls, and yet they were not able to eat
bread at the sacramentaltable, because ofsickness,banishment,
imprisonment and other causes.Surelythere are some others, though I would
not excuse them, who have neglectedto come to that blessedcommemorative
ordinance, and yet, nevertheless, for all that, they are truly children of God.
Would the highest of high churchmen send every Quaker, howeverholy and
devout, down to the bottomless pit? If this should refer to the Lord’s Supper,
then it is certain that the dying thief could not have entered Heaven, for he
never sat down at the communion table, but was converted on the Cross–and
without either Baptism or the Lord’s Supper–wentstraight awaywith his
Masterinto Paradise!
It can never be proved, indeed, is utterly false that no one has eternal life if he
has not receivedthe bread and wine of the communion table. But on the other
hand, it is certainly equally untrue that whoever eats Christ’s flesh has eternal
life, if by that is meant everyone who partakes of the Eucharist, for there are
unworthy receivers, not here and there, but to be found by the hundreds.
Alas, there are apostates who leave the Lord’s Table for the table of devils and
who profane the holy name they once professedto love! There are also many
who have receivedthe sacramentalbread and wine and yet live in sin–who
increase their sin by daring to come to the table and who, alas, we fear, will
die in their sins as many others have done.
Unregenerate persons are very apt to make much of the sacramentand
nothing of Christ. They think a greatdeal of the bread and wine of the (so-
called) “altar,” but they have never knownwhat it is to eatthe flesh and drink
the blood of Christ. These eatand drink unworthily–carnally eating bread,
but not spiritually eating the Redeemer’s flesh–to them the ordinance is a
curse rather than a blessing. Our Lord did not refer to the feastof His supper,
for the language will not bear such an interpretation. It is evident that the
Jews misunderstoodthe Saviorand thought that He referred to the literal
eating of His flesh. It is no wonder that they strove among themselves over

such a saying, for, understood literally, it is horrible and revolting to the last
degree!
But far greateris the wonder that there are millions of people who acceptso
monstrous an error as actualtruth and believe in literally feeding upon the
body of the Lord Jesus!This is probably the highest point of profane
absurdity to which superstition has yet reached–to believe that such an act of
cannibalism as could be implied in the literal eating of the flesh of Christ
could convey Grace to the person guilty of such a horror! While we wonder
that the Jews so misunderstood the Savior, we wonder a thousand times more
that there should remain upon the face of the earth men in their senses notyet
committed to a lunatic asylum who endeavor to defend such a dreadful error
from Holy Scripture and, instead of being staggered, as the Jews were, by so
fearful a statement, actually considerit to be a vital doctrine of their faith–
that they are literally to eat the flesh of Christ and to drink His blood!
Brothers and Sisters, if it were possible that our Lord required us to believe
such a dogma, it would certainly need the most stupendous effort of credulity
on the part of a reasonable man–andthe laying aside of all the decenciesof
nature. In fact, it would appearto be necessary, before you could be a
Christian, that you should altogetherdivest yourself of your reasonand your
humanity! It were a Gospelcertainly more fitted for savages andmadmen
than for persons in the possessionoftheir senses andin the leastdegree
removed from absolute barbarism! I greatly question whether the creedof the
king of Dahomey contains a more unnatural doctrine.
We are not required, however, to believe anything so impossible, so
degrading, so blasphemous, so horrifying to all the decenciesoflife! No man
ever did eatthe flesh of Christ or drink His blood in a literal and corporeal
sense. A deed so beastlike, no, so devilish, was never yet perpetrated, or could
be. No, Brethren, the Jews were under an error–theymade the mistake of
taking literally what Christ meant spiritually. Judicially blinded as the result
of unbelief, they stumbled at noonday as in the night and refusedto see what
was plainly set forth. The veil was on their hearts. Ah, how prone is man to
pervert the Words of the Lord!
I believe that if Christ had meant this word literally, they would have spirited
it away, but such is the perversity of the human mind, that when He intended
it spiritually then straightwaythey interpreted it in a grosslycarnalmanner.
Let us not fall into their error, but may Divine Grace leadus to see that our
Lord’s Words are spirit and life. Let us not be held in bondage by the letter
which kills, but follow the spirit which quickens. The spiritual meaning is
clearenough to spiritual men, for to them belong spiritual discernment. But

as for the unregenerate, these things are spokenunto them in parables, that
seeing they might not see, and perceiving they might not understand.
Our first head will be, what is meant, then, by eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of Christ? And our secondpoint of enquiry shall be, what are the
virtues of this act?
1. First, then, WHAT IS MEANT BY EATING THE FLESH AND
DRINKING THE BLOOD OF CHRIST? It is a very beautiful and
simple metaphor, when understood to refer spiritually to the Personof
our Lord. The act of eating and drinking is transferred from the body to
the souland the soul is representedas feeding–feeding upon Jesus as the
Breadof Life. Eating is the taking into yourself of something which
exists externally, which you receive into yourself and which becomes a
part of yourself and helps to build you up and sustain you. That
something supplies a greatneed of your nature and when you receive it,
it nourishes your life. That is the essence ofthe metaphor and it well
describes the actand the result of faith.
To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, first, we must believe in the
reality of Christ–we must not regard Him as a myth, an imaginary personage,
an invention of genius, or a conceptionof the Oriental mind, but we must
believe that such a Personactually and in very deed lived and still lives. We
must believe that He was God and yet condescendedto be Incarnate on earth
and here lived, died, was buried and rose again. “Excepta man eatMy flesh
and drink My blood.” It is a mode of expressing the actualexistence and true
materialism of our Lord’s body and the sureness and truthfulness of His
existence in human nature. You cannot be saved unless you believe in an
historicalChrist, a realPerson–
“A Man there was, a real Man,
Who once on Calvary died,
And streams of blood and waterran
Downfrom His wounded side.”
That same actual Personhas, in His own proper Personality, ascendedto the
skies. He is now sitting at the right hand of the Fatherand is ordained to
descend, before long, to be the Judge of the quick and the dead. We should not
use the terms, flesh and blood, unless we meant to indicate an actualPerson–
such language could not describe the creationof a dream, a phantom, or a
symbol. Before all things, if you would be saved, you must believe in Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, as having been really manifestedin human nature
among the sons of men. “The Word was made flesh and tabernacledamong

us,” and the Apostles declare that they beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the
Only-Begottenof the Father, full of Grace and Truth.
We must believe not only in the reality of the Savior, but in the reality of His
Incarnation, acknowledging that while He was Divine, He was Human, also,
that He did not assume human nature in outward appearance, as certain
heretics have said, but that Jesus came in the flesh and, as such, was heard,
seen, touched and handled. He was, in an actualbody, really nailed to a tree,
was really laid in the grave. Thomas did, in real deed, put his finger into the
print of the nails and thrust his hand into His side. We must also believe that
He did assuredly and in very deed rise againfrom the dead and that in His
own real body, He ascendedinto Heaven. There must be no doubts about
these foundational facts. If we would feed upon Christ He must be realto us,
for a man does not eat and drink shadows and fancies.
We must also truly believe in the death of the Incarnate Sonof God. The
mention of His flesh as eaten, apart from His blood which is drunk, indicates
death. The blood is in the flesh while there is life. His death is more than
hinted at in the 51 st verse of John 6, where our Lord says, “And the bread
that I will give him is My flesh, which I will give for the life ofthe world.”
Brothers and Sisters, we must believe in our Lord’s death as it accomplishes
the expiation of sin, for so faith feeds on His body as given for the life of the
world.
There are some who profess to believe in Christ’s life and they hold Him forth
as a greatexample who will save us from selfishness and other evils if we
follow Him. Such is not the teaching of the text–the blessing of eternallife is
not promised for following Christ’s example, but for eating and drinking His
flesh and blood, or, in other words, taking Christ into oneself!And the
promise is not made for receiving His example or His doctrine, but His
Person, His flesh, His blood–His flesh and blood as separatedand, therefore,
Himself as dead for us and made a Sacrifice for us. Just as in the peace-
offerings the offerersat down and feastedwith the priest upon the victim
which he had presented, so Jesus Christ, our Passover, is sacrificedfor us and
we are to feed upon Him as the Lamb of God, receiving Him in His sacrificial
and propitiatory Character, into our souls.
It is vain for us to hope for salvationapart from this! The Father sets Him
forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood. If we refuse Him in this
Character, Christ has become of no use to us. Christ the Exemplar cannot
save you if you reject Him as the Christ who bowedHis head to death, even
the death of the Cross, suffering in His people’s place. Christ as a King cannot
save you unless you believe in Christ as a Victim. This is absolutelynecessary

to saving faith–unless you eatHis flesh and drink His blood, that is, accept
Him in His real Personality, offeredas a Sacrifice for sin, you have no life in
you!
This is what is to be believed. But in order to eat, a man not only believes that
there is bread before him and accepts thatbread as being proper food for his
body, but the next thing he does is to appropriate it. This is a greatpart of the
act of feeding upon Christ. As a man, in eating, takes the morsels to himself
and says, “This is bread which I believe nourishes the body and it shall now
nourish me, I take it to be my bread,” so must we do with Christ. Dear
Brothers and Sisters, we must say, “Jesus Christis set forth as a propitiation
for sin, I acceptHim as the Propitiation for my sin. God gives Him to be the
foundation upon which sinners' hopes are to be built. I take Him to be the
Foundation of my hopes. He has opened a fountain for sin and for
uncleanness. I come to Him and desire to wash awaymy sin and my
uncleanness in the fountain of His blood.”
You cannot eat, you know, unless you make the food your own. In fact,
nothing is more especiallya man’s own than what he has eaten–his possession
of it cannot be denied, nor can it be taken awayfrom him. So you must take
Christ to be as much your own as the bread you eat or the wateryou drink–
He must, beyond question, be yours personally and inwardly. Looking up to
Him upon the Cross, youhave to say, “Saviorof sinners, those who trust in
You are redeemed. I also trust You as my Savior and I am, therefore,
assuredlyredeemed by Your most precious blood.” Eating lies, in part, in
appropriating food and so, unless you appropriate the flesh and blood of
Christ to be your own personalhope and confidence, you cannot be saved.
I have laid stress upon a personalappropriation, for eachman eats for
himself, not for anyone else. You cannoteat for anybody but yourself. And so,
in taking Christ, you take Him for yourself. Faith is your own actand deed–
nobody can believe for you, nor canyou savingly believe for another. I say it
with reverence–the Holy Spirit, Himself, cannot believe for us, although He
can, and does, lead us to believe. And, indeed, if the Divine Spirit did believe
for us, we should not obtain the promise, since it is not made to proxy faith,
but solelyand alone to personalbelieving. We are not passive in believing–we
must be active and perform the personalact of appropriating the Lord Jesus
to be our soul’s meat and drink.
This believing in Jesus and appropriating Him go far to explain what is meant
by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Eating and drinking also consist
principally in receiving. What a man eats and drinks, he appropriates to
himself, and that not by laying it on one side in a treasury or casket, but by

receiving it into himself. You appropriate money and you put it in your
pocket–youmay lose it. You secure a piece of land and you put your hedge
about it, but that hedge may be broken down. But when you receive, by eating
and drinking, you have placed the goodthings where you will never be robbed
of them! You have receivedthem in the truest and surestsense, foryou have
real possessionand enjoyment in your own person.
Now, to say, “Christ is mine,” is a blessedthing. But to really take Christ into
you by the actof faith is the vitality and the pleasure of faith! In eating and
drinking, a man is not a producer, but a consumer–he is not a doer or a giver,
for he simply takes in. If a queen should eat, if an empress should eat, she
would become as completelya receiveras the pauper in the workhouse.
Eating is an act of receptionin every case. So it is with faith–you have not to
do, to be, or to feel, but only to receive!The saving point is not a something
which comes forth of you, but the receptionof a something imparted to you.
Faith is an actwhich the poorestsinner, the vilest sinner, the weakestsinner,
the most condemned sinner may perform because it is not an act requiring
poweron his part, nor the going forth of anything from him, but simply the
receiving into himself!
An empty vesselcanreceive and receive all the better because it is empty. Oh
Soul, are you willing to receive Jesus Christas the free gift of Divine mercy?
Do you, this day, say, “I have so receivedHim”? Well then, you have eatenHis
flesh and drunk His blood! If you have receivedthe Incarnate God in your
soul, so that you now trust in Him and in Him alone, then you have eatenHis
flesh and drunk His blood!
The process ofeating involves another matter which I can hardly call part of
it, but yet it is indissolubly connectedwith it, namely, that of assimilation.
What is received, in eating, descends into the inward parts and is there
digestedand takenup into the body. Even so, faith takes up and absorbs into
the man the heavenly Bread, Christ Crucified. “The Word preached,” we
read in one place, “did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them
that heard it.” Now, in the original, there is the idea of food takeninto the
body, but never getting mixed with the gastric juices and, consequently,
remaining undigested, unassimilated, unprofitable and eveninjurious. Faith is
to the soul what the gastric juices are to the body–as soonas Christ is received
into the man, faith begins to actupon Him–to extract nutriment from His
Person, work and offices. And so Christ becomes takenup into the
understanding and the heart, builds up the entire system of manhood and
becomes part and parcelof the renewedman.

Just as bread, when it is eaten, becomes dissolvedand absorbedand
afterwards is turned into blood and flows through all the veins and goes to
make up the body, even so is Christ the soul. He becomes our life and enters
mysteriously into vital union with us. As the piece of bread which we ate
yesterdaycould not, now, be takenawayfrom us, because it is a part of
ourselves, evenso does Jesus become one with us. You ate the bread yesterday
and whereabouts it is now no philosopher cantell. Part of it may have gone to
form brain and other portions to make bone, sinew and muscle. But its
substance is takenup into your substance, so that the bread dwells in you now
and you in it, since it makes up your bodily house.
This is to feed upon Jesus Christ–to take Him in so that your life is hid with
Him, till you grow to be like He–till your very life is Christ and the greatfact
that Jesus lived and died becomes the mightiest Truth of God under Heaven
to your mind–swaying your whole soul, subduing it to itself and then elevating
it to the highest degree. “Forthe love of Christ constrains us; because we thus
judge that if One died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that
they which live should not, from now on, live unto themselves, but unto Him
which died for them, and rose again.” Even as flowers drink in the sunlight till
they are tinted with rainbow hues, so do we receive the Lord Jesus till we
become comelywith His comeliness and He lives, again, in us! This it is to eat
His flesh and drink His blood.
But now I will make a series ofremarks, somewhatout of order, with the view
of setting forth this mysterious eating and drinking in a clearermanner.
Observe that Christ is as necessaryto the soul as bread is to the body. Meat
and drink are absolutelyrequisite–and so you must have Christ, or you
cannot live in the true sense ofthat word. Take awayfoodfrom the body, it
must die–deny Christ to a man and he is dead while he lives! There is in us a
natural desire after meat and drink, an appetite which springs out of our
necessityand reminds us of it–we must labor to feel just such an appetite after
Christ! Your wisdom lies in your knowing that you must have Jesus to be
your personalSavior and in acknowledging that you will perish if you do not
receive Him! And it is well with you when this knowledge makes youcrave
and pine and pant for Him. Hunger after Him! Thirst after Him! Blessedare
they that hunger and thirst after Him, for He will fill them.
Meatand drink do really satisfy. When a man gets bread and water, having
eatenenough, he has what his nature requires. The need is realand so is the
supply. When you get Christ, your heart will obtain exactlywhat it needs. You
do not, yourself, fully know what the needs of your soul are, but restassured
that knownor unknown, your necessitieswill all be supplied in the Personof

Jesus Christ. And if you acceptHim, as surely as meat and drink stop hunger
and thirst, so surely will He satisfythe cravings of your soul. Dreamno longer
of any satisfactionapartfrom Him and ask for nothing beyond or beside Him.
Christ is All and more than all! He is meat and drink, too. Be content with
Him and with nothing short of Him. Hunger after Him more and more, but
never leave Him to spend your money for that which is not bread and your
labor for that which satisfies not.
Beloved, a hungry man never gets rid of his hunger by talking about feeding,
but by actually eating. Therefore do not so much talk about Christ as actually
receive Him. Look not on supplies of food and say, “Yes, these will satisfy me–
oh, that I had them,” but eat at once. The Lord beckons youto the banquet,
not to look on, but to sit down and feast!Sit down at once!Ask not for a
secondinvitation, but sit down and feed on what is freely presentedto you in
the Personofour Lord Jesus Christ. You need Him to be formed in you the
hope of Heaven–but this can never be unless you receive Him into your inmost
soul.
In healthy eating there is a pleasure. No healthy person needs to be floggedto
make him eat, for the palate is conscious ofpleasure while we are feeding–and
truly, in feeding upon Jesus there is a delicious sweetnesspervading the whole
soul. Right royal are His dainties! Nothing can more delight immortal
banqueters than Jesus delights Believers!He satiates the soul. A thousand
heavens are tastedin the Savior’s body and blood. If ever you lose your relish
for Christ, restassuredthat you are out of health. There can be no surer sign
of a sad state of heart than not to delight in the Lord Jesus Christ. But when
He is very sweetto your taste. When even a word about Him, like a drop from
the honeycomb, falls sweetlyupon your tongue–thenthere is not much the
matter with you–your heart is sound at the core. Even though you should feel
faint, it is a faintness of Nature, and not a failure of Grace!And if you feel
sick, if it is sicknessafterHim whom your soul loves, it is a disease whichit
were well to die of!
Eating times as to our bodies come severaltines a day–so take care that you
partake of the flesh and blood of Jesus oftenand often. Do not be satisfied
with yesterday’s receiving of Jesus, but receive Him again today. Do not live
upon old fellowships and experiences, but go to Jesus hourly and be not
content till He fills you againand againwith His love. I wish that we could
become spiritually like certain animals that I know of which stand in the stall
and eatall day long and half through the night, too. Here I would gladly
possessthe appetite of the horse-leechand never feel that I must pause!
Happy is that Christian who can eatabundantly of heavenly meat, as the

spouse bids him, and never ceaseeating while Christ is near, but feed on and
on till far into the night–and then awake with the dawn to feed on the Bread
of Heaven!
It is well to have set tines for eating. People are not likely to flourish who pick
up their food just as they can and have no regular meals. It is well to have
settled times when you cansit down to the table and take your foodproperly.
Assuredly, it is wise to have appointed periods for communing with Christ, for
meditating upon Him, for considering His work and for receiving His Grace.
You know with children it is, “little and often,” and so with us, let it be line
upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. A bit
betweenregular meals often comes very sweetto a laboring man and so,
though you have specialseasonsforgetting alone with Christ, do not deny
yourself a snatch by the way. Get a wafermade with honey betweenmeals,
and lay it on your tongue to sweetenyour mouth–a choice thought, a
Scripture text, or a precious promise about Jesus.
I am sure there is one thing I can say about this feeding upon Christ that
never was a man guilty of gluttony in feeding upon Christ’s flesh and blood.
The more you eatof Christ, the more you will be able to eat of Him. We
readily wearyof any other food, but never of this heavenly bread! We are
often in an ill condition in reference to our Lord because we have not had
enough of Him, but we cannever have too much. When we receive Him to the
full, we still find that He enlarges ourcapacityand we are all the more able to
enjoy His preciousness.
Observe that the text tells us that the Believeris to eat His flesh and drink His
blood, for observe that Christ is meat and drink, too, He is All in All, and All
in One. A man must not only eatChrist, but he must drink Christ–that is to
say, he must not receive Christ one way, only, but all ways, and not a part of
Christ, but all of Christ–not merely Christ’s flesh as Incarnate, but Christ’s
blood as the slaughteredSacrifice and bleeding Lamb. You must have a whole
Christ and not a divided Christ! You have not truly receivedChrist if you
have only said I selectthis and that virtue in Him. You must open the door
and let a full Christ come in to take possessionof your soul.
You must receive not merely His work, offices, Graces, but Himself, His whole
self. Those receive no Grace atall who rejectthe blood of Christ, for that has
specialmention. Oh, what hard stings I have heard said, even of late, about
those that preach the blood of Christ! Let them say on if they will, it is at their
peril! But as for me, my Brothers and Sisters, I hope I shall deserve their
censures more and more and preach the blood of Christ yet more abundantly,
for there it nothing that can give satisfactionto the soul and quench that

Jesus was both meat and drink

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Jesus was both meat and drink