| The Christian Life | April 1944 |
Eaten by Faith
Bread from Heaven
“Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood ye have no life in you.”—John 6:53
THE power of the Master’s teachings is partly in the fact that He used the commonplace things of life to illustrate the great truths contained in His message. Eating, drinking, seeing, hearing, sowing, fishing, shepherding, all were employed in His art gallery of instruction, to help His hearers grasp ideas that were foreign to them—ideas that stemmed from the mind of God, and therefore, incomprehensible to the human intelligence, except as they are associated with things common in the everyday experiences of the human race. Every human being has to eat and drink in order to live. Here was a fact that Jesus could and did use to assist His disciples in understanding the divine provision of everlasting life that centered in Him.
The selection of illustrations by the Master was sometimes governed by circumstances, and this also helped to make them appropriate and effective. Because of His miracles, it was but natural that a great multitude of people should follow Him around, partly out of curiosity, and partly because of blessings they hoped to obtain from Him. Among these, of course, would be a sprinkling of true believers. His declaration that everlasting life was possible only by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, was made to climax a lesson which started with the feeding of a multitude of people with five barley loaves and two small fishes.
The following day, Jesus was again sought out by essentially the same company of the curious, and He took occasion—perhaps for the benefit of His immediate disciples—to tell them that their interest in Him was largely because He had provided them with something to eat. Then He admonished them, saying, “Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed.”—John 6:27
Understanding from the Master’s use of the term labor, that He was speaking of serving God, they said unto Him, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” (John 6:28) Jesus replied, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” (John 6:29) Here the Master uses the word believe with its fullest implications, which carries with it the thought of whole-hearted obedience. Those who truly believe, fully obey, and those who fully obey, gladly walk in the footsteps of the Master, and zealously carry on with the work of God so energetically pursued by Him.
Despite the many miracles which the people had witnessed, and from which many of them had benefited, they were not prepared to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, hence were not ready to be His true followers. They wanted further evidence, and inquired, “What sign shewest Thou then, that we may see, and believe Thee? what dost Thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”—John 6:30,31
This question furnished Jesus with a further opportunity to employ the symbolism of food to make plain the hope of everlasting life that could be enjoyed by those who accepted Him and became His footstep followers. The manna which God provided in the wilderness served well as a sign of God’s blessing upon the leadership of Moses. But now the Heavenly Father had provided a sign even more convincing to those who had faith to believe. He had sent His dearly beloved and only begotten Son to earth, who had been made flesh for the purpose of offering it up in sacrifice for the life of the world.
The providing of manna in the wilderness was a wonderful demonstration of God’s miracle-working power. By partaking of it, the Israelites had their lives sustained temporarily, but the coming of Jesus to earth involved a far greater miracle, and those who appropriate to themselves the life-giving virtues of His broken body and shed blood, will live forever. This was the vital truth which Jesus finally presented to the people, using His miracle of feeding the multitude and their reference to the manna furnished in the wilderness, as a background of illustration—“Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.”—John 6:33
Dull of Hearing
The people, however, were not in the proper heart attitude of faith to understand and accept the great truth which Jesus presented to them. They “strove among themselves,” the account tells us, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” In reply, Jesus reiterated the lesson, saying, “My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed,” but He made no further attempt to explain the matter to His public audience.—John 6:52-59
He did, however, offer a further explanation to His disciples. They, evidently, had been listening intently while He discoursed to the others, and they came to Him and said, “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” When Jesus saw that the disciples murmured at the great truth He had symbolically expressed, He said, “Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?”—John 6:60-62
The disciples, not yet being blessed with the enlightening influence of the Holy Spirit, could not, of course, understand the full import of Jesus’ words. How were they to know that in order for them to receive life through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, it was first of all necessary for Him to return to the heavenly courts, and there present the merit of His sacrifice on the antitypical mercy seat? This great truth of the Gospel they would learn later, when, as a result of Jesus appearing in heaven for them and for us, the Holy Spirit came upon the church at Pentecost.
Jesus knew that His disciples could not, with their natural minds, grasp the full spiritual significance of what He said. Nevertheless, He did not wish them to be stumbled and turned aside from following Him, as was the case with the others. So He did offer a partial explanation, in order that they might realize that He was not speaking of eating His literal flesh and drinking His literal blood. In the 63rd verse He explains, “The flesh profiteth nothing”—that is, it would do you no good to eat My literal flesh; that is not what I meant. Then He goes on explaining, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth,” or giveth life. In case the disciples didn’t understand what Jesus meant by the Spirit, He further says, “The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.”
How simple the matter becomes in the light of this explanation! We eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man by believing on Him. To believe on Him in the true sense, means that we obey His commandments, that we conform our lives to His teachings. To do this means a recognition of our own sinful and dying condition, and our need for the merit of His shed blood. It is thus that we are justified, and by faith now have life, and will actually have life in the resurrection.
Lest We Forget
How marvelously blessed were the Israelites in the wilderness of. Sinai, to have the God of heaven supply them directly and miraculously with their daily bread! It is always inspiring to realize that God is taking direct action on behalf of His people. The sending of His Son as the true bread from heaven should mean even more to us today than the heavenly manna could possibly have meant to the typical Israelites.
And yet, how very easy it is for this blessed and precious truth to become commonplace in our lives! Doubtless, as year after year went by during that strenuous time when the Israelites were wandering through the wilderness, the gathering and eating of the manna from heaven lost much of the significance which they attached to it, and by which they must have been inspired during the first few days that it fell.
In the world, we are surrounded with sin and selfishness, and daily we need to struggle against these influences as well as against the earthward tendencies of the flesh. It is so very easy, because of this, for our faith to fail in always grasping the full meaning of God’s blessings to us, and our privileges in connection therewith. Probably this is one reason why the Lord saw fit to enjoin upon the church a yearly commemoration of the great work of atonement centered in Christ.
Yes, lest we forget, Jesus said, “This do in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19) On the night of the last passover before He died, He used unleavened bread and wine as an illustration of His broken body and shed blood, and gave them to His disciples, asking them to eat and drink. Thus the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood is represented in these Memorial emblems. On this point, a Reprint article of March 15, 1916 says:
“The partaking of the unleavened bread at the Memorial season, then, means to us primarily the appropriation to ourselves, by faith, of justification to human life-right—a right to human life—with all its privileges, which our Lord at His own cost procured for us. Likewise the fruit of the vine symbolized primarily our Savior’s life given for us, His human life, His being, His soul, poured out unto death on our behalf; and the appropriation of this by us also signifies, primarily, our acceptance of restitution rights and privileges secured by our Lord’s sacrifice of these.”
Deeper Significance of the Loaf and Cup
The Apostle Paul refers to a still deeper significance which is attached to the partaking of the Memorial emblems. In I Corinthians 10:16,17, he explains that the loaf and the cup picture our participation in the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. We do not really understand what it means to be a Christian unless we see this deeper meaning of the Memorial. The believing world of mankind will eventually receive life through the sacrificial work of Christ, but only His footstep followers during this age have the privilege of joining with the Master in His sacrifice.
The statements of the New Testament with reference to the church’s privilege of dying with Christ and suffering with Him have to do with this deeper significance of the loaf and the cup. The call of the church is an invitation to sacrifice. When the apostle said, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5), he had reference to a mind or disposition that leads to laying down one’s life humbly with the Master.
It is essential—very essential—that we recognize in the broken body and shed blood of our Redeemer the only true source of our standing with God, our justification. We should remember, also, that the entire body of Christ, the entire anointed company of which Jesus is the Head, suffer and die with Him. We should realize that this blessed privilege of sacrifice is included in becoming a copy of our Lord and Master.
Perhaps because it is more pleasing to the flesh to do so, we think of being like Christ more particularly from the standpoint of His kindness, His mercy, His generosity, His courtesy, His sympathy and love. These qualities are indeed a part of the Master’s glorious image which should be growing in our lives. But there is also the sacrificing Christ; the Christ who stood firm for truth and righteousness in the face of bitter opposition from the promoters of error and unrighteousness; the Christ who because of His zeal in proclaiming the truth then due was hailed before the priests and rulers of His day, beaten, condemned to death, and crucified. When we partake of the Memorial emblems we are saying to the Lord and to the brethren that we are committed to the task of copying Christ in this respect also.
Selfishness has become so ingrained in fallen human beings that even spirit-begotten new creatures in Christ Jesus find it difficult to extricate themselves wholly from its influence. The human viewpoint is almost always and entirely that of benefits to be received from any plans or associations which are being contemplated.
As new creatures, we have received rich blessings from the Lord, blessings the value of which cannot be estimated upon the basis of any standard known by man. We are to rejoice in these blessings, and to praise God for His benefactions; but we should remember, at the same time, that the privileges of the Christian life are not altogether those of receiving—they are also those of giving.
By faith we receive life from Christ. But if this gift is to be translated into actual immortality in the resurrection, we must die with Him. We properly rejoice in His loving care, in His mercy, in His sympathy, in all the precious promises of God that are ratified by His shed blood; but the fullness of our rejoicing is dependent upon the genuineness of our zeal, which leads to faithfulness in suffering with Him.
Thus, by living in Him and dying with Him, by rejoicing in Him and suffering with Him, by receiving from Him and sharing in His sacrifice, we are blessed in the common union of body and blood of Christ. And this should be more than merely a beautiful theory to think and talk about. These principles of the true Christian life should be the impelling motive back of all that we think and say and do.
We cannot expect to do anything great in the sight of our fellowmen, but we can be faithful to the Lord in the little and everyday affairs of life. The Christian viewpoint of giving and serving to the glory of God will hallow the common tasks of life, so that whatsoever we do can be done to the praise of Him whose life we have received, and whose sacrifice we share.
We are not to suppose, however, that suffering and dying with Christ involves merely the changing of our viewpoint, and that otherwise we should go on as usual. Basically, the Christian life is one of full time and direct service of God. There are divinely approved deferments of time and talent, such as are necessary to make provision for those dependent upon us, but otherwise it is the privilege of the Christian to seek ways and means of devoting as much of his life directly in divine service as possible.
The complexities of life in this modern world of today are such that even the consecrated followers of the Master find it difficult to devote a great deal of time to anything except just “making a living.” But ye can all try. A moment here, a moment there, can be redeemed and used directly in God’s service, if the spirit of sacrifice is permeating our souls. And then, having done the best we can, oh, how blessed the thought that all the rest God will count as unto Him!
Jesus said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34) This is in keeping with the Master’s quotation from the Old Testament, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4) In both these instances life-sustaining food is used by the Master to illustrate the blessings received through a course of obedience in doing the Father’s will. No one can have life who is out of harmony with God. By the same token, all those who surrender themselves wholly to the doing of His will, shall have life.
Thus it is, while God provides the bread from heaven in the gift of His beloved Son to be a propitiation for our sins, and for the sins of the whole world, the appropriating of that bread, the acceptance of the divine gift, is dependent upon the conforming of our wills to the divine will. This gift of God is meat to us, therefore, if, like Jesus, we are faithful to our consecration vows, and finish the work He has given us to do.