We need to Eat the Lord’s Flesh and Drink His Blood to have Life within Ourselves

In John 6:51 the Lord said not only that He is the living bread for us to eat but that the bread He gives is His flesh, given for the life of the world; to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood is to believe into Him and receive Him so that we may be redeemed and richly nourished with what He is. Amen!

As believers in Christ, we are not only those who believe into the Lord and now we are waiting for Him to return and take us, or we do a work for others’ salvation until He comes; we are those who eat the Lord.

Christ came not only to save us from our sins; He came not only for our redemption but even more, He came to be our food.

Just as God put man in front of the tree of life after He created him, so we as believers in Christ need to daily choose to eat Christ as the bread of life.

However, Satan has worked throughout the ages to do a pernicious thing: to blind God’s people to the fact that they need to eat Christ as the bread of life.

Satan knows that, as long as Christians try to obey God, do what the Bible says, and abide by the rules and regulations in the Bible, God’s purpose can never be accomplished.

But praise the Lord, He is working today to recover us to His original intention; He is bringing us back to eating Christ as the bread of life.

And this means that we have to daily be on guard against the enemy’s stratagems to change our taste and our diet.

The enemy brings about many things in his world system to cause us to taste and enjoy other things.

He may bring about politics, sports, entertainment, or books, cars, or fashion; there is an aspect of the world that appeals to our soul, and the enemy entices us again and again.

May we learn to fight the enemy by standing in the Lord, one with Him, and by eating the Lord.

May we learn to eat healthy every day, not just physically and psychologically speaking but even more, spiritually.

May we pay attention to what we eat so that we don’t get ourselves filled with junk food or with food that is evil, and damaging to our spiritual being.

May we come to the Lord in His word day by day, even many times during the day, opening our being to Him to eat Him and partake of His riches in spirit.

Only Christ as the bread of life is true bread, for He is the Spirit of reality to make all things of God real to us in our experience.

When we exercise our spirit over His word, when we read and pray the word of God, having our hearts turned to Him, we eat Him as the bread of life, and He has a way of imparting what He is into our being.

We need to Eat the Lord’s Flesh and Drink His Blood to have Life within Ourselves

In John 6:51 the Lord Jesus said He’s the living bread coming down out of heaven for us to eat and live forever, and the bread He gives us is His flesh, given for the life of the world.

The fact that He gives us His flesh indicates that He will be slain, for later He says that His blood is our true drink – flesh and blood are separated.

The bread of life is the flesh of Christ. What the Lord has accomplished is for us to receive and enjoy, for the bread of life is the flesh of Christ given for the life of the world.

Bread is something of plant life; the grains produce the bread, and this is for our nourishment.

The flesh is something of the animal life, the redeeming life.

On the one hand, the Lord redeems us, and on the other hand, He nourishes us.

The Lord Jesus gave His body, that is, His flesh, dying for us that we might have life.

He died for us to live; He died and gave His flesh for us to eat so that we may live.

Verse 53 continues to say that, unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, we do not have life within ourselves.

Wow. This is a hard word indeed. How can we eat someone’s flesh and drink his blood?

Some of the disciples, when they heard this, thought it is too much and stopped following the Lord.

But to those who stayed and listened to the Lord’s word, they realized that the Lord was not speaking of us eating His physical flesh and drinking His physical blood.

The separation of blood and flesh indicates death. Here the Lord clearly indicated His death, that is, Him being slain so that the world may receive life.

The Lord Jesus gave His body, His flesh, and shed His blood for us so that we may have eternal life. How we thank the Lord for this!

As the Passover Lamb, Christ shed His blood for our redemption so that God may pass over us (Exo. 12:12-13).

He shed His blood for us to be redeemed (John 19:34; Heb. 9:22; Matt. 26:28; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rom. 3:25).

The Jewish people had to keep the Passover by slaying the lamb and sprinkling the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, and the Angel of death would pass over them.

Christ came as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) to take away the sin of the world, and in John 6:53 He says that we need to drink His blood.

To drink His blood is to receive it into us, to receive it by faith.

Thank the Lord for giving His flesh and blood for us to eat and drink.

We need to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood by faith, believing into Him and receiving Him, so that we may have life in ourselves.

How much we love the Lord when we see His sacrifice for us on the cross!

When we come to the Lord’s Table Meeting, we do not only remember the Lord as a kind of outward practice or ritual but even more, we receive the benefit of what He has done through His giving His Body, His flesh, for us to eat, and by giving His blood for us to drink!

We remember the Lord at the Lord’s Table meeting by eating Him and drinking Him, that is, by believing into Him and receiving Him to enjoy Him.

We are full of thanksgiving and have a grateful heart toward the Lord not only for His death for our redemption but even more for us being able to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood so that we may have life in ourselves.

When we eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood, we are redeemed and we have eternal life.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to the earth as the living bread for us to eat and have life. We believe into You. We thank You for Your wonderful redemption. Thank You for dying for us on the cross. Amen, Lord, we want to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood by faith, believing into the Lord and receiving Him! We remember You, Lord, at Your table, and we appreciate all You have done for us. Thank You for giving Your life up for us so that we may be redeemed. Thank You for dying for us on the cross so that we may be redeemed back to God. Thank You for shedding Your precious blood. Amen, Lord, thank You for being slain for us on the cross for our redemption and to give life to us. We give ourselves to You today. We want to enjoy You. We want to eat Your flesh and drink Your blood by exercising our spirit to partake of all that You have done for us. We open to receive You, dear Lord, and to be filled with You so that You may be assimilated into our inner being!

To Eat the Lord’s Flesh and Drink His Blood is to Receive Him by Faith in His Redemption

What does it mean to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood? This truly is a hard word, spoken by the Lord in John 6:54-55.

The Lord said that he who eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life, and He will raise him up on the last day.

The Lord’s flesh is true food and His blood is true drink. Wow.

Christianity does not advocate eating someone’s flesh and drinking his blood; all these are spiritual matters.

The Lord said in John 6:63 that the flesh profits nothing – the Spirit gives life; the words the Lord speaks to us are spirit and are life.

In other words, flesh and blood are not to be taken literally but spiritually.

They indicate that the Lord has died for us on the cross, for flesh and blood are separated.

The Lord Jesus died for us on the cross; He gave His body and shed His blood for us so that we may be redeemed and have eternal life.

To eat the Lord’s flesh is to receive by faith all that He did in giving His body for us.

To eat is to receive something into us; spiritually, to eat is to believe and therefore to receive something into us.

To eat the Lord’s flesh is to believe into Him and receive into us all that He has done for us when He gave His body for us on the cross.

To drink the Lord’s blood is to receive by faith all that Christ has accomplished in shedding His blood for us.

In other words, to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood is to receive Him, in His redemption, as life and the life supply by believing in what He did for us on the cross.

If we put together verses 54 and 47 we see that for us to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood is for us to believe in Him, to receive Him by faith in His redemption.

For us to eat His flesh and drink His blood is for us to receive Him, in His redemption, as life and the life supply by believing in what He did for us on the cross.

Believing and receiving go together, and they both are based on the Lord’s redemptive work for us on the cross.

How can we eat the Lord Jesus and how can we drink Him?

He had to go through the process of death and resurrection so that He may be the life-giving Spirit, even the Spirit of reality, for Him to come into us and make real to us all that God is.

The Lord’s flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink (6:55).

Unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, we don’t have eternal life within ourselves.

But if we eat Him and drink Him, we will have life because of Him. Amen!

When we eat Christ, we live because of Christ; when we eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood, we are filled with Him, we’re nourished with Him, and we can live because of Him.

Thank the Lord for coming as the Lamb of God, the reality of the Passover lamp, to shed His blood for our redemption and give His flesh for us to eat!

He is the living bread which came down out of heaven, and we can eat of this bread to live forever.

May we receive by faith all that Christ is and has done for us on the cross.

May we daily exercise our spirit to believe in His redemptive work for us so that we may partake of His life and live because of Him.

When we eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood, we have eternal life and we live because of what we eat.

Christ as the tree of life (Gen. 2:9) became a man to give His flesh for us to eat and His blood for us to drink.

Because we are fallen, we need the Lord’s blood for our redemption, and because we are empty, we need the Lord’s life to fill us and live in us.

Thank the Lord for giving His blood, His flesh, by dying for us so that we might have life.

Thank the Lord for becoming the Lamb of God not only for our feeding but also for our redemption.

Lord Jesus, we want to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood so that we may have eternal life within ourselves! Amen, Lord, we receive You in Your redemption as our life and life supply! We believe in Your redemptive work for us on the cross. We believe that You died for us as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. We believe that You were judged on the cross on our behalf and You shed Your blood for our redemption. We believe that You gave Your flesh for us to eat and Your blood for us to drink. Amen, Lord, we receive by faith all that You did in giving Your body for us on the cross. We receive by faith all that You have accomplished in shedding Your blood for us. We exercise our spirit of faith to believe into You and to receive You as our life and life supply, believing in what You did for us on the cross! Amen, Lord, we partake of You as the living bread so that we may live because of You! Hallelujah, we can eat Christ as the living bread to live forever!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ray Mulligan in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2872-2873, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 7, The Bread of Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – How to Eat the Word of God, via, Bibles for Europe blog.
  – To remember the Lord being to eat the Lord’s body and drink the Lord’s blood, a portion from, The Crucified Christ, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee.
  – Redemption from the Vain Manner of Life, via, Living to Him.
  – Eating and drinking the Lord being to receive the Lord, a portion from, The Crucified Christ, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee.
  – Coming to the Lord’s Table, via, Shepherding Words.
  – What Does the Blood and Water that Came Out of Jesus’ Pierced Side Mean? More via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Eating, a basic matter in the Bible, a portion from, Life-Study of Hebrews, Message Fifty-Eight, pp. 643-646.
  – Eating, Drinking, and Worshipping God, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – 6 Steps Jesus Took to Become Your Spiritual Food, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The tree of life, how sweet the fruit, a hymn via, Hymnal.net, with wonderful comments and excerpts.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lamb of God so pure and spotless, / Lamb of God for sinners slain. / Thy shed blood has wrought redemption, / Cleansing us from every stain. / Lamb redeeming, Lamb redeeming, / Bearing all our sins away, / Bearing all our sins away! (Hymns #1089 stanza 1)
  – Let us eat Jesus every day, / Eating His flesh in such a way / That in the trials great or small / He as a Man will be our all. / Eat, eat more of Jesus! / Eat, eat more of Jesus! / Why should we undernourished be / When we have His humanity? (Hymns #1146 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Eat the bread, ye people of the Lord: / Praise His name, for He has made us one. / Now we come to eat in one accord / As the church which He has made His own. / Drink the wine, ye people of the Lord: / We’re the church His precious blood has bought. / We’re redeemed to be in one accord— / This the goal for which He long has sought. (Hymns #1108 stanzas 1-2)