He was speaking to the crowd that included his disciples and the Apostles.
Jesus was teaching of SpIRITUAL matters, as HE clarified in John 6:63: 62 Then what will happen if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before? 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
Because the Body and Blood includes the soul and divinity of the living Lord, and is not just mere flesh and blood, it is spirit filled. And the words that he spoke, which are spirit and life, are clear:
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever. (John 6:53-58)When the Disciples see Him leaving, how could they imagine someone could then eat His flesh and drink His blood if He is gone to the Father?
Through the institution of the Eucharist in which the bread and wine are turned into his Body and Blood. That was the whole point.
If Jesus gave His transmogrified flesha nd blood to the Disciples, actually, physically, on the night before His crucifixion, then He would be causing His Disciples to break the standing command of GOD against such!
Jesus is God, he is the Law Giver. As such, he can change the law. We see this in Acts 10:
The next day, while they were on their way and nearing the city, Peter went up to the roof terrace to pray at about noontime. He was hungry and wished to eat, and while they were making preparations he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered to the ground by its four corners. In it were all the earth’s four-legged animals and reptiles and the birds of the sky. A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.” But Peter said, “Certainly not, sir. For never have I eaten anything profane and unclean.” The voice spoke to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.” This happened three times, and then the object was taken up into the sky. (Acts 10:9-16)Finally you tried this little sneak: "But you do agree, then, that he commanded us to keep his commandments. Faith alone is not enough." No, lost soul, I did not agree that salvation is the result of faith and works.
So we are not required to keep his commandment? Great! Am I engaged in dishonest business dealings? Carry on because I have faith that Jesus paid the price for my sins. Am I having an affair with my neighbor's wife? Carry on because I have faith that Jesus paid the price for my sins. Do I want to kill my brother so that I can get the entire inheritance? Go for it because because I have faith Jesus paid the price for my sins.
Now before you say that these scenarios are ridiculous, answer the question: Do I have to keep the commandments or not? It is a yes or no question. You cannot have it both ways. Nor try to skirt the issue by saying that someone with faith would not do these things. Both Paul and James warned that faith can exist without charity or works and that such faith is worthless.
Keeping His / Jesus's two commandments is only possible to any degree because of HIS SPIRIT Presence in us.
Agreed.
That Spirit Presence is the absolute proof that we have eternal life BEFORE as we then seek to keep His two commandments.
But what if we have faith but fail to seek the keep his commandments?
The false Christianity of Catholiciism focuses upon the 'being crucified' Jesus. THAT JESUS went into the tomb. The Risen Lord is the NOW JESUS. His once for all for all time sacrifice upon the Cross IS FINISHED! Your pagan priests cannot keep crucifying Him so you can eat His flesh and drink His real blood! You endorse a blasphemy against the body and blood of Jesus with your paganized Mass!
The only difference between your religion and the seekers after signs who ceased to follow Him after John 6 is that your blasphemous religion has defied the command of God where those turned away because they knew enough to not make God duplicitous.
The god of catholiciism is a duplicitous caprice, establishing a commandment against blood for ALL THE GENERATIONS OF ISRAEL, including that of the disciples at the Passover meal, then causing the disciples to break that commandment as if it was never given for ALL THEIR GENERATIONS! Even JESUS said to do the ritual in Remembrance, not to get eternal life. But the magic thinking catholic trained mind can twist that to mean 'break My commandment' to get My eternal life in you ... just the same instruction as the pagans used to their idols and the food sacrificed to those idols. They too thought their foods were magically transformed into their idol and by eating the foods they ingested their little gods. Satan worked his magic on them and now works it on Catholics!
You asked, “But what if we have faith but fail to seek the keep his commandments?” Your answer is shouting at you from James! You do not have saving faith if you are showing the character of GOD in you! Eating wafers at a Catholic altar is not going to ingest His character.
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>> “But what if we have faith but fail to seek the keep his commandments?” <<
Faith is the keeping of Torah. You have no faith if you see his loving Torah as not worthy of obedience.
If Torah is “written on the fleshly tablets of your heart” how would you then dismiss it?
Words do mean things. If you see the word of Yehova as empty characters on the page, you will act accordingly and find yourself in the same condition as those of whom Peter wrote, who after tasting the things of the Spirit then turn away like dogs returning to their vomit.
If faith is not unto the end, it might as well be vomit.
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Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. (Romans 4:4,5)