Replies

John 6:54 "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."

How are we supposed to eat his flesh and drink his blood without the Real Presence?

First, do you must take Jn. 6:53 as a unequivocal literal requirement? If not, why not?

But in response to your question, how could the “meat” of Jesus be doing His Father's will. The Bible abounds in language that could be taken as literal:

We read of how, “And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate! And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD. And he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives ? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.”

Nowhere does David say “it is NOT the blood” of these men, and it is akin to the Lord referring to wine as blood, yet both are consistent with Biblical use of allegorical language, and can be easily recognized by such by those who are familiar with it.

The fearful Israelites exclaimed that the Promised Land was “a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof;” but Joshua exhorted the Israelites, “Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us.” (Num. 13:32; 14:9) Thus humans are described as being food, , yet it is not to be supposed that the land or the Israelites would become cannibals, though it does not say they would not become cannibals.

Likewise David declared, “When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.” (Psa 27:2)

Then there is Jeremiah who proclaims, Your words were found. and I ate them. and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jer. 15:16), or Ezekiel is told, “eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel” (Ezek. 3:1), and John is told, “Take the scroll … Take it and eat it” (Rev. 10:8-9 ), but it is not speaking of physically eating literal material scrolls even if it does not say this is NOT literal.

Other examples of figurative language abound, and John in particular abundantly uses it:

• In John 1:29, Jesus is called “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” — but he does not have hoofs and literal physical wool.

• In John 2:19 Jesus is the temple of God: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” — but He is not made of literal stone.

• In John 3:14,15, Jesus is the likened to the serpent in the wilderness (Num. 21) who must “be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal” (vs. 14, 15) — but He is not made of literal bronze.

• In John 4:14, Jesus provides living water, that “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (v. 14) — but which was not literally consumed by mouth.

• And again in John 4:34, Jesus is the Son whose “meat” is to do the Father’s will, whose commandment is life everlasting (Jn. 12:15) — but He did not literally eat the Father’s physical flesh.

• In. Jn. 6:57, Jesus tells us that by eating Him we live by Him as He lives by the Father, by His every word, and which was the Scriptures. (Mt. 4:4) For as referred to above, Jesus did not live by literally eating the Father’s physical flesh, but by keeping His every word according to Scripture.

• In John 7:37 Jesus is the One who promises “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” — but this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. (John 7:38)

• In Jn. 9:5 Jesus is “the Light of the world” — but who is not blocked by an umbrella.

• In John 10, Jesus is “the door of the sheep,”, and the good shepherd [who] giveth his life for the sheep”, “that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” vs. 7, 10, 11) — but who again, is not literally an animal with cloven hoofs.

• In John 15, Jesus is the true vine — but who does not physically grow from the ground nor whose fruit is literally physically consumed.

Thus the figurative understanding of Jn. 6 is consistent with John and his and the Biblical means of obtaining life in you, and living thereby. For nowhere did anyone become spiritually alive and thus pass from death unto life (Jn. 56:24; Eph. 2:5) by physically eating, but by believing the gospel message, (Acts 10:43-47; 11:18; 15:5-7) as the words of the “living bread,” who redeems by His blood, (and “the life of the flesh is in the blood,” Lv. 17:11) “are spirit, they are life.” (Jn. 6:63)

Go ahead and read all of John chapter 6.

Indeed.