In John chapter 6:51-58, Jesus makes a remarkable and mysterious statement:
I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.
What could this mean? Well, we see that those who eat Jesus' flesh and drink His blood benefit by doing so. Here Jesus also gives insight to His relationship to the Father. "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me." How does Jesus' relationship with the Father affect us? Let's look at another statement of Jesus' regarding eating and drinking.
In John 4:31-34, the disciples return to the well in Samaria where they find Jesus talking to the woman there. Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?" Jesus *said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
Jesus clearly states that He knows something that His disciples do not: Jesus' food is to do the will of the Father and complete the Father's work.
Follow along with me just a bit longer. When Jesus was asked what one should do in order to do the will of God, He responded by saying:
Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal." Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:27-29).
In these passages, we see that Jesus is the one who is doing the "doing." We are the ones who benefit from His "doing."
It would, then, seem to work like this: Jesus' food and drink is to do the will of the Father. Our food and drink is to consume from Him; that is, we rely on His works. Our "doing" is to believe, trust in, rely upon, and rest in His "doing," not our own.
Many will see this passive receiving as too passive. "Give me something to really do!," they might say. Let us not forget:
But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.
1 Cor. 1:30
...be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is...
Romans 12:2
Jesus Christ...gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
Galatians 1:3b-4.
This reliance upon Christ's "doing" is so important, that even the writer of Hebrews in chapter 10 encouraged the believers to not throw away their confidence so they would endure to the end.
We rest in Jesus' "doing," not our own.
Grace=Peace,
Jeremy
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