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Transcript 009A — Eating and Drinking of Christ [Jn 6:53]
CALLER: Could you explain John 6:53 please?
HC: John 6:53: "Verily verily, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in Him."
You see, in verse 35 Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life." And when we surrender our will to Him, when we have become completely identified with Him in the cross experience –that is He has become sin on our behalf – then we have eaten of the Bread of Life. Then we have drunk His blood. We are those who have become entirely identified with Him. This is language to indicate the close identity that does exist between the believer and Christ Himself, because we have eaten Him.
Now the figure, of course, is taken from the physical idea of eating food. We eat bread and we drink water, and we drink liquids, in order to sustain our life, in order to live a vital, happy life. Now spiritually, therefore, we also have to eat of something and drink of something if spiritually we're going to have life, if we're going to live vital lives as Christians.
Whom do we eat of, or what do we eat of? We eat of the Lord Jesus Christ; we drink of Him; He is the Living Water; He is the Bread of Life. If we do not eat of Him and drink of Him, if we are not feeding on Him, then we are not saved; we are spiritually starving to death. We are amongst those who are still dead. The Bible teaches that we are dead in our sins, and we only have eternal life in Him.
And this is why Jesus can say in verse 35: "He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." Once we are identified with Christ, once we are in Him, once He has become our Lord and Savior in other words, then we have been given the Bread of eternal life. We do have eternal life. We have the fountain of water really dwelling within us. In John 7, Jesus said in verse 38, "He who believes Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Once we are saved, once we have drunk of the Lord Jesus, then in turn we become fountains of living water as we spread the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to others.