Eating His Flesh

This is part 1 of 2 of Lesson 8: Experiencing Discipleship. Click here to go back to the introduction to this lesson.

…what food is to the body, Jesus is to the soul… Sabbath School study guide, p91 (teachers’ ed)

 [Jesus says] “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever…” John 6:51 (NKJV)

The Jews had problems with this concept. In fact Jesus upped the ante by following up with:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. v53

This was a pretty confronting statement for Jews who knew the Levitical prohibition not to drink blood.

So what is this eating and drinking of Jesus flesh and blood?

To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ is to receive Him as a personal Saviour, believing that He forgives our sins, and that we are complete in Him. It is by beholding His love, by dwelling upon it, by drinking it in, that we are to become partakers of His nature. What food is to the body, Christ must be to the soul. Food cannot benefit us unless we eat it, unless it becomes a part of our being. So Christ is of no value to us if we do not know Him as a personal Saviour. A theoretical knowledge will do us no good. We must feed upon Him, receive Him into the heart, so that His life becomes our life. His love, His grace, must be assimilated.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 389.

Why did Jesus use such ‘disturbing’ imagery? Well, eating and drinking is not a theoretical exercise, it’s a visceral experience. It’s fundamental to our existence. It’s also something that we generally look forward to. It affects our entire being. Eating and drinking needs to occur multiple times a day…

There are some interesting thoughts in the quote above. Turning our attention to how we experience discipleship, how we know God, Ellen White suggests this happens by:

• beholding Jesus’ love – we have to truly understand the person of Jesus (and of God given that Jesus is the ‘express image’ of the Father)
• We have to dwell upon Christ’s nature – this is the ‘eating and drinking’ component. This needs to be a conscious decision to immerse ourselves with the character of Christ. This leads us back to the need for regular daily quiet times where we reflect on Him.
• His life needs to become our life. This can be a confronting thought if taken to it’s logical conclusion. Because are we really prepared to be fully like Jesus? Yes this is the path to true happiness.
• Lastly it’s interesting that out of all of His attributes, the quote above dwells on the love and grace of Jesus. That should tell us something about our priorities.

So a couple of questions for pondering and discussion below:

1. How can we tell if His life has become our life and that His love and grace have been assimilated? from the Sabbath School lesson study guide
   
2. Does assimilation of His love and grace mean we become clones of one another? Did Jesus create clones in the Garden of Eden? Or does our true personality shine out best when accompanied by the love and grace of Christ.
3. Jesus’ life being assimilated into ours, will bring true love and grace to the character, and will get rid of hate and selfishness. Can we see a similarity to the process of sculpture, whereby the true art is revealed once the extraneous pieces of marble are removed?

What are your thoughts on this topic? Over to you…

Click here to go to the next section of the lesson, Like Children