The Necessity of Relying on Christ An Exposition of John 6:53 By Fred O. Blakely (Father of Given O. Blakely, and preacher of the Word for over 70 years) This is a lengthy article. It provides a rare insight into the nature of spiritual life. ___________________________________________________________________

The spiritual life which comes from partaking of Christ has its precise opposite in the spiritual death associated with the lack of such participation. That is to say, just as people can only live by eating and drinking of the Savior, they will certainly be without life if they fail to do so. He is, indeed, the Bread and Water of life, and, apart from a personal and continuous imbibing of Him, “ye have no life in you,” as He Himself declared (Jn. 6:53).

The Proclamation by the Lord

This is the categorical proclamation as He spoke at length of these things in the Capernaum synagogue following His feeding of the multitude on the other side of the Galilean Sea. “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life,” He asserted; “and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” On the other hand, He declared, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you” (Jn. 6:53-55). In order to perceive the full force of the negative assertion, it is necessary to understand what is intended by the positive one. What does it mean to eat Christ’s flesh and drink of His blood? Whoever does this, He went on to say, “dwelleth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me” (vv. 56-57). The disciples were wholly unable to decipher this pronouncement at the time, accounting it to be a “hard saying,” and taking offense at it (vv. 60-61). Neither, we fear, is the experience which the teaching contemplates generally comprehended or participated in today by churchmen.

Sustenance by His Flesh and Blood

“I am the bread of life,” the Savior had earlier told His audience (v. 48, ASV). Thus, to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood is to partake of that bread, even as Israel, in eating of the sacrifices which they made, partook of the altar upon which they were offered to God (I Cor. 10:16-18; cf. Lev. 7:15; Deut. 12:27). “God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” [but not apart from Him], John later stated (I Jn. 4:9). This life Godward was made possible, the Apostle went on to add, in that God “sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (v. 10; cf. 2:1-2). As spiritual death consists in alienation from God because of sin (Isa. 59:2), so spiritual life essentially is to be reconciled to God by sin having been taken away. And this removal of sin, of course, was only by the efficacious sacrifice of Christ (II Cor. 5:18-19), which sacrifice “put away” sin (Heb. 9:26). So are we “reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10). To heartily receive this reconciliation and continuously depend upon it for our life unto God, is to be “partakers of the Lord’s table,” and thus sustained unto life eternal (I Cor. 10:21).

Elaboration of the Doctrine

The applicability of the figures used by our Lord---eating His flesh and drinking His blood ---becomes apparent in the scriptural elaboration of the work of atonement for sin accomplished by Him. He, previously existing “in the form of God,” was “made flesh” for “the suffering of death” on behalf of those in the flesh, who had incurred the death penalty because of their sin (Jn. 1:14; Phil. 2:6-8; Heb. 2:2-9). He thus partook of flesh and blood “that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man,” and in so doing “destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-16). “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:3-4). “Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21, ASV). The enfleshment of Christ for the purpose of redeeming those who were in the flesh is a bedrock truth of the remedial economy. John fully recognized and contended for it in his first epistle, as he combated the Gnostic falsehood, which insisted that Christ had not come in the flesh. So the Apostle’s declaration: “Hereby we know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist” I Jn. 4:1-3). If Christ be not “come in the flesh,” to follow the diction of Paul, our faith is vain, and we are yet in our sins, since they have not been borne “in His own body on the tree,” and taken away (I Cor. 15:17; I Pet. 2:24). His body, it will be remembered, was “broken” for us (I Cor. 11:24); it is “with His stripes” [sustained in His fleshly body] that “we are healed” (Isa. 53:4-5); and our acceptance with God is inextricably bound up with that breaking and bruising of our Lord’s body. What is true of the flesh of Jesus in relation to our reconciliation to God is, of course, equally true of His blood, which was “shed for many for the remission of sins” (Mt. 26:28). “Without the shedding of blood is no remission,” is the law of God’s rule over man (Heb. 9:22). And it was only by the blood of Christ, poured out for us in His death, that could justify us before God and save us from “the wrath to come” (Rom. 5:9). Hence, Peter’s proclamation of the situation: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (I Pet. 1:18-21). By the shedding of His blood for us, Christ has “perfected for ever them that are sanctified,” having “obtained eternal redemption for us” (Heb. 9:12; 10:14). So do we have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,” since we have been “washed” from our sins therein, and constituted “kings and priests unto God and His Father” (Heb. 10:19-20; Rev. 1:5-6).

The Applicability of Christ’ Figures

The applicability of Christ’s metaphors is evident in view of this nature of the case, as we have said. To eat His flesh is to completely depend is to completely depend upon His enfleshment for us, with its involvement of His bearing and putting away our sins by the offering of Himself “without spot to God” (Heb. 9:14). It is to fully reckon on the fact that we are truly circumcised before God “by the circumcision of Christ” (Col. 2:11), and so stand wholly “complete in Him,” being “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6). To drink our Lord’s blood, similarly is to receive “the atonement” (Rom. 5:11), and to continually rely on that blood to cleanse us from all sin (I Jn. 1:7-10). This partaking of Christ, of course, is by faith. So do the just “live by faith” (Rom. 1:17), or have their life toward God in this manner. That is, they do so by implicitly depending on the Scripture’s representations of our Lord’s effectual work in bringing them to God (I Pet. 3:18). In the language of John, they simply believe “the record that God gave of His Son” (I Jn. 5:9-13), and, believing, “have life through His Name” (Jn. 20:30-31).

The Other Side of the Matter

But the other side of the matter is made equally emphatic by the Savior. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you” (Jn. 6:53). To not eat His flesh and drink His blood is to not depend upon His enfleshment and the shedding of His blood for our acceptance with God. It is to seek righteousness before God by some other means, or to depend on something else for our acceptance with Him. Like the Jews of old, it is not to seek God’s righteousness by faith (Rom. 9:30-33). Or, in the language of our Lord’s parable, it is to not enter “by the door into the sheepfold,” but endeavor to climb “up some other way” (Jn. 10:1). In so ignoring Christ’s flesh and blood, one may be religious---even intensely so (see Rom. 10:1-3). But he cannot have spiritual life, inasmuch as that life is to be had only in the Son. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (I Jn. 5:12; cf. Jn. 3:36).

The Current Application

As we contemplate the widespread lack of the “full assurance of faith,” with the spiritual life which it alone can produce (Heb. 10:22), we cannot but feel that multitudes of churchmen today fall into the category of nonparticipation in Christ’s flesh and blood. They do not appear to be eating and drinking of them as He signified in His Capernaum discourse. They give the impression of counting on something else for whatever expectancy of acceptance with God that they may have---denominational activity, and the like. Certainly, they do not evince a robust life toward God. “Well, I am trying,” or, “I hope so,” are typical responses elicited by inquiries touching spiritual life. To all such, the words of our principal text should come with special force: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.” Let us forever have done with that deadly ignorance of “God’s righteousness,” and “going about” to establish our own righteousness, and wholeheartedly and continually submit ourselves to “the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:1-3). So shall we constantly be “partakers of Christ,” eating the true “spiritual meat” and drinking the true “spiritual drink,” which is “Christ our Passover,” “sacrificed for us” (I Cor. 5:7; 10:3-4; Heb. 3:14). Thus, and thus only, can we have spiritual life---by living before God in Christ, not ourselves---and know the peace with God and joy in Him which that life confers. PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank you for making eternal life accessible to me in the Person of Your Son! I desire to participate in His character -- to ingest His life. Grant me grace to be a "partaker of Christ" in the fullest sense possible.

-- MONDAY: SOME ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE INDWELLING --