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Why Did He Tell Us to Eat His Flesh?

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Why Did He [Christ] Tell Us to Eat His Flesh?

[Posted Jun 26, 2012]

[Audio added September 11, 2021]

Hi G____,

Thank you for your question.

You say:

Here is that verse for our consideration:

Joh 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

This is just another way of Christ making this statement to the Pharisees who thought they could see very clearly:

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and t hat they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

These Pharisees could not acknowledge that they were spiritually blind. “Therefore their sin remained.” Likewise, until we acknowledge that we betrayed and crucified our Lord, we have neither eaten His flesh nor drunk his blood. But when we acknowledge that it is we who have betrayed our Lord, and it is we who have crucified Him, then, and only then, will we “have no sin”.

That is the very reason Christ insisted that all of His disciples “drink His blood”.

Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many [including you and me] for the remission of sins.

When you say “some would say…” you are speaking of the masses of Christianity who would also disagree with Christ who told us that He, meaning His flesh, was neither good nor perfected.

Mat 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Luk 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

By tracing Christ’s genealogy, Luke demonstrates for us that Christ was a son of the first Adam just as much as He was the Son of God.

Luk 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Anyone who says otherwise is labeled by the scriptures as an “antichrist”.

1Jn 4:3 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, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Most of the Christian world denies that Christ’s flesh was “sinful flesh”, in spite of the plain scriptural assertion that it was just that:

2Co 5:21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The words ‘to be‘ are not in the Greek. The scriptures declare that Christ was “made of a woman, made under the law… for the lawless… made sin”. That is what flesh is. It is corruption. It misses the mark of the perfected spiritual body which comes only through the death of our ‘earthy, first man Adam’.

1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Christ insisted that all of His disciples drink of the cup from which He drank:

Mar 10:38 But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
Mar 10:39 And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized:

Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all [ twelve, Judas was there] of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

“For this is my blood”. There it is! Christ was “made sin” and we “drink of it”. It is you and I, as well as Judas, the Jews, and the Romans, who have killed our Savior and are guilty of His blood. Until we acknowledge this, we are all just like Job and his miserable comforters, all pointing their fingers at each other but never acknowledging that it is God who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).

Until we understand this Truth, we will never fully understand the function of sin and death in the work of salvation. We will never understand how serpents and beasts can be all around the throne of God.

Isa 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Isa 6:2 Above it stood the seraphims [Hebrew: śârâph, fiery serpents]: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isa 6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

Rev 4:6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

I cannot take the time in this email, but here is the URL which explains what these seraphim are:

What are the Seraphims

and this is the URL which explains who are the cherubim of Revelation 4:

Rev 4:6-7 – Part 5

When we understand that the serpent is an integral part of the work of God, then we can begin to get a handle on God’s sovereignty. There will be no one ruling in the kingdom of God who thinks that Satan is a loose cannon with whom God is contending. Satan, as the book of Job demonstrates, is nothing more or less than a tool in the hand of the Almighty God who is working all things after the counsel of His own will.

When we see and acknowledge this, then we will understand what it means to ‘look upon the serpent’ and be saved from our poisoned condition of being in a body of sinful flesh.

Num 21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
Num 21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Joh 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Joh 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Why in this world is Christ alluding to the raising up of the serpent in the wilderness as a type of His flesh being raised up?

‘Beholding the serpent’ was not looking to the serpent for healing or salvation. Rather it is simply acknowledging that we are all guilty of His death, guilty of sin and of being the son of that serpent. Until that is done we cannot be healed of our poisoned condition of being in this corruptible flesh and being the seed of that serpent, the devil.

Num 21:7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

Joh 8:44 Ye [all of us] are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Christ’s flesh is the bread from heaven which is broken for us:

1Co 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
1Co 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

In eating Christ’s body and drinking His blood, we are acknowledging that we are of our father the devil, and that as such, it is we who have betrayed and slain our own Savior.

The fact that Christ’s flesh was sinful flesh like ours in no way denies that He is the sacrifice for our sins. How else could He be our “sin offering” unless “He made Him sin”?

2Co 5:21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The words “to be” are in brackets because they are not in the Greek. Being “made sin”, and committing a trespass are two separate things. That is why God gave Israel a sin offering and a trespass offering. The sin offering is for what we are by nature, and the trespass offering is for what we do in that sinful body which we are.

Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Read this URL to see the difference in these two offerings:

The Sin Offering

Peter actually thought he could avoid being guilty of such a dastardly sin, but in the end he acknowledged that he had not only forsaken His Lord but actually cursed and swore that He didn’t even know the man. Indeed, until he saw himself for what he really was, he did not know the Christ of scripture who tells us plainly that His flesh was no better than ours, and that He, too, had to go through death before He could be perfected.

Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Luk 22:33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
Luk 22:34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Mat 26:73 And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.
Mat 26:74 Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.
Mat 26:75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

All who say that they have never denied and blasphemed the name of God, will in their own appointed time “go out and weep bitterly” and will acknowledge that they have indeed shed the blood of their own Creator and Savior. We have all eaten His flesh, and we have all drunk His blood. Until we acknowledge that we have done this, we are not fit to be in His kingdom.

Christ’s flesh was “the same” as the children’s flesh. If it were anything else, then He could not know what we endure in this “body of death”. But He does know what we endure because “He made Him sin, who knew no sin”.

I hope all of this helps you to understand that, yes indeed, we do drink His blood and eat His body which was made sin, and that it is only through acknowledging that Truth that we “know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent” and thereby have “life eternal”.

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

It is few indeed who know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

Your brother in the Christ,

Mike

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