“Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:53-54
As a Roman Catholic I was taught to believe that I was keeping this commandment of Jesus every time I ate the Eucharist host (or bread). I was taught that this Eucharist was changed into His body and the wine was changed into His blood by the priest at every mass. By eating it therefore, I was eating His flesh and blood, and would have eternal life. I believed this teaching without ever asking questions, without ever having a relationship with God, or without ever searching the Bible for myself.
But then one day, after God had healed me from a physical heart condition, I repented from all sins and surrendered my life to Him. He then gave me a new heart and a new spirit; a heart that now is hungry to know His word and thirsty to know Him personally by being filled with his Holy Spirit. The Bible explains this as becoming “born again”.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God … Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”. John 3:3-5
“From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” Ezekiel 36:25-26
It was then that the Holy Spirit revealed to me that this was what Jesus meant when He said we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. We eat His flesh when we become born again and get a new heart; a heart that is no longer hungry for things in this world but is hungry to know His Word. Jesus was the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14). We drink His blood when we are filled with His Holy Spirit and longer thirst for sin (John 4:14-18) but thirst to know our Savior personally, and hear His voice by the prayer language of the Spirit. He is the One who can set us fee from all sin (John 1:29).
“Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:35
“This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eats of this brad shall live for ever.” John 6:58
Jesus said it was not physical bread that we can eat, like Moses and Israel had in the wilderness. Jesus also revealed to me by His Word and His Spirit that He will not dwell in anything that men make with their hands. In fact, to do so, and worship or adore any man-made object, is to practice idolatry.
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” Acts 17:24-2
“Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent:” Acts 17:29-30
“For Christ is not entered into holy places made with hands … but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Hebrews 9:24
“They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13
“For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10
According to God’s Word, there is only one way to have eternal life and escape the wrath of God to come; not by putting your hope in any man-made idol (like the eucharist bread), but by trusting in a living Jesus, who is able to deliver us from all our sins, now.
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29