Eating Christ

"As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." John 6:57

By eating Him, Christ, who lives by God, we possess the life of God. The living Father lives in One, but in this One, He gives Himself to all. As a man, Jesus lived by the Father. It is only in His human form that He was sent by the Father, and His human life was received from the Father and sustained by Him. And because He lived by the Father, those who eat Him (His flesh), that is, believe in Him, possess the life of the Father by which He lived as a man in the flesh. It is by the life that He received from the Father, as a man, that He mediates eternal life to all who believe in Him. So, you see, the life that we have in Christ is the same life which He received from the Father as a man. 

You may have noticed that I consistently used the phrase, "...received from the Father as a man", this is because as deity, He had life in Himself. Only as a man did He receive life from the Father.

"This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever." John 6:58

Herein is the difference between the manna which the fathers ate in the wilderness and died, and the Bread from heaven: there was no life in the manna that was eaten in the wilderness, but the Bread from heaven has life in Himself, and therefore, can give eternal life to all who eat His flesh by faith. 

It is interesting that the fall resulted from eating the fruit of a tree, and here, the Lord shows us the way to restoration: eating His flesh. In eating the forbidden fruit, man was lost, but in eating the flesh offered upon another tree, life is restored.

Toni