Drink His blood
“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. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, 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. 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 for ever. These things said He in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Doth this offend you?... It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life…. From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” (Jn. 6:53-61,63,66).
This was a hard-hitting confrontation between Jesus and His followers that had turned into a multitude of disciples. They desired to exalt and worship Him only in a way that would suit themselves and please their carnal natures. They sought a kingdom of this earth. So He brought a divisive issue to them to force a decision for Him or against Him. The issue He brought was not on the surface, but at the deepest level.
He must be a Savior from sin, or nothing at all. They must drink in His crucifixion and consume His life of self-sacrificing service. It must be a convicting principle in their minds and hearts. Otherwise, they were not worthy of the kingdom they sought.
We must approach Christ as murderers and rebels and abusers of God. We are all born separate from Him and have spent our lives torturing Him through our service to Satan. But, amazingly, where our abuse and murder of God have abounded, His yearning for us and His grace toward us have much more abounded.
But many, who approach God, don’t think very lowly of themselves. They haven’t been really, really bad—not like some people they know. They would never deny Christ. They never do anything wrong, at least nothing terribly wrong. When they come to the cross, they do so as spectators, not as participants. They stand aghast at the horrible things others did to Christ, but they can never stand the thought that they would ever do such things. This they content themselves with, and pride themselves with.
They are too pure to crucify Christ. They don’t sin real badly. Therefore, they don’t need a real powerfully forgiving Savior. All they need is a lukewarm Savior for their lukewarm sins. Thus, the thieves and the prostitutes will go into the kingdom before them, and they are left shut out.
“But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.” (Lk. 13:27-30).
How hard it is for a person rich in outward behavior to enter the kingdom of heaven! “He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick…I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. 9:12,13).
Let us take the risk of rejection and go to the Savior, whose arms are stretched out and pinned back as wide as they can go, enfolding a whole world of sinners to His embrace, by which we may condemn this world of sin, and become heirs of the righteousness which is by faith. (Heb. 11:7).
This was a hard-hitting confrontation between Jesus and His followers that had turned into a multitude of disciples. They desired to exalt and worship Him only in a way that would suit themselves and please their carnal natures. They sought a kingdom of this earth. So He brought a divisive issue to them to force a decision for Him or against Him. The issue He brought was not on the surface, but at the deepest level.
He must be a Savior from sin, or nothing at all. They must drink in His crucifixion and consume His life of self-sacrificing service. It must be a convicting principle in their minds and hearts. Otherwise, they were not worthy of the kingdom they sought.
We must approach Christ as murderers and rebels and abusers of God. We are all born separate from Him and have spent our lives torturing Him through our service to Satan. But, amazingly, where our abuse and murder of God have abounded, His yearning for us and His grace toward us have much more abounded.
But many, who approach God, don’t think very lowly of themselves. They haven’t been really, really bad—not like some people they know. They would never deny Christ. They never do anything wrong, at least nothing terribly wrong. When they come to the cross, they do so as spectators, not as participants. They stand aghast at the horrible things others did to Christ, but they can never stand the thought that they would ever do such things. This they content themselves with, and pride themselves with.
They are too pure to crucify Christ. They don’t sin real badly. Therefore, they don’t need a real powerfully forgiving Savior. All they need is a lukewarm Savior for their lukewarm sins. Thus, the thieves and the prostitutes will go into the kingdom before them, and they are left shut out.
“But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.” (Lk. 13:27-30).
How hard it is for a person rich in outward behavior to enter the kingdom of heaven! “He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick…I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. 9:12,13).
Let us take the risk of rejection and go to the Savior, whose arms are stretched out and pinned back as wide as they can go, enfolding a whole world of sinners to His embrace, by which we may condemn this world of sin, and become heirs of the righteousness which is by faith. (Heb. 11:7).
posted by David | 6:48 AM
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