Thought and reflection

[Brenda Charles]

Why did Jesus become a parter of flesh and blood?

[Jonathan McLatchie]

Hi Brenda,

I am not sure I follow your question. I will have a stab at it, but if I am not answering it or am misinterpreting what you are asking, please clarify.

In John 6:51-59 we read:-
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”

Obviously a standard eisegesic approach to interpretation of this passage reveals that Jesus is not speaking in a literal sense here. To eat “living bread” (verse 51) means to submit to Christ in our daily lives, and be united with Him through His death (the sacrifice of his flesh) and his resurrection.

The blood imagery is used to refer to the fact that the life of Jesus was sacrificed for them on the cross. This meaning is further confirmed by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. ’In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

The Jews, up until the time of Jesus, had been working from a provisional “old covenant”, which was to be replaced with the coming of the Messiah (Jesus) with the “new covenant”. Under the old covenant, people could only approach God through the priests and the sacrificial system. Jesus’ death on the cross, however, put an end to this necessity, and broke down those barriers, removing the void between man and God. This meant that now all people could approach God freely, without shame and communicate with Him at a personal level.

Before Christ’s mission on earth, no man was able to see God and live (Exodus 33:20), and so on one day in each year – the day of atonement (or Yom Kippur) – the priest alone was able to enter the Holy of Holies, where God was. The priest had to enter and leave very quickly, lest he put Israel in fear of judgment.

Because of man’s sinful tendency, man’s communion with God was constantly severed, and so God instituted a system of sacrifices, which was made a symbol for the atonement of sin, in order that the barrier may be removed, allowing access to God.

The Jews had to make their sacrifices constantly – their sacrificing was never complete, because the blood of animals could never indefinitely take away sin. The priests were also sinful too, and so they had to make sacrifices for their own sins before they made them for the sins of the people.
This system of sacrifices was eventually brought to the end by the Perfect Priest – Jesus Christ. He never committed a single sin, and so He was a perfect sacrifice, who could be sacrificed for sin once and for all (Hebrews 10:10).

The old system of sacrifices was designed to point to the day when Jesus Christ would come. The new covenant which was instituted is the fulfillment, rather than the replacement of the old covenant, fulfilling everything that the old covenant pointed toward. In Jeremiah 31:31-34, God promises the coming of the New Covenant to the house of Israel. This is one of the biggest evidences towards divine inspiration of the Scriptures as a whole.

I hope this helps. If you are referring to something else, or if I am missing the mark completely please say.

Jonathan

[christopher lingk]

Jonathan,
Your knowledge from God is a true blessing. May He continue to bless you as you help others in His knowledge as well. God bless brother.

[Roxliverpoolfan]

what does that mean??/