“Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:54

This week we will continue our study of how we can know we have an eternal salvation from John 6. In the previous two weeks, we saw that we could rest in His will and that we could rest in His way. This week, we will see how we can rest in His work.

III. We can rest in God’s work.
If any shards of doubt remain in your mind that God will take everyone who has been saved to heaven, let us examine the last verse in which Christ says, “And I will raise him up at the last day.” This time He promises that eternal salvation is found by partaking of His flesh and His blood.

Roman Catholicism has taught for many years that this speaks of literally partaking of Christ’s flesh and blood. When the Eucharist is taken, the wafer is turned into Christ’s body and the wine is turned into the Lord’s blood. During the Eucharist Christ is said to be sacrificed again. They defend this belief by saying they interpret the verse literally. Using this logic, Christ must have a doorknob and hinges, because He also said “I am the Door…”

This verse is speaking of partaking of Christ’s body and blood spiritually. When we recognize that He was crucified for us and shed His blood for our sins and “make his soul an offering for sin,” we spiritually ingest Christ. We take Christ into our selves when we are saved.

This concept may be a bit difficult to fathom. It is similar to when we eat food. When we eat something, it enters our body and then assimilates into our system. It becomes a part of us. The nutrients are digested and supply the strength and energy needed in our muscles, organs, and the rest of our body parts. Without that sustenance we cannot live. We will starve to death!

Likewise, when we partake of Christ’s body and blood spiritually, it assimilates throughout our spiritual body. Because He is eternal, the spiritual man is given eternal life. Because Christ has become part of us, we need never worry about being rejected by the Father. We will be accepted for Christ’s sake, because He is within us.

The verbs “eateth” and “drinketh” are verbs in the aorist tense. What this means is that the action is a point action. It occurs at one point and is not repeated. When we spiritually partake of Christ’s flesh and blood when we are saved, we need only take it that one time. It enters into our spiritual body and gives us the eternal life for which we longed. Dear Christian, you need never fear eternal death. Christ is in you, the hope of glory. He will raise you up in the last day!