मेताफोर्स एंड Parallels

There are some verses in the New Testament that I have read many times and have been puzzled by them. I ponder them for a moment, knowing that I’m not grasping what is being said, then keep reading onward to things more easily understood. I think about those things I do not understand, and sometimes I feel like I have a vague understanding, or like I’m ‘on the verge’ of a ‘breakthrough’ of enlightenment and then that ‘breakthrough’ feeling slips back into the fog; leaving me as puzzled as I ever was. One of those portions of New Testament text that I’ve often been puzzled by is John 6: 53-55; “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.” Eat His flesh, drink His blood? This is an obvious metaphor; but what does it mean? Two things need to be understood here; flesh, and blood. Having addressed the topic of 'eating his flesh'and 'his flesh is meat' already, the below article concerns 'drinking His blood'.


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.” (John 6:53-55).

Drink His blood? The disciples could only understand this in the physical sense, so it naturally repulsed them (John 6: 60-63). Besides, the OT repeatedly condemns the drinking or the consumption of blood. But the references to His blood, is metaphoric. It must be so, for God’s word forbids ingesting (physical) blood, and Jesus never violates God’s word. Jesus also says in John 6:53; “…Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”

There are certain terms that are synonymous; Jesus said that the words He spoke were spirit, and life. The bible also says in many places that the ‘life is in the blood’. But we’re not speaking here of physical words, life or blood; but spiritual. For John 6:63 says “it is the spirit that quickeneth…” (gives life). Let’s look at one of the first mathematical laws of algebra to better understand some spiritual truths. That law is this; if A = C, and B = C, then A = B. This only makes sense. The same is true spiritually; The Spirit = life (eternal), His blood is life (eternal) therefore partaking of His blood is = to partaking of His Spirit and partaking of His Spirit is = to partaking of His blood. Remember, that God is a Spirit, and that Spirit became flesh (and blood) and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ. For Jesus to say “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” is the same as saying , “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

1 Corinthians 12:13 compares the baptism of the Holy Spirit as paralleling ‘drinking’, while Ephesians 2:18 declares that our access to the Father (eternal life) is by that same spirit; “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:18; “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Then Romans 8:9 explains that without that spirit we are not considered his own.; “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” So it is no wonder that Jesus said “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”

Switch now to the tree of life…again, life. Adam and eve were driven from the garden, lest they eat the tree of life, which is now forbidden to them. Eternal life was forbidden to them, and all of mankind in general. Now Jesus comes and says something forbidden (the taking of blood) must be consumed. His Blood, wherein is life. Life, eternal life lost at the Garden of Eden was now made accessable through His blood, which is a restoration of being able to partake of the tree of life.



To be born of the Spirit, (ye must be born again) is to be a partaker of (and equal to) drinking his blood spiritually. When we become partakers of the Holy Spirit (born again), we become partakers of the Spirit of Christ. So being, the spiritual blood of Christ, His spiritual dna through being born of Him (the Holy Spirit) now flows through our veins; cleansing us, giving us HIS nature and character. That is why all those, who are born again, of the same Holy Spirit, are brothers and sisters. We all have the same spiritual dna, even as it says in Acts 17:26; “And hath made of one blood all nations of men…” And what does this new spiritual dna do for us, aside from imparting to us the Holy Spirit? If you’re old enough, you might remember a phrase of old; “it’s in the blood.”
“It’s in the blood” was usually referenced to mean that actions of a person were ‘natural to them’ because that particular trait was noticed in other members of their ancestry. What they were doing was ‘in their nature’ to do because it is ‘in the blood’. This is parallel to the truly born again experience whereby a person becomes ‘a new creature’ in Christ. His old nature becomes replaced with His ‘new nature’. His old life (of sin) becomes replaced with a new life dedicated to Christ. 2 Peter 1:4 declares; “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Galatians 6:15 says; “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” The purpose of this baptism of the Holy Spirit, the drinking in of the blood of Jesus, is to give us spiritual life. To transform us, to help us to take on the nature and the character of Jesus. To help us to follow Him, and hear His voice as he leads us from milk to meat, to perfect us. To mature us in Him, even as 1 John 4:17 declares; “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.” This is the goal. To drink His blood, means to take on His life. To live as He lived, and that is to be obedient to the will of God. To partake of His blood; is to partake of His life.

“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.”