[April 11th, 1869.]
Occasion of this discourse. Christ had fed the multitude. The people flocked to him because they did eat of the loaves. He exhorted them not to labor for the meat that perishes, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto them. That meat was himself. “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world… Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life.”
The truths taught in this connection are:
First. That Christ is the source of life. The life spoken of is called everlasting life. It is not physical life, but spiritual and eternal life. The life of the soul. The opposite of spiritual death. It includes holiness, blessedness, glory in the highest measure man can enjoy those blessings.
This eternal life can be obtained in no other way. Not from ourselves; not from any external rites or ceremonies; not from external privileges and special prerogatives, such as belonged to the theocratical people of old, who ate of the manna and died. Those who are without Christ; those who reject him; who refuse to recognize him as the source of life, or receive and appropriate him, shall perish. There is no life but in and through Christ.
Second. That Christ is the life-giving bread; not his doctrine, not his law, not his example, not his influence or moral power, not the form of religion which he introduced, not the Church which he established, but Christ himself, his person and his work.
Third. Christ is, or becomes our life, by giving himself for the life of the world. “The bread I will give is my flesh.” He gave himself, his flesh, his body, his blood, as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. Thus he is the life of the world, 1. Because it saves us from the sentence of death. 2. It restores us to the favor of God. 3. It secures the indwelling of the Spirit, which is subjectively our life, eternal life in us.
Fourth. It is not enough that Christ gave himself; not enough that manna fell in the wilderness; not enough that bread should be provided; not enough that a sacrifice should be provided. The manna must be gathered and eaten. The bread must be appropriated and used. The sacrifice must be applied to each soul to be of benefit to the soul.
Fifth. This appropriation of Christ is expressed in different terms in the context, 1. By coming to Christ. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And I will raise him up at the last day.
- By eating his flesh and drinking his blood. This all means the same thing, for the same effect is attributed to each.
Sixth. Eating Christ’s flesh and drinking his blood, does not mean, 1. Receiving the substance of his body and blood, as Romanists and Lutherans say. 2. Nor the dynamic influence of his glorified body as Calvin says is done in the sacraments. 3. Much less does it mean the mere moral influence of his sufferings and martyr death. 4. Nor his theanthropic life. 5. But, as giving his flesh for the life of the world is dying for the world; and dying for man is dying as a sacrifice, so eating his flesh and drinking his blood is appropriating to ourselves his flesh as broken and his blood as shed.
As he had spoken of himself as bread, and the act of appropriating as eating; and as he had said the bread was his flesh, so appropriating his flesh as a sacrifice is called eating.
The grand truths are,
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That Christ is the only source of life.
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That every man must receive and appropriate him for himself.